In the first episode of the new podcast mini-series Minority Law To Go, host Dörthe Engelcke speaks with Maya Mikdashi, Associate Professor at Rutgers University and author of the seminal book Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon. Together, they unpack the concept of “sextarianism”, exploring how Lebanon’s confessional system governs bodies, gender and family relations. Maya reflects on the colonial legacies shaping Lebanese law, the role of archives, and the intersections of activism and scholarship in times of political violence and limits to academic freedom.
Minority Law To Go is a podcast mini-series about the debates at the crossroads of law, religion, gender, and state power in the Arab region. Hosted by Dörthe Engelcke, AGYA member and acting head of the Centre of Expertise for the Law of Arab and Islamic Countries at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, the series brings leading scholars and legal practitioners into conversation. Together, they explore the lived realities of legal pluralism and the political contexts that shape them. The series grew out of the conference “Minority Law in Arab States – Governing Religious Diversity”, organized by the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) together with the Centre of Expertise for the Law of Arab and Islamic Countries at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. The conference took place at the MPI in July 2025.
This podcast is funded by the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA). The Academy stands for research across disciplines and countries. AGYA draws on financial support of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) grant 01DL20003. The authors remain solely responsible for the content and recommendations provided in this publication, which do not reflect the positions of AGYA or any of its funding partners.
