Archive for December, 2018

1.CfP: The Primacy of Form

Brown University, Friday, October 25 – Saturday, October 26, 2019

This exploratory conference proposes that the vast diversity of ideas and practices associated with Islam deserve investigation through presuming continuities and divergences between forms. In the prevailing contours of Islamic studies as an academic field, pride of place is given to genealogies of ideas, theological precepts, and practices. What if we stand apart from problems of coherence and incoherence of ideas, or the effort to seek logics of practice?

What can be said to support, or contest, the notion that forms articulate Islam? How might we address forms, for example those embodied in structures and genres, with due attention to historicity and without presuming Islamic universals? Forms do not bind to permanent ideological investments, allowing us to explain Islam’s sociohistorical unboundedness. Forms that predate the mention of Islam become Islamic through particular historical processes. Forms identified with Islam can shed their Islamicness and acquire new coordinates in other contexts. Such transitions explicate the significance, yet permeability, of all boundaries, challenging Islam’s exceptionality. In the longue durée, forms can explain diachronic continuities. When observed turning into vessels for new ideas, forms index processes of change and transformation. Identified as literary genres and bureaucratic procedures, forms signify processes of authorization and exclusion.

We invite papers that reflect on the topic of forms from any perspective, pertaining to all time periods and geographical areas. Topics may be archival, conceptual, or comparative, addressing structure, anti-structure, and everything in between. Examples include, but are not limited to, arenas such as embodiment (dress, ritual, gender, etc.), discourse (names, hadith, tabaqat, qasida, ghazal, love tale, epics, etc.), philosophy and law (fatwa, syllogism, dialectic, guidebook, defters, identity papers, visas and passports, etc.), and art and architecture (visual design, album, muqarnas, minaret, repetition, graffiti, musical maqams and ragas, etc.). In selecting papers, we will give priority to conceptual innovation tied to exploration of specific questions and materials.

Practical Information:

Colleagues are requested to submit a 250-word proposal using the web form by January 30, 2019. We will not read beyond 250 words when evaluating proposals. Selected authors will be informed by March 30, 2019. Participants will be asked to submit drafts of their papers two weeks before the conference.

See here to submit proposal:

https://form.jotform.com/83406297122152

We will cover the cost of transportation to Providence, Rhode Island, and a stay of up to three nights.

This conference is sponsored by Islam and the Humanities at Brown, a project aimed at forging deliberate connections between the study of Islam and Muslims and topics engaged by scholars in the humanities in general. Through collective effort, the event hopes to stimulate new thinking on Islamic forms while, simultaneously, suggesting that Islam is an exceptionally good venue to query the very concept of form.

2. The Department of Religious in the School of International and Public Affairs of Florida International University is pleased to announce a search for a faculty colleague with a specialization in Islam of the late medieval or early modern period, preferably with a focus on the Ottoman Empire. Candidates should be competent in either Turkish, Arabic or both. They should be able to teach at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as supervise and mentor students in the graduate program. A Ph.D. is required. FIU is a Carnegie R1 research institution with substantial research expectations of its faculty.
The department, with fourteen full time members, offers B.A. and M.A. degrees, and is located within FIU’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). The ideal candidate will be able to make contributions to SIPA’s Muslim World Studies Program as well.

See: https://facultycareers.fiu.edu/?posting=516574

Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply and attach a cover letter, curriculum vitae, course syllabi (if available), and writing sample-submitted online through the FIU HR portal (see link above). The writing sample can be either a published article or a thesis chapter. Sealed transcripts should be sent to Dr. Iqbal Akhtar, Islam Search Committee Chair,Department of Religious Studies, DM 302, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199. Candidates will be requested to provide names and
contact information for at least three references who will be contacted if advanced by the search committee. To receive full consideration,
applications and required materials should be received by January 31,2019. Review will continue until position is filled.
 

