Dr. Jakob Krais, Scholar-In-Residence

Jakob Krais has obtained his PhD in Islamic Studies from Freie Universität Berlin in 2016 with a dissertation on historiography and nation-building in Qaddafi’s Libya. He has taught at several universities in Germany and was affiliated with the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) and the Centre Marc Bloch, both in Berlin. Over the last years, he has done research on sports and modernity in colonial Algeria. At the CCMS, Jakob will write his second book which focuses on notions about “muscular Islam,” gender, and middle-classness in late colonial Algeria’s Muslim reform movement. Based on autobiographical and press material, the book will also trace Muslim reformists’ entanglements with local and transnational Christian and Jewish actors in the fields of youth, education, and sports. Jakob’s publications include: “Muscular Muslims: Scouting in Late Colonial Algeria between Nationalism and Religion.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 51, no. 4 (2019); “Girl Guides, Athletes, and Educators: Women and the National Body in Late Colonial Algeria.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 15, no. 2 (2019); “Mastering the Wheel of Chance: Motor Racing in French Algeria and Italian Libya.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 39, no. 1 (2019); “Youth and Sports in Algeria’s Diplomatic Struggle for International Recognition (1957-1962).” The Maghreb Review 42, no. 3 (2017); Geschichte als Widerstand. Geschichtsschreibung und nation-building in Qaḏḏāfīs Libyen. Würzburg: Ergon, 2016.