Archive for 2018

Muslim Cultures in the Indian Ocean

Explore the diversity of Muslim cultures prevalent in the Indian Ocean region where, historically, Muslims have interacted for centuries.

Qajar Shiite Material Culture: From the Court of Naser Al-Din Shah to Popular Religious Paintings

This catalogue is one of the first visual representations of the material religion and art objects of Naser al-Din Shah’s court, vis à vis popular Shiite beliefs during the Naseri period (1848-1896). In this work, Pedram Khosronejad has paid special attention to the role of Naser al-Din Shah’s po…

For a video introduction to the work, click here.

Myth, Ritual, and the Early Development of Shiite Identity ” Brill Online

The developing myth about the events at Karbala, as well as the image of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī and the cult connected with him, were important factors in the shaping of early Shiite identity.

1.CfP: Great Lakes Adiban Workshop, Chicago 2018

The Great Lakes Adiban Society (GLAS) invites submissions for its second annual workshop, scheduled to take place at the University of Chicago, October 6–7, 2018. We particularly welcome papers that are works in progress and would benefit from extensive discussion and feedback.

The Society hopes to provide a regional forum for scholars of Islamicate adab, particularly of the medieval and early modern periods, to meet and share their work. We leave our parameters intentionally broad in order to invite as wide a collaboration as can be useful, but we are basically engaged with the literatures of the broad complex of premodern Muslim societies from the Danube to the Deccan. This naturally includes the major Islamicate languages of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, as well as others (Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Spanish, etc.) that participate in similar literary conventions. We welcome and encourage scholars working in any of these languages to consider participating!

Those who wish to participate in the workshop should fill out our online application (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfbHLf4yncTKDdvp1W7WafNX-I2rCOfWu98FgoYt1aJHpFQfg/viewform) by August 15, 2018. Please note that each accepted paper will be given 45 minutes for presentation and discussion; because of this, we have limited space on our schedule and may have to turn down some submissions if get too many. In such an event, preference will generally be given to scholars in the Great Lakes region, per the mission (https://greatlakesadiban.github.io/about/) of this organization.

Graduate students note: we have some funding to help offset at least part of your travel costs! If you would like to apply for this additional aid, there is a space to do so on the application form.

If you have any questions, please feel free to write Cameron Cross at kchalipa [at] umich.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!

​

2. The deadline for the “25th International Congress of the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO)” in Frankfurt on 4-6 October 2018 has been extended until 1 July 2018. For further information see http://www.ffgi.net/en/davo-25.html and for information on open panels see http://www.ffgi.net/files/davo-25/davo-Open_Panels.pdf

3. International Conference: „Islam and Belonging“, Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Roma, 26-28 June 2018

The notion of belonging offers the double advantage of being less unyielding than the concept of identity and closer to the phenomena of “recompositions”. The second International Conference of PLURIEL deals with the plurality of belongings and opinions within Islam. Referring to citizenship, territories, and communities in Islam, it scrutinizes the theses that plurality is not the privilege of modernity only.

Information: http://evenement.pluriel.fuce.eu/en-/

4. Workshop: “Uses of the Past: Islamic International Law and the Problem of Translation. Concepts and Applications”, Göttingen University, 28-29 June 2018

The workshop deals with Islamic legal narratives and practices of international law. It is combined with: Double Talk “Female Judges – Experiences, Successes and Challenges in Palestine and Germany” on 27 June 2018. Female Shari’a Judge Somoud al-Damiri (Palestine) and Prof. Dr. Maria Wersing (Germany) will assess the role of female judges in their legal orders and the question of anti-discrimination for women.