3. Full Professor of Pre-Modern Studies

The Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) invites applications for a tenured position in pre-modern (pre-1500) studies. The search is at the rank of Professor, and applications from all humanities disciplines are welcome. The successful candidate will bring a distinguished record of innovative research and publication, a record of leadership in the field, and must hold a Ph.D. degree in an appropriate field of study. Experience in organizing research initiatives, institutes, or centers is preferable. We expect that the successful candidate will take a leading role in the establishment of a new center for the study of the pre-modern world.

Interested candidates should provide a letter of application and a curriculum vitae. Application materials must be combined into and uploaded as one PDF document. In order to be considered for this position, all candidates must apply via the “Apply” link at the top or bottom of this page.  Applications will begin to be reviewed on January 15, but the position will remain open until filled. Inquiries may be directed to the search chair, Professor Lisa Bitel (bitel@usc.edu).

https://usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-angeles/full-professor-of-pre-modern-studies/1209/10236329

4. L’Iran en transition : de la révolution constitutionnelle à la fin de l’ère qajare

Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Université de Téhéran
17 et 18 décembre 2018

Déjà au cours des deux guerres irano-russes (1804-13, 1826-8), les élites iraniennes se trouvèrent confrontées au défi de la modernisation. Accompagnée d’un profond sentiment d’humiliation, la frustration de défaite stimula l’intérêt des hommes d’État et des intellectuels iraniens pour l’Europe. Ceci se matérialisa initialement sous la forme de traductions en persan d’ouvrages en langues européennes et de l’envoi de premières missions d’étudiants iraniens en Europe. Le règne de Nâser al-Din Shâh (1848-96) fut témoin de l’accélération de l’ouverture de l’Iran vers l’Occident, qui était due à l’évolution de la conscience politique des élites iraniennes et à l’intégration internationale de l’Iran. Or, la société iranienne ne connut qu’une transition radicale qu’à partir de la révolution constitutionnelle (1906-1911). Résultant de la convergence de plusieurs forces sociales et discours politiques, l’adoption de la constitution en 1906 fut un tournant radical dans l’histoire de l’Iran. Les deux dernières décennies du règne des Qajars furent marquées par l’influence décisive du constitutionnalisme dans l’ensemble des domaines (politique, social, économique et culturel) tandis que l’hégémonie anglo-russe était toujours plus contestée par une volonté d’émancipation et un nationalisme naissant. La transition du « traditionnel » au « moderne », modelée en grande partie par le triomphe symbolique du constitutionnalisme, était pourtant un processus non-linéaire, nourri à la fois par le dynamisme interne et par les influences extérieures. En dépit du déclin du mouvement constitutionnel au début des années 1910, les transformations subies par la société iranienne étaient irréversibles et l’héritage de la lutte constitutionnaliste continuait de se manifester dans la politique du gouvernement iranien, dans les pratiques administratives et dans l’activisme révolutionnaire populaire. L’ascension de Rezâ Khân (m. 1944) et l’établissement de la dynastie Pahlavi (1925) changèrent considérablement le lien discursif entre les perceptions iraniennes de la modernité et les modes d’expression politique – les idéaux constitutionnalistes n’étaient plus prioritaires dans l’agenda dominant de modernisation. Ainsi, la fin de l’ère qajare coïncida avec l’affaiblissement des forces démocratiques, et cela même si l’héritage du constitutionnalisme demeura incontestable tout au cours de l’histoire contemporaine de l’Iran.

Comité de coordination scientifique

Denis Hermann, directeur de l’Institut français de Recherche en Iran (IFRI)
Ali Shahidi, Université de Téhéran, département d’Études iraniennes
Sadeq Heidarinia, directeur de l’Institut Negarestan-e Andisheh
Alisa Shablovskaia, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, Paris

Contact

Secrétariat de la coopération académique et des conférences
No 10, Azin St., Qods St., Enqelab St. Tehran
Téléfax : 02166978881-02166435423-02166435416
www.cins.ir – Email : info@cins.ir

Lien vers le site de l’IFRI : http://ifriran.org/2018/12/17/liran-en-transition-de-la-revolution-constitutionnelle-a-la-fin-de-lere-qajare/

5. International Conference: “Immortality of the Soul in Islam and Christianity”, Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy (ISCA), Iran, 4-5 March 2020

Topics of interest: The concept of death; The concept of immortality; The criteria of personal identity; Postmortem survival Life after death.

