Center for South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

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Center for South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

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CSAMES promotes research and scholarship on South Asia and the Middle East at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign .

The Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES) promotes research and scholarship on South Asia and the Middle East. Our goal is to engage students and faculty in critical discussions and to create research and learning opportunities about South Asia and the Middle East and the ways these regions are connected to the rest of the world. Through our MA Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and undergraduate minors in either Islamic world studies or south Asian studies, CSAMES encourages students to learn about the cultures, societies, histories, politics, and religions of these two globally influential regions. Besides our academic programs, CSAMES organizes annual conferences and weekly lectures that are open to the public. Over the last decade, CSAMES has awarded over 40 scholarships to students for language study on campus or abroad in Egypt, India, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey and other countries in the regions. The Center also funds projects and initiatives to promote South Asian and Middle Eastern languages. Currently two of our faculty members are developing textbooks for Persian and Hindi. To learn more about our programs and activities, visit http://www.csames.illinois.edu/

10/27/2026

Friday Talk of the Week— Sanjay Joshi
His lecture will revolve around his book Brahmins of the Himalaya:Upper Caste Ways of Belonging
Register TODAY!!!

10/20/2026

This week Friday talk is with Dr. Vrinda Marwah. Join us as she talks about her experience as one of India’s frontline health worker. REGISTER Now

10/15/2026

Coming up! We will host Dr. Youssouf T. Sangaré, the Director of Master’s program in Arabic studies for INALCO in Paris. His talk will trace the arc of reformist Muslim thought, from the 19th-century to today. Join us in room 306 of Cobel Hall

10/05/2026

This week, we’re thrilled to welcome Cornelius Queen, Senior Vice President at the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund, to Coble Hall for a special book talk. Lunch will be provided! Register now

10/01/2026

TOMORROW!! We are so excited to have Rajmohan Gandhi join us for a book talk on James Lawson: Teacher of Satyagraha Register with the QR code

09/21/2026

Join us this Saturday for the annual Tagore Festival! Special guest professor Pranav Jani from OSU will be joining us for a lecture “Thinking Beyond Borders: Tagore and the Question of Home”. Event will also be live streamed: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_giw7044l

09/15/2026

Understand more about the Nepal Floods. We are hosting a panel discussion on September 18th overviewing the current crisis and how we have ended up here. Register Now! https://illinois.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DSk2_4esSJWQCaLWu3MKkw #/registration

09/03/2026

Tomorrow at 11am, a talk with Sayantan Dasgupta on “Academic Social Responsibility and Translation in India”. Register Now! https://calendars.illinois.edu/detail/779/33558408

08/17/2026

Another fantastic talk with the brilliant Laura Goffman. Her work is truly impressive and we highly recommend you to take a peek into her work in this episode! Read the full interview at csames.illinois.edu

08/10/2026

In this episode of interview with faculty, Prof. Rana Khoury talks about prolonged harm. She is a political scientist who studies conflict, displacement and
humanitarianism.

She is also of Syrian heritage, so we asked what it costs to study this topic:

"Accept that it is not normal", she said. "Give yourself grace. Turn on the analytical brain rather than be paralyzed by the grief. And keep doing the work of humanizing the people and places you study; there are people here, there are cultures here, there are literatures here, there are families here, there are people with agency here."

Read the full conversation on CSAMES website.

Address

801 S. Wright Street
Champaign, IL
61820

Telephone

+12172655016

Website

http://www.csames.illinois.edu/

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