Tajseer Journal

The State of Interdisciplinary Studies in Yemen: A Content Analysis of Sociology Faculty Publications in Social Sciences and Humanities Journals at the University of Aden

Amal Saleh Saad Rajeh — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

The study aims to examine the state of interdisciplinary studies at the University of Aden, using sociology faculty research as the primary unit of analysis. Sociology was selected as a discipline closely engaged with social reality and capable of analyzing its dynamic and evolving interactions. The significance of the study lies in its potential to open new avenues for research that may enrich the field of interdisciplinary studies and consolidate its presence within the university of Aden. The study employed content analysis as an appropriate methodological approach, providing a comprehensive overview of the research output of sociology faculty members and assessing their engagement with interdisciplinary research.
The findings indicate that interdisciplinary dimensions are present at moderate to strong levels, reflected in the incorporation of two or three interdisciplinary dimensions in some sociology research works; however, the full integration of all interdisciplinary dimensions was not observed across all studies. These results highlight the responsibility of the university and academic departments to promote a culture of interdisciplinary research among faculty members, particularly in light of ongoing social crises and escalating societal challenges.

Knowledge Fragmentation and the Reproduction of Academic Hegemony: Institutional and Symbolic Barriers to Interdisciplinary Research in Tunisian universities

Chehab Yahyaoui, Faten Mubarak — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

Some Arab universities, particularly Tunisian universities, face a complex challenge due to the limited presence of interdisciplinary research, which results from the interaction of epistemic and institutional factors. Academic structures tend to reproduce narrow specialization through symbolic mechanisms linked to cultural perceptions of knowledge legitimacy, as well as material mechanisms related to rigid administrative frameworks, funding systems, and criteria for recruitment and promotion. This reinforces the dominance of established disciplines and deepens the divide between the humanities and the natural sciences, limiting universities’ capacity to address complex problems and reducing the potential for interdisciplinary integration. The prevailing academic culture also reflects patterns of symbolic and material exclusion, through which university elites maintain their authority, transforming disciplines into “knowledge fiefdoms” that compete for resources rather than collaborate. This dynamic creates distorted incentives that marginalize scholars open to interdisciplinary approaches. The situation is further complicated by conservative elites who control the criteria of scientific legitimacy, causing interdisciplinary research to be perceived as a threat to disciplinary identities. Against this backdrop, the study raises a central question: How do epistemic and institutional structures transform academic specialization from a tool for organizing knowledge into an epistemological constraint that hinders interdisciplinary engagement? To address this question, the research adopts a qualitative approach grounded in interpretive sociology, employing semi-structured interviews with twelve academics from Tunisian universities, complemented by institutional document analysis and participant observation. The study aims to identify the symbolic and material mechanisms through which disciplinary “knowledge fiefdoms” are maintained and to examine how disciplinary boundaries become hierarchical structures that perpetuate knowledge fragmentation, thereby providing an analytical framework to foster dialogue on reforming academic institutions for greater openness to interdisciplinary knowledge integration. knowledge integration.

The Reality of Bridging and Interdisciplinary Research at the Institute of Oriental Letters: Experience and Institutional and Epistemological Challenges

Toni Antonios Kahwaji, Chadi Antonios Kahwaji — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

This study explores the practice of bridging and interdisciplinary research at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Saint Joseph University in Beirut, focusing on a central question: how can bridging evolve from a procedural tool for navigating between disciplines into an epistemological framework that establishes a robust interdisciplinary structure capable of generating complex knowledge beyond the boundaries of traditional specializations? The study examines the extent to which interdisciplinarity is embedded in academic programs and curricula, identifies the institutional, pedagogical, and epistemological challenges that hinder its full implementation, and proposes strategies to strengthen this trajectory. Its significance lies in highlighting an Arab academic model rich in languages and methodological perspectives, which can serve as a pioneering laboratory for testing and implementing interdisciplinary approaches. Employing a dual analytical and critical methodology, the research combines the review of official documents and program matrices, the analysis of courses with an interdisciplinary character, the assessment of supervision and evaluation mechanisms, and an in-depth institutional reading of the institute’s organizational structure. The findings indicate that, while bridging currently provides flexibility in academic pathways, it does not ensure genuine methodological integration; the absence of joint supervision and interdisciplinary evaluation mechanisms limits the programs’ potential; and the gap between programmatic openness and administrative rigidity often reduces interdisciplinarity to a rhetorical ideal rather than an institutionalized practice. The study recommends establishing a permanent interdisciplinary coordination unit, introducing mandatory courses with an integrative focus, and redesigning supervision and evaluation processes to firmly embed interdisciplinarity as a comprehensive institutional initiative.