Deadline for abstracts: 16 March 2019. Information: http://seminars.ir/soul2/en/

6. Posts:

a) Professorship (W2) in Islamic Law, Oriental Institute, Leipzig University

The professorship addresses both the teaching and research in the field of Islamic Law within a context of historic, social, religious and cultural representations. It also considers the law of Arabic and Islamic countries that is based on secular, non-Islamic sources. Aspects of Islamic law related to issues of migration and integration shall be potential prospects of the portfolio.

Deadline for applications: 18 January 2019. Information: http://www.orient.uni-leipzig.de/aktuelles/newsdetails/artikel/7/job-advertising-professorship-w2-in-islamic-law

b) Fellowships for PhD Students at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, 2019-2022

Doctoral students are invited to analyze political, social and economic developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and link this knowledge to questions of global significance.

Deadline for applications: 1 February 2019. Information: https://www.giga-hamburg.de/sites/default/files/md_pdf/GIGA-19-01_DP_CfA_external_funding.pdf

c) Fellowships at the American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo

Applications are invited to conduct independent humanities research in Egypt. Doctoral, postdoctoral, early career and senior humanities scholars are eligible to apply. Most awards require American citizenship.

Deadline for applications: 15 January 2019. Information: https://www.arce.org/fellows

d) Postdoctoral Fellow in Levantine Studies, Humanities Research Center, Rice University, Houston, TX

Renewable one-year appointment in the theory, geography, history, and/or practice of Spatial Studies, with an emphasis on the Levant, broadly construed. The fellow will develop or continue his or her own research project in spatial studies. Applicants from any humanistic discipline or interdiscipline are eligible to apply and must have received a PhD between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2019.

Deadline for applications: 22 February 2019. Information: https://jobs.rice.edu/postings/17762

e) Imam Ali Chair for Shi‘i Studies and Dialogue among Islamic Legal Schools, Hartford Seminary

The successful candidate will demonstrate expertise in Shi‘i Islam and its relation to other traditions of Islam, Christianity and other religious traditions, and may be grounded in one of a number of academic disciplines.

Deadline for applications: 15 February 2019. Information: Contact Scott Thumma, sthumma@hartsem.edu

f) Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics/Middle East/North Africa, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

This position will begin August 10, 2019. Required qualifications: A Ph.D. in Political Science or a closely related field is required by the time of appointment. Candidates must have a research focus that involves comparative political analysis in the MENA region and demonstrated excellence in research.

Review of applications starts 22 January 2019. Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=58021

g) Grants and Fellowships of the University of Notre Dame

Research priorities include

1. “Immigration and the Challenge to National Identities”. The arrival of migrants from the Middle East and Africa directly fueled the rise of right-wing populist leaders throughout Europe. How can such challenges be met both effectively and in a way that respects human dignity?
2. “Islamophobia, “Christian” Identity, and the Secular State”. How have definitions of religious identity affected definitions of political identity, and what can be done to defuse such tensions?

Information: https://nanovic.nd.edu/grants-fellowships

7. Articles for Collection on “Sacred Troubling Topics in Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur’an”

The collection seeks to address topics overlooked, erased, romanticized, and ignored in academic as well as non-academic education and conversation related to collection sections of Gender & Sexuality, Body & Appearance, Women & Feminism, Death & Mourning, Life & Humor, Crime & Disobedience.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 February 2019. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/3344864/sacred-troubling-topics-hebrew-bible-new-testament-and-quran

8. CALL FOR PAPERS 

McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies

Graduate Student Symposium

April 4-5, 2019

The organising committee of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Graduate Student Symposium welcomes abstract submissions to their ninth annual symposium, to be held on April 4-5, 2019 at McGill University.

