History and name

Origins

The SGMOIK was founded in the early 1990s. At the time, a group of young scholars from the Swiss universities’ mid-level academic staff sought to offer an alternative to the research and teaching available in Switzerland on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and on Islam. The new society aimed in particular to promote interdisciplinary approaches drawn from the social sciences, area studies and linguistics, while encouraging the development of research focusing on the contemporary period.

From its beginnings, the SGMOIK has therefore sought to support teaching and research in Switzerland on the MENA region and Islam, foster exchanges among scholars, and contribute to the dissemination of their work beyond academia.

An evolving name

From the very foundation of the society, the choice of its name was the subject of discussion. These debates reflected questions that remain central to the study of the region: how should a highly diverse geographical space, shaped by multiple forms of circulation, be named? And how can Islam be studied without reducing it to a homogeneous cultural area?

At the time, members adopted the names Schweizerische Gesellschaft Mittlerer Osten und Islamische Kulturen in German and Société Suisse Moyen-Orient et Civilisation islamique in French.

More than thirty years later, these questions remain relevant. Following several phases of discussion within the committee and a consultation of the membership, the SGMOIK General Assembly decided in 2024 to change the French and Italian versions of the society’s name. The expressions civilisation islamique and civiltà islamica were thus replaced by cultures islamiques and culture islamiche.

Why change the name?

The choice of this new name reflects an ongoing reflection on the categories used to understand and describe the phenomena studied by the SGMOIK.

The French term civilisation has a particular history. It developed, notably, in the nineteenth century in a context marked by Eurocentrism and the idea of a hierarchy between civilisations. From the 1990s onwards, it also acquired a strong geopolitical resonance, particularly with Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilisations thesis. This conception tends to represent the world as a set of large, homogeneous and separate cultural entities, or even as antagonistic ones.

Applied to Islam, the French expression civilisation islamique can therefore suggest a unified cultural entity, whereas the societies, practices and forms of identification associated with Islam are diverse and shaped by exchanges and movements across boundaries.

The expression cultures islamiques better reflects this diversity. The plural emphasises the multiplicity of forms and practices of Islam, while the term cultures makes it possible to examine spiritual, intellectual and material phenomena at different scales, without confining them within the boundaries of a homogeneous cultural area.

This choice reflects the approaches developed within the SGMOIK, which study Islam as a multifaceted and transnational phenomenon embedded in diverse contexts, while remaining attentive to historical and regional dimensions.

An ongoing reflection

The change of name does not therefore mean abandoning the reference to area studies or Islamic studies. On the contrary, it reflects the desire to continue bringing these two perspectives together, while recognising the diversity and interconnectedness of the spaces, societies and cultures studied.

The name of a scholarly society can never fully encompass the diversity of its members’ approaches, disciplines and research interests. The change of name is therefore one step in a broader reflection on the categories through which we study and describe the world.