News

Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi, Director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, was invited to have a discussion with host Cristen Conger on her national podcast Unladylike. The episode, titled “A Feminist Revolution in Iran” covers why Iranian women been burning hijabs and leading protests ever since a 22-year-old Kurdish woman [...]

Protests against compulsory veiling are the latest examples of female resistance in the Islamic country, says Middle East expert Claudia Yaghoobi. Emily Padula, The Well, Friday, October 28th, 2022 As a wave of protests stemming from the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman enters its second month, demonstrations have [...]

Editor’s note: This story is part of a package of stories featuring UNC researchers “in the field” in Colorado, North Carolina and on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Read “A new day for Old Fort” and “Crouching researcher, hidden sparrow.”  Religious studies scholar Waleed Ziad and UNC librarian Rustin Zarkar traveled [...]

Our annual newsletter highlights center activities from the 2021-2022 academic year. Read to learn more about programming, highlights from our affiliated faculty and students, and K-14 outreach events. Click on the image below to view the newsletter, or download a PDF copy. Thank you for your continued support of the [...]

Food, water, and sustainability are crucial issues around the world—and right here in North Carolina. This fall, the UNC-Duke Area Studies Centers and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) provided teacher education on these vital and interconnected issues in celebration of International Education Week (IEW). Held annually in [...]

Attendees received a conference program, NCATC sticker, and tote bag from the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies. Arabic greetings of marhaba (hello), sabah al kheir (good morning), and ahlan wa sahlan (welcome) were shared as attendees gathered for the inaugural conference of the emerging North Carolina Arabic Teacher Council (NCATC), November 13-14, 2021. “Come Together: The Future of Arabic Language in North Carolina” was [...]

Recently I interviewed our wonderful professor, Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi, about her appointment as the new inaugural Director of Persian Studies here at UNC. This was the multilayered question I asked her: In your appointment letter, which I was given to read by Lori prior to this interview, [our dean] stated [...]

A special issue of the journal, Iran Namag, where some of the series' papers are being published. The cover features an original painting by Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi titled, "non-borders." During academic year 2021-2022, the Persian Studies program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is hosting [...]

Professor Sarah Shields Dr. Sarah Shields, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the 2021 winner of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Undergraduate Education Award. Established in 2012, the MESA Undergraduate Education Award recognizes outstanding scholarship on teaching or other material [...]

In Fall 2021, dozens of K-12 teachers from across the United States and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) participated in two virtual Educator Dialogues, gaining strategies and resources to support newcomer students and globalize STEM education.  The dialogues, organized by the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies and the University of Arizona’s [...]

The UNC research team includes Dr. Waleed Ziad (left) and Rustin Zarkar (right). Dr. Waleed Ziad, Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Dr. Ali Jarrahi Fellow in Persian Studies, and Rustin Zarkar, UNC Middle East and Islamic Studies Librarian, have been awarded a Modern Endangered [...]

Flodin-Ali demonstrates ideas for using Omar ibn Said's manuscripts with high school students. On September 29, 2021, the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies hosted a webinar for educators, “Muslim American History Modules for the Social Studies Curriculum.” The program featured curricular materials for high school [...]