Student Theses — Middle East Institute

Student Theses

In the final component of the MA in Islamic Studies, students complete a 4 credit Thesis Research Seminar or undertake supervised independent research. Students work closely with a thesis advisor through all stages of their thesis. All past theses are available at the MEI office.

You can search the theses below by student name or thesis title. You can also use the dropdown menu to see all theses advised by a particular faculty member.

2023

Featured

The Time-Travel Archive: A Case for Post-Apocalyptic Technologies in Archival Re/Imagination

The State's Negative Imprint: Unpublished Fatimid Petitions from the Cairo Geniza and the Administration of Justice in Fatimid Egypt

Shame(d) in the Eye of Modernity: The Freudian and Ghazalian Subjects in the Space of Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy

Aesthetic Transformations of Qawwali: A Case Study on Coke Studio Pakistan

Preserving Sijilmassa: a study of historic site maintenance and excavation in contemporary Morocco

“The Sum of its Parts” Understanding the Structure of Steppe-Influenced Polities as a Web of Relations Between Self-Constituting Entities: The Example of the Early Safavids

Narrating Pakistan and Islam: The Case of History and Pakistan Studies Textbooks in Punjab

2022

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Language Reform in Uzbekistan and Severance From the Ummah: The Ethics of Arabic and the Secularity of Reform

Martyrs and Maraja’: Transnational Ideological Competition in post-Ba’athist Shi’a Iraq

Miraculously, Good Coffee: Majdhubin and intoxication in early modern Syrian cityscapes

Environmental and Political Challenges in the Region of Khūzestān

Reviving Ethics, Decolonising Islam, and Locating the ‘We’ of the Anthropocene

The Fara’id of the Oppressed: How the Faraizi Movement Created an Alternative to the Colonial Reality

2021

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Negotiating Mobility in Domestic Spaces: Gender and Social Stratification in Karachi, Pakistan

Qadi Records from Barawe, Shards of History on the Horn of Africa

Living Laws: The sharī’a and pashtunwali

Twelver Shī’ism in North India: Through the Lens of Sayyid Dildār ʿAlī Naṣīrābādī

Rethinking Islamic Studies Muhammad Iqbal’s Philosophy as Decolonial Critique

Women, Ethics, and Ḥayāt Ṭayyiba: A Reading of the Adab of Syedna Taher Saifuddin

Trustee, Mutawalli, Qayyim: Contesting Authorities in a Colonial Court

2020

Featured

The Price of Crude Oil: Crude Oil Price Paradigms, the Market Structure of the Petroleum Industry, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Muhammadi Movement and its Impact Upon Modern Muslim Identities in South Asia

Interpreting the Water Architecture of the Fatimid Era: Philosophy, Meaning and Tradition

Caliph's Rule or Rule of Law: What can Abu Yusuf's Letter to Harun Rashid Tell Us About Early Islamic Governance?

2019

Featured

Representing the Divine: Community and Politics in the Mamlūk Sultanate

The Evolution Of ‘Permitted Music’ In Iran and Afghanistan (Islamic Republic of Iran 1979-2019; Afghanistan under the Taliban 1996-2001)

Sufis in America: The relationship between the New York and Philadephia communities of the Halveti-Jerrahi Tariqa

2018

Featured

The Fate of the Sharī'a in the Modern State

Notes on Psychoanalysis, Islam, and Contemporary Political Imaginaries

2017

Featured

Family as a site of Muslim Reform: 'Abd-Al'Ra'uf Fitrat's 'A'ila Yahud Waza'if-I Khanadari (Family or the duties of Housekeeping)

Afghanistan: 1953-1979

The Everyday "Muslimah", Scenes of Subjection of Muslim Women in America

2016

Featured

Contesting Narratives of the Nation: The Politics of Identity, Religion, and the 2014 Tunisian Constitution

2015

Featured

"Making America Safe Again"? Security, Syrian Refugees and Counterterrorism in the Age of Fear Politics

Invisible Voices: A Critique of the Current Forms of Women's Activism on Behalf of Women in Aceh from Islamic Feminist to the Secular International Community

Islam in the Horn of Africa: Somali Human Networks and Informal Power Structures in Asymmetric Warfare

2014

Featured

Hamas' Evolution: Abandonment of Islam or Pragmatic Islam?

