Photo credit: Tony Rinaldo
Student engagement is a key component of the Program’s academic focus. In addition to course offerings and programming engagements, we provide research assistantship opportunities, student mentorship and advising, research grants, and an annual writing prize to recognize student excellence in academic research and writing.
Courses and Study Groups
Islamic Law and the Anthroposcene, Fall 2026, Kristen Stilt
This seminar will examine contemporary issues in Islamic law, with a focus on issues highly salient in our world today, including climate change and its many impacts, protection of the environment, animal welfare and rights, food security and sovereignty, access to water, alternative energy sources, and others. Advocates, policy makers, and governments worldwide (and not only in countries with significant Muslim populations) are drawing on Islamic law in pursuit of solutions to these existential problems. Case studies will be drawn from countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, the U.S., and others.
Gender, Law, and Society in the Middle East and North Africa, Fall 2026, Salma Waheedi
This course will examine questions of gender justice and the law in the Middle East and North Africa. We will discuss the evolution and development of law and legal frameworks across the region and their interaction with gender and social norms, taking into account the region’s diversity of sociopolitical contexts and historical experiences. Using a case study approach, we will also explore historical and present trends and responses to questions of gender inequality, including feminist movements, grassroots mobilization, strategic litigation, and advocacy through arts and media. The readings will center the voices and scholarship of Middle Eastern legal academics, feminist scholars, and activists.
Animal Law, Spring 2027, Kristen Stilt
This course will introduce students to the broad range of laws that affect non-human animals (“animals”), including companion animals, farm animals (with a particular focus on factory farms), animals used in the context of entertainment (such as zoos and aquaria), animals used in scientific experimentation, and wild animals. The course will focus mainly on the U.S. but will also include some attention to the laws of other countries and to international law.
The course will also engage with fundamental questions about animals and the law, such as: Are some animals more deserving of protection than others, and if so, on what basis? What role does culture and belief play in animal law—why are dogs considered pets in the U.S. and food in some parts of the world, for example? Does the status of animals as property pose an insurmountable barrier to increasing protections for animals? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the concepts of “animal rights” and “animal welfare”?
Click to view past course offerings of the Program.
Writing Prize
The Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School awards a prize of $1,000 annually to the Harvard Law Student writing the best paper in the field of law and society or law and social change in a Muslim majority or minority context. Papers eligible for consideration must have been written during the current academic year at Harvard Law School. For more information on how to apply, please see the HLS Student Writing Prizes Submission Instructions.
Click to view past recipients of the Writing Prize.
Research Opportunities
The Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World provides opportunities for Harvard Law students to undertake scholarly and policy research and writing, both for academic credit and through paid research assistantships. We particularly welcome applications from students interested in pursuing research related to law and social change, human rights, gender, women’s rights, minority rights, constitutional law, climate change, animal rights, and related fields.
Please email us at [email protected] to learn more about research opportunities for students.