Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Friday, February 6, 2026

Lecture: Muslim Women and Architectural Patronage, Dede Ruggles

12:00 pm

Coble Hall 801 S Wright St Champaign IL Room 306
- Lecture
Book Talk: "The Islamic Book of Odes and the Horizon of Translation in Modern China," Michael Hill

1:30 pm

Lucy Ellis Lounge, LCLB building
- Lecture

Thursday, February 12, 2026

Book Talk: "From Apartheid to Democracy, A Blueprint for Peace in Israel-Palestine." Sarah Leah Whitson and Michael Omer-Man

4:00 pm

Illini Union Bookstore 2nd floor Author's Corner 809 S Wright St, Champaign, IL 61820
- Lecture

Friday, February 13, 2026

Urbisurgence and Resistance: Indigenous Urbanism and the Struggle for Spatial Justice, Dr. Sahera Bleibleh

10:30 - 11:50 am
- Lecture

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Workshop and lunch with Prof. Craig Perry: “Slavery, Abyssinian Diaspora, and the Civilian Elite in 15th-Century Mecca"

12:00 - 2:00 pm

English Building 109
- Conference/Workshop
Talk: Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt: Lecture by Prof. Craig Perry

5:00 pm

Lucy Ellis Conference Center 707 S. Mathews Ave. Urbana, IL 61801 Room 1080
- Lecture

Friday, February 27, 2026

<SAS Friday Talks @ 11> Pratik Banerjee, Food safety in India under a cultural lens

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Lecture

Friday, March 6, 2026

<SAS Friday Talks @ 11> Bharat Mehra, From Trauma, Anxieties, and Dislocation at Intersecting Margins in a South Asian Experience and Beyond to Social Justice: “If Life Gives You Bananas Make Mango Shake”

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Lecture

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Career Exploration Event : Stephanie Yousef, Alumni Humanitarian Practitioner

12:00 pm
- Lecture

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Book Talk: The Long War On Iran: New Events, Old Questions, Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi

All Day
- Lecture

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Book Talk: Dust That Never Settles: Literary Afterlives of the Iran-Iraq War, Amir Moosavi

4:00 pm

Lucy Ellis Conference Center 707 S. Mathews Ave. Urbana, IL 61801
- Lecture

Thursday, April 2, 2026

2026 Pakistan Studies Event

5:00 - 6:30 pm

1035 Campus Instructional Facility
- Lecture
CSAMES Talk: “Muslim Sicily, Real and Imagined,” Bill Granara

5:00 pm

Levis Faculty Center, 919 W Illinois St #400, Urbana, IL 61801 Room 208
- Lecture

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Film screenings: Morgenkreis/Morning Circle, Capital & Home Movies Gaza , Basma al-Sharif

7:00 pm

Knight Auditorium Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory St, Urbana, IL 61801
- Film Screening

Friday, April 10, 2026

Film Screening: feature-length experimental film Ourobooros (2017), Basma al-Sharif

7:00 pm

Knight Auditorium Spurlock Museum, 600 S Gregory St, Urbana, IL 61801
- Film Screening

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

2026 Indian Languages and Cultures Lecture

6:00 - 7:30 pm

Spurlock Museum
- Lecture

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Celebrating Al-Andalus: How Islamic Iberia Lives on in Arabic and Hebrew (MENA Heritage Month)

5:00 - 7:00 pm
- Social/Informal Event
Zinda Bhaag: Film Screening and Discussion

7:15 - 10:00 pm

Spurlock Museum
- Film Screening

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Talk: On Beginnings, or the Roots and Routes of the Nested Memory Concept, Helen Makhdoumian , Postdoctoral Program fellow at Vanderbilt University

5:00 pm

Levis Faculty Center Room 208, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana
- Lecture

Monday, April 27, 2026

Seeing Sovereignty: Hamida Banu Begam's Portraits and Gendered Power

5:15 pm

Architecture Building, Room TBA
- Lecture

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Book Talk: Zoning Faith: How City Politics Shape Muslim Communities in Chicago, Sultan Tepe

4:00 pm

Illini Union Bookstore 2nd floor Author's Corner 809 S Wright St, Champaign, IL 61820
- Lecture