Archive for 2016

A Survey of Ismaili Studies Part 1: Early Ismailism and Fatimid Ismailism – Andani – 2016 – Religion Compass – Wiley Online Library

Bahrain’s New Order – Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington

Al-Wefaq and the February 14 uprising: Islam, nationalism and democracy – the Shici-Bahraini discourse

Bahrain: Gov’t Prosecutes Religious Freedoms Advocate Sheikh Maytham Al-Salman and Rights Activist Al-Derazi for “Illegal Gathering” – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain

For complete newsletter, see here.

Shia Rights Watch Updates

See SRW updates to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor International Religious Freedom 2015 Report, which the Bureau released on 10.8.16

1.CALL FOR PAPERS — Due 15 November 2016

IJMES Special Issue: The Environment in the Middle East and North Africa

Guests editors Tessa Farmer and Jessica Barnes with IJMES editors Akram
Khater and Jeffrey Culang

From arid cities to irrigated fields, hot deserts to Mediterranean
mountains, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) encompasses a range
of environments for thinking through the relationships between nature
and society, people and animals, human and nonhuman worlds. Yet, while
research on various aspects of the material world has a long history in
the scholarship of the MENA, research on the environment as such has
been relatively limited. Reflecting growing interest in the environment
as a topic of concern, this special issue of IJMES will bring together
scholarship from anthropology, geography, sociology, Science and
Technology Studies (STS), and related disciplines on current
environment-related themes in the region.

We invite manuscript submissions that examine cultural, political, and
social dimensions of the environment in the contemporary MENA. We are
particularly interested in papers that are based on in-depth
ethnographic fieldwork. The following are some of the key questions that
this research may address. How does attention to the environment shape
new understandings of knowledge production and expertise? How are
categories of scale, from the global to the regional, national, and
individual, embroiled in and produced through environmental engagements?
How can we investigate the body and its fluid articulations with
environmental materials? How do various religious conceptions and moral
imaginaries come into view when examining socionatures in urban,
periurban, and rural locales? What new angles do environmental issues
offer for viewing long-standing sociopolitical conflicts at local and
national levels? How do ideas of the “environment” and
“environmentalism” function in local and national political projects?
What role does the environment play in how nation-states articulate
their histories and futures? How is “care” for the environment performed?

In drawing together a set of rich, empirically based papers, this
special issue will not only shed important light on how we understand
environmental change in the MENA, but also speak to central questions
within anthropology, geography, sociology, Science and Technology
Studies (STS), and related fields. The issue will push literature on the
region forward by decentering narratives about conflict, religious
fundamentalism, confessional systems, and debates about civilizational
failures, and reorienting the focus onto the social, political, and
cultural dimensions of human engagements with the natural world.

The deadline for submissions is 15 November 2016. Authors should follow
the regular guidelines for submitting an article manuscript to IJMES,
which are detailed here:
http://ijmes.chass.ncsu.edu/docs/DetailedSubGuidelines.pdf. Please
indicate in your cover letter that your submission is intended for the
special issue. All special issue articles must be accepted individually
through the IJMES peer review process.

For additional information see the contact info below.

Jeffrey Culang
Managing Editor
International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES)
ijmes.meditor@cambridge.org
IJMES editorial website: http://ijmes.chass.ncsu.edu/index.htm
Cambridge University Press website:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=MES
Follow IJMES on Twitter @IJMES1

 

 

2. Mysticism in Comparative Perspective

CALL FOR PAPERS

Glasgow University 14th-16th December 2016
Speakers to include:
Rob Faesen (Leuven)

William Franke (Vanderbilt)

Bernard McGinn (Chicago)

George Pattison (Glasgow)

Ada Rapoport-Albert (King’s College, London)

Jane Shaw (Stanford)

Mia Spiro (Glasgow)

At the start of the 20th century, it was widely believed that there was some unitary ‘mystical experience’ underlying the varieties of religious and doctrinal expression. On this view, a Christian, a Buddhist, a Hindu, or a Sufi all had the ‘same’ experience and only differed in their manner of expressing it. By the end of the century this kind of comparativism had fallen into disrepute. Nevertheless, dialogue between faiths would seem to be significantly imperilled if no shared experiential or practical points of unity can be identified. Drawing on recent research, the conference seeks to renew the project of a comparative study of mysticism and in doing so to offer resources for both teaching and research in theology and religious studies.
Proposals under the following headings are especially welcome: Methodology, Annihilation, Love/Union, Material Culture, and Syncretism.

