Albrecht Fuess is a Professor of Islamic Studies at Philipps University of Marburg since 2010, specializing in Middle Eastern History (13th–17th centuries), Mamluk socio-cultural dynamics, and contemporary European Islamic discourses. His research spans historical continuity in Ottoman-Mamluk-Safavid interactions, Islamic youth cultures, and Mediterranean geopolitics. Research Focus: Medieval Islamic history, Transottomanica mobility studies, Islam in Europe, and cultural integration of Muslim migrants. Awards: Le Studium Fellowship (2007–2009) at Université de Tours. His publications emphasize military-economy interplay, legitimacy through religious narratives, and resource management in empires, with a focus on Mamluk and Ottoman transformations. He has advised on doctoral projects covering topics like Islamic welfare, Arabic ʾAmālī literature, and Cypriot-Ottoman relations. Leadership: Co-coordinator of Transottomanica (DFG-SPP 1981), member of ANR and DAAD committees, and liaison professor for the German National Academic Foundation. Editorial Roles: Co-editor of 'Transottomanica' and 'Muslim Worlds' series, and advisory board member for journals in Cairo, Paris, and Leuven.
Katharine Olson serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of History within San Jose State University's College of Social Sciences, specializing in the cultural, religious, social, and intellectual history of medieval and Reformation Europe and the Mediterranean World through transregional and global frameworks. Her research interests include: Medieval History Early Modern History Religious History Cultural History Reformation British History Celtic History European History Social History Political History History of the Book She investigates how religion, culture, and identity were manifested in daily life across Britain, Ireland, Europe, and global networks including the Americas, Asia, and Africa, with particular attention to intersections of language, gender, and community in shaping realities of toleration and intolerance.
Engseng Ho is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology and former Professor of History at Duke University's Trinity College of Arts & Sciences since 2008. His work focuses on Arab/Muslim diasporas across the Indian Ocean, global transregional dynamics, and historical interactions between empires and local societies. Education: PhD (2000), MA (1990) in Anthropology from University of Chicago; BA (1986) from Stanford University. Research interests include mobility studies, transregional legal frameworks, and the intersection of Islam with imperial and postcolonial contexts. Notable projects involve Inter-Asia collaborations and studies on China-Africa relations, oil economies, and Malay sovereignty. Recent grants include funding from the National Science Foundation for research on refugees, Azerbaijan's oil-driven geopolitics, and a global religion dissertation fellowship program. Teaching spans courses on imperialism, mobility, global culture, and anthropological theory. His expertise spans Africa, India, Indonesia, and Yemen.
Sebastian Thies is Professor and Chair for Ibero-American Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Tübingen, where he has been employed since October 2012. He serves as Vice Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies (ICGSS) and coordinates the BMBF/DAAD thematic network 'Futures under construction in the Global South'. His academic journey began with a PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Osnabrück in 2000, followed by positions at the University of Bielefeld where he progressed from Junior Professor for Hispanic Literary and Media Studies to Full Professor for Inter-American Studies. Thies' research focuses on Global South Studies, with particular emphasis on Latin American literature, film, and media. His work explores subjectivity formations, entangled temporalities, and political communication across borders. He has directed significant research initiatives including the doctoral studies program 'Entangled Temporalities in the Global South' and has co-edited major reference works such as The Routledge Handbook for Global South Studies on Subjectivities (2024). His extensive publication record demonstrates a consistent engagement with transnational cultural phenomena, particularly examining how Latin American cultural production intersects with global political and social dynamics. Thies frequently collaborates with international scholars, reflecting his commitment to transdisciplinary and transregional approaches to cultural analysis. Project Leader: Research Training Network 'Entangled Temporalities in the Global South' Vice Project Leader: Thematic network 'Literary Cultures of the Global South' Associated Investigator: BMBF-Area Studies Project 'The Americas as a Space of Entanglement' Project Leader: Research Group 'E Pluribus Unum? Ethnic Identies in Processes of Transnational Integration' Thies actively supervises doctoral students through the Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies and has established collaborative networks across Latin America, particularly with institutions in Mexico and Colombia. His current research agenda focuses on 'Futures under construction in the Global South' and continues to explore the intersections of cultural production, political communication, and subjectivity formation in transnational contexts.