Our aim is to provide an opportunity for graduate students based in various parts of the world and approaching the study of Islamicate thought and life across time and space through a multiplicity of disciplinary and methodological approaches to share their work with the Institute’s faculty and students in an atmosphere of constructive and supportive criticism. We are pleased to invite graduate students at all stages of research and dissertation-writing related to Islam and Islamicate communities anywhere in the world (East Asia, South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East) to submit proposals for individual paper presentations.

Reflecting our department’s primary research areas, the symposium’s themes include but are not limited to:

• theology, philosophy, mysticism, and jurisprudence
• history, political science, and anthropology
• Urdu, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature

We are honoured that our keynote speaker this year will be Dr. SherAli Tareen from Franklin & Marshall College. Dr. Tareen’s work centres on Muslim intellectual thought in early-modern and modern South Asia with a focus on intra-Muslim debates and polemics over critical questions of law, ethics, theology, and politics among major Muslim scholars

An abstract of 250-500 words and a one-page résumé should be sent electronically to miisscsymposium@gmail.com  by December 30, 2018. Please include a tentative title for your paper and two or three keywords describing its regional and disciplinary focus, as well as your name, programme of study (MA, MPhil, or PhD), and departmental and institutional affiliation. Applicants will be notified of a decision by January 15, 2019. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any other queries.

Half of my Heart

As Abû ʿAbd Allâh al-Ḥusayn, son of ʿAlî and Fâṭima and grandson of Muḥammad, moved inexorably towards death on the field of Karbalâʾ, his sister Zaynab was drawn ever closer to the centre of the family of Muḥammad, the ‘people of the house’ (ahl al-bayt).

SABS MSP Briefing at the Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society (SABS) organised a drop-in at the Scottish Parliament, sponsored by Bill Kidd MSP, for members of the Scottish Parliament to meet with SABS, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), the St Andrew’s Sporting Club (with British bantamweight boxing champion Kash Farooq, Ambassador for SABS’ Blood Donation Campaign), the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the Edinburgh City Football Club and the Scottish Ambulance Service on Wednesday 12th December.

Profiles in Persecution: Faten Ali Naser

Faten Ali Naser is a 41-year old mother of four and housewife from Bahrain. She is currently in Isa Town Women’s Prison, serving a five-year sentence for allegedly harboring a fugitive and now awaiting an appeal scheduled for 28 January 2019.

For ADHRB Weekly Newsletter 281, click here.

1. Starting from 2016, Koç University’s Vehbi Koç Ankara Studies Research Center and the University of Cambridge’s Skiliter Centre for Ottoman Studies agreed to start a joint three year project on the Socio-Economic History of Anatolia in the Ottoman Period. The Project consists of three symposiums on three themes; Disease and Disaster (both man-made and natural disasters), Trade and Production and Social and Cultural Life.

The first symposium was held at University of Cambridge on 18-19 March 2016. The second thematic symposium Trade and Production in Ottoman Anatolia was held in Ankara by Koç University VEKAM and the final thematic symposium on Social and Cultural Life in Ottoman Anatolia will be held on Decemver 12-13, 2018 at the premises of VEKAM in Ankara Turkey.

We are pleased to announce the symposium and believe that it will be helpful to researchers, academicians and interested people.

For details, see: https://vekam.ku.edu.tr/sites/vekam.ku.edu.tr/files/program_4.pdf

2. L’institut Français de Recherche en Iran (IFRI) propose pour l’année 2019 des bourses d’aide à la mobilité internationale destinées : à des jeunes chercheurs, doctorants et post-doctorats inscrits dans un établissement français d’enseignement supérieur ou de recherche.

