Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society

SERMEISS NEWS

SERMEISS Fall 2025 Meeting

After last year’s hiatus, it felt great to be back together in Valle Crucis for the SERMEISS Fall Meeting! The activities over the weekend, and the conversations that often begin in Johnson Hall and carry into shared meals, porch talks, and long walks under the mountain sky in particular, reminded us why this community is so special and why it continues to thrive. 

Over the course of three days, we had the opportunity to hear an impressive breadth of scholarship. Michaelle Browers’s analysis of Palestinian collective consciousness, Tyler Parker’s exploration of Qatar and the UAE’s search for status, and Abdel Basith Basheer’s reflections on religion, cultural heritage, and political identity in Jordan, were all a reminder of how innovative and intellectually stimulating Middle East and Islamic Studies has become in our region. The program also featured last two year’s Article/Book Chapter Award recipients, Ella Fratantuono and Devin Stewart, whose presentations kindled some of the most engaging conversations of the weekend. And in the spirit of 7’den 70’e (from seven to seventy) as we say in Turkish, there was truly something for everyone. Ella’s talk, for instance, drew a remarkably attentive audience, including our youngest participant, a five-month-old Ayla, who seemed deeply absorbed in her reflections (and impressively quiet for the duration). She was not alone in representing the next generation; Miles and Jana, our fifteen-month-old and two-year-old attendees, added their own spark of curiosity and laughter to the buzz of the weekend, which served as a living proof that community and learning often begin long before we realize them.

We also convened a particularly resonant roundtable, The Aftermath of the Gaza War, featuring Annie Tracy Samuel, Curt Ryan, Waleed Hazbun, and Michael Samuel. Together, they offered not only an insightful analysis of recent events, but also distinct perspectives to make sense of a region where history, memory, and politics are never quite separable. Curt brought a careful attention to structure and state power; Waleed, a long view of regional dynamics; Annie, a historical understanding of diplomacy and conflict; and Michael, a sobering perspective on Trump’s peace deal grounded in lived realities. Woven together, their insights illuminated how violence continues to change societies long after the moment of crisis, shaping both the political landscape and the human experience that underlies it.

The Herbert L. Bodman Memorial Lecture was delivered by Emek Ergun this year. Her talk, “The Middle East in Translation: Feminist Encounters Across Borders,” invited us to think about translation not only as a linguistic act but as an ethical and political move: a form of feminist resistance and solidarity that traverses borders of language, culture, and power. Drawing on her work as a scholar and translator, Emek showed us how stories travel across worlds, left many of us reconsidering what it means to read across difference, to translate responsibly, and to engage one another through the living medium of language.

As I overheard Curt saying, SERMEISS really happens at the Inn: during the informal reception, over shared meals, and in the quiet hours between sessions. The moments in between were just as meaningful as the panels themselves: our conversations that stretched late into the night, an unexpectedly competitive table tennis tournament in the common room, new connections made over cups of coffee, and the old friends coming together over a weekend in the mountains. 

Thank you to everyone who made the trip, to our presenters for sharing their work, and to the Valle Crucis Conference Center staff for their hospitality. It was wonderful to be back in the mountains, and I’m already looking forward to seeing how the conversations from this fall carry into next year’s meeting.

• Buket Oztas, Ph.D., Executive Director

SERMEISS 2025 Book and Article Awards Announcement

The selection committees have completed their careful review of submissions for the 2025 SERMEISS Book Award and Article/Book Chapter Award, which recognize outstanding scholarship on the Middle East and Islamic studies across disciplines and time periods.

This year’s Book Award has been awarded to Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978 (Yale University Press, 2024) by Geoffrey P. Levin (Emory University). The committee also awarded an Honorable Mention to Governing Migration in the Late Ottoman Empire (Edinburgh University Press, 2024) by Ella Fratantuono (UNC Charlotte).

For the Article/Book Chapter category, the prize goes to Lillian Frost (Virginia Tech) for her article "Ambiguous citizenship policies: Examining implementation gaps across levels of legislation in Jordan" published in Comparative Migration Studies in 2024.

The committees had a difficult time making final decisions this year, as there were many excellent submissions across both categories. These award-winning projects stood out for their originality, relevance, and the insight they bring to pressing questions in the field. Each reflects the kind of careful research and thoughtful analysis that strengthens our discipline and sparks new conversations among scholars and students alike.

On behalf of the Executive Board, I’d also like to thank all the committee members for their hard work and dedication to maintaining the high standards of our scholarly community. They managed to complete this process on a noticeably shorter timeline this year, all while the regions we hold close to our hearts are experiencing so much turmoil and uncertainty. This context makes their commitment and care all the more meaningful, and we are deeply grateful for the time and thought they invested in reviewing each submission.

All recipients will be invited to present their work at our Fall meeting in Valle Crucis this October, and we look forward to the chance to engage their ideas in person.