Meetings

(1) An informal dinner meeting took place at a restaurant located in Tunalı, Ankara together with Turkish colleagues. It was held on April 27, 2013 after Nassef presented his paper for the 2nd Ankara International Relations Graduate Symposium organized by the Yıldırım Beyazıt University. They discussed forming a core group, finding a headquarter (secretariat office), and presenting research proposals to some Turkish research institutes. In addition, one Turkish colleauge offered Nassef to do a talk to present IR-IS Research Cohort (Co-IRIS now) to IR professors and students at Sakarya University. However, all of these things never materialized despite the fact that Nassef continuously sent them emails of updates but he received lukewarm (oftentimes cold) responses.

(2) Informal talks were held to some participants of the section on Critical Relations between IR and Islam of the 8th Pan-European Conference on International Relations organized by the European International Studies Association (EISA) and hosted by the University of Warsaw on September 18-21, 2013. This was also the first time Nassef met Dr. Mauriello and talked about platforms of IR-IS Research Cohort (Co-IRIS now).

(3) As part of the 2nd Exploratory Symposia organized by EISA in Rapallo, Italy on 31 October and 01 November 2013, the soon-to-be-founders (Nassef, Dr. Mauriello, and Dr. Abdelkader) of Co-IRIS met. It was an intensive 2-day symposium of Co-IRIS that leads to the establishment of website, edited book proposal, and participation to international conferences. It was also in this meeting that they coined Co-IRIS.

(4) The founders gathered for the XII Conference of the Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies on January 16-17, 2015 at Universita Ca’ Foscari in Venice, Italy to present their panel. They also discussed edited book projects and forthcoming participation for the 56th Annual Convention of International Studies Association in New Orleans, USA.