Information: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/24588.html

5. Workshop: “Transactions and Documentation in the Persianate World”, Exeter, 13-14 July 2018

This workshop assembles scholars to investigate traditions of legal documentation related to trade and other transactions related to property in a vast but under-studied commercial sphere – the Persianate world.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 July 2018. Information: https://lawforms.hypotheses.org/conferences/workshop-transactions-2018

6. Conference: “Religion and Secularism on Campus: The Changing Dimensions of the University Experience”, SOAS, University of London, 6-7 September 2018

This two-day international conference will explore the diversity of ways in which religious and non-religious identities are experienced, encountered and catered for on higher education campuses in the UK, Europe and beyond. We invite proposals for papers that explore any dimension of religion or non-religion on campuses in any geographical context, focusing on a particular tradition, group or movement or on the interactions between different parties, or on broader cultural or political changes impacting upon how religion is expressed within campus contexts.

Deadline for abstracts: 6 July 2018. Information: https://www.soas.ac.uk/representingislamoncampus/conference/

7. PhD Position in the History of the Middle East, University of Oslo

The Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo announces a PhD position in the social and cultural history of the twentieth-century Middle East, with a focus on Egypt or the Levant (fulltime research fellowship plus completion grant).

Deadline for applications: 1 September 2018. Information: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/148187/middle-east-history

8. Prize of the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) for the Best Article 2018

The award will recognize excellent research and scholarship that will advance our understanding of the Levant region. The article will be published in the journal Contemporary Levant and will received the amount of £100.

Extended deadline for submission: 31 July 2018. Information: http://cbrl.org.uk/news/item/name/call-for-papers-for-the-2018-cbrl-prize-for-best-article

9. Two positions for research associates related but not restricted to Iranian Studies at the Center for Religious Studies at the Ruhr-University of Bochum.

https://ceres.rub.de/en/news/job-offer-research-associate-west-asian-history-religions/

https://ceres.rub.de/en/news/job-offer-research-associate-jewish-christian-relations-persianate-world-jewseast/

10. The 2019 Sir William Luce Fellowship at Durham University

The residential fellowship (Apr-June 2019) carries a grant, accommodation and meals, and is a valuable research and publication opportunity for post-doctoral scholars, diplomats, politicians, or business executives, working on Iran, the Gulf states, South Arabia and Sudan: more details are provided in the notice. The application deadline is Friday 7 September 2018.

The Sir William Luce Papers series (https://www.dur.ac.uk/sgia/research/fellowships/) has been well served by the breadth of expertise and variety of experience past fellows have brought to the post.

For further information, see https://www.dur.ac.uk/sgia/research/fellowships/

11. The Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Virginia invites applicants for a full-time, non-tenure track instructional position to teach undergraduate and graduate content courses in South Asian studies in the fall 2018 and spring 2019 semesters.

The anticipated start date is August 25, 2018.

Field of specialization in South Asian studies with a special emphasis on South Asian literatures, cultures, diaspora, comparative and/or gender studies. Subfield of specialization open. Evidence of excellent teaching and commitment to interdisciplinary work are required. The successful candidate must have native or near-native fluency in Hindi/Urdu and English. PhD strongly preferred, ABD considered.

Candidates who hold a PhD in South Asian studies or a related field by the time of appointment will be considered for the rank of Assistant Professor, General Faculty. ABDs in South Asian studies or a related field, by the time of appointment, will be considered for the rank of Lecturer.

To apply, candidates must submit a Candidate Profile through Jobs@UVa (https://jobs.virginia.edu), search on posting 0623430 and electronically attach the following: Curriculum Vitae, cover letter describing scholarly accomplishments and teaching experience, and a recent article or book chapter in English (attach to Writing Sample 1). Also, under separate cover by mail or e-mail, please arrange for two (2) confidential letters of reference to be sent to:

Jean Blackwell
Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures
P.O. Box 4000781
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4781
jb8yf@virginia.edu

Questions regarding the application process in Jobs@UVa should be directed to:

Jean Blackwell
(434) 982-2665
jb8yf@Virginia.EDU 

Review of applications will begin July 8, 2018; however, the position will remain open until filled.

Israel adopts abandoned Saudi sectarian logic

Amid ever closer cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Israel’s military appears to be adopting the kind of sectarian anti-Shiite rhetoric that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is abandoning as part of a bid to develop a national rather than a religious ethos and promote his yet to be defined form of moderate Islam.

1.Open call: Modeling Travels in History: an ORBIS-esque Hackathon @ Uni Vienna (July 18-20, 2018)

Everyone is familiar with Google Maps—all of us are using it on a daily basis. In 2012 a group of researchers at Stanford (led by Walter Scheidel), developed Orbis (http://orbis.stanford.edu/)[1], which, one may put, applied the same geographical principles to a particular historical context. Dubbed “a Google Maps for the Roman Empire”[2], this model became a popular historical online resource and an object of envy for scholars working in other historical contexts.

Inspired by Orbis, the Uni-Wien DH Team is organizing a three-day hackathon at the University of Vienna on the theme of map visualisations for historical data. One specific objective of the hackathon will be to build a sort of “Orbis-in-a-Box”—an open-source platform that would allow others to model movements of people and objects in different historical and cultural contexts. (For more details on this particular idea, see: http://kgeographer.com/orbis-in-a-box/).

We are inviting interested digital humanists with an inclination for coding to partake in this 3-day event in Vienna. We are able to offer small bursaries to offset traveling costs.

If you would like to attend, please send a message to maxim.romanov@univie.ac.at with “ORBIS-esque Hackathon” in the subject by 30 June 2018, stating your current institutional affiliation (if any) and your motivation for participating in the hackathon. Please also specify whether you are applying for a bursary.

Yours truly,
Uni-Wien DH Team
Tara Andrews, Mária Vargha, and Maxim Romanov
http://ifg.univie.ac.at/en/about-us/staff/digital-humanities/ 

Links & Notes
[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bult.2015.1720410206
[2] https://io9.gizmodo.com/5911640/behold-orbis-a-google-maps-for-the-roman-empire 

2. Vatican Library makes 15,000 manuscripts available online for free

https://aleteia.org/2018/06/02/vatican-library-makes-15000-manuscripts-available-online-for-free/

3. Ernst Herzfeld Society, 14^th Colloquium: The History of Material Cultures and Visual Arts in Islamic Lands: Current State of Research & New Perspectives (Strasbourg, July 5–7, 2018)

https://networks.h-net.org/node/7636/discussions/1920457/14th-colloquium-ernst-herzfeld-gesellschaft

4. BRAIS Workshop Grants 2018

Following the success of its 2016/17 Workshop Grants scheme, BRAIS will be offering two further grants of up to £1000 in 2018.

The grants aim to provide opportunities to develop original research ideas in any area of Islamic Studies, to disseminate and increase the impact of current cutting-edge research, and to engage early career academics and post-graduate students based in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. For more information about previous workshops, see: http://www.brais.ac.uk/resources/grants/2016-17-winners

All documentation should be submitted in .pdf or .doc files to brais@ed.ac.uk by 5 pm GMT, Friday 14th September 2018.

For more info: http://www.brais.ac.uk/resources/grants

5. Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship at the British Library
The British Library announces the call for applications to the Charles
Wallace India Trust Fellowship 2018-19. Awarded by the Charles Wallace
India Trust (CWIT), the fellowship will be offered to an early to
mid-career India-based scholar to work at the British Library. This
Fellowship opportunity will involve working with the British Library’s
collections from and relating to South Asia. A team of specialist curators
work on this internationally-important collection of South Asian books,
manuscripts, archives, and visual arts. The Fellowship offers an
opportunity to be based with the curators to learn more about the work of
the British Library. It also provides the chance for hands-on experience
with the collection, to develop curatorial skills.

This year we are inviting applicants who are in the early stages of their
career or who have recently completed their postgraduate studies. There are
five possible themes, outlined below (see website). The best applicant will be selected from across all of them. Whichever their preferred project, the Charles
Wallace India Trust Fellow will get a real sense of the work of the British
Library, and their contribution will make a difference to the delivery of
the Library’s plans for engagement with South Asian collections and
audiences.

