News & Events

The BILQIS ERC Project, Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law, University of Galway will host a workshop series ‘Using creative methodologies in social research’.   With Dr Letizia Bonnano and Liza Caruana-Finkel  Date: 13 February 2025  Time: 10.30 am – 3.00pm  Venue: CA239d Collaborative Room, J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics  Registration is required, please find the link here. Light lunch will be provided on the day. The workshop will aim to explore methodologies of doing qualitative social sciences research in a creative manner. These series also aim to introduce the potential of such methods in understanding current social problems, including social justice, climate crisis, gender and sexuality, peace and conflicts, to postgraduate students, early career researchers and academics interested in the above topics.   The workshop draws on the works of Dr Letizia Bonnano on graphic ethnography and Liza Caruana-Finkel on embroidery as a creative method of feminist research practice.  BIOS  Dr Letizia Bonanno earned her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester in 2019. Since then, she has held teaching and research positions at various British universities. For her doctoral research and ESRC postdoctoral fellowship, she focused on issues of care, the state, and kinship in austerity-stricken Greece. In September 2024, Letizia joined the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna, where she is also an affiliated researcher with RECET. She is currently working on her new research project, tentatively titled Steel Life, which explores industrial labour and post-industrial futures in Taranto (Italy) and Galați (Romania). For this project, she has been awarded the SEED Grant by the University of Vienna and the Post-PhD Research Grant by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Letizia has actively contributed to scholarly debates on graphic anthropology. She has written about its methodological and epistemological potential and has published several research articles in a comic format.   Liza Caruana-Finkel is a researcher-activist with an interest in reproductive (in)justice, mainly focused on abortion in the context of Malta. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Liverpool, which explores abortion stigma through creative methods and group discussions. Beyond academia, Liza is involved in the Maltese abortion rights movement, and volunteers with UK-based organisations that help people access abortions and address abortion stigma.  Since this will be an interactive workshop, the number of participants will be limited, and attendance will be made on a first-come, first-served basis.  For further inquiries you can contact: bilqis@universityofgalway.ie  Workshops The graphic in the ethnographic, or how to engage in graphic modes of storytelling - Dr Letizia Bonnano:   Graphic ethnography is a methodological and representational approach that integrates visual media—particularly drawing and illustration—into social sciences research and communication. I will discuss the potential of what I call "ethnographic comics" (visual storytelling based on ethnographic material) to enable the analysis and presentation of data in ways that move beyond traditional written text. Through the creative interplay of textual and visual elements, comics enhance accessibility, foster creativity, and engage diverse audiences. As such, they hold great potential not only as tools for engagement and dissemination but also as powerful modes of storytelling. Ultimately, they invite us to reimagine ethnography as a creative and political practice, deeply rooted in the complexities and contradictions of everyday life.   In this workshop, I will explore how drawing comics can serve as primary tools for observation and analysis. Participants will engage in practical exercises to conceptualise and craft stories based on their research projects and ethnographic material. These exercises will not only help sharpen visual thinking but also develop creative strategies to translate research into comics while enhancing their poetic and political dimensions.  Stitching abortion: creative methods as feminist research practice - Liza Caruana Finkel   Malta has one of the most restrictive abortion legislations in the world. Despite recent shifts in public discourse and social attitudes, abortion remains a stigmatised topic in Malta, with mis- and disinformation spread through various channels and a persistent focus on sensationalism. When abortion stigma is prevalent, there may not be space for dialogue outside of political, media, and activist spheres, which can be polarised and intense.   Grounded in feminist values, my experimental doctoral project is focused on the politics and practices of engaging the socio-cultural aspect of abortion in Malta. Through the formation of collective spaces and the use of creative methods, this research project takes a different methodological turn to examining abortion. It explores how stigma impacts on women’s understanding of abortion, how knowledge is produced and transformed through the collective, and the role of creative methods in narrative formation.  This session will be part presentation and part workshop, with attendees inhabiting a dual role: as audience members and as active participants. Drawing from participants of my empirical study – which included focus group discussions within a workshop setting – I will present findings and reflections on the use of creative methods to engage with abortion beyond the spoken word. In addition, I will facilitate a workshop on abortion stigma, mirroring the methods used in my PhD project. This will be a condensed version of the workshop in which embroidery was used alongside verbal conversations.   Against the backdrop of restrictive laws and societal conservativism, bringing people together to talk and creatively interact with abortion is an act of resistance and transgression.   Note: In the interest of time, it would be helpful if you could familiarise yourself with at least one basic stitch to use on the day, such as: running stitch, back stitch, split stitch. Please feel free to use whichever stitch/es you prefer and/or are familiar with during the workshop!     

The Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law, University of Galway, is pleased to offer one doctoral scholarship in the field of Islamic Law and Gender. Additional information about the research area can be found below. The selected candidate will be supervised by Professor Roja Fazaeli and supported by a Graduate Research Committee comprised of staff members from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at University of Galway. Funding The scholarship is tenable for a maximum of four years, renewable each year subject to satisfactory progress and recommendation by the Graduate Research Committee. It will cover full fees for the successful candidate, in addition to a stipend of €22,000 per annum. Condition of Funding It is anticipated that the successful candidate would be in a position to join the PhD Programme by September 2025. The successful candidate must register on a full-time basis. The Research Project The candidate will work closely with the research team of the European Research Council funded project ‘Building Conceptual and Methodological Expertise for the Study of Gender, Agency and Authority in Islam (BILQIS)’ BILQIS emerges from a critical concern around Muslim women’s access to justice in Europe and is driven by methodological advances in feminism and is primarily distinguished by its systematic and rigorous inquiries into questions of gender in relation to Islamic family laws (IFL) and IFL-related socio-religious and socio-legal power structures. The project will engage in a comparative study of how Muslim women have navigated agency and authority over time from the long 19th century to the present day across diverse European peripheries, specifically the Ottoman Balkans and the contemporary states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. The PhD researcher will work most closely with the Principle Investigator, Professor Roja Fazaeli, and a Postdoctoral fellow on BILQIS Work Package 3, which investigates Islamic family laws, Gender Equality, and Equal Access to Justice in the Norway, Sweden, and Ireland. WP3 engages in socio-religious and socio-legal analysis driven by the question of what sources are used to justify authoritative standing in Norway, Sweden, and Ireland on Islamic family laws. As such it studies how these sources relate to women’s agentic equality, as well as to concepts of gender complementarity in Islamic legal thought. WP3 also seeks better to understand the outcomes of family law related court cases and informal community mediation structures in relation to Muslim women’s access to justice. WP3 will employ comparative textual and contextual methodologies, as well as qualitative interview sets. The PhD researcher will work with the Postdoctoral fellow to conduct interviews with religious and civil activists and advocates for women’s rights, religious leaders, including muftis, civil society actors, academics, and legal and state actors. The successful candidate will be broadly familiar with the fields of gender studies and equality studies. The successful candidate will also be able to engage with Islamic legal discourses, Islamic family laws, and the national contexts of Norway, Sweden, and Ireland. They should also be able readily to employ relevant textual and qualitative research methodologies. Linguistic knowledge of Arabic or Persian or Norwegian or Swedish is additionally desirable. As part of the scholarship award, recipients are required to seek external scholarship funding from the Irish Research Council (IRC) or other funding bodies, as instructed by their PhD supervisor. In the event that an external scholarship is granted, the scholarship funding under this award will be terminated starting from the date of the external award’s commencement. How to Apply Interested candidates should submit the following: Curriculum vitae An academic writing sample (e.g., published article, policy report, NGO report, graduate writing sample, or a chapter of their Master’s dissertation) In addition to the above, you must submit the following documents: PhD proposal including an outline of the proposed research and research methodology in relation to BILQIS objectives and research questions (maximum 1,500 words). Two academic references: Please note that the applicant must contact referees in advance to ensure that references are received before the closing date/time for this scholarship. All academic transcripts. Applicants whose first language is not English must submit satisfactory evidence of competence in written and spoken English, i.e., overall IELTS 6.5 (including a minimum of 6.5 in the reading and writing parts and no part below 6.0) or 90 in the TOEFL iBT (with a minimum of 22 (reading) and 24 (writing) and no part below 20.) Fluency in Arabic or Persian or Norwegian or Swedish is desirable. Deadline The required documentation, including letters of reference, should be emailed to bilqis@universityofgalway.ie no later than 28 January 2025.

Prof. Roja Fazeali will present at the International Congress Human Rights & Women, 20th Anniversary of Organic Law 1/2004 in Spain. The Congress is organised by Universidad de Salamanca, and it will take place from 3rd to 5th December 2024. Roja's presentation will be in the subject of "Human Rights, Islam and Debates around CEDAW".

