Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach

Abstract

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In May 2007, the board of University of Southern Denmark (SDU) made a strategic decision in declaring the field of modern Middle East studies a priority research area of the Faculty of Humanities at SDU. The board underpinned this decision with the allocation of substantial additional means to the Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies at SDU (hereafter “the Centre”). The research staff of the Centre was augmented by two regular professorships, one guest professorship (one-year term) and two PhD positions. In this way, the board aimed at strengthening the research component of the Centre and its international profile. The first new faculty member was guest professor Francesco Cavatorta (today teaching at Université Laval in Canada), who was employed from August 2008 to July 2009. Since then, nine scholars have served as guest professors at the Centre, representing countries as diverse as Germany, India, Ireland, Jordan, Turkey, and the United States. In January 2009, the Faculty of Humanities appointed Dietrich Jung as the first regular professor. Jung previously worked as a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). He also took over the directorship of the Centre from Associate Professor Peter Seeberg who had served in this position since (...)