This research focus examines how institutions shape social, religious, and political life in the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region. It explores the ways in which legal, educational, and public institutions produce and circulate ideas about identity, belonging, and social values, with particular attention to the interaction between religion, law, and society. While the emphasis is on contemporary institutions, their practices and discourses are analysed within their historical trajectories, recognising that present-day institutions are deeply shaped by earlier legal, political, and social developments.
- A central area of research is Islamic family law, legal pluralism, and the experiences of religious and national minorities, especially in Israel/Palestine. Rather than viewing courts solely as legal bodies, this perspective investigates them as institutions that actively participate in shaping religious and national identities through legal practice, judicial discourse, and the regulation of family life. Particular attention is given to how multiple legal systems interact and how minority communities navigate overlapping legal and political frameworks.
- A second focus is education and curriculum research. School textbooks, curricula, and educational policies are analysed as important sites where narratives of history, citizenship, religion, and collective identity are constructed and transmitted. This approach highlights the role of education in the formation and negotiation of social identities across different political contexts.
- More recently, the research has expanded to include sustainability discourses in the SWANA region. It investigates how environmental sustainability is framed by state institutions, educational systems, and public initiatives, and how these narratives intersect with questions of governance, culture, and social responsibility.
Methodologically, this research area combines approaches from history and the social sciences, drawing on both textual and oral sources. Primary materials include court judgments, school textbooks, curricula, institutional pamphlets, public statements, and other official documents produced by legal, educational, and state institutions. These sources are complemented by interviews, allowing institutional discourses to be studied alongside the perspectives and experiences of the people who engage with them.
By bringing together the study of law, education, and public discourse, this research area offers new perspectives on the institutions that shape everyday life and processes of social change in the SWANA region.
Ass. Prof. Dr Nijmi Edres is primarily responsible for this reserach area.