The Fellowship will be for a period of three months, to be completed on or
before 30 April 2019. Funding from the Charles Wallace India Trust will
consist of a contribution of £600 towards international fares and a monthly
living grant of £1500 for accommodation and living costs in London.

The closing date for applications is 13th July.
Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed via Skype.
Please email your documents to Azadeh.shokouhi@bl.uk
More information is listed on the Charles Wallace website. See: https://www.britishcouncil.in/study-uk/scholarships/charles-wallace-trust/visiting-fellows

6. CIWAS MA in Islamic and West Asian Studies

Call for Applications

Applications are invited for a new MA programme in Islamic and West Asian Studies at Royal Holloway University of London. The programme is a joint initiative of the History Department and the School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy, and is attached to Royal Holloway’s Centre for Islamic and West Asian Studies (CIWAS).

Royal Holloway, University of London is based in Egham, Surrey in a beautiful, leafy campus near to Windsor Great Park and within commuting distance from London. The MA in Islamic and West Asian Studies is a 12-month taught postgraduate programme designed for students interested in the Islamic and West Asian world, as well as those wishing to pursue either a career in international affairs or further research on Muslim and West Asian communities.

The programme consists of core and methods courses, as well as optional courses offered by the History Department and the School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy. Students have access to a wide range of postgraduate activities, as well as the many events and facilities that London has to offer, including access to University of London Libraries and the British Library.

Some fee-waiver and maintenance grant scholarships are available. Those wishing to be considered for these should complete their online application, and send a CV and Statement of Purpose (maximum two pages) to ciwas@rhul.ac.uk by 15 July 2018.

For more information about the programme, entry requirements, and the online application please visit:

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-here/postgraduate/politics-and-international-relations/islamic-and-west-asian-studies/

For inquiries about scholarships please contact: ciwas@rhul.ac.uk

Inaugural Khōjā Studies Conference

14-16 December 2016, CEIAS-EHESS, Paris | Sponsored by The World Federation

A History of the Shi’a People

Click here to download a sample excerpt of the book! (PDF format) This book deals with the history of the Shi’a Ithna-‘Ashari Muslim community from the early days of Islam up to present day.

1.The editors of PLSJ: Persian Literary Studies Journal are pleased to announce the call for papers for an upcoming special issue (Vol. 8) on cinema in Iran to be published in 2019. We welcome article submissions (5000-8000 words) addressing the following topics:

1. Film in Popular Culture
2. Literature and Film (Film Adaptation)
3. Gender Studies
4. Iranian Cinema in International Realm
5. Social Issues (War, clash of classes,…)
6. Children’s Movies and Animated Cartoons
7. Ecofilms and Ecocritical Perspectives
8. Movie Business and Studios

Deadline for submission of papers is November 2018.

PLSJ is an interdisciplinary, refereed journal published by Shiraz University listed in MLA and Index Islamicus.

Papers must be uploaded to http://plsj.shirazu.ac.ir/

The Editor of the drama special issue is Dr. Azra Ghandeharion, Assistant Professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

2. The editors of PLSJ: Persian Literary Studies Journal are pleased to announce the call for papers for an upcoming special issue (Vol. 7) on drama in Iran to be published in December 2018. We welcome article submissions (5000-8000 words) addressing the following and other related topics:

• Pre-Islamic theater
• Traditional Iranian theatrical forms: shabih khani, Ta’zieh, siah-bazi, etc
• Postmodern drama
• Women in Iranian Drama: female playwrights, female characters, etc
• Critical studies of significant Iranian playwrights: Bahram Beyzayi, Akbar Radi, Farhad Nazer-zadeh Kermani, Abbas Na’lbandian, Mohammad Yaghoubi, etc
• The future of Iranian drama
• A study of the winners of the Best Playwriting Award of Fajr International Theater Festival in the last few years: trends, themes, techniques …
• Adaptation
• International reception of Iranian drama
• Critical reviews of significant books on Iranian drama

Deadline for submission of papers is September 30, 2018.

