2020-04-15 - Kenneth Cuno, professor of the modern Middle East, received the Illinois Student Government Teaching Excellence Award.  This award is given by students to recognize and thank excellent instructors at the University of Illinois.  We enthusiastically join his students in honoring and congratulating him!  To read the full story from the Illinois News Bureau, go...

2020-03-09 - Professor Wail Hassan was selected as a fellow to work on a book project, "Arab Brazil: Literature Culture and Orientalism."   For more information, go here.     

2020-02-15 - The Tārīkh al-fattāsh is one of the most important and celebrated sources for the history of pre-colonial West Africa, yet it has confounded scholars for decades with its inconsistencies and questions surrounding its authorship. In this study, Professor Nobili examines and challenges existing theories on the chronicle, arguing that much of what we have presumed about the work is deeply...

2019-05-01 - The Fred M. Gottheil Faculty Award was presented in May 2019 by the Department of Economics at UIUC to Hadi Esfahani, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.