Round Tables

Issues in Abbasid Social and Cultural History

Following the model launched by the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Journal of Abbasid Studies would like to act as a forum for group discussion of research questions and problems of method centred on a particular theme or topic.

New Insights

Journal of Abbasid Studies Round Tables provide the opportunity for participants to move outside their areas of specific expertise and challenge established approaches within their field. Discussions aim at identifying gaps in the evidence, flaws in theoretical assumptions, and finding new connections between sources and new questions to ask. They focus on one specific issue in Abbasid social or cultural history and are grounded in specific textual or other sources.

Procedure

Members of the School of Abbasid Studies form and moderate panels of between two and six participants to discuss their chosen topic. The resulting discussion papers total between 20 and 40 pages, including a contextualising Introduction by the moderator, and the submission will be peer reviewed in the usual way, the criterion being the papers’ potential to generate new ideas and approaches.

Publication

As a publication, a Round Table takes the form of a set of individually-authored papers, or that of a co-authored paper with sub-sections, or that of a “conversation” in which the moderator and participants are joint authors.