Ideas take shape not only in books, but also in buildings – in classrooms, archives, libraries, and seminar rooms where inquiry is cultivated, challenged, and renewed. The Institutions section maps the infrastructures of intellectual life that sustain the academic study of Islam and Muslims across regions, languages, and traditions. Far more than a directory, this collection indexes a wide spectrum of academic and research bodies: universities, research centers, theological faculties, seminaries, think tanks, policy institutes, endowed chairs, scholarly associations, digital humanities labs, manuscript libraries, graduate schools, interdisciplinary programs, and collaborative academic initiatives whose work defines and diversifies the field. It highlights how institutional contexts, each with its own history, disciplinary orientation, and linguistic landscape, contribute to the production of knowledge. Whether rooted in the traditional or experimental, regionally embedded or transnational in scope, these institutions serve as vital nodes in the evolving network of Islamic Studies. By foregrounding the spatial, linguistic, and methodological diversity of institutional engagement, this section invites users to explore not just where knowledge is produced, but how the conditions of its production shape the questions we ask – and the futures we imagine.
