Archive for April, 2017

Registration now open for Shi’i Conference

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THE CENTRE FOR ISLAMIC & WEST ASIAN STUDIES (CIWAS)

Application Deadline: June 15, 2017

Applications are invited for eight studentships to be awarded for a Masters by Research Programme in Islamic and West Asian Studies. These studentships are attached to the Centre for Islamic and West Asian Studies (CIWAS) at Royal Holloway, University of London.

We welcome, in particular, proposals that focus on under-researched Islamic approaches, such as that of the Twelver Shiites.

Please email Sandra.Halperin@rhul.ac.uk with any questions.

1. Workshop: “The Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiographies”, Aga Khan University & SOAS University of London, 6 October 2017

 

This year’s exploratory and informal workshop will reflect on methodologies, research agendas, and case studies for investigating history writing in Arabic in the Middle East and North Africa in any period from the seventh century to the present. As in previous years, the emphasis will be on informal discussion and exchange of ideas.

 

Deadline for abstracts: 15 May 2017. Information: http://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/participate-arabic-pasts-histories-and-historiographies-6-october-london?e=82aeb6c61d

 

 

 

2. Visiting Faculty of Arabic Language and Cultures or Interdisciplinary Middle East Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

 

This position begins in August 2017, includes full-time professorial appointment, and is renewable for up to two years. Minimum requirements include native or near-native fluency in Modern Standard Arabic and at least one Arabic dialect; scholarly and program building achievements commensurate with title and rank; documented evidence of successful teaching, etc.

 

Deadline for application: 18 May 2017. Information: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000365513-01

 

 

 

3. Open-Rank Professorship for the Master of Arts in “Women in Society and Development Program”, College for Humanity and Social Sciences, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar

 

The successful candidate will ideally be a distinguished scholar in the areas of Middle Eastern Studies/ Women’s and Gender Studies/ Political Science or closely related fields with a strong record of publications with international exposure.

 

Positions will be open until filled. Information: http://tii.qa/en/college-humanities-and-social-sciences-openings

 

 

 

4. Open-Rank Professorship in “Digital Humanities and Societies” (Focus on Socio-cultural Studies and Digital Technologies), College for Humanity and Social Sciences, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar

 

The college seeks candidates that may address interrelations and interconnectivity of studies in culture, film and media, journalism, religions, history and philosophy, gender, geo-politics and the built environments of the MENA region through digital forms and interpretations.

 

Positions will be open until filled. Information: http://tii.qa/en/college-humanities-and-social-sciences-openings

 

 

 

5. Summer Intensive Program: “Living Islam in the 21st Century and Beyond”, Ibn Khaldun University, Istanbul, 30 July – 25 August 2017

 

The program aims to connect scholars of the Islamic tradition with young students and professionals from a variety of disciplines to study the role of Islam in the modern world and develop perspectives and approaches rooted in the Islamic tradition to tackle the pressing issues of our time.

 

Deadline for application: 28 April 2017. Information: http://ihsan.academy/

 

 

 

6. Yale University – Postdoctoral Fellowship on the Racialization of
Islam
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=54750

 

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston – Curatorial Assistant, Art of the
Islamic Worlds
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=54873

 

 

 

7. The Department of Middle Eastern South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University invites applications for adjunct faculty to teach three Persian language courses during the academic year. Appointment is from September 1, 2017 and ends on May 31, 2018. We are seeking a professional language teacher with a serious commitment to teaching languages for academic purposes. This is a part-time position.

Preference will be given to applicants who have a Ph.D., but those with a Master’s degree and at least 1 year of language teaching experience are also encouraged to apply. Native or near-native fluency in Persian and English, foreign language instruction experience on a collegiate level, and an oral proficiency based approach are required.

For more information and to apply, please go to:
academicjobs.columbia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=64488

 

 

 

8. Summer Online Persian

This summer the University of Texas at Austin will be offering a three-credit intermediate/advanced Persian course online. This is a wonderful opportunity for students who want to maintain or improve their Persian skills over the summer break. The course, called “Media Persian,” will focus on the use humor in various media and will be taught by Babak Tabarraee, a PhD student in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at UT Austin. The priority deadline for applying is May 1, 2017.

The Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin has been offering intermediate- and advanced-level Persian classes online since 2012 and has become a leader in developing online pedagogies for this critical language. For more information, including details about how to apply, please check out our website: https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/mes/languages/persian/online_persian.php.

