Wissam H. Halawi

Wissam H. Halawi is an Associate Professor at the Institute for History and Anthropology of Religions (IHAR) within the Faculty of Theology and Sciences of Religions at the University of Lausanne. His research focuses on premodern Islamic law, rural societies, and Shiite communities including Druze, Ismaili, and Imami groups.

• Education: PhD in History (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2016)
• Appointments: Assistant Professor (2018), Associate Professor (2023)
• Postdoctoral: ERC Advanced Award LAWALISI program (University of Exeter, 2017-2018)

His work emphasizes social dimensions of Islamic jurisprudence, gender dynamics in religious law, and interactions between doctrinal texts and local customs. He has published extensively on Druze legal traditions, Imami madhhab formation, and rural Mamluk judicial systems.

Notable publications include a critical study on gender inequality in Druze law (Der Islam, 2022) and a historiographical analysis of Imami madhhab formation (Studia Islamica, 2022).

• Honors:
  • Doctoral thesis awarded mention très bien with unanimous jury congratulations (2016)
  • Special mention from the 2018 Middle East and Muslim worlds thesis prize (IISMM/GIS)

He serves on the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences and editorial boards of Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques and Welten des Islams (DeGruyter). His current projects involve comparative analysis of Islamic legal pluralism and community governance in medieval Syria.