Breaking Down Disciplinary Barriers: Toward Integrative Research Methodology (Case Studies of Cadi Ayyad University and the Modern Mohammed VI Polytechnic University)

Abdessamad Fadel — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

This study aims to explore the state of interdisciplinarity in the scholarly publications of faculty members in the Department of Public Law and Political Science and the Department of Economics and Management at Cadi Ayyad University (Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences), as well as at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to diagnosing the reality of interdisciplinarity within Moroccan universities, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and mapping the obstacles and enablers that shape interdisciplinary research. The purpose is not merely to describe the extent and manifestations of interdisciplinarity, but also to underscore its growing importance and the global trend toward its adoption, since the mission of the university is to generate knowledge rather than constrain it within rigid disciplinary boundaries. Accordingly, the study investigates faculty awareness of interdisciplinary research and their engagement in interdisciplinary projects through a mixed – methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative techniques to capture all dimensions of the phenomenon. This involved selecting a purposive sample of faculty publications, compiling and analyzing these works, and recording the degrees of interdisciplinarity they exhibit. In addition, a comparative approach was adopted to juxtapose findings between the two contrasting universities. The study finds that interdisciplinarity is indeed present – albeit at varying levels – across most of the collected corpus, with only a modest difference between the two institutions. Interdisciplinarity is more pronounced in the publications of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University faculty than in those of Cadi Ayyad University, a result attributable to the former’s modern orientation, which is fundamentally grounded in policies of creativity, innovation, and the crossing of disciplinary boundaries, yielding tangible outcomes in promoting interdisciplinary research.

The Role of Interdisciplinary Studies in Developing Future Skills among Graduate Students in Saudi Universities from the Perspective of Faculty Members

Maram Jommah Mosaed AL Hejori, Bader Juwaid Bader AL Otaibi — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

This study aims to identify the role of interdisciplinary studies in developing future skills including critical thinking, problem–solving, creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration, flexibility, adaptability, digital literacy, decision-making, and leadership—among postgraduate students in Saudi universities from the perspective of faculty members. The research also seeks to determine the necessary requirements (organizational, procedural, and academic) for employing interdisciplinary approaches in enhancing these future skills. Additionally, the study investigates whether there are statistically significant differences in the responses of the sample based on university affiliation, gender, and academic rank. The study adopted a descriptive survey methodology and utilized a questionnaire administered to a sample of 370 faculty members from the following universities: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, King Abdulaziz University, King Saud University, and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. Findings revealed that faculty members showed a very high level of agreement regarding the role of interdisciplinary studies in developing future skills (mean = 4.76) and the requirements for their effective implementation (mean = 4.84). The results also revealed that the most developed skills from the participants' perspectives were collaboration, with a mean score of (4.97), and problem-solving, with a mean of (4.93). In contrast, the least developed skills were decision-making and leadership, with mean scores of (4.56) and (4.51), respectively. Additionally, the organizational requirements ranked highest in importance with a mean of (4.87), followed by procedural requirements (4.84), and then academic requirements (4.81). Statistical analysis showed that there were no statistically significant differences in the participants’ responses attributable to the variables of university, gender, or academic rank.

