Archive for 2017

1.Position: Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies (Islam in Asia/Asian Religious Traditions), University of Glasgow

Job purpose: To undertake high-quality research and research supervision, to make an active and high level contribution in the School of Critical Studies in the College of Arts to teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level in Islamic Studies and/or Asian Traditions, and to undertake administration as requested by the Head of School.

Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent

Deadline for application: 31 August 2017.

Information: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BDH613/lecturer-in-theology-and-religious-studies-islam-in-asia-asian-religious-traditions/

2. Position, Assistant Professor of History (South Asian History
specialization), Salisbury University

For details, see https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=55345

Salisbury University, History
Assistant Professor of History (South Asian History specialization)

The Department of History at Salisbury University is accepting applications
for the position of Assistant Professor of History. This is a full-time
tenure-track position.

Area of Specialization: South Asian History. Ideal candidate will
complement existing strengths of the department.

Primary Job Duties: Teaching load is 3-3 to include World Civilizations,
upper-division undergraduate, and graduate courses for our M.A. in History
program. Salisbury University faculty members are expected to engage in
appropriate levels of scholarly activity, student advisement, and service
as well as utilize an effective teaching style that supports a diverse
student body.

Website:
http://www.salisbury.edu/hr/careers/employment-opportunities.html?id=3338&e=faculty&t=facu…
<http://www.salisbury.edu/hr/careers/employment-opportunities.html?id=3338&e=faculty&t=faculty-listings>
Posting Date: 08/21/2017
Closing Date 11/01/2017

3. Lecturer in Islamic History

The University of Edinburgh seeks to appoint a Lecturer in Islamic History, based in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) (http://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/islamic-middle-eastern) and teaching within IMES.

The lecturer will provide teaching and dissertation supervision at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and will commence in January 2018 or as soon as possible thereafter. The successful candidate will have expertise in the study of Islamic history, 500-1500 CE.

The role open-ended, is grade UE08 and attracts an annual salary of £39,992 to £47,722 for 35 hours, each week.

The closing date for receipt of applications is no later than 5.00pm (GMT) on Friday 22nd September 2017. We anticipate presentations and interviews will be held on Thursday 9th November 2017.

See: https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=041030

Informal queries can be emailed for the attention of Dr Nacim Pak-Shiraz, Head of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, at llc@ed.ac.uk.

4. The Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS), the policy
research institute of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS),
is *hiring a Director of Research.*

We would be very grateful if you could circulate the job posting within
your networks. This is an excellent field opportunity for academics and
analysts with an interest in the Middle East, Iraq, and the Kurdistan
Region.

The complete job posting is available here:
http://auis.edu.krd/content/director-research
<http://auis.edu.krd/content/director-research>.

The Director of Research will be expected to manage and contribute to
ongoing research projects and events and to develop its research
portfolio. The Director of Research will also be in charge of IRIS’s
fellowship program. Finally, depending on interest and qualifications,
upon request candidates for Director of Research may receive
consideration for a joint faculty appointment at AUIS.

Ideal candidates would have:

* A graduate (Masters or Ph.D.) degree in a relevant field (Middle
East Studies, International Relations, Political Science, Economics,
Sociology, History, etc.)
* Minimum 1 year of experience in research project coordination/
management (including management of a research team)
* Knowledge of Iraq and/ or Iraqi Kurdistan and the main policy
issues and debates
* Prior field experience in Iraq and/or the Middle East region
* Excellent communications skills, both written and oral, in English
(Kurdish and/or Arabic are assets)
* Experience in donor reporting
* Teaching experience as a Teaching Assistant or Lecturer in a
relevant field (if the candidate wishes to be considered for a faculty
appointment)

Interested candidates should submit CV and cover letter via the AUIS
online application system <http://auis.edu.krd/content/apply-auis-job>.

Questions about the position can be sent to iris@auis.edu.krd
<mailto:iris@auis.edu.krd>.

5. Call for Papers: “Religious? Secular? Re-thinking Islam and Space in Europe”
University of Cambridge, 30th November – 1st December 2017

Call for Papers
We invite scholars to present their work for a two-day inter-disciplinary workshop, “Religious? Secular? Re-thinking Islam and Space in Europe”.

This workshop offers a much-needed opportunity to evaluate questions of space within the study of Islam in Europe. It will take place at the University of Cambridge on 30th November – 1st December, bringing together established academic speakers and postgraduate researchers.

The workshop will be inter-disciplinary in character, connecting fields such as religious studies, geography, politics, anthropology, and architecture. We will look to tackle the subject both in breadth (in terms of content and concepts under discussion) and depth (with particular, but not exclusive, interests in German and UK contexts).