Proposals for Papers must be sent by September 15th to arts-comparativemysticism@glasgow.ac.uk (Acceptances will be notified by end-September.)

The conference will incorporate the Astaire Seminar in Jewish Studies ‘Wandering Souls’ with papers by Ada Rapoport-Albert and Mia Spiro.

For more information, see the Mystical Theology Network Website: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~rege0676/Glasgow%20Conference.html

 

 

 

3. Jobs at Cambridge Muslim College:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/employer/cambridge-muslim-college

 

 

 

4. Find out about the special double issue of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in which Professor David O. Morgan is honoured for his contribution over many years to the understanding of the Mongols and their fascinating story. The festschrift issue features exciting new work exploring the complex narratives of the Mongols and their influence on the lands they conquered.

http://view.academic.cambridge.org/?qs=6b1e2c263a99a1c2e492600fb7af38c3d85da69a37502af70ed …

For a fascinating insight into Professor Morgan’s career, watch Timothy May’s interview with him here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-ur4ePT9Y

 

 

5. SJAS CONFERENCE-   VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

The 17th International Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies will be held
at Vanderbilt from 15-18 August. The conference will feature world-renowned scholars
speaking on all issues of Judaeo-Arabic language, literature, philosophy, society, and
culture. The conference will begin with an opening banquet and plenary at the Nashville
Gordon Jewish Community Center on 15 August, and will continue through mid-day on
18 August on the Vanderbilt campus. The conference is free and open to the Vanderbilt
community and the Nashville community at large.

http://as.vanderbilt.edu/jewishstudies/uncategorized/sjas-conference-to-be-held-at-vanderbilt-university

 

 

 

6. PhD position in Turkic Languages, focusing on Linguistic Turcology

 

Uppsala University is an international research university focused on the development of science and education. Our most important assets are all the individuals who with their curiosity and their dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting work places. Uppsala University has 40,000 students, 7,000 employees and a turnover of SEK 6,5 billion.

Research and teaching at the Department of linguistics and philology covers approx. twenty different languages and linguistic subjects as well as computational linguistics. These include many of the important languages and cultures in the Middle East, to which can be added Hindi, Swahili, Chinese, Ancient Greek and Latin. Comparative Indo-European linguistics and general linguistics are also part of the department

Doctoral studies extend over a 4-year period during which the PhD-student will receive a salary as an employee of the department. Doctoral students are expected to engage in full-time study and research, and contribute to and participate in the department’s activities. Teaching and/or administrative tasks may be involved up to a maximum of 20%.

Project: For this position, we are seeking a candidate with a solid background in Turkic Studies, who is highly motivated and interested in theoretical and/or descriptive linguistics. We are interested in projects which investigate linguistic phenomena of the Turkic languages. Projects dealing with philological investigation of written sources would only be considered if they contained a major descriptive component. The final form of the dissertation project will be determined in collaboration with the advisor. Applicants should discuss their proposed research with the section chair, László Károly, before submission.

Qualifications: To qualify for a doctoral position a candidate should hold a master’s degree (or equivalent) in Turkic languages.

How to apply: The application should contain:

• A letter of intent describing your research interests and motivation for PhD studies (maximum one page)
• A CV containing (i) a description of your education, (ii) a list of academic results, (iii) a list of any academic publications, (iv) professional experience relevant to academic research, and (v) relevant technical skills (maximum three pages)
• An authorized copy of your master’s degree (or equivalent)
• A copy of your master’s thesis (and an English summary in maximum ten pages if it is not in English)
• A research proposal which (i) states a research question, (ii) describes the methodology and work plan, and (iii) contextualises the expected results in relation to the state of the art. (maximum five pages including references)
• Other documents which the applicant would like to submit.

The application may be written in English or Swedish.

More information about the PhD programme at the department can be found at the following website: http://www.lingfil.uu.se/admissions/doctoral-studies/

For a general description of PhD student admissions in Sweden, see Act of higher education (Högskoleförordningen) chap.7 §§34-36.

Rules of employment of graduate students can be found in the Act of higher education (Högskoleförordningen) chap.5 §§1-7.

Rules for doctoral education is regulated in the Act of higher education (Högskoleförordningen) chap.6 kap §§26-36.

Local admission rules can be found at http://regler.uu.se and at http://www.sprakvet.uu.se/Forskning/Forskarutbildning .

