1. Query: Maritime cartography and a late 17th-century French chart of India At the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam we are researching a French chart of the second half of the seventeenth century. It is part of a collection of 5 charts procured by the Museum in 1949. While 4 of
Posted in: Academic itemsIsmaili Imamat and the Making of an Ethical World
Faith and Development in the Time of Aga Khan IV
Georgetown University, April 10, 2027
Call for Papers
This conference seeks papers on the thought, guidance, and institutional legacy of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV(1936–2025). As the forty-ninth hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, Aga Khan IV shaped the religious, ethical, and institutional life of his followers. His leadership also extended into philosophical and ethical discourse, architecture and the built environment, and major initiatives in education, health, cultural preservation, and social development. Yet sustained scholarly engagement with these interconnected dimensions of his Imamat remains limited and dispersed.
This conference brings together scholars and graduate students whose work examines how Aga Khan IV’s Imamat took form across intimate, spatial, institutional, and global registers. We ask how his ethical vision is made present through everyday devotional life, institutional practice, and the built environment. We approach his legacy through scholarly analysis of the social worlds his work helped shape: how his vision has been lived, built, operationalized, interpreted, and remembered across different communities, institutions, and publics.
We invite papers that engage one or more of the following themes. Papers may consider the work of Aga Khan IV in time (synchronically) or through time (diachronically) as a particular manifestation of Shi’i Muslim ethics:
History, Imamat, and Muslim Ethics: How might we understand the ethical and philosophical vision articulated across Aga Khan IV’s speeches, writings, interviews, and institutional discourse? How might we historicize this vision across the changing contexts of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries? How have his ideas shaped conversations on pluralism, citizenship, educational, health, development, gender, and cultural heritage? How might these materials be read to illuminate broader questions concerning faith, ethics, governance, and Muslim life?
Devotion and Intimacy: How do Nizari Ismaili Muslims relate to the Imam, specifically Aga Khan IV? How do prayer, accounts of barakah and protection, devotional poetry, sacred objects, photographs, memorabilia, and domestic or communal spaces mediate relations between followers and the Imam? How do these devotional forms differ across regional contexts? Theological approaches are especially welcome in this section.
Culture, Arts, and Built Environment: How do cultural forms and practices—including architecture, visual and performing arts, and public spaces such as Ismaili Centers, jamatkhanas, museums, parks, and delegation buildings—materialize Aga Khan IV’s religious, ethical, and aesthetic vision? In what ways do aesthetics shape belonging and moral formation? How are spirituality, environment, beauty, and public culture brought into relation in different regional and political settings?
Development Institutions and Governance: How have the development institutions and initiatives associated with Aga Khan IV translated ethical vision into social, cultural, and political practice? How have people experienced these development projects? How might scholars critically assess the intersections of religious ethics, development practice, and global policy frameworks?
We welcome submissions from scholars and graduate students in anthropology, religious studies, history, architecture, development studies, political theory, sociology, and related fields.
A select group of undergraduate students will also be invited to present.
The conference is designed to support the development of publishable scholarly essays and to build a conversation around Aga Khan IV’s Imamat. Participants will be asked to circulate draft papers in advance of the conference. Papers will receive feedback from convenors. Select papers will be considered for a planned edited volume.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit the following:
Name, affiliation, and position
Paper title
An abstract of 500 words that clearly identifies the paper’s central argument, methods, and contribution to the conference’s themes
A brief biography of 150 words
A statement that the paper is not under consideration for publication elsewhere
Deadline for abstract submission: August 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance: August 31, 2026
Draft papers: December 13, 2026
Draft papers may range from 2,000–9,000 words. The wide word count range is intended to accommodate papers at different stages of development.
First round of feedback: February 4, 2027
Conference: April 10, 2027 at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Revised papers due for inclusion in edited volume: July 2027
Language: English
Submit to: Dr. Khoja-Moolji at sk2285@georgetown.edu
Subject line: Imamat Conference
The conference will cover airfare and two nights of hotel accommodations for participants traveling from North America and Europe. Scholars from other regions are warmly encouraged to apply and will be invited to participate virtually.
Convenors
Dr. Shenila Khoja-Moolji
Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Endowed Chair of Muslim Societies
School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
Dr. Hussein Rashid
Co-Director
Religion and Public Life
Union Theological Seminary
Sponsors
Organized by Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, with co-sponsorship from the Global Human Development Program; African Studies Program; the Global Cities Initiative; Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies; and the World Faiths Development Dialogue.
