Simon Wolfgang Fuchs

Islamic Studies
Year 2019

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

Orientalisches Seminar

Platz der Universität 3
79085 Freiburg

Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

Institut für Studien der Kultur und Religion des Islam

Senckenberganlage 31, 2. OG
60325 Frankfurt am Main

Portrait of Simon Wolfgang Fuchs
Photo: Peter Himsel

Research areas

  • Transnational Shi‘i Islam

  • Global History of the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79

  • Religious Authority in the Middle East and South Asia

  • Sectarian Conflicts and the Intellectual History of the Jihad

  • Islamism and Leftist Movements in the Muslim World

Resume

  • 2021-2022
    Visiting Professor of Islamic Culture and Society, Goethe University Frankfurt

  • 04/2021
    Recipient of the Inaugural Book Award of the South Asian Studies Association (SAMSA) for "In a Pure Muslim Land. Shi'ism between Pakistan and the Middle East" (UNC Press, 2019)

  • Since 2017
    Lecturer in Islamic and Middle East Studies at the Department of Islamic and Middle East Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany

  • 2017-2019
    Research grant by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Special Program “Islam, the Modern Nation State, and Transnational Movements,” to fund research trips to the US, Lebanon, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Afghanistan

  • 2015-2017
    Research Fellow in Islamic Studies at Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge, UK

  • 09/2015
    PhD in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University (advisor: Muhammad Qasim Zaman). Recipient of the S. S. Pirzada Dissertation Prize on Pakistan, awarded by the Institute for South Asia Studies, University of California Berkeley, USA, the Bayard and Cleveland Dodge Memorial Dissertation Prize, awarded by the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, USA, and the Dissertation Award (Forschungspreis) of the Annemarie-Schimmel-Foundation for Islamic Studies

  • 2009-2015
    PhD candidate at Princeton University, Department of Near Eastern Studies, including research trips to Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq, and the United Kingdom

  • 2002-2010
    M.A. in Islamic Studies and Political Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Nürnberg, Germany, Institut Français d’Études Arabes de Damas (Damascus, Syria), Duke University (Durham, NC, USA), Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany, and Tehran University, Iran, supported by Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst

Selection of
publications

Activities

    • Publics under Threat - Berlin

      Valeska Huber and Simon Wolfgang Fuchs host this event with the focus on the Middle East and South Asia. Topics will be protest movements and public spheres, e.g. in the context of the Arab Spring or in Iran.

      Topics:

      Starts on
      23.06.23
      Ends on
      23.06.23

      Event access: Public

      Humboldt Graduate School
      Festsaal (2. OG)
      Luisenstraße 56
      10117 Berlin

      19:00 — 20:30

      im Hintergrund verschwommen: Hände halten Handys
    • Unspoken

      Under the title "Ungesagtes" ("Unspoken"), the five articles and one discussion deal with aspects that one would tend to contrast with and deduct from the ideal of objectivity of science as "subjective" parts. On the one hand, it is about what the researching subject brings into the scientific work in often subtle ways: own views, emotions, values, personal beliefs. On the other hand, the influence of everything subjective on human behavior is itself also a topic of research.

      Topics:

      Garvin Brod, Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, Julia Gurol, Sebastian Hellmeier, Viola Priesemann, Mira Sievers

      Berlin 2023

    • A/Symmetrien, Europa und der globale Islam

      Kolloquium „A/Symmetrie — Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven“

      Für viele wissenschaftliche Arbeiten zum modernen Islam und der ‚muslimischen Welt‘ bleiben Europa bzw. der Westen weiterhin der zentrale Bezugs- und Bewertungsrahmen. Dies hat konkrete Auswirkungen auf Forschungsfragen. In seinem Beitrag will Simon W. Fuchs zum einem dem Phänomen nachspüren, dass Europa als Modell gesehen wird - und die ‚muslimische Welt‘ nach ihren Symmetrien und Asymmetrien dazu bewertet wird. Daneben möchte er aber auch fragen, wie wir uns genau dieser ‚Vergleichsfalle‘ von A/Symmetrien entziehen können.

      Topics:

      Starts on
      17.01.23
      Ends on
      17.01.23

      Event access: Public

      online

      18:00 — 19:30

    • Board of Die Junge Akademie condemns violence at universities in Iran

      The Board of Die Junge Akademie strongly condemns the excessive violence against peacefully demonstrating students, academics and staff on the Sharif University of Technology campus in Iran's capital Tehran last weekend. We clearly oppose infringements of the rights to freedom of expression, academic freedom, and discrimination of any kind.

      Topics:

      2022

    • Views on the German Fixed-Term Academic Contracts Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG)

      Die Junge Akademie proposes measures to improve the plannability of careers in science.

      Topics:

      Astrid Eichhorn, Simon Wolfgang Fuchs, Gisela Kopp, Robert Kretschmer, Thorsten Merl, Doris Segets, Timo de Wolff

      Berlin 2022

    • diejungeakademie@ Theater Neumarkt Zurich

      +++ new date +++

      The Middle East as a utopia?
      Where could concrete starting points for new utopias in the region lie, beyond the realm of day-to-day politics? Simon W. Fuchs andCaspar Battegayof Die Junge Akademie will discuss these and other questions with other experts at the Theater Neumarkt Zurich.

      Topics:

      Starts on
      08.12.21

      Event access: Public

      Theater Neumarkt Zurich

      20:00 — 21:30

    • Vom Guten im Schlechten: Kalender 2021

      Unser neuer Kalender „2021 – Vom Guten im Schlechten“ mit zwölf wissenschaftlichen Betrachtungen und einer Werkserie von Julian Charrière ist erschienen: ein Plädoyer für die Wissenschaften, die Kunst und ihre Verbindungen zur Gesellschaft.

      Topics:

      2020