Confirmed keynote speakers are Professor Kim Knott (Lancaster University), Professor Riem Spielhaus (University of Göttingen), and Dr Marian Burchardt (University of Leipzig).

Overview
From identity-framed accounts of territory to contests over mosque construction, questions associated with Islam and space underlie major academic and public sphere debates in contemporary Europe (Fadil 2013; Hopkins and Gale 2008; DeHanas and Zacharias 2011; Baker 2017). The extent of these enquiries is broad, affecting scholarly topics such as place, networks, and the dynamics of identity, as well as familiar policy issues such as values, migration, and political participation (Amir-Moazami 2018; Knott 2005; Minkenberg 2014; Walters 2010). Most recently, both the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and supporters of Brexit have made the presence of Muslims in Europe a key point of their rhetoric. At the same time, ever more sophisticated studies of “local Islams” try to point out the differences of Muslim life worlds varying not only depending on national and ethnic backgrounds, but also with regards to spatially refined levels of analysis such as neighbourhoods, networks, or single mosques (Schiffauer 2014).

The premise of this workshop is that the place of “space” within the study of Islam in Europe has lacked systematic examination. We are therefore looking to bring together researchers tackling questions of space in this field from a range of disciplinary and thematic perspectives, in order to explore challenges and suggest solutions for theoretical, conceptual, and methodological debates associated with the topic.

Proposals
We invite proposals that engage with one or more of the following questions:
– What theories, concepts and methods are most useful in order to investigate the intersections of Islam, secularism/secularity and different dimensions of space in Europe?
– What are the benefits and limitations of utilising space as an analytical lens in the study of Islam and Muslims in Europe?
– How does space connect with other topics associated with the study of Islam in Europe, such as conversion, the state, ethnicity, or the family?
– How should researchers analyse the spatial implications of major scholarly challenges such as debates over Islamic exceptionalism, or the contestation of binaries (e.g., “religious”/”secular”, “public”/”private”)?
– How do particular research contexts require the use of different space-related concepts, such as territory, network, scale, dispositif, or assemblage?
– How can researchers navigate methodological challenges in the study of Islam and space in Europe?
– Why might symbolic and material contestations and/or collaborations be framed in terms of notions of space, and is space an adequate analytical tool in these instances?
– How should we study the role(s) of governmentality in spaces marked as “religious” and “non-religious” (e.g., spheres, publics)?
– How can a critical evaluation of the categories of “Islam”, “Religion”, “Secularism”, and/or “Europe” inform the study of space?
– What can material and sensory approaches (e.g., architecture, media, and orality) to the study of Islam and space reveal?
– How do insights gained within Gender Studies and Postcolonial Theory with regard to agency, power and (subversive) knowledge production relate to a space-sensitive analysis of Islam in Europe?

Format

The format will involve distributing workshop papers (c. 2500-3000 words) two weeks ahead of the workshop (16th November), in order to ensure in-depth engagement with every contribution. Following the workshop, participants will be invited to submit developed papers for a special issue of a leading journal.

To Apply…
To apply, please send an abstract (max 400 words) and biography (max 200 words) to islam.space.workshop@gmail.com. Abstracts from postgraduate students and early career researchers are especially welcome, and there will be some expenses available towards speakers’ accommodation and travel. The closing date for proposals is 17th September, with decisions communicated by 25th September.

Sponsors
We are most grateful for the sponsorship of DAAD Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies (www.daad.cam.ac.uk) and Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies (http://ciris.org.uk/).

Organising Committee

Adela Taleb (Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University Berlin), Tobias Müller (Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge), Chris Moses (Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge).

For any queries, please contact us at: islam.space.workshop@gmail.com.

6. New Online Resources on the History of Kuwait

A series of archival documents that contain a wealth of information about Kuwait during the 1930s and 1940s have recently been digitized and uploaded on to the Qatar Digital Library. These documents are preserved in a file from the archive of the British Political Agency in Kuwait (now a part of the India Office Records) and consist of several reports covering a broad range of topics including Kuwait’s geography, history, flora and fauna, climate, leading personalities and political structure. In addition to what the files themselves discuss, as colonial records, they also illustrate the extent of British influence in Kuwait at this time, as well as provide a rich illustration of how Kuwait was conceptualised and recorded by British officials that were based in the country

http://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2017/08/new-online-resources-on-the-history-of-kuwait.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29

Hartford Seminary

This course provides a historical study of the development of Shiʿi Islam against the backdrop of key events such the succession crisis and Occultation ( Ghayba), and the formation of Shiʿi states such as the Buwayhids, Safavids, Qajars and Modern Iran.

