Welcome

SERMEISS NEWS

Call for Submissions: 

SERMEISS Book and Book Chapter/Article Awards for 2026

Nominations are now open for the 2026 SERMEISS Book Award and the Book Chapter/Article Award. These awards are an important way for us to recognize outstanding scholarship across Middle East and Islamic Studies, and we encourage members to nominate work they find especially compelling, including their own recent publications.

The SERMEISS Book Award recognizes exceptional scholarship in Middle Eastern or Islamic studies across a range of academic disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, regardless of the time period. We invite submissions of peer-reviewed nonfiction works published in English that demonstrate original empirical and theoretical contributions. Eligible books must have a copyright date between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025. Edited volumes, handbooks, and novels are not eligible for consideration.

The SERMEISS Book Chapter/Article Award honors outstanding scholarship in Middle Eastern or Islamic studies published as an article or a book chapter in an edited volume. Eligible works can come from any academic discipline within the social sciences or humanities and must be peer-reviewed nonfiction, published in English, and demonstrate original empirical and theoretical contributions. For the 2026 prize, submissions must have a copyright date between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. 

The award committees may also choose to grant an honorable mention.

Authors affiliated with universities within the SERMEISS region (which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia) are encouraged to submit their work for this recognition. Nominations may be made by colleagues, but authors are also welcome to nominate their own work.

All submissions must be postmarked or emailed by February 1, 2026. Winner(s) will be announced by July 1, 2026, and recipients will be invited to attend the SERMEISS Fall 2026 Annual Meeting in Valle Crucis, North Carolina, to present their work.

Submissions should include a copy of the book or article/book chapter (in pdf format), and a cover letter including the following information: 

a. Author name 

b. Institutional affiliation

c. Publication title

d. Journal or book title

e. Year of publication

f. Citation information (or ISBN # and Publisher name)

g. Contact name, phone, email 

SERMEISS will only accept one submission per author.

Please send submissions to the SERMEISS Executive Director at edsermeiss@gmail.com, and feel free to contact Dr. Buket Oztas at buket.oztas@furman.edu with any questions or if you would like to submit a physical copy.

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