Archive for 2017

1.International PhD Students Workshop, Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies, Pisa, 30 November – 1 December 2017

This workshop is open to PhD students working on research projects dealing either with Middle East and North Africa countries, or nearby areas inhabited by Muslim populations, such as the Horn of Africa and Western India, or regions characterized by immigrants coming from those countries.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 May 2017. Information: http://www.sesamoitalia.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Workshop-internazionale-dottorandi_ENG.pdf

2. Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2017/18, Orient-Institut Beirut (Max Weber Foundation)

The fellowship will be granted for up to 12 months, beginning 15 September 2017 (or later this year). Requirements: Excellent research project; PhD in a region related discipline; excellent command of Arabic and English; etc.

Deadline for application: 15 June 2017. Information: http://www.orient-institut.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Ausschreibung_017.pdf

3. Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Middle Easter and North African Studies, Stockholm University

In order to qualify the applicant must have demonstrated teaching proficiency, gained from teaching Middle Eastern and North African studies, and have a doctoral degree  in Social Sciences and/or History within MENA Studies. Good knowledge of modern Arabic is a requirement. Other well-developed language skills are also qualifying.

Deadline for application: 5 June 2017. Information: http://www.su.se/english/about/vacancies/vacancies-new-list?rmpage=job&rmjob=3311&rmlang=UK
 

4. 40 Fellowships in the School of Historical Studies (Focus Islamic World), Princeton, Academic Year 2018/2019

Scholars focused on intellectual inquiry are free from teaching and other university obligations.  Each year scholars from around the world apply to come to the Institute to pursue their own research.

Deadline for application: 1 November 2017. Information: http://www.hs.ias.edu/mem_announcement
 

5. Gerda Henkel Foundation Research Scholarships: “Islam, the Modern Nation State and Transnational Movements”

Applications are invited by German and foreign academics in the fields of historical humanities who are Postdocs or scholars with Post Doctoral Lecture Qualification and who will work on a specific project on her/his own. The funding period is generally between one and 24 months.

Deadline for application: 24 May 2017. Information: https://iismm.hypotheses.org/26154
 

6. Call for Abstracts for the Routledge “International Handbook of Religion in Global Society”

This book will capitalise on the emergence of a new paradigm, which considers religion in the 21st century as globally interconnected and mediated by new geopolitical and market logics. This volume will showcase new approaches to religion, which work across boundaries of religious tradition, academic discipline, and region.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 July 2017. Information: https://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/1545/files/2017/04/Religion-in-Global-Society-Call-for-Abstract-Final-May-2017.pdf

Tobacco, Eurasian Trade, and the Early Modern Iranian Economy

This article focuses on the development of the tobacco industry in Iran during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It uses this discussion as an entry point to inquire about the early modern Iranian economy. Using a wide range of primary and secondary sources, it makes several historiographical interventions.

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1.Stanford University, Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies/Mediterranean Studies Forum

Associate Director

https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=54884

2. Curator of Islamic Collections, Chester Beatty Library

https://h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=54881

3. MA Intellectual Encounters of the Islamicate World

The aim of the MA Intellectual Encounters of the Islamicate World is to provide international graduate students with a thorough understanding of the deep and diverse links between the Muslim, Jewish and Christian intellectual contributions during the medieval period. The program is characterised by a strongly research-driven, interdisciplinary and interreligious approach with an emphasis on primary texts in original language (Arabic). Students will be trained and mentored by internationally renowned guest lecturers who are counted among the leading experts in their respective fields of research.
The primarily web-based MA program also includes three face-to-face sessions in Cordoba (prov.) and Berlin per academic year during which the students and teachers will actually come together for discussion, teaching and examination. Freie Universität Berlin offers this one-year, full-time MA program of 60 ECTS to an expected number of 20 students, many of whom are from the region of the Middle East. The language of instruction is English.

Applications are now open! The application period is from April 15th to May 31st! Please follow the link in the attached call for application.

