Past events

Current events can be found here.

When	Time	Description	Add to your calendar
13 March 2024	17:00	The Emerging Field of Kurdish Gender Studies In this talk, I will contextualise the growth of KGS in relation to decolonial knowledge production in Kurdistan and the Global North. I will argue that both KGS and KGSN have emerged from and actively engaged in the politics of recognition and the struggle against oppression, marginalisation, and silencing. They have significantly contributing to critical knowledge production in both academia and political activism. Full details	Add event
28 February 2024	17:30	Visiting Speaker CKS- Voices that Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey Wednesday, February 28, 2024 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM - IAIS LT1 Speaker: Professor Marlene Schäfers Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University Title of lecture: Voices that Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey. Full details	Add event
19 February 2024	17:00	'Kak Satar': a Militant Visual Archive of Kurdish Resistance This presentation will touch upon the making of a militant archive that documents the Kurdish struggles in Iran in 1979-90. Faithi Setar, a Kurdish fighter turned photographer, has compiled a visual archive of photographs, audio and video-recordings documenting the everyday life of Peshmergas in their struggle against the Iranian State and their grassroots actions in the Kurshish rural society after the 1979 revolution. Full details	Add event
31 January 2024	17:00	Kurdish Literature as World Literature Join us for book launch and conversation with the prominent Kurdish writer and novelist, Bachtyar Ali, and Kareem Abdulrahman, translator of Ali's celebrated novel The Last Pomegranate Tree (Archipelago Books, 2023). Full details	Add event
24 January 2024	17:00	Archiving and Documenting Resistance: A Conversation with Dr Omar Sheikhmous Full details	Add event
29 November 2023	17:00	Film screening: 'Angels of Sinjar' An award-winning film by Oscar-nominated director Hanna Polak, followed by a Q and A with the director. Full details	Add event
23 November 2023	17:00	The Centre for Kurdish Studies Shaikh Mahmoud and the Kurdish uprising: Changing British attitudes towards Kurdish autonomy. Full details	Add event
10 March 2023	18:30	Kurdish Film Screening and Talk with Directors/ Centre for Kurdish Studies Centre for Kurdish Studies and the Kurdish Society are pleased to present the film, 'Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time', a documentary film co-directed by the Kurdish-Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani and the Netherlands-based Iranian filmmaker Arash Kamali Sarvestani. Boochani shot the film inside Australia's Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea. The film was shot on a smartphone, which Boochani had to hide from the prison authorities. Following the film, we will also have the chance to talk online with the film's co-directors. Full details	Add event
2 February 2023	17:30	Visiting Speaker: Professor llario Meandri and Dr Giulia Ferdeghini Ethnomusicology in the domain of Linked Open Data & Beyta Dimdim: Performative, Textu(r)al and Musical Features. Full details	Add event
7 December 2022	12:30	Uncovering Kurdish Women’s Voices in the Archives : Dr Farangis Ghaderi Please join us for this in person event. All are welcome. Full details	Add event
22 March 2022	17:30	Book Launch : "Ecological Solidarity and the Kurdish Freedom Movement: Thought, Practice, Challenges, and Opportunities", edited by Stephen Hunt, Lexington Books, 2021. Full details	Add event
10 November 2021	17:00	Book Launch - Dr. Allan Hassaniyan (Exeter) Kurdish Politics in Iran. Crossborder Interactions and Mobilisation since 1947. Cambridge University Press (2021). Full details	Add event
30 June 2021	17:00	POSTPONED AUISxExeter Talks: Curating Kurdishness, Arts, Culture, and the Archive in Kurdistan and Beyond Sarwar Taha, Slemani UNESCO City of Literature. Shaima Waseem, Director of Slemani Capital of Culture. Shamal Abu Baker, Slemani Governorate's private office. Panel title: to be confirmed. Full details	Add event
22 June 2021	15:00	Oral tradition, language, and Kurdish art Panel discussion: oral tradition, language, and Kurdish art. Full details	Add event
21 June 2021	18:00	Shubbak Festival - 'Bringing Images Home' A new generation of poets from Slemani. Full details	Add event
18 June 2021	15:00	Book Launch : Women's Voices from Kurdistan: A Selection of Kurdish Poetry Editors Farangis Ghaderi, Clemence Scalbert-Yücel and Yaser Hassan Ali. Full details	Add event
16 June 2021	17:00	POSTPONED: AUISxExeter Talks: Curating Kurdishness, Arts, Culture, and the Archive in Kurdistan and Beyond Behrooz Chamanara and Hersh Sherzad, Professors at the University of Kurdistan in Sanandaj: "Researching Kurdish Folklore in Rojhelat". Full details	Add event
14 June 2021	16:00	Conversations about Kurdistan and Palestine, Rurality, rural lives, and alternative futures Speakers: Rafeef Ziadah, SOAS University and Deniz Duruiz, from Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University Chair: Clémence Scalbert, University of Exeter.. Full details	Add event
8 June 2021	17:00	Kurdish Translations of World Literature The panel will be conducted in Kurdish (different dialects), Q&A in Kurdish and English, and will be chaired by Professor Jaffer Sheyholislami. Full details	Add event
