Zahra Institute

Graduate School

Showcasing Spring 2025 MA Courses

KRD 504: Kurds in the Middle East: History and Politics

While focusing on divisions and differences among the Kurds because of the creation of modern states in the Middle East, this course aims to show cross-border interactions, cultural exchanges, and trans-national movements.

KRD 509: Kurdish Intellectual Profiles: Ehmedê Xanî

This course is devoted to the exploration of the life and thought of Ehmedê Xanî (1651-1707) as an early modern thinker. Poet, diplomat, and thinker Ehmedê Xanî is a pillar of classical Kurdish literature and the author of the Kurdish classic, Mem û Zîn. Xanî's literary corpus and the sociopolitical background that gave rise to it will be examined in the context of intellectual history.

KRD 503: Research Methods and Academic Conventions

Explores the nature of the research process, data collection, and the main tools of quantitative and qualitative research. The course offers an overview of the research process tailored to Kurdish Studies and related interdisciplinary areas, focusing on interviews, ethnography, and archival research. 

MUS 500: Approaches to Critical Muslim Studies

Provides an introduction to Critical Muslim Studies and surveys major disciplinary approaches to key topics in the study of Islam and Muslims.

MUS 501: Muslim Societies

Surveys key issues and various contexts of contemporary Muslim life in comparative perspective including demographic changes, shift in authority structures, emerging popular culture, trends in secularization.


Chicago Kurdish Film Festival

The weekend of November 2-3 brought the first-ever Chicago Kurdish Film Festival!
Zahra Institute was proud to be among the sponsors of this important cultural event, joining esteemed institutions such as the Kurdish Cultural Center of Illinois, University of Chicago’s Department of Cinema and Media Studies, and DCASE (the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events).
The festival celebrated Kurdish cinema and culture, showcasing films that highlight the rich heritage and storytelling of the Kurdish people. It provided a platform for filmmakers, artists, and audiences to connect, learn, and delight in the diversity of Kurdish cinema. For more information about the event and future festivals, visit www.kurdsofillinois.org.

KCC Flyer


Critical Muslim Studies Launch Event


On May 4, 2024, we celebrated the launch of our new MA program in Critical Muslim Studies with a lecture and reception at Fulton Street Collective in Chicago. After a warm welcome from Shahreena Shahrani, our Outreach Coordinator, Executive Director Ibrahim Demir introduced the new program by answering the question, "What is Critical Muslim Studies?" Mucahit Bilici then offered a keynote address on "Post-Islamism and the Flight from Religion: Turkey's New Secularization."

Bilici, Associate Professor of Sociology at John Jay College, CUNY, began his lecture by noting that there is a mass departure from religion in Turkey today, with atheism possibly the fastest growing "religion." As previously-religious individuals become increasingly secular, observers on all sides ask: Why are so many people leaving Islam? What are their reasons, and why now? The analysis of the phenomenon of the "death of God" among Muslims in Turkey was followed by a lively audience discussion. 

Watch the Lecture

MA in Critical Muslim Studies

Critical Muslim Studies is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on Muslim experience in a global context. Unlike more textually based Islamic Studies, Critical Muslim Studies approaches Islam and Muslims in the context of lived experience and history. It takes Muslim life as its primary object of study and thus underlines the relevance of the humanities and social sciences. It also sees critique not as a luxury, but rather as a necessity for both Muslim life and the understanding of it. Critical Muslim Studies places the study of Islam and Muslims in conversation with various philosophical and intellectual traditions, understanding Muslim experience in truly global terms.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

  • Contemporary focus
  • Global character: Brings together the experiences of Muslim majorities and Muslim minorities, especially Muslims in America and Europe
  • Gives voice to the missing Kurdish strand in Islamic Studies
  • Offers the convenience of an online synchronous program with the highest American academic standards
MORE INFORMATION

ANNUAL LECTURE 2024

Sabri Ates Explores the Origins of Kurdish Nationalism


On March 2, Zahra Institute hosted its Fourth Annual Lecture on the campus of Loyola University Chicago. Kurdish community members and academics from neighboring institutions gathered on a beautiful early Spring day to hear Sabri Ates, professor of history at Southern Methodist University, speak on "The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism: The Sheikh Ubeidullah Uprising of 1880." In a talk illustrated with excerpts of recently discovered letters and a rare image of the Kurdish leader, Ates, a historian of the Ottoman-Iranian borderlands, gave a preview of his forthcoming book. His discussion of the rise of Kurdish national consciousness and agency in a context of two empires led to a lively Q and A and spirited discussion at a reception following the lecture.