For more information: www.ihiw.de/master
For direct enquiries: ieiw@geschkult.fu-berlin.de

4. SÉminaire ‘SociÉtÉs, politiques et cultures

du monde iranien’

Jeudi 4 Mai 2017, 17h-19h

Alexandre Papas, chargé de recherche au CNRS, CETOBAC

« Nouvelles recherches sur l’hétérodoxie soufie en Asie centrale du XVe au XXe siècle »

Je présenterai un ouvrage en cours d’achèvement intitulé Ainsi parlait le derviche. Islam, langue et marginalité en Asie centrale (XVe-XXe siècle). Autour de la figure du marginal à la fois social et religieux, le livre étudie cinq cas qui se suivent dans le temps : les milieux interlopes à Hérat au XVe siècle à partir d’un portrait de la ville en turc oriental ; une communauté soufie rurale à Khotan au XVIe-XVIIe siècle décrite dans une hagiographie manuscrite ; un poète nihiliste d’Aksu au XVIIIe siècle connu grâce à un unique recueil de vers vindicatifs ; des anachorètes tardifs cachés dans des grottes à Samarcande, au Manguistaou et dans le Fergana, dont les traces subsistent sur le terrain et au détour de quelques sources persanes ; les groupes de chantres itinérants (maddahs) sur les routes d’Ouzbékistan et du Xinjiang au XIXe et au début du XXe siècle, documentés par des enquêtes ethnographiques ou philologiques russes et ouïgoures. Outre les aspects propres à la mystique musulmane, une attention particulière est portée à la question de la langue, notamment argotique, et des différents régimes linguistiques appliqués par les derviches sur le temps long. Plus largement, l’étude cherche à expliquer comment et pourquoi des formes hétérodoxes de soufisme se sont maintenues en Asie centrale bien au-delà de l’époque médiévale à laquelle elles sont souvent reléguées.

Marc Toutant, chercheur post-doctoral, CETOBAC

« Mīr ‘Alī Shīr Nawā’ī. Interprète et passeur du legs persan classique »

Mīr ‘Alī Shīr Nawā’ī (Hérat, 1441-1501) est l’une des plus grandes figures du monde turco-iranien. Homme d’État et littérateur timouride, son œuvre résume le legs de la civilisation turcopersane et n’a cessé d’irriguer les belles lettres, la pensée religieuse et, plus largement, la culture comme la langue turque d’Asie centrale. Si son œuvre reste aujourd’hui encore méconnue en Occident, l’influence qu’elle a pu exercer à l’époque sur les littérateurs des autres cours (moghole, safavide, et ottomane notamment) est encore moins étudiée. Il faut cependant rappeler, par exemple, que ses poèmes composés en persan ont été pris comme modèles par les sultans ottomans pour la composition de leurs propres divans persans. C’est cette figure de « passeur », mais aussi d’« interprète » de la tradition religieuse et littéraire persane, que cette présentation s’attachera à mettre en avant à l’occasion de l’exposé des dernières avancées de la recherche sur l’interprétation et la réception de son corpus.

Lieu : INALCO, 65 rue des Grands Moulins, salle 5.12, 75013 Paris.

Organisateurs :

Matteo De Chiara (INALCO), Denis Hermann (CNRS), Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3 Sorbonne nouvelle), Julien Thorez (CNRS).

5. Arabic Codicology: the Islamic Manuscript Heritage in the El Escorial Collection (3-7 July: El Escorial)

A new summer course on Arabic Codicology: the Islamic Manuscript Heritage in the El Escorial Collection will be offerd inSan Lorenzo de El Escorial (Spain) from 3-7 July 2017.

International researchers, MA and PhD students, professionals related with the Arts, the History and the libraries can attend to acquire or improve their codicological skills with a practical approach studying the most important collection of Arabic Manuscript in Spain.