Prof. Stefan Rohdewald is a Professor of East and South-Eastern European History at the University of Leipzig since 2020. Previously, he held positions at Justus Liebig University Giessen (2013-2020), University of Passau (2003-2012), and University of Zurich (1998-2001). His research focuses on transregional histories, religious memory, and intercultural communication in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman sphere. Key roles include coordinating DFG’s Transottomanica program and leading the GiZo partnership with University of Zagreb. Education: PhD (2004, University of Zurich), Habilitation (2012, University of Passau). Research interests span memorial discourses, Ottoman-Europe relations, and sport history. Major projects include studies on Serbo-Bulgarian religious figures and transottoman mobility dynamics. He chairs conferences on minority politics and Ottoman Europe, contributing to over 70 peer-reviewed publications. Award-winning publications include Götter der Nationen (2014) and Vlad der Pfähler (2017). His work bridges Eastern European, Ottoman, and transnational histories through innovative methodological frameworks.
Ayesha Jalal is a distinguished Professor of History at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences and holds a joint appointment at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She currently serves as the Mary Richardson Professor and directs the Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies. With a career spanning over three decades, Professor Jalal has established herself as a leading scholar in South Asian history, particularly focusing on Pakistan studies, the partition of India, and Muslim political thought in the region. Professor Jalal's academic journey began with a double major in History and Political Science from Wellesley College in 1978. She then pursued doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, earning her PhD in History in 1983. Her early career included prestigious fellowships at Trinity College, Cambridge (1980-84), the Centre of South Asian Studies (1984-87), the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars (1985-86), and the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies (1988-90). Professor Jalal's research primarily centers on South Asian history with special emphasis on Pakistan, the partition of India, and Muslim political thought. Her work explores the complex interplay between religious identity, nationalism, and state formation in the region. She has made significant contributions to understanding democratic development in Pakistan, sectarian dynamics in South Asia, and the historical connections between the Indian subcontinent and the wider Indian Ocean world. Her recent scholarship has focused on 'Oceanic Islam,' examining transregional Muslim networks and universalist aspirations that transcended colonial boundaries. Professor Jalal's extensive publication record demonstrates a consistent focus on South Asian political history, with particular attention to Pakistan's formation and development. Her recent works show a progression from studies of partition and state formation toward broader examinations of Muslim intellectual history and transregional connections. The 2020-2024 publications reveal a sophisticated engagement with themes of democratic erosion, sectarianism, and the historical roots of contemporary political challenges in South Asia, while also exploring more cultural and religious dimensions through works on Muslim enlightened thought and oceanic connections. Patrus Bukhari Award for the best English language book, The Pity of Partition , Academy of Letters, Government of Pakistan (2015) Britannica Book of the Year recognition (2015) MacArthur Fellowship (1998-2003) As an educator, Professor Jalal has mentored numerous graduate students through thesis supervision and directed research projects. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on Modern South Asia, Contemporary South Asia, Islam and the West, and specialized seminars on South Asian history. She has taught at several prestigious institutions including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University, and Harvard University before joining Tufts in 1999. In her role as Director of the Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies, she has fostered interdisciplinary research and provided guidance to emerging scholars in the field. Professor Jalal directs the Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies at Tufts University, which serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research on South Asia and its connections to the wider Indian Ocean world. The center facilitates collaborative projects, hosts visiting scholars, and organizes events that bridge historical, political, and cultural perspectives on the region. Under her leadership, the center has become a prominent institution for South Asian studies, promoting dialogue between academic research and contemporary policy issues.
Stephan Conermann serves as Professor of Islamic Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Bonn, where he has held continuous academic appointments since 2003. His institutional leadership includes directorship of the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg (2010-2022), Bonn Center for Transcultural Narratology, and significant administrative roles culminating in his current deanship since 2023. Academic Background: Doctorate in Oriental Philology/Islamic Studies (Kiel University, 1996, magna cum laude) Magisterstudium in Asian History, Oriental and Slavic Philology (Kiel University, 1992) Conermann's research examines pre-modern Islamic societies through narrative strategies in historiography, with specialized focus on Mamluk Sultanate governance (1250-1517), Delhi Sultanate/Mughal transitions, and Transottomanica mobility dynamics. His work uniquely connects asymmetrical dependencies (particularly slavery systems), power structures, and global entanglements across South Asia, Middle East, and Eastern Europe. His extensive publication portfolio shows consistent thematic evolution toward comparative frameworks analyzing slavery beyond Eurocentric models, narrative construction of power across cultures, and mobility as historical catalyst. Recent scholarship increasingly integrates transcultural methodology with digital humanities approaches. Academic