Middle East

Research and teaching programs

The Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies

The Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies (CCMS) aims to foster academic and public understanding of Muslim societies and cultures by curating events and programs that create a safe space for discussion, relationship building and academic and community outreach. As Muslim societies and cultures have increasingly become the focus of public and academic attention, the CCMS works to broaden the discussion, and introduce more complexity into the study of Muslim societies and cultures from Africa, through the Arab and Persianate world, and into Asia and the West.

Faculty with Regional Expertise  

Zafar Adeel

Professor of Professional Practice, School of Sustainable Energy Engineering

Arab Region

Thomas Kuehn

Associate Professor, History

The Ottoman empire and Turkey

Aude-Claire Fourot

Assistant Professor, Political Science

Islam in Europe and Canada

Tamir Moustafa

Professor and Stephen Jarislowsky Chair, School for International Studies

Law and society; religion and politics; politics of the Middle East.

Nazanin Shahrokni

Associate Professor, International Studies

Gender, development, globalization; politics of the Middle East

Daniel Ahadi

Lecturer, School of Communication

Persia, migration, globalization

Luke Clossey

Associate Professor, History

Comparative world history of religions

Adel Iskandar

Associate Professor, Communication

Modern Middle East

Ken Seigneurie

Professor, Program in World Literature

Modern Arabic

Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani

Assistant Professor & Chair, World Languages and Literatures

Interconnections of literature and philosophy, Iran

Yildiz Atasoy

Professor, Sociology

Islamic politics; Turkey, Middle East

Catherine D'Andrea

Professor, Faculty of Environment

Early agricultural peoples and the rise of complex societies in the Horn of Africa.

Laura Marks

Dena Wosk Professor in Art and Culture Studies

Cinema in the Arab world

Paul Sedra

Associate Professor, History

Modern Middle East; education and the rise of the modern state; Egyptian cinema