Affiliated Researcher
Email: stefan.maneval@fu-berlin.de
January-April 2026
Stefan Maneval teaches Islamic Studies, as well as Migration and Diversity Studies at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Holding a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin, he is the author of New Islamic Urbanism: The Architecture of Public and Private Space in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2019), the editor of Faith Travels by Streetcar: Norms and Objects in Religious and Secular Contexts (2021) and co-editor of Forms of Migration: Global Perspectives on Im/migrant Art and Literature (with Jennifer A. Reimer, 2022). He is a winner of the dissertation award from the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO), and a member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA). In 2017/18, he was a postdoctoral fellow of the Orient-Institut Beirut.
Research Project
Shiite Collective Identities in Lebanon: Institutionalisation and Identity Formation, 1940–1985
My research project explores the institutionalization of Lebanese Shiites from the late French Mandate period (1920–1943) to the emergence of Hezbollah around 1985, as well as parallel identity formation processes. During this period, numerous Shiite institutions were founded: courts, schools, welfare associations, the High Shiite Council, political parties, and, after the start of the civil war (1975–1990), militias. The research project focuses in particular on one of these institutions, the Jaafaria School in the city of Tyre. Founded in 1940 by Ayatollah ʿAbd al-Husain Sharaf al-Dīn, it quickly developed into the most prestigious school in South Lebanon. The corpus of sources to be analyzed consists of Arabic sources on the history of Lebanese Shiites, over 3,500 photographs from the school archive and private collections, quantitative data collected to document school operations, and qualitative interviews with contemporary witnesses, in addition to written archival material. The project examines how the parallel processes of institutionalization and identity formation affected the everyday reality of Shiites in southern Lebanon and ultimately led to increasing politicization and Islamisation.
2017
(forthcoming, with Heike Delitz, peer reviewed) “The ‘Hidden Kings’, or Hegemonic Imaginaries: Analytical Perspective of Post-foundational Sociological Thought”. Im@go: Journal of the Social Imaginary.
"Wahhabismus: Was würde Muhammad tun?" In Sunniten und Schiiten, edited by Candid Foundation, pp. 28–29. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung. Also published in Zenith: Zeitschrift für den Orient 1/2017.
2016
Muslim Matter: Photographs, Objects, Essays, edited by Stefan Maneval and Omar Kasmani. Berlin: Revolver Publishing.
“Lost and Found: A Matter of Orientation”. In Muslim Matter, edited by S. Maneval and O. Kasmani, pp. 111–19. Berlin: Revolver Publishing.
“Fundsachen: Eine Frage der Orientierung”. In Muslim Matter, edited by S. Maneval and O. Kasmani, pp. 125–32. Berlin: Revolver Publishing.
2014
(peer reviewed) "Niemand hat die Absicht, einen Aufsatz zu zensieren. Archäologie, Politik und Zensur im Zusammenhang mit der Ausstellung 'Roads of Arabia. Archäologische Schätze aus Saudi-Arabien’". Forum Kritische Archäologie 3: 1–10.
2012
"Abdullah, wir müssen reden: Die saudische Künstlergruppe 'Edge of Arabia’". Zenith: Zeitschrift für den Orient 6/2012: 82–91. Also published in Spiegel Online, 24.01.2013, http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/moderne-kunst-in-saudi-arabien-edge-of-arabia-s-gesellschaftskritik-a-878604.html.
"Die Einstürzenden Altbauten: Ein Bericht über den Verfall der Altstadt von Dschidda". Zenith: Zeitschrift für den Orient 1/2012: 70–74.
2010
"Die liberale Reformbewegung in Saudi-Arabien: Analyse und Übersetzung der Reformpetition vom 2. Februar 2007". In: Saudi-Arabien: Ein Königreich im Wandel? Edited by Ulrike Freitag, pp. 61–87. Paderborn: Schöningh.
2008
"Der Militäreinsatz in Nahr al-Barid in arabischen Medien". INAMO 53: 28–32.