Leadership: Supervised 290+ theses (59 PhD, 96 Magister, 47 Master, 88 Bachelor) Acquired ~9 million euros in third-party funding (DFG, BMBF, DAAD) Editor of 15+ publication series including Mamluk Studies and Dependency and Slavery Studies Conermann directs the Bonn Center for Transcultural Narratology and co-leads the EXC 2036 'Beyond Slavery and Freedom' cluster, fostering interdisciplinary research on pre-modern dependency systems through international collaborations across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag is Director of the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (Berlin) and holds a special professorship in Islamic Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on social and cultural history of the Arab world, urban history, and transregional connections in the Indian Ocean. She has directed major projects like 'An Oasis Facing Globalisation: Hegra’s History since the 19th Century' and authored seminal works such as A History of Jeddah . Education: Habilitation (Islamic Studies, 2002, Bonn), PhD (1991, Freiburg), MA (1987, Freiburg). Key research stays include Damascus (1984-85, 1987-90), Yemen, and Southeast Asia. Research Interests: Urban development, migration networks, Ottoman heritage, Saudi state formation, and transregional Islamic dynamics. Current projects explore Jeddah’s urban history and transregional entanglements in the Arabian Peninsula. Engagement: Editorial roles for Journal of Arabian Studies , ZMO Studien , and advisory boards for institutions like the Leibniz Institute of European History. Awarded fellowships from Käthe-Hamburger Kolleg and LUCIS. Supervised over 20 doctoral theses on topics ranging from Ottoman governance to Gulf intellectual history. Publications: Over 150 articles, 8 monographs, and 6 edited volumes. Her work blends archival research with transregional perspectives, emphasizing marginalized voices and material culture. Recent focus on pandemic impacts and Saudi-Iranian geopolitical dynamics.
Rachel Leow is an Associate Professor in Modern East Asian History and Fellow of Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge. She holds a PhD and MPhil from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and a BA from Warwick University. Her research critiques rigid nationalisms in East Asia, focusing on transregional cultural and intellectual histories. Her book Taming Babel: Language in the Making of Malaysia (2016) won the 2018 Harry J. Benda Prize for Southeast Asian studies. Current projects include an anti-diasporic history of Chinese migration and early 20th-century Asian thought-worlds. Leow emphasizes public engagement, contributing to blogs, literary reviews, and collaborative manifestos. She teaches World History courses, including Part IA’s Outline 11 and specialized modules on East/Southeast Asia. She supervises postgraduate students exploring transnational East Asian history from 1850 to the present. Professional affiliations include the Royal Historical Society, Center for History and Economics, and editorial roles at The Historical Journal and Global Intellectual History . Awards include the Harry J. Benda Prize and RHS Fellowship. Her digital work includes a visualization of Afro-Asian Cold War networks and a short film on diasporic identity.
Tiraana Bains is an Assistant Professor of History at Brown University, specializing in modern Britain and the global British Empire. Her research investigates the contested formation of the British imperial state in South Asia between the 18th and 20th centuries, emphasizing participatory and revolutionary dimensions of imperial governance. PhD, Yale University, 2021 MA, Yale University, 2015 BA, Yale University, 2015 Postdoctoral Fellowship, Modern Intellectual History, Dartmouth College, 2021–2023 Her research interests lie at the intersection of imperial history, political authority, and intellectual frameworks of empire. She examines how both elite and non-elite actors across Britain and South Asia contested and shaped imperial rule, taxation, and labor systems. Her work positions British imperial formation not merely as coercion but as a dynamic, ideologically charged process comparable to revolutionary state-building in America and France. The recent publications reflect a deep engagement with sovereignty, imperial connectivity, and the intellectual history of empire. Her articles explore the collapse and reconstitution of imperial presidencies, dual sovereignty between Mughal and British powers, and broader conceptual attempts to 'think the empire whole.' These works span journals in British, global, and South Asian history, indicating a transregional and interdisciplinary approach. While no formal scientific awards are listed, her publications in leading historical journals and her active research program suggest strong scholarly recognition. Tiraana Bains teaches undergraduate courses at Brown, including HIST 1267: The Global British Empire, 1600–The Present and HIST 1974E: The Intellectual History of Imperialism . She is currently completing a book titled Instituting Empire: The Contested Makings of a British Imperial State in South Asia, 1750–1800 , which promises to make a significant contribution to the field. Her postdoctoral training at Dartmouth further underscores her expertise in intellectual history. Though no lab or research team is mentioned, her collaborative publications suggest engagement with a broader scholarly network at Brown and beyond.
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag is a distinguished scholar in Islamic Studies and social history of the Arab world, holding a Professorship at Freie Universität Berlin and serving as Director of the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) . Her work bridges urban history, transregional Islamic networks, and Arabian Peninsula studies within Indian Ocean and Red Sea contexts. Education : PhD in Islamic Studies (Freiburg, 1991), Habilitation (Bonn, 2002) Research : Focus on Ottoman urban violence, Saudi state formation, Hadhrami diaspora, and historical urbanism in Jeddah Her supervision of PhD projects spans topics from Moroccan Sufi sanctußen to Yemeni Jewish communities. Recent scientific awards include fellowships at Leiden University and Käthe-Hamburger Kolleg. She contributes to public discourse through Tagesspiegel op-eds and international conferences.