Ces bourses, d’une durée d’un à trois mois, visent à couvrir les frais de transport et de séjour de doctorants (allocation mensuelle de 800 €, à laquelle s’ajoute le cas échéant le remboursement – plafonné à 600€ – des frais de transport) ou de chercheurs détenteurs d’un doctorat, âgés de moins de 35 ans (allocation mensuelle de 1000 € plus, le cas échéant, des frais de transport – plafonné à 600 €-) et poursuivant des recherches sur le monde iranien.

See: http://ifriran.org/ifri/aides-a-la-mobilite-scientifique/

3. Open Access Database: Islamic Scientific Manuscripts Initiative (ISMI)

https://ismi.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/

4. 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

5. We are writing to invite you to contribute a chapter to our co-edited volume
titled, Sex and Marriage in the Medieval Islamic World: Women, Family, and
Love, under contract with I. B. Tauris. This is the second of six volumes in
the book series, Sex, Marriage and the Family in the Middle East.

In this volume, we hope to explore the dynamics of family life, the
institution of marriage, and the significance of love in the Medieval Islamic
era. Your chapter may address any variety of topics related to these broad
subject headings—sex, marriage, gender, family, and love—such as divorce,
widowhood, inheritance, concubinage, polygamy, procreation and birth control,
and the nature of social hierarchies in marital relations, life experiences of
children, romantic love, gender norms and transgression, spousal rights and
responsibilities, domestic violence, marriage to non-Muslims, advice on
choosing a spouse, court cases involving spouses, masculinities, etc. Our aim
is to publish a volume wherein scholars explore the complex and multifaceted
phenomena related to these normative practices across the Islamic world during
the medieval period. Further reflecting this diverse approach, we also welcome
contributions utilizing interdisciplinary methodologies, including
Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, History, Religious Studies, Gender
Studies, Literature, Philosophy, and Media Studies.

If you are interested in contributing to this volume, we ask that you submit a
brief abstract of your proposed chapter to us by January 31, 2018. Please give
your proposed chapter a title and provide a 300 – 500 words long abstract
explaining the general scope of your chapter and the methodologies you will
employ. Completed chapters (7000 words) will be due to us on April 1, 2019.
All chapters will undergo a blind peer-review process conducted by the
publisher before they are published.

We very much hope that you accept our invitation. If so, please send us a note
at yaghoobi@email.unc.edu stating your intention to contribute to the volume
at your earliest convenience. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely.

Claudia Yaghoobi and Aisha Musa, Co-editors

6. Open Access newspapers: Ankara University

http://gazeteler.ankara.edu.tr/

7. Applications for HIAA’s Grabar Travel Grants and Post-docs are due on Saturday 15 December. Please check the HIAA website for details on the awards, including eligibility and how to apply.

https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/opportunities/hiaa-prizes/grabar-grants-and-fellowships

8. The Textile Museum at The George Washington University is excited to announce the publication of volume 45 of The Textile Museum Journal.

Titled Draping the Middle Ages and guest edited by Patricia Blessing, assistant professor of Medieval and Islamic Art History at Pomona College, The Textile Museum Journal 45 focuses on the mobile nature of textile patterns in the East and West during the Middle Ages and investigates the question of cultural specificity in the use of textile imitations in a range of media. As coveted objects of trade and diplomatic gift exchange, textiles were widely distributed using the cross-cultural networks between Byzantium, the Islamic world, and East Asia. Within this broader world of medieval textile exchange, the notion of textile patterns that are adapted in architecture, ceramics, metalwork, and manuscripts stand at the center of the four articles in this volume:

• Draping, Wrapping, Hanging: Transposing Textile Materiality in the Middle Ages by Patricia Blessing, Pomona College
• Painted Silks: Form and Production of Women’s Court Dress in the Mongol Empire by Eiren L. Shea; Grinnell College
• Gems in Cloth and Stone: Medium, Materiality, and the Late Antique Jeweled Aesthetic by Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Dumbarton Oaks Museum
• Put a Bird on it: What an Aviary Preoccupation Reveals about Medieval Silks by Meredyth Lynn Winter, Harvard University

For subscriptions to the The Textile Museum Journal 45 and access to earlier issues, please visit https://museum.gwu.edu/tmjournal/subscribe. For submissions, more information, or questions, please check https://museum.gwu.edu/tmjournal or contact The Textile Museum Journal editorial team at tmjournal@gwu.edu.

