Sitting in a virtual teahouse, Gianluca Parolin and Serena Tolino meet with scholars of Islamic law to discuss not only their research and teaching but also their hobbies and interests. The first series opened with the history of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies (ISILS), followed by conversations with board members and scholars participating in the X Islamic Legal Studies Conference, held at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, Aga Khan Centre, London, in May 2022. The second season continues with scholars taking part in the XI Islamic Legal Studies Conference, hosted by the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies and the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster in May 2025.
Shar3i – The podcast
Hosts
Serena Tolino
Serena is Associate Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Unit Middle East and Muslim Societies and co-director of the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the University of Bern. Before moving to Bern, she was assistant professor at the University of Hamburg, post-doc at the University of Zurich and visiting fellow at the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School. She studied in Naples, Halle and Cairo. Her main research interests include history of gender, sexuality and LGBTQI+ rights in the Middle East, Islamic law, history of labour and slavery in the Middle East.
Gianluca Parolin
Gianluca is a comparative lawyer working on constitutional design, State-Islam relations, citizenship, shifting semiotics of law, and images of law in popular culture. He holds a PhD in Public Law from the University of Turin, and is Professor of Law at Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations of the Aga Khan University in London, where he also leads the Governance Programme. He is currently working on a new book on the law’s imaginaire in Egyptian television drama.