PLSJ is an interdisciplinary, refereed journal published by Shiraz University listed in MLA and Index Islamicus.

Papers must be uploaded to http://plsj.shirazu.ac.ir/

The Editor of the drama special issue is Dr Mona Hoorvash, assistant Professor of English Literature at Al-Zahra University.

3. The Fourth Round (2019) of the BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World is now accepting submissions (deadline: 1st October 2018).

This international prize will be awarded annually to the best doctoral thesis or unpublished first monograph based on a doctoral thesis. English-language submissions on any aspect of the academic study of Islam and the Muslim world, past and present, including Muslim-minority societies are accepted. Applicants can be based in any country, and manuscripts will be assessed on the basis of scholarly quality and originality.

The award includes publication of the winning manuscript and a prize of £1,000, and it will be officially presented at the Annual Conference of BRAIS. The selection process will be undertaken by a seven-member prize committee comprising established academics from across the field.

For further details, including information about how to submit an entry, please see:

http://www.brais.ac.uk/prize

4. Workshop: “Conceptualizing Sectarianization”, University of Bern, 6-8 September 2018

Our workshop invites scholars to revisit the analytical validity of sectarianism which has remained to be taken as either a self-evident category to discuss the region of the Middle East and North Africa or an explanatory framework. Rather, we would like to address specifically what “sectarianization” actually means and discuss possible definitions to the term.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 June 2018. Information: http://www.islamwissenschaft.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/aktuelles/workshop/index_ger.html

5. International Seminar on “Identity, History, and Narrative in Contemporary Afghan”, Gauhati University, India, 6-8 February 2019

We invite papers that look into the complex cultural, historical and political contexts that underpin the literature emerging from both within Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora since the last two decades.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2018. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/1880122/international-seminar-identity-history-and-narrative

6. Posts

Bourse postdoctorale en doctrines de l´islam classique, l´Université catholique de Louvain, Belgique

Le montant mensuel de la bourse (variable selon la situation administrative) est de l’ordre de 2300 € (net) par mois. La bourse de post-doctorat est exonérée d’impôts, mais est assujettie à la sécurité sociale des travailleurs salariés. Le·La candidat·e devra avoir obtenu, depuis moins de 6 ans un doctorat portant sur les doctrines de l’Islam clas-sique. Il·Elle devra être capable de s’exprimer, au moins oralement, en français. Le·la candidat·e (belge ou non belge) devra avoir résidé plus de 12 mois hors de Belgique durant les trois dernières années qui précèdent le début de cette bourse.

Date limite de application : 15 juin 2018.

Information : https://f-origin.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/1460/files/2018/03/AppelBoursePostDocIslam-final.pdf

Fellowship for Historical Research on the Islamic World (2019-2010), School of Historical Studies, Princeton, New Jersey

Candidates of any nationality may apply for a single term or a full academic year. The only other obligation of the fellows is to pursue their own research.  The Ph.D. (or equivalent) and substantial publications are required.

Deadline for applications: 15 October 2018. Information: https://www.hs.ias.edu/mem_announcement

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Carleton College, Minnesota

The Department of Political Science invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in International Relations with expertise in security and with significant research interest or field experience in the Middle East and North Africa. Candidates with a scholarly focus on Sub-Saharan Africa will also be considered. PhD or its imminent completion is required. The appointment will begin September 1, 2019.

Deadline for applications: 14 September 2018. Information: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000427970-01

7. Articles on “Pilgrimage and Diversity in the Information Age” for Special Issue of “International Journal of Information, Diversity, and Inclusion (IJIDI)”

Focusing on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Hajj etc. in order to enrich our understanding of the pilgrim’s journey and it complexities through the lens of information and media practices, embodied experiences, memory work, discourses and practices around diversity, curation practices, and community building in a global and digital world.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 August 2018. Information: https://publish.lib.umd.edu/IJIDI/pages/view/CFP