The BILQIS ERC Project, Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law, University of Galway will host the following two events on 5th December 2024 with Dr. Chowra Makaremi, CNRS Chowra Makaremi is a CNRS tenured researcher in the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Politique at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. She leads the ERC research program OFF-SITE: Violence, State formation and memory politics: an off-site ethnography of post-revolution Iran. 1. Lecture and Q&A: The Counter-Archives of the Long Iranian Revolution1:00 – 2.30pm This is a hybrid event, please register here for Zoom access. How can we rethink and adapt the production of empirical knowledge in contexts of violence and impunity, by unfolding the multi-faceted relationship between archives and power? The circulation of people, data, forms of knowledge (investigative forensics, cartography, oral history projects), and actions (people’s tribunals, missing people databases, universal jurisdiction) challenge the relations between power and knowledge when it comes to archives. Notably, various transnational forms of activism have the purpose or effect of producing scattered, incomplete documentation that subvert or challenge knowledge and narratives constructed within nation-state borders and power politics. However, engaging in this counter-hegemonic archival resistance comes at the risk of being reshaped by standardized legal, epistemic, moral grammars and norms. The presentation explores the world of, and the worlds narrated by, these counter-archives through the case of post-revolutionary Iran, and the “long” Iranian revolution (1979-1989). 2. Film Screening: Hitch. An Iranian Story at 5:00 PM A documentary film by Chowra Makaremi / 71 min /  2019 (Photo by Alfred Yaghobzadeh) Hitch : An Iranian Story intertwines history with family stories after the Iranian revolution of 1979, its betrayals and its consequences. The film is an insider look into the experience of political violence, and how it feeds representations, images, speeches and the things unsaid. The daughter of an opponent to the Islamic Republic who was imprisoned, tortured and killed, the filmmaker resists political negationism by bringing out the extermination of Iranian opponents through the presence of objects and the persistence of memory. Both events will take place in Room AMB-G065 Training Room 1, Arts Millennium Building, University of Galway All are welcome. For any queries, please email bilqis@universityofgalway.ie.

Dr Nazife Kosukoğlu will be participating in a workshop titled 'Everyday Questions. Gender, Economic, and Cultural Practices in Maritime Early Modern and Modern Everyday Life (17th–20th centuries).'  Nazife will present a paper titled 'Harbor of Change: Rewriting Women's Property Rights and Islamic Family Law in Thessaloniki.'  The workshop will be held on 5th and 6th December 2024 in Naples and the organizers are NextGenerationEU Project ‘Ondine’ (Dep. History, Humanities and Society – Tor Vergata University of Rome) and the Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe of the Italian National Research Council (ISEM-CNR).                                               

  Join us for the talk by Dr Nazife Kosukoğlu on "Women against Authority. Religion, Law and Gender in the Ottoman Empire". The event will take place at 4.00pm, on Wednesday, 20 November 2024in the Bridge Seminar Room (Room 1001), first floor, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway This is a hybrid event, click here for Zoom registration. This talk is organised in collaboration with theERC-funded BILQIS project and the Irish Centre for Human Rights. For further details, please contact Dr Kevin O’Sullivan at kevin.k.osullivan@universityofgalway.ie  

Prof. Roja Fazeali, Dr. Joel Hanisek and Dr. Nazife Kosukoğlu took part in the Third International Conference on Contemporary Iranian Studies. The event was organised by Iran Academia University (Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities) and took place at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, between 22nd and 23rd August 2024.  Roja moderated a panel discussion on "Contemporary Analysis of Fatwas in Europe in relation to socio-religious practice and national policies", in which Joel and Nazife also took part. You can view the panel discussion here. Nazife presented a paper titled ''Resisting Impunity: Honor Killings and Ottoman Judicial Decision-Making in the Second Constitutional Period'', while Joel presented a paper titled "International Arbitration Councils and The Development and Consolidation of Socio-religious Authority". Please visit their website for more information on the ICCI 2024.        

The BILQIS ERC Project team at the Irish Centre for Human Rights,School of Law, University of Galway, will host its Colloquium on Agency and Authority in Islam on Monday 17th June 2024 from 9:30am to 5:30pm in the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University Road, Galway, H91 5H96. If you wish to attend the event please RSVP via email to bilqis@universityofgalway.ie

The Irish Centre for Human Rights at University of Galway School of Law, was delighted to host the Inaugural Lecture of Professor Roja Fazaeli, Established Professor of Law and Islamic Studies. "Interrogating Gender, Agency and Authority in Law and Society" Date & Time: Tuesday 5th March at 4.30pmLocation: Aula Maxima, Quadrangle at University of Galway The event was followed by a reception and the launch of the European Research Council project led byProfessor Fazaeli BILQIS: Building Conceptual and Methodological Expertise for the Study of Gender, Agency, and Authority in Islam