Uppsala University aims for gender balance and diversity in all activities in order to achieve a higher quality at all levels of the organization. We therefore welcome applicants of any gender and with different birth background, functionality and life experience.

Salary: Local salary regulations apply.

Starting: 1 January 2017 or earlier

Working hours: Full time

For more information about the position, please contact
Professor László Károly (Laszlo.Karoly@lingfil.uu.se), phone +46 (0)18 471 1089
Director of graduate studies, Professor Christer Henriksén (Christer.Henriksen@lingfil.uu.se), phone + 46 (0)18 471 6845
Senior faculty administrator Lars Hagborg (Lars.Hagborg@uadm.uu.se), phone +46 (0)18 471 1907

You are welcome to submit your application no later than September 30 2016, UFV-PA 2016/2337.

We decline offers of recruitment and advertising help. We only accept the application the way described in the advertisement.

Placement: Department of Linguistics and Philology

Type of employment: Full time , Temporary position longer than 6 months

Pay: Fixed pay

Number of positions: 1

Working hours: 100 %

Town: Uppsala

County: Uppsala län

Country: Sweden

Union representative: Per Sundman, Saco-rådet 018-471 1485
Marie Ols, TCO/ST 018-471 2459
Stefan Djurström, Seko 018-471 3315

Number of reference: UFV-PA 2016/2337

Last application date: 2016-09-30

 

 

7. 3 PhD candidates in Middle East Studies (Arabic), Leiden University

The 3 PhD candidates (Vacancy number: 16-252) will carry out research in the framework of the ERC-funded project, “Embedding Conquest: Naturalising Muslim Rule in the Early Islamic Empire (600-1000)” headed by Prof. Dr. Petra Sijpesteijn. The PhD candidates will use the vastly important but largely neglected documentary evidence from the Muslim world. This is a full-time post from 1 February 2017 until 31 January 2021.

Deadline for application: 14 September 2016. Contact:  mailto: p.m.sijpesteijn@hum.leidenuniv.nl . Information on LIAS Department: http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lias/

 

 

8. Jobs:

 

Assistant Professor of Political Science Specializing in Comparative Politics, Stockton University, Galloway, NJ
Starting Date: September 2017. Ability to offer courses in one or more of the following areas is desired – Political Economy of Development, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, Politics in the Developing World, Gender and Politics, Environmental Politics, Comparative Law, Democratization, or Regional Integration. Regional focus is open.
Review of applications will begin 28 September 2016. Information: http://www.isanet.org/Programs/Job-Board/mid/9461/EntryDetail

 

 

Assistant Professor or Instructor in the History of the Islamic World/Middle East (tenure-track),  Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
The position is beginning Fall 2017. Applicants should possess or be close to completing a doctoral degree. The successful candidate will teach courses at all levels in the history of the Islamic World and the modern Middle East.
Deadline for application: 15 November 2016. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/36412

 

9. Articles on “Frontiers of Contemporary Research on the Middle East and North Africa” for “APSA MENA Newsletter”

This newsletter is emerging from the MENA Workshops of the American Political Science Association (APSA), a community-building initiative designed to serve as a platform for Political Science researchers interested in the Middle East and North Africa. For the first issue, we invite topics related, but not limited to, emerging research fields, challenges during fieldwork and methodological issues.

Deadline for submissions of 800-1000 words is 1 October 2016. Information:  menanewsletter@apsanet.org.

 

10. Call for Submissions: Persian Passages (Special issue of Southerly)

Persian speakers from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan have influenced Australian culture in many ways. What are the evocations of Persian themes in Australian writing and culture? What are the contemporary heirs to Judith Wright’s poem ‘Hafiz of Shiraz’? And what is the image of Australia in contemporary Persian texts? Guest editors Laetitia Nanquette and Ali Alizadeh are calling for submissions of poems, stories, non-fiction and literary papers for a special issue of Southerly focusing on literary transactions between Australian and Persian cultures. The editors are also interested in writings from Iranian, Afghan and Tajik writers engaging with Australia in any way. As the Persian-speaking community is becoming stronger in Australia and its cultural production diversifies, this issue aims to offer to an Australian audience a rich sample of texts and perspectives focusing on Australian-Persian perspectives. This includes but is not limited to:

–       Persia and the contemporary nations of Persian culture (Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan) in the Australian literary imaginary

–       Literary relations and cultural interactions between Australian and Persian-speaking nations

–       Contemporary Australian writers of Persian origin and their texts

–       The reception of Persian texts in Australia

–       New forms of cultural or literary interaction between Persian-speaking cultures and the West

