📣 Registration is open for our symposium, “UK American Studies Against the Genocide!”
🍉 We have an incredible program of students, scholars, and activists.
✊ Come join us! www.ticketsource.com/uk-am-studie...
📢 BRISMES CAF Chair, Lewis Turner, has been quoted in this
@middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social piece on the targeting of universities in #Iran.
“There appears to be a widespread disregard for universities’ protected status under intentional law. These actions may well amount to war crimes”.
⬇️
#UpcomingEvent | Inclusive Curriculum in Practice: Sudan & the Politics of Knowledge Production
Friday, 24 April 2026, 5pm (UK time)
This workshop explores how #Sudan can be meaningfully integrated into teaching as part of broader efforts to decolonise the curriculum.
More info: shorturl.at/JLRhZ
#UpcomingEvent | Why Sudan Matters in Today’s World War
This event, co-hosted by MECACS and BRISMES, presents a lecture by Alex de Waal, Research Professor at Tufts University and Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation.
More info: events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/why-s...
These attacks are not only assaults on physical infrastructure but also on the intellectual and educational foundations of Iranian society.
We stand in solidarity with university staff and students in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine as well as in all other conflict-affected areas.
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BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) Statement on the Targeting of Universities and Research Institutions in Iran
The Committee on Academic Freedom of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) expresses its unequivocal condemnation of the recent targeting of universities, schools and research institutions across Iran by the United States and Israel.
We call on the UK government to: - Urge respect for international humanitarian law and the protected status of educational institutions; - Demand an immediate end to attacks on universities, laboratories, and civilian infrastructure; - Demand an immediate end to the targeted killings of academics and researchers; - Call for independent investigations into these incidents and press for accountability where violations are found.
We also urge the international academic community and relevant international organisations, including scholarly associations, to speak out against these attacks and to take meaningful steps to defend academic freedom and the integrity of higher education worldwide. We stand in solidarity with university staff and students in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine as well as in all other conflict-affected areas. Read the statement in full: bit.ly/brismes-140426
The BRISMES Committee on #AcademicFreedom
expresses its unequivocal condemnation of the recent targeting of universities, schools and research institutions across #Iran by the United States and Israel.
Read our statement: bit.ly/brismes-140426
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We stand in solidarity with Lebanon’s academic community, and call for accountability for the targeting of academic institutions and personnel. We call for an immediate end to US and Israeli aggression on Lebanon and Iran and a full arms embargo on Israel. 2/2
The BRISMES Committee on #AcademicFreedom
condemns the Israeli attack on the Lebanese University on 12 March 2026, which resulted in the killing of two senior faculty members: Professor Hussein Bazi and Professor Mortada Srour.
Read our statement: shorturl.at/mTG6a 1/2
We stand in solidarity with Lebanon’s academic community, and call for accountability for the targeting of academic institutions and personnel. We call for an immediate end to US and Israeli aggression on Lebanon and Iran and a full arms embargo on Israel.
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We seek expressions of interest from groups, departments and/or organisations throughout the UK to host the BRISMES annual #conference in late June or early July of 2027 or 2028.
Read more: bit.ly/BRISMES2027-...
#CallForHosts #UKUniversities #AcademicCommunity
There’s still time to submit an abstract for this year’s SARN UK Conference 🙌
Conference Themes: Syria in Transition: Knowledge, Memory, and the Everyday Aftermath”
🕛📆 Abstracts are due by 23:59 BST on 17 May 2026
✨For more details and to apply, please go to: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
We urge the Home Office to reconsider this approach and to engage with the HE sector and relevant stakeholders in developing policies that address your concerns without undermining academic freedom and the UK’s longstanding commitment to educational openness. (3/3)
Measures of this nature risk excluding individuals on the basis of nationality and, in doing so, undermine the principles of openness and international exchange that underpin the UK’s higher education sector. (2/3)
#AcademicFreedom | BRISMES CAF has written to the UK Home Secretary to express concern regarding the reported introduction of an “emergency brake” on student visas for applicants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan (1/3). Read our letter: tinyurl.com/3dtzt236%F0%...
📢The deadline for applications to join us as the next Editor of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (BJMES) has been extended!
