Unit for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Societies

Dr. Omar Anchassi

Research Associate (SNSF project TraSIS)

Fachbereich Mittlerer Osten und muslimische Gesellschaften

E-Mail
omar.anchassi@unibe.ch
Office
S 126
Postal Address
University of Bern
Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies SACS
Lerchenweg 36
3012 Bern
Consultation Hour
By appointment.

Academic Career

  • December 2022 - present – Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bern on the SSC-funded Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies (TraSIS) project
  • March 2022 - October 2022 – Postdoctoral Research Officer at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) in Riyadh
  • Summer 2021 - Winter 2022 – Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter on the ERC-funded Law, Authority and Learning in Imāmī Shīʿī Islam (LAWALISI) project
  • 2018-2021 – Early Career Fellow in Islamic Studies, University of Edinburgh
  • 2018 - present – Member of the Award Committee of the BRAIS-de Gruyter Prize in Islamic Studies
  • 2018-2021 – Treasurer of the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS)
  • 2016-2018 – Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter on the HERA-funded Understanding Sharīʿa: Past Perfect, Imperfect Present (USPPIP) project
  • 2012-2016 – PhD in History, University of London
  • 2012 – MA Intellectual History, University of London
  • 2010 – BA English Literature and History (joint honours), University of London

Current research

Dr. Omar Anchassi is part of the SNSF-financed research project TraSIS (PI Prof. Dr. Serena Tolino, 2022-2026).

His contribution to TraSIS focuses on the historical development of the legal categories of the umm al-walad, mukātaba and kafāla in non-Sunnī juristic thought. In addition to his research for TraSIS, Omar is also currently writing a book on the reception of modern astronomy (al-haʾya al-jadīda) by ʿulamāʾ from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.

Research interest

  • Islamic law (particularly gender, sexuality and violence)
  • Early Islamic theology (to the 6th/12th C.)
  • Qurʾānic Studies (particularly tafsīr)

Publications

Click here to view the publications of Omar Anchassi.