–       New works of creative writing, by authors from any background, that speak to the themes and motifs of Persian culture and history

With academic essays, please keep in mind that Southerly is a journal devoted to Australian literature. Please submit only one story, one personal essay or up to 5 poems, at a time. Short fiction and literary non-fiction texts should be around 2,000-6,000 words. Submissions can be in English or Persian. Please submit your texts online to the category “Persian Passages”: https://southerly.submittable.com/submit

You can refer to Southerly’s guidelines:

http://southerlyjournal.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Submissions-guidelines-2015.pdf

Submissions due: 1^st September 2016

The issue will be published in April 2017.

Dr Laetitia Nanquette,

Lecturer and Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow,
School of Arts and Media,
University of New South Wales, Sydney

+61 (2) 9385 7792

 

 

 

11. Ascetics and Yogis in Indian painting

Being invited to give a series of three lectures on this wide ranging topic at a seminar at the Universita di Ca’ Foscari in Venice in July 2016, it seemed a good opportunity to write a blog highlighting the interesting material in the British Library. Here are discussed such images in Mughal and Deccani painting.

http://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2016/08/ascetics-and-yogis-in-indian-painting.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29

 

Card

Al Jazeera : Al Jazeera To Correct Misrepresentation of Shia Belief #AlJazeeraReportResponsibly

ADHRB Weekly: Bahrain Moves Forward with Measures to Centralize Internet Censorship

1. An in-depth look at the British Library’s collection of Arabic manuscripts from West Africa

http://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2016/08/an-in-depth-look-at-the-british-librarys-collection-of-arabic-manuscripts-from-west-africa.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29

 

 

2. Open Access – Abstracta Iranica

http://abstractairanica.revues.org/

 

3. New display of Dara Shikoh Album in Treasures Gallery

Regular visitors to the Treasures Gallery of the British Library will know that the wall case displaying Indian book arts has recently had a change of display. On exhibition are eight folios from the Dara Shikoh Album (Add.Or.3129), one of the great treasures of the Asian and African department, which are discussed in this blog. The album is known to have been compiled by Dara Shikoh (1615–59), the eldest son and heir of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, from the inscription in the prince’s hand on folio 2 dated 1056/1646–47. The inscription records the gift of the album to his wife Nadira Banu Begam, his cousin and the daughter of Sultan Parviz, whom he had married in 1633.

http://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2016/08/new-display-of-dara-shikoh-album-in-treasures-gallery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29

 

 

 

4. Washington and Lee University – Assistant Professor in the study of Islam
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=53211

 

 

5. The British Library is advertising for a part-time permanent curator of its Turkish and Turkic collections.

https://britishlibrary.recruitment.northgatearinso.com/birl/pages/vacancy.jsf?latest=01000899

 

 

6. International Conference: “Revisiting the Practice of Islamic Law: Ideas and Institutions”, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 11-13 November 2016

The scope of the conference will include studies related, but not limited, to the complexities of law, legal actors and legal activities in many corners of the world.

Deadline for abstracts: 20 September 2016. Information:  http://aljamiah.or.id/index.php/AJIS/announcement/view/2
 

7. Jobs:
Assistant Professor in Modern Middle Eastern History, University of Massachusetts Amherst
The tenure track appointment will begin in Fall 2017. The successful candidate is expected to teach undergraduate courses on the Modern Middle East, including upper-level courses for History majors and Middle East Studies majors.
Deadline for application: 14 October 2016. Information: https://umass.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=74277

Assistant Professor in the History of the Modern Middle East, West Virginia University
The position is beginning 16 August 2017. Required qualifications include a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in History or a closely related field at time of appointment.
The screening process will begin on 28 October 2016. Information: https://wvu.taleo.net/careersection/faculty/jobdetail.ftl?job=03725

Adjunct Professor in Modern History of the Middle East, Washington, D.C. Campus of Pepperdine University
Minimum qualifications are a M.A./M.S. degree in a relevant field and 3 years of professional experience, and the preferred qualification is a Ph.D. in a relevant field. The successful candidate will teach one semester-long course in Fall 2016.
Information:  www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=53203

Tenure-track Position in Modern Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (19th-21st Centuries), Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Rank to be determined according to the candidate’s qualifications. The language of instruction is Hebrew.
Deadline for application: 26 September 2016. Information: www.hum.huji.ac.il/new.php?cat=5369