Africa Federation Archives – Ithna-Asheri Students’ Union of East Africa at Aligarh Muslim University, India -1965 to 1974

Africa Federation Archives – Ithna-Asheri Students’ Union of East Africa at Aligarh Muslim University, India – 1965 to 1974 – French (PDF, 620KB)

Salvation and Suffering in Ottoman Stories of the Prophets

Introduction: salvation history and stories of the prophets The Islamic genre of the stories of the prophets (qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ) derives from narrative exegesis of the various references to biblical and Arabian prophets in the Qurʾān.

Includes a discussion of Fuẓūlī Baghdādī (d. 963/1556).

SMC Statement on Barcelona Attack

Terrorism is a curse of our times that distresses the hearts of all upstanding human beings who inhabit our world. The cruelty of these assassins, has yet again, brought terror and trepidation to all, world over.The Barcelona attack appears to be yet another manifestation of the intolerant and bigoted ideology of considering one self superior than another.

1.Call for papers

International conference on ‘Social Policy in the Islamic World’

Tehran, Iran, 12-13 May 2018

Allameh Tabataba’i University (the largest public university specialized in humanities and social sciences in Iran) will hold the first international conference on ‘Social Policy in the Islamic World’ (http://spiw.atu.ac.ir) in May 2018 in partnership with a group of well-known academic institutions from around the world. Lack of a comprehensive social policy agenda is seriously felt amid profound political upheavals in Muslim countries; hence this conference represents a timely response by the academic community.

With a population of about two billion people, Muslims are predominating in nearly 40 countries around the world from Morocco and Algeria through Iran and Tajikistan to Malaysia and Indonesia and still form a considerable part of other mixed societies. One of the most outstanding features of Islamic social teachings revolves around social welfare concepts, principles, as well as strategies and solutions. However, it is not possible to portray a single picture of social policy in Muslim societies given the vast diversity of historical, political, and economic circumstances they have experienced as well as various cultural characteristics they possess. Despite these diversities they have to respond to more or less similar issues and problems with regard to family and gender, inequality and poverty, education, employment and health, housing and social care, as well as juvenile delinquency and criminal justice, etc. Hence, there is an important question on how do they deal with these issues and what is the status and role of Islamic teachings in such social policies. This international conference is aimed to address these broad questions and therefore welcomes papers dealing with a wide range of issues outlined in the conference themes. While focusing on this specific agenda, the conference themes have been designed in a way to cover a broad range of related topics from a multidisciplinary perspective and therefore welcome both individual papers and closed panels from researches engaged in various aspects of social policy.

Conference Themes

1. Historical developments of social policy in Muslim societies
2. Dominant social policy approaches in various policy domains (social security, family and gender policy, inequality and poverty reduction, employment, education, health, housing, social care, environment, social problems and criminal justice policy, etc.)
3. Social policy arrangements regarding the main social policy target groups (children, youth, women, old people, people with disabilities, laborers, immigrants)
4. Emergent patterns of social policies as a consequence of recent political developments (like the Arab Uprising) in Islamic countries
5. State and non-state (NGOs, Charities, Social movements, etc.) forms of social welfare action in Muslim societies
6. Eclectic adoption of elements in mainstream welfare ideologies (social democratic, conservative, neoliberal, etc.) and its relationship to Islamic culture and thoughts regarding social policy and welfare
7. Comparative perspectives between Islam and other religious approaches to social welfare
8. The relationship between social policy failure and the rise of extremism
9. Public attitudes toward social policies among Muslims
10. Globalization and role of international organizations in social policies of Muslim societies and local reactions
11. Status of Co-operations and collaborations in the field of social policy among Muslim societies
12. Appraising systems of financing social policy in Muslim societies
13. Evaluation of successful and unsuccessful social policies in Muslim societies
14. Social entrepreneurship and social innovation for social welfare
15. Local social policies in capital cities of Muslim countries
16. The relation between social policy values, principles, and instruments and Islamic teachings
17. Linkages of social policy interventions with the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals
18. Social policies towards Muslim minorities in Western countries
19. Social policies towards non-Muslim minorities in Muslim majority countries
20. Influence of local and transnational Muslim social actors on shaping social policies towards Muslim minorities in the West

Deadline for Submission of abstracts (and proposals for closed panels) is 2017-10-10

Travel grants

Please visit the following links:

http://spiw.atu.ac.ir/page_569.html

http://spiw.atu.ac.ir/page_570.html

Queries

Please do not hesitate to email us (spiw@atu.ac.ir) if you need any further information which could not be found in the conference website.