From a Culture of Consumption to Sustainability Values: Toward a Socio-Historical Bridging of the Ecological Citizen

Rabie Hadf — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

This study addresses the dominance of excessive consumer culture in contemporary societies and the resulting environmental, value-based, and social imbalances that threaten the sustainability of human life, within a context marked by a striking paradox between material abundance and the growing manifestations of scarcity at multiple levels. The significance of this research lies in its refusal to reduce the environmental crisis to its technical or economic dimensions alone; instead, it approaches the crisis as one of representations, values, and ways of living. The study aims to analyze the socio-historical trajectory of consumer culture, uncover its psychological, social, and symbolic determinants, and explore the potential for transitioning toward an alternative model founded on sustainability and responsibility. To this end, the paper adopts a theoretical – analytical approach, drawing on sociological, philosophical, and educational literature to deconstruct prevailing consumption patterns and critically reframe them.

The findings indicate that consumerism is not merely an economic behavior, but a cultural structure continuously reproduced through symbolic and media mechanisms that reinforce environmental and social inequalities. The study further demonstrates that environmental education constitutes a strategic entry point for bridging the gap between consumer culture and sustainability values, by fostering critical awareness and guiding everyday practices. The paper concludes that this value-based and cognitive transformation provides the foundation for shaping the model of the “ecological citizen,” capable of understanding the interconnections between individual choices and global ecological balances. This shift enables a transition from the logic of possession to the logic of responsibility, and from excessive consumption to sustainable moderation.

Metaphysical Islamophobia: Deconstructing the Theological – Political Structure of Fear of Islam in the Post-Secular Western Mind

Zakaria Ghobrini — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

This study examines Islamophobia as a comprehensive civilizational phenomenon, moving beyond approaches that focus only on its surface manifestations while overlooking its deep philosophical roots. It argues that fear of Islam is not merely a social or political reaction but a manifestation of a profound existential crisis within contemporary Western civilization. Using an interdisciplinary critical methodology, the research integrates philosophical, sociological, and political analysis, employing critical methods to deconstruct Western philosophical texts, comparative approaches to examine Western and Islamic epistemologies, historical analysis to trace Islamophobia’s evolution, and critical hermeneutics and discourse analysis to uncover how the “Islamic Other” is constructed within Western thought, all supported by a systematic review of relevant literature. The findings reveal that metaphysical Islamophobia constitutes a structural crisis in Western thought, wherein secularism reproduces theological mechanisms of exclusion in secularized forms, giving rise to a “disguised political theology” targeting Islam as an existential Other, while its construction relies on complex strategies – including conceptual abstraction, cultural reification, and symbolic appropriation – producing a fundamental distortion of Islam’s civilizational essence. The study’s originality lies in offering a critical theoretical framework that situates Islamophobia as a metaphysical phenomenon deeply embedded in Western philosophical structures, opening new avenues for research on modernity and civilizational relations, and promoting an alternative discourse grounded in mutual recognition, plurality, and epistemic justice rather than conflict and exclusion.

The Singularity of Novelistic Form in Constructing Historical Worlds: The Pilgrimage in “Taghribat al-ʿAbdī” as a Case Study

Maha Zeyadeh — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

This study highlights the distinctive qualities of the novel form in Shaping historical worlds, drawing on Bakhtin’s stylistics to illuminate the linguistic features that give literary texts their unique texture. It explores how the novel interacts with other expressive genres, such as travel literature and historical manuscripts, to construct both spatial and temporal dimensions. Employing Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope, the study emphasizes ‘flexibility’ as a defining literary trait that allows the novel to innovate in form and context. This framework is applied to the theme of Al-Hajj as a historical form of travel in contemporary literature, highlighting its potential to critique colonial structures and explore the formation of the self. the analysis focuses on Abdel Rahim Lahbibi’s Taghribat al-ʿAbdī al-Mashhūr bi-Walad al-Ḥamriyy, chosen for on the novel’s unique method of linking literary creativity with historical heritage through an imagined historical manuscript.

Book Review Colonial Legacies and Arab Majority Regions: From Contemporary Conditions to Alternative Futures by Ali Kassem

Badrane Benlahcene — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0300

Book Review

Colonial Legacies and Arab Majority Regions: From Contemporary Conditions to Alternative Futures by Ali Kassem

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