Terrorism Expertise in Bulgaria Through the Perspective of the Burgas 2012 Attack

Kemal's Turkey: The Privatization of Islam and the Creation of Mustafa Kemal's Statist Republic

The Fighting Vanguard in Syria: Origins, Leaders and Military Operations (1964-1982)

2013

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The Phenomenology of Religious Experience and Muhammad Iqbal

A Sheep's Cry in a World of Wolves: An Exposition of Hizb ut-Tahrir's Ideology in Light of its Conceptualization of Modernity's Immorality

2012

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An Ottoman Counterrevolution? The Birth of the Irtica Discourse and the Solidification of Unionist Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1909

Kuwaiti Scholarships: I Have Read and Agree to the Terms and Conditions

Understanding the Concept of Terrorism in the Modern Era Reflected Through Examining the Lives of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri

A Colonial Encounter with Waziristan: Islam, Pashtunwali & FCR Revisited

The Qur'an is Not Art

Contested Representations, Conflicted Identities: The Contestation of Religion in Pakistan's Public Sphere

2011

Featured

Shari'a in the West: An Analysis of Changing Perceptions of Islamic Law

Veiled Woman; Veiled God: The Feminine Metaphor in Sufism

2010

Featured

Civil Society and Power Struggle in Iran: From Khatami to Ahmadinejad

Power to the Petrol: How the Baku Oil Industry Made Labor Strikes and Mass Politics Possible in the Russian Empire (and beyond)

As Sunnah and the American Adherent Experience and Meaning: Correlation of Independent Cultural Identity and Not Pseudo-Islamic Diffusion

The "Arabization" of Malaysian Islam: Middle Eastern Influences on Malaysian Fatwas, Muftis and Legislation

The Threat of Islamist Parties in Post-Suharto Indonesia: Myth or Reality

Muslim Identity in the West and the Path to Radicalism

2009

Featured

The Synthesis of Classical Doctrine and Sufi Metaphysics in Ibn Arabi's Conception of Religious Multiplicity

Zayni Barakat: A Novel Production of the Panoptic

Zaydis in a Post-Zaydi Yemen: Contemporary 'Ulama Reactions to Zaydism's Marginalization in the Republic of Yemen

2008

Featured

Islam Across Eurasia

Hadith and Maqama: A Reflection of the Role of the Isnad in Arabic Literature

Evaluating Muslim American Lobbies

All Jihads Are Not Created Equal: What al-Qaeda and the Sadrist Movements Teach Us About Radical Islamist Threats Against the United States

Namaz from within the Mandir: Poetry of Nazir Banarsi

Lesbian Desire in Plato's Symposium: Reading Alia Mamdouh

Constructing Islamic "Sectarianism" in Saudi Arabia

Remembering Their Islam: A Study of Sufi Converts

Virtual Terror: From Training Camps to Virtual Sanctuary: The Impact of Islamic Jihad in the Virtual World

2007

Featured

May 21, 2007

Painting Over Palestine: American Journalism Nourishing Zionism Portrayals of the Palestinian Arab Riots of 1929

May 21, 2007

May 21, 2007

May 21, 2007

The Taliban Movement of Afghanistan-Pakistan

May 21, 2007

May 21, 2007

2006

Featured

Dec 11, 2006

Religion and Politics in Islamist Discourse: The Role, Meaning and Purpose of Spiritual References in the Political Thought of Ruhollah Khomeini and Sayyid Qutb

Dec 11, 2006

Dec 11, 2006

May 21, 2006

Al Qaeda's Appeal

May 21, 2006

May 21, 2006

Apr 27, 2006

Reading the Nahj al-Balagha as Advice Literature: Understanding Islamic Political Language

Apr 27, 2006

Apr 27, 2006

2005

Featured

May 21, 2005

A Split Identity: Religion and Identity Formation in Pakistan

May 21, 2005

May 21, 2005

2004

Featured

May 24, 2004

History Through the Eyes of Al-Qaeda's Ideologue: An Analysis of Ayman Al-Zawahiri's Knights Under the Prophet's Banner

May 24, 2004

May 24, 2004

May 21, 2004

Between Epiphanies - A Novel

May 21, 2004

May 21, 2004