Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf has held the chair of Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of Cologne since 2012. Her main research interests include transformations of religious concepts in Muslim societies, Islamism, migration to the Arab Gulf states, Islam in Germany, and popular culture in Middle Eastern societies.

Stephan Milich teaches modern Arabic culture and Islamic studies at the University of Cologne. His research interests include contemporary Arabic poetry and prose, culture and ideology as well as representations and concepts of exile and trauma in Arabic literature. He has published widely on modern Arab poetry and translated a number of literary works by contemporary Arab authors such as Mahmoud Darwish, Mohammed Bennis, Rosa Yassin Hassan into German. He currently works on representations of trauma in contemporary Arabic prose with a special interest in `trauma politics' as well as on German orientalism and `orient politics' in WWI.