2. Illumination and decoration in Chinese Qur’ans

http://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2017/08/illumination-and-decoration-in-chinese-qurans.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29

3. ART IN TRANSLATION is pleased to announce the publication of a special issue Spain and Orientalism, vol. 9:1 (2017), co-edited by Claudia Hopkins (University of Edinburgh) and Anna McSweeney (Warburg Institute). For a limited time only the entire issue has been made available for free at this link:
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfat20/9/1

This is the first English-language journal issue dedicated to Spanish Orientalism in art and visual culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. The peer-reviewed articles, drawn from a panel at the Association of Art Historians conference in 2016, examine Spain’s complex relationship with her Islamic past and with Morocco, through art, architecture, photography and material culture. They address a range of topics including patterns of collecting, the reproduction of Islamic art and architecture for private and public spaces, the role of Spain’s Islamic heritage in the construction of a national identity as exemplified in Spanish exhibition pavilions, the intersections between art and colonialism, and the role of Spanish art and visual culture in the wider debates about Orientalism.

4. National Chengchi University – Assistant Professor and above,
Department Of Turkish Language and Culture
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=55286

5. 4th International Conference of the Transatlantic Research Group
In partnership with
Global Institute of Commerce and Technology, Abuja, Nigeria/Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Gregory University Press, Uturu, Nigeria
Africa and Asia Encounters: Historical and Contemporary Perspective

28-30 June 2018
Venue: Public Service Institute of Nigeria, Abuja.

Please submit a 250 to 300-word abstract and a 150-word biography latest by 1 February 2018. The biographical information should mention the presenter’s name and title, affiliation, email address, relevant publications.

http://transatlanticresearchgroup.org/index.php/current-call

6. Conference: “Re-thinking Nationalism, Sectarianism, and Ethno-Religious Mobilisation in the Middle East”, University of Oxford, 26-28 January 2018

There will be a focus session on “Religion and Sectarianism in the Islamic World” in addition to other themes: New theoretical thinking on ethno-religious borders and boundary making, including processes of minoritisation and majoritisation, and the role of religion in ethnic mobilisation and conflict; impact of new technologies and media, etc.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2017. Information: http://www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/content/call-papers-re-thinking-nationalism-sectarianism-and-ethno-religious-mobilisation-middle
 

7. Assistant Professor, History of the Islamic World, Baruch College, City University of New York

The position is to begin in August 2018. Specialization is open, but preference will be given to candidates whose research focuses on the Middle East and/or North Africa. Qualifications: Ph.D. degree in area(s) of experience or equivalent. Also required are the ability to teach successfully, demonstrated scholarship or achievement, and ability to cooperate with others for the good of the institution.

Review of applications will begin 16 October 2017. Information: http://www.aaihs.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Assistant-Professor-Islamic-World-History-August-2017.pdf
 

8. Assistant Professor and above, Department of Turkish Language and Culture, National Chengchi University, Taiwan

Qualification: Ph.D. in Turkish Turkology teaching or related fields. Applicants should be able to offer courses either in Turkish, English or Chinese.

Deadline for application: 1 November 2017. Information: http://turkish.nccu.edu.tw/news/news.php?Sn=443

9. Research Associate for Project on the Theoretical Reconfiguration of Arab Identities, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

A full-time Research Associate with Ph.D. is being sought for a research project on “Transcultural Identities: Solidaristic Action and Contemporary Arab Social Movements.” At least 2-3 years work experience related to the field of research required.

Deadline for application: 30 August 2017. Information: http://www.dohainstitute.edu.qa/EN/Careers/Pages/Apply.aspx?JobId=DIAC35
 

10. Professor Peter Sluglett passed away on 10 August 2017

The Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore announced the death of Prof. Peter Sluglett, the former president of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA):

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Professor Peter Sluglett on August 10, 2017. Prof. Sluglett served as Director at the Middle East Institute from 2014-2016. A historian of the 19th and 20th century Middle East, he joined the Institute as a Visiting Research Professor in September 2011, having spent much of his career at the University of Durham (1974-1993) and subsequently at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City (1994-2011).

Prof. Sluglett will be remembered most fondly by all of us. Our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.”

Saudi Arabia’s hidden war

The Saudis have now destroyed the last building in the heart of a Shia town in the east – the centre of growing unrest which the authorities are blaming on ‘terrorist’ groups. Meanwhile dozens of people have died in the clashes and thousands are being displaced as their homes are…

Death sentences of Shiites point to limits of Saudi reforms

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince hopes to transform the kingdom and modernize society, but the planned execution of 14 Shiite protesters charged with violence against security forces suggests the government’s handling of sectarian tensions and unrest remains unchanged.

Awamiya: Inside the devastated Saudi Shia town – BBC News

The town of Awamiya has been devastated by fighting between government forces and Shia militants.

See this video also on Youtube.

For more, see analysis by ADHRB.