9. The Mawlana Rumi Review (MRR) is an annual academic journal (est. 2010) devoted to the poetry, life, thought, and legacy of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273), the Islamic Sufi poet who authored some 60,000 lines of poetry, lectures, sermons, and letters in Persian and Arabic, and founded the Mevlevi (Mawlawiyya) dervish order.

The Mawlana Rumi Review was founded in 2010 as a publication of the Rumi Institute of Near East University, Cyprus, and the Rumi Studies Group of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.  Eight issues of MRR have appeared to date, edited by the late and much missed Leonard Lewisohn (1953-2018) of Exeter University, advised by an international board of scholars and editors, and published by Archetype.

The editorial board of the Mawlana Rumi Review is now calling for submissions for Issue 10 (edited by Franklin Lewis) and beyond.  MRR publishes original articles, translations of Rumi’s poetry done from the original languages, book reviews, and reports. The editors welcome articles in English, as well as in French, and from Issue 10 will also entertain submissions in Persian or Turkish.  Topics covered in MRR include: Historical biography of Rumi and his circle, based on original sources; analysis and interpretation of Rumi’s poetry; his adaptation of the literary and Sufi traditions; his narratology and story-telling techniques; hermeneutics; theology and prophetology; theosophy and mysticism; spiritual psychology; erotic spirituality; metaphysics and cosmology; epistemology; ethics; pedagogy; the history of the Mevlevi order; the commentary and interpretative tradition on his works (The Masnavī, Dīvān-i Shams-i Tabrīz, Fīhi mā fīh and Majālis al-sabʽa ; and the reception and translation of Rumi’s thought in modern and medieval literary history and thought.

To submit an article for consideration or to contact the editors, please write to: Mawlanarumireview@protonmail.com and for submissions of translations of Mawlana Rumi’s poetry, please write the Poetry Consultant, Paul Losensky, at:  Poetry-MMR@protonmail.com .

10. VEKAM- Symposium on “Social and Cultural Life in Ottoman Anatolia”, Ankara, 12-13 December 2018

Symposium on the intellectual and cultural life, material culture, representations, order and violence in Ottoman Anatolia. See program at https://vekam.ku.edu.tr/en/content/social-and-cultural-life-ottoman-anatolia-symposium (English program at the end; simultaneous translation Turkish-English available)

11. International Conference: “Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds: Across and Between the Local and Global”, ZMO, Berlin, 3-5 April 2019

The conference concludes the 12-year research program: “Muslim Worlds – Worlds of Islam?”

See program at http://www.zmo.de/veranstaltungen/2019/Conferences/ConferenceProgramme_ClaimingAndMakingMuslimWorlds_Final.pdf; for registration contact MuslimWorlds2019@zmo.de

12. International Symposium: “The Ottoman World during the Reign of Fatih Sultan Mehmet”, Fatih Sultan Mehmed Vakif University, Istanbul, 12-13 April 2019

A series of symposiums is aiming to reveal the period of Fatih Sultan Mehmed in every aspects from the texture used to the currency, from the problems of the public to their entertainment, from benevolentness to stinginess, from warfare to peace, from the religious life to the daily life, and from its institutions to its legislation.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/3302044/international-symposium-ottoman-world-during-reign-fatih-sultan

13. International Workshop: “Gender, Fashion, and Embodiment in Islam”, University of Hamburg, 29-30 June 2019

The aim is to bring together research on the changing practices of gendered clothing in Muslim contexts. We want to compare the dynamics in the so-called “Islamic center” (the Arabian Peninsula) with developments in the “Muslim Periphery” and problematize the lived interactions between gender, fashion, spirituality, religion, class, and ethnicity.