 

Bahrain: Detained Activist’s Health Worsens

A prominent Bahraini human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, is suffering from health problems that have developed or deteriorated during more than 10 months of arbitrary detention, Human Rights Watch said today. The charges against him violate his right to free expression, and there is evidence he has been punished arbitrarily.

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Al-Mahdi Institute, Birmingham, UK

27th April 2017:
Dr Mansur Ali (Cardiff University)
“Shifting discourse in the Muslim organ donation debate: reports of finding”

Register to attend at:
http://almahdi.edu/register

Nobuaki Kondo Book Launch Islamic Law and Society in Iran

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Pakistan’s lurch towards ultra-conservativism abetted by Saudi-inspired pyramid scheme (Part 1)

Saudi funding, a pillar of the kingdom’s more than 40-year long public diplomacy campaign, the world’s largest dedicated effort of its kind, has helped weave ultra-conservatism into significant segments of Pakistani society as well as key branches of government and the state that have fostered an environment capable of sustaining itself, expanding its reach, and spawning institutions that target specific societal groups.

1.RECENT PERSPECTIVES OF CEREMONIES, RITUALS AND FESTIVALS

IN THE OTTOMAN WORLD

An International Symposium

13-15 April, 2017

See programme at: http://macmillan.yale.edu/event/conference-recent-perspectives-ceremonies-rituals-and-festivals-ottoman-world

 

 

2. I.B.Tauris invites submissions for inclusion in its academic monograph series, The Early and Medieval Islamic World. Led by series editor Professor Roy Mottahedeh (Harvard University), the series promotes innovative research on the period 500–1500 AD with the Islamic world, as it ebbed and flowed from Marrakesh to Palermo and Cairo to Kabul, as the central pivot.

Thematic focus within this remit is broad, from the cultural and social to the political and economic, with preference given to studies of societies and cultures from a socio-historical perspective. It aims to foster a community of unique voices on the medieval Islamic world, shining light into its lesser studied corners.

Key areas of focus are:

• Transition to the ‘medieval’ world, especially archaeological approaches
• Close textual readings and translations
• Trade and the economy
• Travel and exploration
• Government and warfare
• Societies and communities
• Material culture and art
• History of ideas
• Inter-religious contact, conflict and exchange
• Prominent and influential figures

Tom Stottor, Editor          tstottor@ibtauris.com

Guidelines for submitting proposals are on our website at: www.ibtauris.com/Publish.

 

 

 

3. Global Nodes, Networks, Orders:

Three Global History Workshops on Transformative Connectivity
University of Leiden, 20 – 22 April, 2017

https://networks.h-net.org/node/7636/discussions/175980/workshop-global-nodes-networks-orders-three-global-history

 

 

 

4. Workshop: “Violence in Sharīʿa and its Contemporary Implications”, Al-Mahdi Institute, Birmingham, UK 6-7 July 2017

We invite paper proposals engaging with the methodological questions involved in justifications for both traditional and alternative perspectives on fiqhī (juristic) readings of matters related to any aspect of the regulation or use of violence in Sharī ͑a with contemporary implications.

Deadline for abstracts: 8 May 2017. Information: http://almahdi.edu/forthcoming-workshop-the-status-of-non-muslims-in-shari-a

 

5. Panel on “Trade and Material Culture in the Medieval Mediterranean” at the 2018 Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, Emory University, Atlanta, 1-3 March 2018

We are interested in papers from any relevant disciplines and approaches, including economic, social, and institutional history, art and cultural history (including music and literature) that examine the trade and material culture in the medieval Mediterranean in relation to the formation of religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural identities.

Deadline for abstracts: 20 April 2017. Information: http://us9.campaign-archive2.com/?u=e1ae5bef9757e58afec01a89a&id=6175c82979&e=82aeb6c61d
 

6. Visiting Professor at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna

Successful candidates will have the following qualifications: PhD and post-doctoral experience at a university or other research institution; outstanding research and publication record; experience in university teaching, and willingness and ability to teach at all curricular levels, etc.

Deadline for application: 2 May 2017. Information: https://univis.univie.ac.at/ausschreibungstellensuche/flow/bew_ausschreibung-flow?_flowExecutionKey=_cAAC711CD-CC28-9FAE-FF85-68E6D4304812_k6C7C57FA-485F-8257-0819-B5A9CD0B59FF&tid=62258.28

 

7. GTOT Prizes 2018 for Outstanding Theses and Dissertations in the Fields of Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies

The Society for Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (GTOT) is inviting applications from anyone who completed her/his thesis/dissertation in these fields between 1 September 2016 and 1 May 2018. Papers in German, English and French are accepted.