Posted in: Field-specific (academic)It is a great pleasure for me to announce the release of a major contribution by Elaheh Mahboub Farimani to diplomatics, administrative history, and many other fields related to the study of the early modern Persianate world and Iran.
Please visit the link below to download the work from the UTokyo Repository.
With best regards,
Kazuo Morimoto
الهه محبوب فریمانی (تألیف)؛ کازوئو موری موتو (همکاری و مقدمه فارسی)، گونه شناسی اسناد آستان قدس در عصر صفوی، توکیو، 2026.
Posted in: Field-specific (academic), Iran1. Upcoming Course: The Shahname: Introduction to the Iranian Epic The new Shahname course is already open for applications, and will start on May 27. Here you can read more about it: https://ferdowsi.org/the-shahname-introduction-to-the-iranian-epic-spring-2026/ Always feel welcome to write me if you have any questions, course ideas or are considering participating
Posted in: Academic itemsPlease join us for the 2026 University of Chicago Shiʿi Studies Symposium: Ritual in Shiʿi Islam.
The symposium will take place from Thursday, May 14 through Saturday, May 16, primarily at the Franke Center for the Humanities.
The keynote address, “Purity, Sexuality and Ritual: Shiʿi Legal Doctrines of Menstrual Purity” will be given by Dr. Robert Gleave on Friday, May 15, at 4:30 pm. Featured speakers include Dr. Aun Hasan Ali and Dr. Scott Lucas.
Dr. Stefan Williamson Fa and Dr. Babak Rahimi will discuss their recent books, Sonic Relations and Senses of Mourning respectively, at the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore on Thursday, May 14, from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm..
The conference’s full program and locations can be found here, and you can register for the conference here.
Please be in touch with us at uchicagoshiistudies@gmail.com if you have any questions about the symposium.
Best wishes,
Shiʿi Studies Group Organizers
Ammar Farra, Rana Ghuloom, Ameena Yovan
1. The Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections annual Digital Lab Days event will take place in Edinburgh on 2–3 July 2026. The event brings together scholars, curators, developers, educators, and heritage professionals working across Islamic art & architecture, history, video games/immersive media, and GLAM. The programme
Posted in: Academic items25 May 2026
Dr Kate Pukhovaia (Utrecht University and Leiden University Library)
What Makes Premodern State-Building Shiʿi?
2 June 2026
Dr Teresa Bernheimer
Revisiting the ʿAlids: Reflections on the Study of Kinship and Authority in Early Islam
Imam Ali Research Center Announces Graduate Research Awards in Ahlul Bayt and Shi‘i Studies
The Imam Ali Research Center (IARC) is pleased to announce the establishment of two graduate research awards: the Dr. Husain Kazmi & Dr. Naila Moghul Graduate Research Award and the Dr. M. Mehdi Kazmi & Dr. Galina Bass Graduate Research Award in Ahlul Bayt and Shi‘i Studies.
These awards are designed to support promising PhD candidates pursuing doctoral fieldwork and research within the broader field of Shi‘i Studies. IARC welcomes applications from students in the humanities and social sciences, particularly those working in history, Islamic studies, art and art history, philosophy, theology, law, language, and literature, whose graduate research intersects with themes related to the ‘Alids, Shi‘i intellectual and devotional traditions, and scholarship on the Ahlul Bayt.
The Dr. Husain Kazmi & Dr. Naila Moghul Graduate Research Award and the Dr. M. Mehdi Kazmi & Dr. Galina Bass Graduate Research Award in Ahlul Bayt and Shi‘i Studies will each provide one award in the amount of $2,000, for a total of two awards. The awards will be granted to two students currently enrolled in doctoral research programs in North America.
Finalists will be interviewed virtually by the selection committee. Award funds are expected to be distributed by July 2026.
Eligibility
Applicants must be currently enrolled in a doctoral graduate program in North America. Award funds must be used by December 2026.
Application Requirements
A complete application must include the following materials:
1. An abbreviated dissertation prospectus or statement of purpose explaining the applicant’s academic research project and its contribution to the field of Shi‘i Studies and scholarship on the Ahlul Bayt.
2. A summer research plan.
3. A curriculum vitae, including graduate GPA. Official transcripts will be required for award confirmation.
4. Two academic references.
Deadline:
Completed applications must be submitted by May 30, 2026 by 11:59 PM EST. Candidates should submit completed application in one PDF to info@imamaliresearchcenter.com
Short-listed candidates will be announced by the IARC Ghadeer Conference, June 4th-5th, 2026.