Deadline for abstracts: 19 January 2019. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/3132582/call-papers-international-workshop-%E2%80%9Cgender-fashion-and

14. Conference: “Rethinking Genre in the Islamicate Middle East”, Asia-Africa-Institute, University of Hamburg, 5-6 September 2019

The conference aims to bring together scholars with expertise in Arabic, Persian and Turkish narrative traditions who are interested in the manifold facets of the history, sociology and poetics of genre and generic structures underlying the literary production of the respective traditions.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2019. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/3284420/cfp-%E2%80%9Crethinking-genre-islamicate-middle-east%E2%80%9D

15. Posts:

a) Full Professorship for “Islamic Intellectual History of the Post-Classical Period (1200-1800)”, Humboldt University Berlin

Position is starting 1 October 2019 and initially limited to a 5-year contract. The successful candidate will focus on the significance of the post-classical intellectual history in his or her research and teaching, especially in the areas of Kalām, philosophy and mysticism, with a special emphasis on different doctrinal currents (especially Sunna and Shia).

Deadline for applications: 15 January 2019. Information: https://www.personalabteilung.hu-berlin.de/stellenausschreibungen/full-professorship-for-islamic-intellectual-history-of-the-post-classical-period-1200-1800-201d-w3

b) Full Professorship for “Comparative Theology from an Islamic Perspective”, Humboldt University Berlin

Position is starting 1 October 2019 and initially limited to a 5-year contract. The successful candidate will focus on the relationship between Muslim religiosity and other religious communities and worldviews in his or her research and teaching. He or she will undertake research in entangled history, particularly with respect to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and will compare the interaction of actors of various religious origins with regard to religious doctrine and practice.

Deadline for applications: 15 January 2019. Information: https://www.personalabteilung.hu-berlin.de/stellenausschreibungen/full-professorship-for-comparative-theology-from-an-islamic-perspective201d-w3

c) Postdoctoral Fellows at the American University of Beirut

The positions are open to recent recipients of the PhD degree whose research and teaching interests involve one or more of the following disciplines: Arabic (Mamluk or Ottoman Arabic Literature); Philosophy (Ancient Philosophy, Islamic Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy); History and Archaeology (Prehistory of the Levant, Islamic Archaeology, Egyptology)

Deadline for applications: 15 January 2019. Information: https://f-origin.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/1460/files/2018/10/CAH_Postdoctoral_Fellows_2019.pdf

d) Assistant Professor of Health Studies in the Middle East and North Africa, University of Arizona

We are interested in a broad range of historical and/or social scientific approaches to the study of health and health care in the Middle East and North Africa. Proficiency in at least one Middle Eastern language is highly desirable (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish or a related language).

Review of applications begins 21 January 2019. Information: https://uacareers.com/postings/34011

e) Assistant Professor of the History of the Islamic World (non-Western), Texas A&M University

The successful candidate must possess a PhD in History with a specialization in the Islamic World, any period or region, and must demonstrate experience teaching in higher education.

Deadline for application: 22 January 2019.  Information: https://tamus.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/TAMUC_External/job/Commerce-TAMUC/Assistant-Professor_R-014623

16. New Online Database to Facilitate Research in the History of the Exact Sciences in the Islamic World

The Islamic Scientific Manuscripts Initiative (ISMI) website at https://ismi.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de covers the period to ca. 1350 CE. The mission is to make accessible information on all Islamic manuscripts in the exact sciences (astronomy, mathematics, optics, mathematical geography, music, mechanics, and related disciplines), whether in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, or other languages.

17. Job Opportunity: Project Officer for Support to the Yemeni Peace Process – Constitutional Dialogues

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy worldwide. International IDEA’s mission is to support sustainable democratic change by providing comparative knowledge, and assisting in democratic reform, and influencing policies and politics.