Deadline for application: 1 May 2018. Information: http://gtot.org/files/GTOT-Preis-Ausschreibung_03042017_eng.pdf
 

 

8. Call for Contributions: Minorities and Identity Formation in Iran: From the Achaemenids to the Islamic Republic

Dear Collegues,

Together with Josef Wiesehöfer I am planning to edit a volume on Minorities and Identity Formation in Iran. I organized a conference workshop in Vienna last year bearing the same title and was approached by I. B. Tauris to edit a volume. If you are interested in contributing an article, please read the attached abstract carefully. Contributions have to refer to the theoretical frame established in the abstract. Please be so kind to send your requests and abstracts to the following e-mail address:

submissions@islam.uni-kiel.de

Thank you!

Looking forward to your proposals, A. Pistor-Hatam

 

Prof. Dr. Anja Pistor-Hatam
Seminar für Orientalistik der Christian-Albrechts-Universität Leibnizstr. 10 24118 Kiel

 

 

 

9. The Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Leiden, is looking for two PhD candidates in Central Asian / Middle Eastern Studies. Applications must be received no later than 30 April 2017. For details see:

http://werkenbij.leidenuniv.nl/vacatures/phd-posities/17-050.html

 

 

 

10. Islamic School of Art has organized three ten-days of academic holiday courses on “The Heritage of Islamic Persian Architecture” on July 2-11, 2017, “World of Persian Carpet” on 25 July – 3 August, 2017, “Philosophy of Islamic Art” on 24 August – 2 September, 2017, in Iran.  It is our great pleasure to invite you to join us in any or all three courses.

These courses are going to be held in five cities of Tehran, Isfahan, Kashan, Yazd and Qom.

 

For more detailed information about the program and the fees see http://www.isoacourses.com/

 

 

 

11. Negotiating Ethnic & Religious Identities

Midwest Association for Middle East and Islamic Studies 2017 Annual Conference

http://www2.indstate.edu/mameis/

April 21, 2017

University of Louisville

Shumaker, Rm. 139

 

9-10:30 Muslim Identity in the Spiritual Realm 

 

Bradley Bowman, University of Louisville

From Acolyte to Ṣaḥābī: The Curious Conversion of Salmān al Fārisī and the Monks Who Guide Him to Islam

 

Matthew Niemi, Indiana University-Bloomington

Judging by what God has Revealed: Din in 7th-century Arabia

 

Gregory S. Hutcheson University of Louisville

Negotiating the Multiconfessional in Medieval Iberian Law

 

10:30-11:00 Coffee/Tea Break 

 

11:00-12:30 Identity and Empire in Iran 

 

Marian Smith, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

‘Abd Allah Hātifī’s Tīmūr-nāma: Observations on the Dispersed Manuscript Corpus of a Late Timurid Epic

 

Rosemary Stanfield-Johnson, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Storytelling and Identity in Safavid Iran

 

James Gustafson, Indiana State University

The Ecology of Empire in Qajar Iran

 

12:30-1:30 Lunch 

 

2:00-3:00 Exploring Turkish Identities during Empire and Republic 

 

Brian Van Wyck, Michigan State University

Transmitting Turkishness in the Diaspora: Turkish Teachers and Imams in Germany, 1961-2017

 

Gül Aldıkaçtı Marshall, University of Louisville

Negotiating Transnational Feminist Activism: The Significance of Multiple Platforms for Turkish Feminists

 

3:00-3:15 Coffee/Tea Break 

 

3:15-4:15 War, Displacement, and Relocation: Identity in Transition 

 

James Tallon, Lewis University

Albanian Identity at the End of Empire

 

Jusuf Salih, University of Dayton

Catholicism, Islam and Albanianess as Collective Queries Among Kosovars

 

4:15-4:30 Closing Remarks 

James Tallon, Lewis University

 

James M. Gustafson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of History – Modern Middle East
Association for Iranian Studies Council, 2017-19
Faculty Senator, 2016-18

Indiana State University

621 Chestnut St., Terre Haute, IN 47809

Explosion hits Syrian evacuation convoy in Aleppo

An explosion near a bus convoy waiting to enter the Syrian city of Aleppo killed or wounded several people on Saturday, pro-government media outlets, pro-opposition activists and a monitor reported. A military media unit run by Damascus ally Hezbollah said a suicide attacker had detonated a car bomb near the convoy.

See also BBC News