Event Video

MA in Kurdish Studies

The Master of Arts in Kurdish Studies at Zahra Institute is the first of its kind in the United States. It examines the lives and culture of the Kurds, a Middle Eastern people living in Kurdistan and beyond, spread across the borders of several modern states and linguistic and cultural zones.

The MA Program provides excellent background preparation for a doctoral degree in any field related to the Middle East and for those interested in pursuing careers in media, government, and international organizations. Our liberal arts approach to Kurdish Studies is based on rigorous academic standards and a strong commitment to scholarly freedom.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

  • The first MA Program in Kurdish Studies in the US
  • A unique focus on the humanities aspects of Kurdish Studies including literature, music, visual arts, and cinema
  • Covers a topic area long overlooked by traditional Middle Eastern Studies programs
  • Gain access to the language and culture of approximately forty million people
  • Offers the convenience of an online synchronous program with the highest American academic standards
MORE INFORMATION

The MA program’s interdisciplinary approach bodes very well for the promising two-year journey that lies ahead.

MARWAN

MA Program Student

Being at Zahra Institute is a unique experience for me because I can learn about the history of my nation and share this knowledge with others.

NEDA

MA Program Student

The level of instruction, the level of professionalism of the professors was top of the line. I am very grateful that I was able to complete the Certificate in Kurdish Studies.

VIERELINA

Certificate Program Student




Artist Talk with Serhad Bapir

A Kurdish Visual Artist Tells His Story

WATCH THE TALK





When the Walnut Leaves Turn Yellow


Zahra Institute is proud to be among the sponsors of Mehmet Ali Konar’s forthcoming film, Dema Ko Pelên Dara Guzê Zer Dibin [When the Walnut Leaves Turn Yellow]. The award-winning Kurdish filmmaker’s recent work includes Hewno Bêreng (Colorless Dreams, 2018) and Govenda Ali û Dayka Zîn (The Dance of Ali and Mother Zin, 2021). 

2024 Spring Speaker Series

Vierelina Fernández

Zahra Institute Certificate Program 2021 alumnus and graduate student at Florida International University

Our Kurdish Studies Certificate Program connects students with highly-trained, responsive faculty in a small-class setting that enables them to expand on their existing knowledge while exploring Kurdish language, culture, and civilization. For application information visit our Certificate Program page.

Certificate in Kurdish Studies


QWX Blog is an initiative of Zahra Institute. It provides a platform for researchers to share with a wider audience brief reports, timely observations, and commentary in their areas of expertise.

LEARN MORE

Participants in the 2018 Kurdish
Studies Summer School

Midya Khudhur speaks on “Collective
Memory of Kurds in Diaspora”
at 2019 International Kurdish Studies
Conference

Lukman Ahmad, Kurdish artist
and musician, plays saz at 2019
Summer School’s musical evening

Jeanine Ntihirageza, Director of
World Languages Program at NEIU,
addresses participants at the
opening of the 2019 Conference

Panel on “Kurdish Language in
Context” at 2019 IKSC

Bahadin Kerborani leads a discussion
on the Kurdish press in the late
Ottoman Empire

Mucahit Bilici teaches about
Ehmedê Xanî in his “Kurdish
Intellectual Profiles” course

Matthew Cancian (MIT), Aynur Unal
(University of Leicester), and Ekrem
Karakoc (Binghamton University)
presenting at a panel on “Conflict,
Politics and Identity”

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