2 June 2021	17:00	AUISxExeter Talks: Curating Kurdishness, Arts, Culture, and the Archive in Kurdistan and Beyond Jon Bullock, Musicologist at the University of Chicago and former researcher in residence at Kashkul:"Dengî Gelî Kurdistan: Kurdish Radio in 20th-Century Iraq". Full details	Add event
25 May 2021	15:00	Kurdish Translations of World Literature A panel discussion on Kurdish Translations of World Literature with participation of Kurdish authors and translators. Full details	Add event
24 May 2021	16:00	Conversations about Kurdistan and Palestine, Rurality, rural lives, and alternative futures Speakers: Schluwa Sama, University of Exeter and Mauro Van Aken, University of Milano-Bicocca. Chair: Fadia Panosetti, ULB.. Full details	Add event
29 April 2021	15:00	Panel Discussion: 'Translation and Language Revitalisation: Global Kurdish Literature' A conversation with scholars and translators of Kurdish literature into Polish, Italian, French, and English.. Full details	Add event
26 April 2021	16:00	Conversations about Kurdistan and Palestine, Rurality, rural lives, and alternative futures Speakers: Mazin Qumsiyeh, Bethlehem University and Bénédicte Bonzi, EHESS. Chair: Stéphanie Latte Abdallah, Sciences Po - CERI.. Full details	Add event
20 April 2021	14:00	Documenting and Archiving Kurdish Heritage, part 4 Dengbejs' Performance as Inspiration for Modern Kurdish Theatre and Music. Full details	Add event
31 March 2021	16:00	POSTPONED: AUISxExeter Talk: Curating Kurdishness: Arts, culture, and the archive In Kurdistan and beyond Full details	Add event
17 March 2021	19:00	POSTPONED: AUISxExeter Talk: Curating Kurdishness: Arts, culture, and the archive In Kurdistan and beyond Full details	Add event
16 March 2021	14:00	Documenting and Archiving Kurdish Heritage, part 3 Reflections on Dengbêjs [oral poets/storytellers] as Narrators of the Past Dr Metin Yüksel. Full details	Add event
10 March 2021	16:00	AUISxExeter Talk: Curating Kurdishness: Arts, culture, and the archive In Kurdistan and beyond Bushra Kasnazani, Scholar of Kurdish Literature at the University of Slemani: The history of the taboo in kurdish literature. Full details	Add event
24 February 2021	19:00	AUISxExeter Talk: Curating Kurdishness: Arts, culture, and the archive In Kurdistan and beyond Full details	Add event
10 February 2021	19:00	AUISxExeter Talk: Curating Kurdishness: Arts, culture, and the archive In Kurdistan and beyond Full details	Add event
3 February 2021	19:00	AUISxExeter Talk: Curating Kurdishness: Arts, culture, and the archive In Kurdistan and beyond Full details	Add event
18 - 20 June 2020		CANCELLED: 4th International Conference on Kurdish Studies 18-20 June 2020 We regret to advise that this conference has been cancelled. It will be rescheduled to autumn 2020. Full details	Add event
7 February 2020	16:30	Visiting Speaker: Dr Kamran Matin - Kurdish Politics of Class and Nation in Post-Revolutionary Iran Dr Kamran Matin is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Sussex University, UK. Full details	Add event
21 January 2020	17:30	Visiting speaker: Amr Taher Ahmed -The Kurdish Mahdinanah: Popular or Classical Poetry? Amr Taher Ahmed is Associate Professor of Kurdish language and literature at INaLCO in Paris (France).. Full details	Add event
8 November 2019	17:30	The Poetics of Kurdish Resistance As a minority divided among four nation-states (Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria), Kurds have been subjected to various degrees of political and cultural suppression, at times amounting to genocide. Kurdish oral and written literature has been a key component of the Kurdish political struggle for recognition and freedom and the very site of resistance and remembrance throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In this panel, academics from the Universities of Exeter and Swansea discuss paths of resistance in Kurdish literature by examining the role poetry, prose and songs in accompanying as well as inspiring the political movements and keeping the resistance alive. Full details	Add event
2 October 2019	17:30	AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain UK ties with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies are under the spotlight as never before. Huge controversy surrounds Britain’s alliances with these deeply repressive regimes, and the UK’s key supporting role in the disastrous Saudi-led intervention in Yemen has lent added urgency to the debate. What are the nature of the ties between the British state and British capitalism on the one hand, and the Gulf Arab monarchies on the other? Why have Anglo-Arabian relations grown even closer in recent years, despite ongoing, egregious human rights violations?. Full details	Add event
27 September 2019	10:00	Translation! Festival 2019: Languages in Motion The events are all free and offered on a first come, first served basis. A diverse range of workshops, performances and interactive events run by local and international experts provide something for all ages and interests.. Full details	Add event
13 May 2019	16:30	Professor Richard Foltz (Concordia University) presents "What is the meaning of 'Tajik'?" Richard Foltz (Ph.D., Harvard, 1996) is a cultural historian specializing in the broader Iranian world and his work highlights the wide-ranging influence of Iranian civilization on diverse societies stretching from the Balkans to China.. Full details	Add event
