JP Dr. Serena Tolino

Serena Tolino is Junior Professor for Islamic Studies at the University of Hamburg since April 2016.

She was awarded a Ph.D. and the title of Doctor Europaeus from the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and the Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle Wittenberg (summa cum laude). She received her Bachelor and Master degrees in “Sciences of Languages, History and Cultures of Islamic and Mediterranean Countries” from the University of Naples “L'Orientale”. While studying for her MA, she moved to Cairo, where she spent three years learning Arabic at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies Dar Comboni and at the University of Cairo. Alongside her studies, she also worked as a teacher of Italian as second language and as a project assistant. After completing her MA, she was awarded a full-time Ph.D. grant from the Graduate School Society and Culture in Motion, Halle-Wittenberg. She wrote her Ph.D. on “Homosexual acts and Homosexuality in Islamic and statutory Law: some notes on the Egyptian case, with some references to the Lebanese case”. From 2012 to 2016 she held a post-position at the History Department, University of Zurich, where she worked on “The masculinity of Court eunuchs in the Fatimid Empire”, while in Fall 2013 she was awarded a fellowship from the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard University.

Research Interests

Islamic Law, Gender and Sexuality in the Islamicate world, Near and Middle East History, History of the Fatimid Empire

Curriculum vitae

Publications (selection)

Books

Omosessualità e atti omosessuali tra diritto islamico e diritto positivo: il caso egiziano

con alcuni riferimenti all’esperienza libanese (Homosexuality and homosexual acts in Islamic law and in positive law: the Egyptian case with some references to the Lebanese case). Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2013

Edited Volumes

Almut Höfert, Matthew Mesley, Serena Tolino (eds.): Ambiguous Masculinity and

Power: Ruling Bishops and Eunuchs in the Pre-Modern World. Routledge,

2016 (forthcoming)

Carlo de Angelo, Serena Tolino (eds.): Minorities and Islamic Law, special issue of

Oriente Moderno, 2 (2016), forthcoming

Peer reviewed articles

“Homosexual Acts in Islamic Law: Siḥāq and Liwāṭ in the Legal Debate,” GAIR-Mitteilungen, Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Arabisches und Islamisches Recht, 6 (2014): 187-205

“Homosexuality in the Middle East: An Analysis of Dominant and Competitive Discourses,” DEP. Deportate, Esule, Profughe, 25 (2014): 72-91

“Identità omosessuale in tribunale nell’Egitto e nel Libano contemporanei,” (Homosexual identity inside the Court in contemporary Egypt and Lebanon) Genesis. Rivista delle Storiche Italiane, 11, 1-2 (2012): 115-140

Book chapters

“Le tutela dei minori in Egitto: il Qānūn al-ṭifl alla luce degli emendamenti del 2008 e il ruolo delle organizzazioni non governative” (The Protection of Children in Egypt: the Qānūn al-ṭifl after the 2008 Amendments and the Role of non-governmental Organizations), in La tutela dei minori di cultura islamica nell’area mediterranea. Aspetti sociali, giuridici, medici, ed. Agostino Cilardo. Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2011, 377-418

“The anti- female genital mutilation discourse in Contemporary Egypt,” in Islam and Bioethics, ed. Berna Arda, Vardit Rispler Chaim. Ankara: Ankara University Press, 2010, 207-221

Memberships of Scientific Societies

Board member of ISILS (International Society for Islamic Legal Studies)

Member of DAVO (Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient für gegenwartsbezogene Forschung und Dokumentation)

Member of Istituto per l’Oriente Carlo Alfonso Nallino, Rome

Member of SIS (Italian Society of Women Historians)

Member of UEAI (Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants)