About

Afkar: The Undergraduate Journal of Middle East Studies is an academic journal focusing on the study of politics, history, culture and society in the Middle East and North Africa.* The journal offers undergraduate students an interdisciplinary platform to publish original research articles and shorter essays, and welcomes submissions from a wide range of fields within the humanities and social sciences, including history, political science, anthropology, sociology, literature, art history, religious studies, and geography. Afkar was created to encourage undergraduates to undertake primary research on the Middle East and North Africa and contribute to the growing body of literature in Middle East studies. It aims to connect undergraduate students from around the world, and facilitate critical scholarly debate, discussion, and exchange between different universities and centers of study.

Afkar recognises the need to revise knowledge production in Middle East studies, which tends to centre scholarship produced in Europe and North America. By working closely with universities and academics in the Middle East and North Africa, the journal seeks to promote the inclusion of local research and contribute to the dialogical and interactional (re)making of a region both contingent and dynamic.

Afkar is typically published biannually, with one summer and one winter issue. All submissions are subject to a rigorous editing and review process. Afkar is an Open Access journal which means that all content is freely and readily available to all readers.

Disclaimer: Afkar: The Undergraduate Journal of Middle East Studies is an independent project and publication. The views expressed are the responsibility of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial or advisory board.

*Afkar relies on a broad definition of “the Middle East and North Africa” that includes Iran, Turkey, the Caucasus, Sudan and Mauritania. It also welcomes manuscripts related to Muslim Central and South Asia, as well as those discussing communities, politics and histories that are closely interrelated with the aforementioned region(s).