Web: http://arabiccodicologycourse.weebly.com/
Email: mss.arabicscript@gmail.com

6. Lecture – “Spices, Silks, and Slaves: Travel by Land in the Medieval Islamic World” – York Islamic Art Circle, 9 May

by Fozia Parveen

York Islamic Art Circle “Spices, Silks, and Slaves: Travel by Land in the Medieval Islamic World” with Professor Scott Redford (SOAS) on Tuesday 9th May 2017 from 6:30pm – 8:00pm at the Bowland Auditorium (Berrick Saul Building), University of York, UK

In the 13-14th centuries, the central Islamic lands witnessed a resurgence in the building of caravanserais. Going well beyond the functional accommodation of humans, their beasts of burden, and their cargos, these caravanserais are splendid manifestations of the power of the state projected into the countryside. This talk will examine caravanserais, and other examples of the architecture of travel like bridges and roads, along with the mechanics of medieval Islamic travel. Entry is by free ticket only available at https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/public-lectures/summer-2017/spices-silks/

7. Workshop: “The Concept of Freedom and the Concept of Justice in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 10-12 May 2017

Registration: Contact Dr. Katja Thörner (katja.thoerner@fau.de). Information: http://www.orientalistik.uni-erlangen.de/veranstaltungen/kcid-the-concept-of-freedom-and-the-concept-of-justice.shtml
 

8. International Conference: “Rethinking Halal: Genealogy, Current Trends, and New Interpretations”, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, 24-25 April 2018

We invite scholars and researchers to speak on the genealogy of halal since Muslim religious scholars started to instruct a written knowledgeable debate on “halal” and to unravel Muslim social practices towards halal.

Deadline for abstracts: 8 January 2018. Information: https://de.scribd.com/document/344316016/Halal-International-Conference-on-23-25-April-2018-at-UCL-Louvain-la-Neuve-Belgium
 

9. Open Rank Professorship in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Bern

In terms of research, the candidate should demonstrate at least two historically informed areas of work, one of which should be devoted to present day societal issues and at least one of which should focus on the MENA region.

Deadline for application: 21 May 2017. Information: http://www.jobs.ch/de/stellenangebote/detail/7490023
 

10. Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2017/18, Orient-Institut Beirut

Requirements: Excellent research project; PhD in a region related discipline; excellent command of Arabic and English, basic command of German; research design must convincingly project results within the prospected period.

Deadline for application: 15 June 2017. Information: http://www.orient-institut.org/main/announcement-detail/post-doc-fellowship-2017/
 

11. Middle East Summer School at SOAS

An intensive five-week summer school programme which includes a choice of courses from the following:

• Beginners Arabic (Level 1)
• Beginners Arabic (Level 2)
• Beginners Persian (Level 1)
• Government and Politics of the Middle East
• Culture and Society in the Middle East

https://www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/summerschool/

Maria Szuppe has announced the death of Jean Calmard, aged 85, on 2 May.
Jean was a wonderful scholar and great friend.

State Repression and Religious Conflict: The Perils of the State Clampdown on the Shi’a Minority in Nigeria

In Nigeria, there is an increasing population of the followers of Shi’a Islam, which is largely promoted by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) led by Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. Given its anti-state ideology and anarchical conducts, there have been a series of clashes between the Shi’a group and the Nigerian state.

Spotlight on Bahrain’s Human Rights Record: Bahrain Undergoes 3rd Cycle UPR Review – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain

Today, the United Nations Human Rights Council conducted Bahrain’s 3rd Cycle Universal Period Review, in which states issued recommendations to the Government of Bahrain to improve its human rights record. Dozens of states gave recommendations that encompassed thematic issue areas ranging from improving religious freedom to halting executions, from strengthening women’s …

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Shia Course

Shi’ism is considered as the second largest denomination of Islam, and more than 40% of the world’s Shi’ites live in Iran. The main topic of this program is to focus upon Twelver Shi’ism; however, participants in this course will also learn about other main branches of Shi’ism.

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.