Archive for December, 2018

Christmas in Lebanon: ‘Jesus Isn’t Only for the Christians’

Lebanon Dispatch BEIRUT – The Iranian cultural attaché stepped up to the microphone on a stage flanked by banners bearing the faces of Iran’s two foremost religious authorities: Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, and Ayatollah Khamenei, the current supreme leader.

SABS Christmas Visitations 2018

At this time, Christians across the world remember the birth of the Messiah Jesus Christ, may Peace and Blessings be upon him; one who was strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Muslims too recount the sacred teachings of this exalted Prophet.

Opinion | Yemen’s Threatened Cultural Heritage

The heartbreakingly destructive civil war in Yemen has put some of the world’s most treasured Islamic manuscripts in peril.

1.„Seminar for Arabian Studies”, British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (BFSA), University of Leiden, 11-13 July 2019

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international forum that meets annually for the presentation of the latest academic research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula from the earliest times to the present day or, in the case of political and social history, to the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922).

Deadline for abstracts: 28 February 2019. Information: https://www.thebfsa.org/the-2019-seminar/

2. Posts

a) PhD Position on Islamic Law, Contemporary Islamic Law in Muslim States and Islamic Family Law, Maastricht University

PhD researchers participate in the Maastricht University Graduate School of Law. They will prepare a PhD thesis in English or Dutch within the Faculty of Law’s research programme. Supervision will be provided by Prof. Susan Rutten, Professor of Islamic Family Law in a European Context.

Deadline for submitting a draft proposal: 15 January 2019. Information: https://www.academictransfer.com/nl/51315/phd-candidates-at-the-faculty-of-law; Contact: s.rutten@maastrichtuniversity.nl

b) Research Fellowships in the 2019-2020 Program of the Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School

These one-year fellowships are available for researchers at the pre-doctoral, post-doctoral and junior faculty level for research related to Middle Eastern governance and public policy. All fellowships carry a stipend. Citizens of all countries are invited to apply.

Deadline for application: 15 January 2019. Information: http://links.hks-belfercenter.mkt4851.com/servlet/MailView?ms=MjA3NDcxNzIS1&r=MjM2MzYyMzc5OTU1S0&j=MTQwMTI0MzAwOAS2&mt=1&rt=0

c) Postdoctoral Research Associate in Contemporary Politics in the Arab World, Princeton University

Applicants can be from the disciplines of history, politics, economics and international relations. The appointment will be for the year, September 1, 2019 through August 31, 2020. Candidates must hold the Ph.D.

Deadline for applications: 30 January 2019. Information: https://puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/apply/application.xhtml?listingId=9961

d) Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics/Middle East/North Africa, Virginia Tech

Candidates must have a research focus that involves comparative political analysis in the MENA region and demonstrated excellence in research. They also must have evidence of teaching effectiveness to meet the Department’s key teaching needs in its B.A. and M.A. programs. Teaching requirements for this position will be four courses a year. A PhD in Political Science or a closely related field is required by the time of appointment.

Review of applications start: 22 January 2019. Information: https://listings.jobs.vt.edu/postings/92715

e) Full-Time Continuing Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Arabic, College of the Holy Cross

The position is established for an initial term of three academic years, beginning in Fall 2019, and the appointment holds the rank of lecturer. The position will be reviewed for renewal in the second year of the term. If the position is re-approved for another three years, the holder of the position will be reviewed in the third year for reappointment. Candidates must have native or near native proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic; a master’s degree in Arabic language teaching.

Review of applications starts 1 February 2019. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/59022

f) Visiting Scholar Grants to Use the Archives at the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies

Funding for researchers – at all levels of their career from graduate students to senior scholars – working on early Arab diaspora and migration to work at the Khayrallah Center for a period of 1 to 2 weeks.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with no deadline. Information: https://lebanesestudies.ncsu.edu/awards/VisitingScholar.php

3. Arabic Summer Program at McGill University, Montreal, 7 June – 2 August 2019

Intensive and immersive summer program open to undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals. 170 in-class hours, 67 hours of extra-curriculars. Levels from absolute beginner to higher intermediate.

Deadline for registration: 1 March 2019. Information: https://www.mcgill.ca/arabic-summer

4. 6000 images archéologiques de la Syrie en libre accès

Au cours de l’été 2018, l’Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo) a mis en ligne sur MédiHAL plus de 6000 images archéologiques de la Syrie issues de ses fonds documentaires. Ce sont plus de 8500 images scientifiques qui sont aujourd’hui accessibles en libre accès dans la collection de l’Ifpo.

