1. New online Persian literature courses: Farrokhzad, Hafez, Rumi, etc. Ghand-e Parsi Academy of Persian Language and Literature: I. Forugh Farrokhzad’s Life and Works: A Deep Dive into Forugh’s Feminist Poetry The sessions are designed for readers of Persian of all levels (basic, intermediate, advanced, and native speakers) as
Posted in: Academic itemsONLINE Contributions to the “Alevi Encyclopedia”
The Alevi Encyclopedia is a multilingual, open-access academic platform for Alevism and related fields. It welcomes scholarly contributions in Turkish, English, and German. Previously published works such as articles, book chapters, dictionary/encyclopedia entries, thesis excerpts, or journalistic essays may be revised and formatted according to the Alevi Encyclopedia criteria. Ongoing or unpublished research may also be submitted.
Deadline for contributions: 15 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ycyv5ue9
1. Online: Cluster of Excellence Lecture Event: Imperial Infrastructures of Communication across Eurasia Convened by Tijana Krstic (Central European University) and Nina Mirnig (University of Vienna) Date and Time Monday 8th June 2026, 5:00 PM CET // 8:00 AM PST Venue Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University
Posted in: Academic itemsPosted in: Field-specific (academic)
1. Hybrid Conference: Health and the Environment in the Preindustrial World: Multidisciplinary Approaches Our upcoming conference “Health and the Environment in the Preindustrial World: Multidisciplinary Approaches” that will take place on 23-24 July 2026 in a Hybrid format, with in-person attendance at Monash University, Caulfield Campus in Victoria, Australia. Registration closes on the 26 June.
Posted in: Academic itemsCall for Papers: The Institutional Embedding of Shiʿi Imams: Kinship, Caliphs, Courts and Companions (700-900)
University of Leiden, 13th-15th January 2027.
This conference (organized by the ERC project Embodied Imamate) seeks to illuminate the embedding of imams (and uncanonised candidates for imamate) as actors within their social, institutional and historical context before the canonization of an unbroken line of Twelve imams (260/874).
It will consist of a conference with traditional presentations, combined with a more workshop-style discussion of sources and approaches aimed at generating solid conversations about the state of the field.
The Imami imams are familiar as scholars and sources of knowledge, but they were, crucially, also elite members of the Islamic empire and as such occupied a pre-eminent place within society, serving as landowners, powerbrokers and community leaders. They also married into the other major families including the dynastic families of the Umayyad and Abbasids. Many of their followers occupied eminent positions within the polities of their day, while several imams (Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, in primis) serve as transmitters of religious knowledge for non-Shiʿi communities. They were, thus, embedded within early Islamic society and played a role in its formation.
A core assumption of this conference will be that the institutions of the Imami Shiʿi imamate came into being in historical time at some point after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, but that it is not clear exactly when or how this occurred: key questions, then, will be to interrogate potential methodologies for tracing different aspects of when and how a distinctive Imami imamate emerged. The conference will not accept papers that are purely doctrinal or intellectual history, without a large component of social or institutional contextualisation.
The organisers welcome papers addressing the following themes (amongst others) for the period 700-900 CE:
Imami vs Caliphal authority: in what sense were the imams, imams?
The household of the imam
Access to the imams
Socio-political studies of the lives of individual imams
The development or role of the “Shi’i” community in specific regions/cities (e.g., Qom, Kufa, Medina, Baghdad)
Inheritance and bequesting practices
Instruments of succession – waṣiyya, naṣṣ vs bayʿa
Estates and property
Kinship ties between the imams and other Arabian elites
The role of companions of imams in the caliphal court
Networks of companions (geographical and social)
Imams at the caliphal court (politics, imprisonment etc.)
Methodologies and sources for writing Shiʿi social and institutional history
Comparisons between the social and institutional positioning, and followers of different candidates and conceptions of imamate: such as Zayd b. ʿAlī, ʿAbd Allāh al-Afṭaḥ, Abū Ḥanīfa, or the caliph al-Manṣūr
Failed imams
Alqāb as indicators of claims to authority
Inscriptions and papyri as sources for the early Shiʿa
Presentations will last 45 minutes. The organisers are open for presenters to choose how they wish to use their time, whether as a traditional presentation (30 minutes talk + 15 minutes Q&A), by pre-circulating primary sources you wish to discuss or other suitable arrangements. The organisers intend to publish contributions from the conference as either an edited volume/special issue and will be in touch with further details and timeline once the speakers have been determined.
Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the organisers.
Please send abstracts to e.p.hayes@hum.leidenuniv.nl and l.f.pecorini.goodall@hum.leidenuniv.nl. Abstracts of no more than 300 words. Deadline: Monday, 20th of June, 2026
Posted in: Field-specific (academic)1. Call for contributions: Workshop: The Theft of Art? Art Theories in Light of Global Art History (University of Strasbourg, 8 January 2027) Building on Jack Goody’s (2007) highly influential thesis of The Theft of History, this workshop aims to address an “institution” that this critique of the Eurocentric historiographical model imposed
Posted in: Academic items