Archive for January 11th, 2018

1.Call for Papers

Heritage Revisited – Rediscovering Islamic Objects in Enlightenment Europe

27.-28. September 2018, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Universität Wien

Mattia Guidetti (Universität Wien); Isabelle Dolezalek (SFB 980 „Episteme in Bewegung“, Freie Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin)

Themes and questions addressed may include the following:

• How was pre-existing knowledge on Islamic objects in Europe dissected and reassessed? Which narratives and legends circulated on these objects? How was new knowledge communicated?
• Orientalists travelled to see objects and exchanged letters discussing the Islamic material collected in Europe. Institutions interested in Oriental culture bourgeoned. Who were the scholars involved? What were the networks of scholars or institutions established or reinforced through the process of the “discovery” of Islamic objects in Europe?
• The 17^th/18^th -century interest in such objects entailed copious documentation. What were the materials produced (drawings, descriptions, copies of the objects…)? How did this genre of documentation differ from previous ones? How did it impact upon the subsequent history of the objects?
• Islamic objects that were now freed from fictitious attributions to saints or famous Latin kings, for instance, were perceived, touched and manipulated in new ways. Once the objects were “neutralized”, the process of musealisation started. Which institutions were involved and how did this process shape our modern perception of the objects? Was there any resistance, for example from the Church, to the demystification process of the objects?
• The act of reading inscriptions and “deciphering” the objects was not a neutral one, it entailed misreading and misinterpretation. How did this affect the reception of such objects in art historical literature and institutions?
• When looking at the rediscovery of Islamic origins and the subsequent reclassification processes of objects that were unquestioned parts of local heritage for centuries, are we also looking at a stage in European history when an explicit exclusion of Islamic objects from European heritage took place? What is the intellectual context of this shaping of national and European identities?

Abstracts no longer than 300 words should be addressed to following addresses by 1^st February 2018: dolezalek@tu-berlin.de and mattia.guidetti@univie.ac.at

2. Scholarships and Awards Available at the Centre for Iranian Studies (CIS), SOAS, University of London

Information: https://www.soas.ac.uk/registry/scholarships/

3. Articles for “Journal for Iranian Studies”

Deadline for abstracts: 1 March 2018. Information: https://goo.gl/ByJdcm and

https://goo.gl/d44wNV

contact: m.zahid@arabiangcis.com

4. Pilot Project Grants from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq

We welcome applications in support of research on Iraq, in all fields of the arts, humanities or social sciences, concerned with any time period from prehistory to the medieval era to the present day.

Deadline for application: 1 February 2018. Information: http://www.bisi.ac.uk/content/pilot-project-grants

5. CfP: The International Congress on the Development and Exaltation of Knowledge and the Sciences in the Light of Revealed Rationality. 5-6 May 2018

See: http://icajcongress.ir/en/

– Deadline for submitting abstracts (of no more than 300 words): 10 February 2018

– UT Scholarships: The University of Tehran will be offering some scholarships for foreign graduate students to cover the registration fee and part of their traveling expenses and accommodations. To apply for a scholarship, please send a separate letter expressing financial need as well as travel expenses.

6. Nabia Abbott’s books at the Oriental Institute, Univ of Chicago

Books by Nabia Abbott available for download from the Oriental Institute

• Oriental Institute Publications 50: The Rise of the North Arabic Script and Its Kur’anic Development, with a Full Description of the Kur’an Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute, by Nabia Abbott (University of Chicago Press, 1939)

• Oriental Institute Publications 75: Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri I: Historical Texts, by Nabia Abbott (University of Chicago Press, 1957)

• Oriental Institute Publications 76: Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri II: Qur’anic Commentary and Tradition, by Nabia Abbott (University of Chicago Press, 1967)

• Oriental Institute Publications 77: Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri III: Language and Literature, by Nabia Abbott (University of Chicago Press, 1972)

• SAOC 15: The Kurrah Papyri from Aphrodito in the Oriental Institute. Nabia Abbott. Originally published in 1938.

• SAOC 16. The Monasteries of the Fayyum. Nabia Abbott. 1937.

• Two Queens of Baghdad: Mother and Wife of Harun al-Rashid. Nabia Abbott. Originally published in 1946.

• Aishah: The Beloved of Mohammed. Nabia Abbott. Originally published in 1942.

Search at: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oriental-institute-publications-oip

and: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/islamic-studies

and: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/miscellaneous-publications

7. Women of Islamic Studies

Women of Islamic Studies is a crowdsourced database of women scholars who work on Muslims and Islam. This ongoing project is in its beta version. Once sufficient data has been collected I will partner with a university for a more stable home.

https://drkristianpetersen.com/women-of-islamic-studies/