Information : http://www.ifporient.org/6000-images-archeologiques-de-la-syrie-en-libre-acces/

1.Gerlach Press titles on many current topics are available as eBooks from JSTOR, the leading and eBook provider.
More information on Gerlach Press eBooks on Middle East & Islamic Studies can be found here:
Direct Link to Gerlach Press at JSTOR:
https://tinyurl.com/y9nrnsjx
List of all Gerlach Press eBooks at JSTOR:
https://tinyurl.com/yccjeck8

2. Deadline extended

BRAIS 2019

The Sixth Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies

15 April – 16 April 2019

(Arrival and Registration from 14 April)

University of Nottingham

The deadline for abstracts has been extended until 6 January 2019

Call for panels and papers

Following BRAIS’s successful conferences in Edinburgh (2014), London (2015 and 2016), Chester (2017) and Exeter (2018), the organisers invite proposals for whole panels or individual papers for the Sixth Annual Conference of BRAIS. Islamic Studies is broadly understood to include all disciplinary approaches to the study of Islam and Muslim societies (majority and minority), modern and premodern.

Plenary sessions at the conference

The conference committee is very pleased to announce that plenary lectures at the conference will be delivered by Maribel Fierro (CSIC, Madrid) on ‘Rulers as Authors in the Medieval Islamic West’; Khaled Fahmy (University of Cambridge) on ‘Implementing Shari’a in Modern Egypt: A Medical Perspective’, and Alison Scott-Baumann (SOAS, London) and the ‘Re/presenting Islam on Campus’ team.

Abstract Deadline: Sunday 6 January 2019.

For details on how to submit an abstract, see:

http://www.brais.ac.uk/conferences/brais-2019-call-for-papers

3. The Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize was established jointly in 1986 by the Leigh Douglas Memorial Fund and BRISMES in memory of Dr Leigh Douglas who was killed in Beirut in 1986.  The prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best PhD dissertation on a Middle Eastern topic in the Social Sciences or Humanities awarded by a British University in the previous calendar year.

The current value of the prize is £600 for the winner and £150 for the runner up. We require:
A copy of the thesis (electronic) and a letter of endorsement/support from your supervisor.
Entries should be sent to louise.haysey@brismes.org .

Deadline | 31 January 2019.

4. CfP: UCL-Qatar Symposium on Living Arabic-Script Manuscript Cultures

15-16 April 2019

University College London- Qatar
Doha, Qatar

“The fascination of work with Islamic manuscripts lies in its direct contact with history, reviving it in the moment of studying it…Manuscripts reveal cultural exchanges across the borders of regions and times defined by ethnic, political, social, and language patterns” (Brinkmann & Wiesmuller, 2009, p. 15). The present day scholarly study of manuscripts – addressing their texts, contexts, and material form – has also produced new cultural exchanges. Through their study, preservation, collection, and digitization, latter day manuscript cultures of readership and engagement have arisen, cultivated by networks of scholars, archivists, librarians, conservators, students, and collectors, who make and make re/use of digital libraries, databases and social media in dynamic ways.

Archivists have argued that historical records are “recontextualized throughout every stage of the records life” and that they are constantly being activated with each interaction, interrogation and interpretation they undergo over time (Ketelaar, 2001, p.137). In this symposium, we intend to make explicit the ways in which modern day interactions with Arabic-script manuscripts are  contributing to the formation and elaboration of contemporary manuscript cultures of reception, readership and engagement.

We would like to examine the multifaceted aspects of these living* Arabic script manuscript cultures wherever they exist, be they in North and West Africa, South (East) Asia, the Levant, the Gulf, or the Americas and Europe.

In this vein, we invite papers that explore the dynamics of modern day Arabic-script manuscript cultures. This could include, but should not be limited to:

• Networks, discourses and lineages of present-day manuscript scholars
• Internet and social media as a facilitator of exchange
• Organizations, universities or foundations with special focus and mission to serve manuscript culture
• Understudied or marginalized manuscripts and manuscript cultures
• The culture of Orientalist manuscript scholarship
• Collections as manifestations of manuscript cultures
• Inheritances from earlier manuscript cultures
• The (re)publication, translation, and contemporary reception of specific scholarly manuscripts

*By “existing” we are not referring to the ongoing production/craft of manuscripts.*

Presenters whose papers are accepted will have their costs covered for transportation to and accommodation during the symposium.