Fahad Ahmad Bishara is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia , specializing in the economic and legal history of the Indian Ocean and Islamic world . His work bridges global capitalism, international law, and historical narratives of mobility. Key Books: A Sea of Debt (Cambridge, 2017) and Monsoon Voyagers (UC Press, forthcoming) Awards: Hurst Prize, Jerry Bentley Prize, Peter Gonville Stein Book Award Research Focus: Explores debt, legal systems, and trade through microhistories of ships and merchant families, with recent interests in narrative scales and conceptualizations of law in global history. Academic Collaborations: Co-authored works with Nandini Chatterjee, Hollian Wint, and others, emphasizing Persianate and Indian Ocean interconnections. Scientific Awards: J. Willard Hurst Prize (Law and Society Association) Jerry Bentley Prize (World History Association) Peter Gonville Stein Book Award (American Society for Legal History)
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Rebstock is a former full professor of Islamic Studies at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, holding the position from 1993 to 2017. He specializes in Islamic history, Arabic studies, and African Islamic contexts, with a focus on Mauritania and North African intellectual traditions. His work bridges historical documentation, manuscript studies, and the analysis of administrative and legal practices in Islamic societies. Rebstock earned his doctorate in 1983 on Ibadi movements in the Maghrib and completed his habilitation in 1990 on computational practices in the Islamic Orient. Research interests include Islam in Africa, usul al-fiqh (Islamic legal theory), and Arabic mathematical history. He has led major projects such as the publication of the Mauritanian historical encyclopedia Kitāb Ḥayāt mūrītāniyā and the Moorish Literary History series. Current projects involve developing a collaborative web-based system for annotating Arabic texts to create complex indices. Key contributions include critical editions of historical manuscripts, studies on Moorish legal opinions, and analyses of reformist movements in Sudan. His work often emphasizes the intersection of textual analysis with socio-political contexts in Muslim-majority regions.
Michael Christopher Low is an Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah. He specializes in late Ottoman Empire, Arabian Peninsula history, Indian Ocean World studies, and environmental history. His research focuses on the intersections of empire, environment, and global networks, particularly through the lens of the Hajj pilgrimage and water infrastructure in the Middle East. Low earned his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University (2015). Before joining Utah, he was an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University (2015–2022). His major work, *Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj* (2020), won the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Book Award and explores Ottoman modernization and global health dynamics in the Hijaz region. He is currently working on a new book project, *Saltwater Kingdoms*, examining desalination’s environmental and energy impacts in Arabia. Key affiliations include the Environmental Humanities Program (as Research Professor, 2023–2025), NYU Abu Dhabi (Senior Humanities Fellow, 2020–2021), and Koç University (Visiting Fellowship, 2016). He serves as Series Editor for *Transregional Middle Easts* and on editorial boards for journals like *Journal of Global History*. Awards include the Alice Hamilton Prize (2016) for environmental history, and grants from Columbia University, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the William Lind Foundation. His research spans Ottoman public health policies, colonial Hajj logistics, and the hydraulic history of the Saudi state.
Shira Pinhas is a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer at Princeton University’s Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. Her research bridges social and material history, examining how infrastructures like oil pipelines, refineries, and road networks shaped political and social dynamics in twentieth-century Palestine/Israel and the Levant. She holds a PhD from Tel Aviv University and previously served as a Polonsky Postdoctoral Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Before academia, she spent a decade organizing in Palestinian-Jewish NGOs focused on social justice. Her primary research interests include Middle Eastern Studies, particularly the intersection of colonialism, gender, and infrastructure. She investigates how transnational flows of energy and technology reinforced settler-colonial hierarchies and spatial segregation, as seen in her work on oil infrastructures and partition policies. Pinhas’s publications analyze the political implications of infrastructure, such as road networks and energy systems, in the Mandate period. Her 2025 article "The Gender of Fossil Fuels" highlights gendered impacts of kerosene adoption, while her 2022 works trace British imperial legacies in partition strategies. A 2020 paper in Journal of Levantine Studies explores transnational dimensions of Palestinian partition debates. Award : Best Dissertation Award (MEISAI, 2020) Her academic contributions extend beyond traditional research, including community organizing and policy-focused writing. She collaborates with transregional scholars and contributes to public discourse through media outlets like +972 Magazine .