26 - 27 February 2019	9:00	Managing Intra-State Territorial Contestation: Iraq’s Disputed Territories in Comparative Perspective Iraq’s Disputed Territories remain a source of contestation and instability. Located in the north of Iraq, this broad swathe of territory lying to the south of the Kurdistan Region, and including within it parts of the provinces of Nineveh, Erbil, Salahadin, Kirkuk, and Diyala, the Disputed Territories remain a focus of contestation between the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government following the Kurdistan Region referendum of 2017 and the subsequent military response of the Government of Iraq. Furthermore, while the immediate threat of Islamic State actions has diminished, conditions in the Disputed Territories continue to create opportunities for the resurrection of militancy and insurgency, associated with the Sunni community, against the Government of Iraq and its allies. Full details	Add event
16 January 2019	17:30	Professor Bruce Lawrence (Duke University & al-Qasimi Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter) presents "Is There a Discernible Islamic(ate) Civilization?" Bruce B. Lawrence is Marcus Family Professor of Religion Emeritus at Duke University and adjunct Professor at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakf University, Istanbul. His most recent monograph, 'The Koran in English - A Biography', was published from Princeton University Press (2017). He is also co-editor, with Vincent Cornell, of 'The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Islamic Spirituality' (forthcoming, 2019), and with Rafey Habib, he is working to complete, 'The Qur'an - A Verse Translation' (W.W. Norton, forthcoming 2020). In addition, he has drafted a manifesto on Islamicate Cosmopolitan (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2021).. Full details	Add event
7 November 2018	17:15	Professor Nadje Al-Ali (SOAS) presents "'Between the Rainbow and the ISIS Flag': Feminist Dilemmas and Complexities" Nadje Al-Ali is Professor of Gender Studies at the Centre for Gender Studies (CGS), SOAS University of London. She is currently chair of the Centre for Gender Studies but will leave SOAS to take up a new position in anthropology with reference to the Middle East at Brown University in January 2019. Her main research interests revolve around feminist activism and gendered mobilisation, mainly with reference to Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and the Kurdish political movement, and most recently Lebanon. Nadje Al-Ali has been a member of the Feminist Review Collective, and is on the editorial board of Kohl: a journal of body and gender research. As a feminist activist she has been involved in various local and transnational organisations and campaigns and was a founding member of Act Together: Women's Action for Iraq.. Full details	Add event
23 March 2018	17:00	Film Screening of 'Vereroz' and Q&A with film director Piran Baydemir Special film screening of 'Ververoz' followed by Q&A with the film director Prian Baydemir. Ververoz is the 154-day story of parents who look for their daughter at Sur, Rozerin Çukur, in the days of conflict at Sur and curfews in Diyarbakır.. Full details	Add event
26 June 2017	18:15	"Return to Kurdistan" by Richard Wilding Return to Kurdistan shows Iraqi Kurdistan and Northern Iraq in contemporary photographs by Richard Wilding, alongside historical photographs by Anthony Kersting. Full details	Add event
1 June - 1 September 2017		"Return to Kurdistan" by Richard Wilding Return to Kurdistan shows Iraqi Kurdistan and Northern Iraq in contemporary photographs by Richard Wilding, alongside historical photographs by Anthony Kersting. Full details	Add event
27 March 2013	17:15	'Women's situation and the women's movement in Kurdistan- Iraq' with Choman Hardi AND 'Gender, Resistance, and activism in the Palestinian Camps in Jordan' with Afaf Jabiri Afaf Jabiri is a leading womens's rights activist in Jordan and across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), advocating for legal reform and policy change at the local, national and international levels. Jabiri holds MPhil degree in International Politics from University of Glasgow. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Centre for Gender Studies/School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Choman Hardi was born in Kurdistan and brought up in Iraq and Iran. She came to England as a refugee in 1993 where she was educated in Queens College Oxford (BA, Philosophy and psychology), University College London (MA, Philosophy) and University of Kent in Canterbury (PhD, Mental health). Full details	Add event
6 - 8 September 2012	8:45	Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies The Kurds and Kurdistan: Considering Continuity and Change Since our first international conference on Kurdish Studies in 2009, the States where Kurds live have seen tumultuous events. The Iranian elections and their aftermath have been followed by the protests in Iraq, anger over the referendum and elections in Turkey, and huge violence in Syria.As many ask whether the so-called Arab spring will bring change to the Middle East, we would like to interrogate the very ideas of continuity and change themselves across a number of disciplines. Does complete rupture ever occur in history? Does regime change bring real differences in peoples lives? When migration brings change to individuals and families, what continuity is maintained in order to re-produce identity? How does language change and how far should linguistic change be managed? How should we study cultural continuity which exists over ethnic boundaries and international frontiers? What have been the changes and continuities within the field of Kurdish studies itself?. Full details	Add event