Please submit an abstract no more than 500 words to qtap.qatar@ucl.ac.uk . The abstract should sufficiently detail the topic of the paper and the research approach that will be taken to address it. Also included should be the presenter’s name, affiliation (if any) and email address.

Abstracts must be submitted no later than: 18 January 2019

Abstracts accepted and presenters notified no later than:  15 February 2019

Symposium takes place 15-16 April 2019

5. CFP: “The Ties that Bind”: Structures and Mechanisms of Social Dependency in the Early Islamic Empire

As part of the ERC-funded project, “Embedding Conquest, Naturalising Muslim Rule (600-1000)”, at Leiden University, this conference aims to bring together both senior and junior scholars to present research which illuminates the structures and mechanisms that allowed the early Islamic empire to function.

The conference will take place 2-6^th December, 2019.

Please send an abstract of around 300 words to e.p.hayes@hum.leidenuniv.nl by January 31^st 2019.

Subsidies for travel and accommodation will be available.

For a detailed description of the conference see the EmCo project website:

https://emco.hcommons.org/2018/11/22/call-for-papers-mechanisms-and-structures-of-social-d…

6. Registration is open for the conference on Leadership, Authority and Representation in British Muslim Communities to be held at Cardiff University on 21^st January 2019.  The conference fee is £30 (including a vegetarian lunch and refreshments) with a concessionary rate of £15 is available for imams, students and the unwaged.  The registration deadline is 5pm on Wednesday 9^th January; we will not be accepting payment on the day so the only way to register attendance is through the online portal ahead of the deadline.

We are also pleased to share the conference programme which, alongside a series of Pecha Kucha style presentations, includes panels titled ‘Training Muslim Leaders in the West’ and ‘Changing Loci of Authority in British Islam’.  Additionally, Professor Ataullah Siddiqui (Markfield Institute of Higher Education) and Shaukat Warraich (Faith Associates) will deliver keynote lectures and a discussion panel on ‘The Future Role of Imams in Britain’ will feature Dr Shuruq Naguib, Dr Atif Imtiaz, Mufti Dr Abdur Rahman Mangera, Dr Myriam François-Cerrah, Imam Qari Asim MBE and Rehanah Sadiq (chaired by Saleem Kidwai OBE, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Wales).  We hope you can join us!

The 2019 Public Seminar series which will kick off on 6^th February with Dr Anabel Inge’s session titled: ‘The Making of a Salafi Muslim Woman: Paths to Conversion’.

7. Annual Conference of the “Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel (MEISAI)”, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 30 May 2019

Scholars from all areas of study of the Middle East, Islam and Middle Eastern languages, with no limitation concerning discipline, period or sub-region, are welcome to send proposals.

Deadline for abstracts: 24 February 2019. Information: https://www.meisai.org.il/en/

8. Conference: “Pilgrimage and the Senses”, University of Oxford, 7 June 2019

This interdisciplinary conference hosted at the University of Oxford aims to shed light on how sensory perception shapes and is shaped by the experience of pilgrimage across cultures, faith traditions, and throughout history.

Deadline for abstracts: 20 January 2019. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/3112523/cfp-pilgrimage-and-senses-conference-oxford-7-june-2019

Call for Papers: The Fifth Annual Conference on Shi’i Studies

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Materials for the Intellectual History of Imāmī Shīʿism in the Safavid Period

In 1934 the New York Public Library (NYPL) purchased a sizable collection of 250 volumes of Arabic manuscripts through the fund for Semitic literature that had been provided by Jacob Heinrich Schiff. Ms New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Arabic Manuscripts Collection, Volume 51985A, a facsimile of which is included in the present publication, belongs to the Shīʿī material among the collection.

PARLIAMENTARY EVENT: Commemorating Bahrain’s Martyr’s Day

20 December 2018 – On Monday 17 December, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) attended an event in Parliament chaired by Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, to commemorate Bahrain Martyrs’ Day. At the event, experts on Bahrain discussed the human rights violations perpetrated by the government against civilians and shared the stories of…

For BIRD Weekly 217, click here.

Bahrain: Drop Charges in Rights Defender’s Case

(Beirut) – The following statement was issued on December 18, 2018 by 57 rights groups, including Human Rights Watch: We the undersigned call on Bahrain to release Nabeel Rajab immediately, to repeal his convictions and sentences, and drop all charges against him.

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This has been postponed until May.