International IDEA develops, shares and enables the use of comparative knowledge in its key areas of expertise: electoral processes, constitution-building, political participation and representation, democracy and development and democracy assessments.

As part of International IDEA’s Africa and West Asia Region, the Tunis sub-regional office has been implementing a project since 2016 to provide support to Yemen’s peace negotiations. From 2016 to October 2018, the project mainly consisted of dialogue sessions and expert meetings, and focused on Yemen’s constitutional future.

International IDEA is looking to recruit a project officer to support this work in Yemen. The position is full time, and based in the Tunis office, working very closely with the project team.

The deadline to apply is 17 December 2018. For full project details, terms of reference, and directions to apply, visit: https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/tenders/EOI%20Reference%20No%20258-18-106-%20%20%20TOR%20Final.pdf

South Asia Collective

We are a group of human rights activists and organisations that dream of a just, caring and peaceful South Asia. We came together in December 2015 to document the condition of the region’s minorities – religious, linguistic, ethnic, caste and gender, among others – hoping this would help in bettering out- comes for South Asia’s many marginalised groups.

From this site, download the full report – with a 2017-2018 events section, and chapters on minorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

SAAJ organizes Inter faith Convention

SECRETARIAT Shia Asna Asheri Jamaat (SAAJ) – Nairobi

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“Nahj al-Balaghah” is a collection of Amir al-Mu’minin Ali’s sermons, letters, and aphorisms. It is not only a precious work of hadiths and a set of constructive Islamic teachings but also one of the most important works concerning Arabic literature and a symbol of Arabic rhetoric. The book has since a long time ago been a focus of the attention of Muslim scholars. This is because of the special status of Nahj al-Balaghah as a symbol of the Tradition along with the Holy Quran and its comprehensiveness with regard to practical and applied doctrines in the lives of Muslims.

The significance of Nahj al-Balaghah motivated us in Nahj al-Balagha Research Center (Tehran, Iran) to assign the First International Book Prize for Nahj al-Balaghah in order to propagate the Alawi culture and lofty doctrines of the book more than ever. The Nahj al-Balaghah Foundation, the Book House, and the Deputy of the Quran and ‘Itrat of the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance will play their role in this Prize as our partners.

Given that the prize is international, works concerning Nahj al-Balaghah or Imam Ali in any languages can be accepted. Scholars are invited to contribute with any works engaging Nahj al-Balaghah, including both traditional studies of topics and interdisciplinary studies, sciences of Nahj al-Balaghah such asdocuments, literature, rhetoric, commentaries and bibliography, textual studies of Nahj al-Balaghah including edits of manuscripts and translations.

Those interested can submit their works via the prize website by 31 December 2018: http://www.ibbnb.ir/en/home or contact atmoghri.a@gmail.com for any inquiries or questions.

Along with the Prize event, there will be a 2-day workshop on “Human and Social Relations in Shi’a Tradition” by Prof. Pakatchi. Those interested are welcome to apply.

International workshop: “Sunni-Shi‘i Relations in Europe: How to Study Them?”, Migration Institute of Finland, Turku, 13–14 December 2018.

This workshop is the second of a series of exploratory workshops on Sunni–Shi‘i Relations in Europe funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS).

For the programme of the workshop or information on the project, please contact Dr. Elvire Corboz (elvire.corboz@ed.ac.uk).

BIRD Weekly #216: Thai Authorities Proceed with Extradition of Bahraini Footballer

6 December 2018 – Tomorrow, former Bahraini football player, Hakeem AlAraibi, will be taken to Bangkok Criminal Court (Ratchadaphisek) as Thai immigration authorities decided to proceed with his extradition to Bahrain. AlAraibi was arrested on 27 November on the basis of a now-lifted INTERPOL arrest warrant issued at the request of Bahrain, despite AlAraibi being a recognised refugee in Australia.