🗓️New deadline: 17:00 on 15 April 2026
More info: bit.ly/bjmes
#AcademicPublishing #Editor #Journal #MiddleEastStudies
📚#Research by BRISMES Members | Edited by Dina Matar and Venetia Porter, Archiving #Gaza in the Present brings together voices from #Palestine and beyond to document the cultural erasure and to explore how creative and archival practices resist it.
Learn more: saqibooks.com/books/saqi/a...
For those in London (the UK one!).
Palestine and the World: Struggle and Solidarity
Come and hear the wonderful and insightful Steven Salaita talk at Queen Mary University of London on Wednesday 8th April, 5.45-7.45pm. More details and registration here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/palestine-...
#academicfreedom and #freedomofexpression within the law are essential for the production of academic research and for the maintenance of an open, democratic society. The awarding of research grants must be based solely on academic merit. 2/2
The image shows page 1 of the letter from the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom to the European Research Council (ERC). The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/academic-freedom-letter-to-european-research-council-regarding-dr-harry-pettit
The image shows page 2 of the letter from the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom to the European Research Council (ERC). The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/academic-freedom-letter-to-european-research-council-regarding-dr-harry-pettit
The image shows page 3 of the letter from the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom to the European Research Council (ERC). The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/academic-freedom-letter-to-european-research-council-regarding-dr-harry-pettit
#AcademicFreedom | We have written to @erc.europa.eu to express deep concern regarding complaints levelled against Dr Harry Pettit, and public suggestions that an ERC grant should be withdrawn based on his lawful political beliefs and public expression.
Read our letter: bit.ly/4sp7r51 1/2
BRISMES endorses this joint appeal marking 15 years since the arrest of Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace. We reiterate our call for his immediate and unconditional release, and for the protection of #academicfreedom and human rights. #FreeAlSingace
The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Council of Trustees condemns the current United States–Israel military aggression against #iran as an illegal war that threatens regional and international peace.
Read the statement in full: bit.ly/brismes-18032026
Join us online tomorrow (12 March) for "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Roundtable on War, Repression, Iran and International Solidarity" with academics and activists offering their reflections on what international solidarity looks like today.
Register to attend: shorturl.at/wzYy6
On the information available to us, this arrest appears to reflect a troubling and unwarranted criminalisation of #politicalspeech and to risk inconsistent application of the protections guaranteed under domestic #humanrights law. 2/2
The image shows page 1 of the letter from BRISMES to West Yorkshire Police. The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/letter-to-west-yorkshire-police-regarding-arrest-for-use-of-the-phrase-globalise-the-intifada
The image shows page 2 of the letter from BRISMES to West Yorkshire Police. The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/letter-to-west-yorkshire-police-regarding-arrest-for-use-of-the-phrase-globalise-the-intifada
The image shows page 3 of the letter from BRISMES to West Yorkshire Police. The letter is available to read in full on the BRISMES website: https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/letter-to-west-yorkshire-police-regarding-arrest-for-use-of-the-phrase-globalise-the-intifada
BRISMES Council & Committee on #AcademicFreedom have written to @westyorkspolice.bsky.social to express serious concerns regarding the recent arrest of a #Palestine #solidarity protester for chanting slogans including the phrase “globalise the intifada”.
Read our letter: bit.ly/4sWAaxZ 1/2
📚#Research by BRISMES Members | "Academic Freedom Challenged: Comparing France, Germany and the UK"
Check out this article by Donatella della Porta and Sevgi Doğan, which addresses different mechanisms of repression of #academicfreedom. 👇
The image shows a poster which includes details of the call for papers for the DAVO Congress 2026. Full details of the call can be found on the DAVO website: https://davo1.de/en/en-call-for-papers-davo-congress-2026-10-12-september-2026-lmu-munich/
The #CallforPapers for the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) Congress 2026 is open!
Highlights include a conference keynote by Prof Abdel Razzaq Takriti and a featured panel on #AcademicFreedom and #MiddleEastStudies.
🗓️22 March 2026
➡️ davo1.de/en/en-call-f...
📣 CFP: SARN UK Conference 2026 📣
📆 When: 17-18 September 2026
📍Where: @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org
🎭Theme: Syria in Transition (more details👇)
💻Submit abstract here: forms.gle/CYxwrgtDs9RH...
📅Submission deadline: 17 May 2026
🖼️Artwork by Issam Kourbaj
