McGill University - Institute of Islamic Studies

The Institute of Islamic Studies
cordially invites you to attend the

PhD Oral Defense of
Sabeena Shaikh

Supervisor: Prof. Pasha M. Khan

Gender, Genre, and the Poetic Counter-Archive: Reading the Kulliyāt of Lutf-un-Nisā “Imtiyāz” in Eighteenth-Century Hyderabad

Wednesday, July 22, 2026
10 a.m. ET online

Livestream on Zoom (limited number of places): Email [email protected] for the link.

Alf mabrūk to Haya Abdelmeguid, the awardee of the 2026 Ingrid Semaan Prize! The Ingrid Semaan Prize was established by Professor Khalil I. Semaan in honour of his daughter, a McGill/SUNY student. It is awarded annually by the Institute of Islamic Studies (us!) to the student with the most outstanding thesis, essay or term paper that explores the contribution of women to Arabic culture. Haya's prize-winning essay "Egyptian Women: The Backbone of Activism Against Post-2011 Dictatorship in Egypt," was written for ISLA-585 Arab Women's Literature.

But that is only one of Haya's many achievements at McGill.

A minor in World Islamic and Middle East Studies, Haya has combined academic excellence with an extraordinary commitment to student leadership, mentorship, and community building. Among her many accomplishments, she founded the MENA Policy & Research Association (MPRA), McGill’s first student-led think tank dedicated to rigorous, non-partisan engagement with the Middle East and North Africa. Since launching MPRA in 2025, she has built a vibrant community of more than 100 members, established the peer-reviewed publication Crossroads, organized regular debates and events, and created new opportunities for students to engage critically with the region.

Haya has also made a lasting impact through her work at the David M. Culver Centre: Arts Internship Office, where she has supported thousands of Arts students as they navigate internships, career opportunities, and professional development. In addition, her service as Recording Secretary of the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) has helped strengthen transparent and effective student governance.

Haya deserves this prize more than we can say. 🧿

Intro Urdu-Hindi ISLA-251 is back for 2026-2027! Students can choose to learn either the Hindi script and vocabulary, the Urdu, or both if you dare. Learning vocab and grammar through assignments, film songs and South Asian culture, by the end of the course, you'll be speaking and understanding basic everyday Urdu-Hindi sentences using the present tense.

ISLA-251 counts toward the WIMES and South Asian Studies programs at McGill—email us to see if it could count toward your program. Students at UdeM, UQAM, and Concordia are very welcome to take the course through the BCI consortium. For more information or to find out how to enroll, email the instructor: Prof. Pasha M. Khan [email protected].

Oct 7 1954. Institute of Islamic Studies founder Prof Wilfred Cantwell Smith has introduced McGill U. Principal James to India's Joint Secretary of Education Khwaja Ghulam Saiyidain (1904-1971), who will be visiting Montreal.

Principal James invites Saiyidain to watch Canadian football.

From the McGill Archives. Thanks to Dr. Anthea Seles and Anya Valimahomed.

Congratulations to Behzad Borhan for receiving the 2026 Arts Graduate Student Teaching Award! This is a highly sought-after award by the Faculty of Arts for teaching excellence. Behzad received this award in recognition of his teaching as the Course Lecturer of the ISLA 443D2 (Upper-intermediate Persian), as well as for his contributions to the Persian program and the Institute.

As his nominator puts it:

"Teaching goes beyond the simple transfer of knowledge; it requires mentorship, creativity, intellectual engagement, and a genuine commitment to supporting students' development both inside and outside the classroom. Behzad exemplifies these qualities in his work as an instructor and mentor."

Congratulations Behzad! Very well-deserved!

On the occassion of Eid ul-Ghadir, observed especially by Shi'a Muslims, we wish you Eid Mubarak. And congratulations to all of our graduates! We are so proud of you.

A blessed Eid al-Adha to all of our students, alumni, and community. We wish you a beautiful spring. The page of the Qur'an, Surat al-Baqarah, written in naskh calligraphy and decorated with a flower, is from the collection of the Islamic Studies Library (Arabic calligraphy 138).

Did you even know that McGill offers courses in Turkish, Urdu-Hindi, Arabic, Persian, and Swahili? These courses can count toward many majors and minors across McGill, and students at other Montréal universities can register through the Bureau de Coopération Interuniversitaire. Our languages are keys to the worlds of the Global South; to politics, literature, business, history, and the heritage of the diaspora. So get globally engaged, register, and share!

This year, Jaleh Ebrahimi, a brilliantly creative PhD candidate at the Institute of Islamic Studies, was awarded the BLUE Fellowship for her pedagogical project, "Beings Beyond the Human." She presented her work at Building 21 on April 21, 2026. The fellowship supports interdisciplinary research and collaborative project development at Building 21. Jaleh's project is grounded in her long-term engagement with Persian tales and the fictional characters who inhabit them, and it has been shaped by three months of discussion with scholars and mentors at Building 21.

At this event, Jaleh presented a syllabus for a course designed to explore a fictional being who has lived among Persian-speaking communities and beyond for centuries. The syllabus traces this figure across time, place, language, and media, following her through historical sources from seventeenth-century Isfahan to nineteenth-century London, and into her contemporary digital presence. The syllabus draws on anthropological, philosophical, historical, and literary approaches to examine this figure's life, with the interdisciplinary form of the syllabus producing a generative method that opens new analytical possibilities.

Many congratulations to Jaleh! Tabrīk mīgīm!