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Every 4 years, the World Congress for Middle East Studies convenes at an international academic institution, the site this year being Barcelona.

The numbers from this year's event should show how large it is: over 2700 participants, from more than 70 countries, attending more than 500 convened panels. Aside from the typical panel sessions that took part from Monday 19th to Friday 23rd July, there were a wide variety of posters, films and exhibitions on display. The organizers, the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), and the hosts, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), did a very good job in handling the logistics of such a large event. The majority of the publishers in the field were also in attendance, helping to push the huge exchange of information that took place.

I was able to attend over 20 of these panels, missing out on several very interesting others due to time clashes. All together, I had highlighted 44 panels to attend, showing the depth of the conference. As part of my participation, I chaired a panel under the title 'Iraq under Occupation' which produced a very lively debate in the questions segment. Among the panels I attended, several papers were on Iraq, Shi'ism and Middle Eastern Politics.

The paper I presented was in a panel titled 'Approaches to Shi'i Studies' and my presentation focused on bringing new information to light on the presence of the Arab Shi'a population in Samarra from antiquity until the modern day. The other panelists focused on Shi'a politics in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, again followed by an engaging questions and answers session.

This event, possibly the European equivalent of MESA, aside from being an excellent meeting place for academics working on every possible discipline in the Middle East, also serves to highlight the strength of academia focusing on this region. The multi disciplinary aspect helped inform myself and almost everyone else concerned mainly with Islamic Studies, about culture, economics, philosophy, politics, even ecology and art in the mainly Muslim states of the Middle East region.

Sajad Jiyad

CISS Researcher

4th August 2010