New Perspectives on South-Asian and Middle Eastern Connections in the 20th Century
International Conference
International Conference: New Perspectives on South-Asian and Middle Eastern Connections in the 20th Century
9-10 May 2026
French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (Ifao), Cairo, with the support of the Orient-Institut Beirut and the Max Weber Stiftung
Each participant will have 20 minutes to present their work, followed by a Q&A session every two papers.
Saturday 9 May
09:00-09:15 Welcome coffee
09:15-09:30 Welcome message
Abbès Zouache (Ifao director)
09:30-10:00 Introduction
Simon Conrad (OIB) & Antoinette Ferrand (Ifao)
Panel 1: Imperial and anti-Imperial Internationalisms
Chair: Olivier Schouteden (American University in Cairo)
10:00-10:20 Forbidden fruit: Printing Indo-Egyptian solidarities in exile, 1905-1914 - Poorvi Bellur (Princeton University)
10:20-10:40 Disappearing and Double-Crossing: Espionage and the Slippage of Self in Interwar West, Central, and South Asia - Sunaina Danziger (Princeton University)
10:40-11:10 Q&A
11:10-11:40 Coffee break
11:40-12:00 “The spirit of Arabia is the spirit of Islam”: Britain’s religious propaganda campaign in East Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia during the Second World War - Omar Nasr (London School of Economics)
12:00-12:20 The Internationalist Debate on the Muslim Women Question - Razak Khan (Freie Universität, Berlin)
12:20-12:50 Q&A
13:00-14:00 Lunch
Panel 2: The Politics of Intellectual Transfer: India as Model and Site
Chair: Mostafa Abdelaal (Cairo University)
14:00-14:20 Louis Cheikho, World Philologist: Curating Catholic Arabic Literature in Bombay - Allison Gibeily (Northwestern University)
14:20-14:40 India as a Model? Craft Education Reform in Egypt Under British Occupation (1907–1934) - Aurélie Petiot (Paris-Nanterre)
14:40-15:10 Q&A
15:10-15:30 Coffee break
15:30-15:50 Learning from India: Egyptian Living Standards Statistics in the 1950s - Antoinette Ferrand (French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, Cairo)
15:50-16:10 Nostalgic Diplomacies: India, Egypt, and the Cultural Politics of Third World Memory - Ada Petiwala (American University of Beirut)
16:10-16:40 Q&A
17:30 Falukka Ride
19:00 Dinner for the participants
Sunday 10 May
09:30-10:00 Welcome coffee
Panel 3: Aspiring for a New Horizon: Arab Writers and India Amid Decolonisation
Chair: Zeina Halabi (Orient-Institut Beirut)
10:00-10:20 “The Poet of Islam”: The Reception of Muhammad Iqbal in Egypt - Ahmed Elbenni (Princeton University)
10:20-10:40 Malek Bennabi Reading Gandhi: On the Duty of Anticolonialism - Mahmoud Al Zayed (Freie Universität, Berlin)
10:40-11:10 Q&A
11:10-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-11:50 Selfhood, Secularism, and Nationalism Between the Arab World and South Asia: The Intellectual Encounter with Tagore in Damascus of the United Arab Republic, 1961 - Spenser Rapone (University of Chicago)
11:50-12:10 “And nevertheless I find in Delhi the taste of Khartoum”: Sudanese Writers and India after Independence - Simon Conrad (Orient-Institut Beirut)
12:10-12:40 Q&A
12:40-14:00 Lunch
Panel 4: On the Move: South Asian Routes to the Middle East after Empire
Chair: Ifdal El Saket (Leiden University)
14:00-14:20 From Fantastical to Anticolonial: Imagining the Middle East in South Asian Cinema - Shehram Mokhtar (Northwestern University, Qatar)
14:20-14:40 The Political Mobilisation of South Asians in the 20th Century Gulf - Hessa Alnuaimi (Sharjah University)
14:40-15:00 Crossing the Arabian Sea: South Asia–Arab World Connections through Mappila Migration - Aiswarya Sanath (Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad)
15:00-15:30 Q&A
17:00 Proposed visit to the Museum of Modern Art (Zamalek)
19:00 Dinner for the participants