Archive for 2018

1.Faculty Position in Persian Studies at The University of Arizona (Tucson)

The School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies (MENAS) at the University of Arizona invites applications for a newly established endowed professorship in Persian language instruction. Thanks to a generous grant from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Professor of Persian Language will begin employment on August 1, 2018.

For further information and to apply, please visit: https://uacareers.com/postings/27035. Review of application materials will begin April 1, 2018 and continue until the position is filled. For application questions, please contact Eldon Nathaniel Vita at envita@email.arizona.edu.

2. Panel: Medieval Eurabia: Religious Crosspollinations in Architecture, Art and Material Culture during the High and Late Middle Ages (1000-1600)

Conference: Association for Art History 2018 Annual Conference (U.K.), London

Venue: Bush House, King’s College London, Room: BH 2.05

Date: Friday 6 April 2018

Conference’s webpage: https://www.forarthistory.org.uk/our-work/conference/annual-conference-2018/

3. Conference: “The Concept of Scripture, and the Concept of Doctrine in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”, Chair of Oriental Philology and Islamic Studies, University of Erlangen, 18-20 April 2018

Main speakers are Isaac Kalimi; Assaad Elias Kattan; Joseph E. B. Lumbard; Michah Gottlieb; Roman Siebenrock and Waleed El-Ansary.

Program: https://www.kcid.fau.de/files/2018/03. Registration and further information: katja.hoerner@fau.de.

4. Conference: “Struggles for Autonomy: Caste, Gender, Indigenous, Territorial, and Religious Movements in South Asia”, South Asia Anthropologists Group (SAAG), University of Oxford, 5-6 September 2018

We would like to invite the SAAG participants this year to explore the concept of autonomy as an ideal pursued by various movements throughout South Asia, whether they are based on caste, gender, indigeneity, territory, or religion. Subaltern groups such as Dalits, Adivasis, women, oppressed nationalities or religious groups have all expressed a will to reclaim their destinies from the control of dominant groups or the State.

Deadline for abstracts: 5 August 2018. Information: https://f-origin.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/1460/files/2018/02/SAAG2018CfP.pdf

5. International Conference: “Jihadi Audiovisualities”, University of Mainz, 4-5 October 2018

The conference is organized by the junior research group “Jihadism on the Internet: Images and Videos, their Appropriation and Dissemination”. We will discuss in particular the acoustic dimension of jihadist video communication, address the cinematic means in jihadist videos and focus on artistic ways of engaging with these communicative offers.

Information: http://jihadism-online.de/conference/en/programme/

6. Post-doctorat en islamologie, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

La Fondation Sedes Sapientiæ offre la possibilité de poursuivre une recherche approfondie dans le domaine des doctrines de l’Islam classique (Coran, théologie, hadith, mystique).
Date limite de candidature : 15 juin 2018. Information : vicedoyen-teco@uclouvain.be

7. Full-time Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Arabic and Islam Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium

Candidates should be internationally oriented, have excellent teaching competence and a strong research record. Mastering Modern Standard Arabic at native or near-native level is essential. Fluency in a spoken dialect is desirable. Proficiency in English is required.

Deadline for application: 25 April 2018. Information: https://icts.kuleuven.be/apps/jobsite/#/vacatures/54570642?ui=N4IgjgrgpgTgngZwC4wJYDsDmIBcICSCANgIYC2A1hOgCZQgC%2BQA&hl=en&lang=en

8. Visiting Assistant Professor of Arabic, Middle Eastern Studies (MES), Bard College, New York

We are looking for a recent PhD in Arabic literature and culture from any period to contribute to a dynamic and growing MES program. The successful candidate will have native or near-native proficiency in Arabic and English, and experience teaching Arabic, preferably in both formal and colloquial registers. We welcome applications from candidates with a research focus on Classical or Modern Arabic poetry; comparative Arabic-Hebrew, Arabic-Persian, Arabic-Urdu, or Arabic-Turkish training; storytelling and folklore; and/or translation studies.

Information: https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2018/03/27/bard-visiting-assistant-professor-of-arabic

9. Summer School: “Islam in Europe: Challenges of Pluralism”, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, 4-18 August 2018

IIIT European Summer School offers unique tools to navigate our reality and world with its rapidly growing pluralistic essence. In order to tackle successfully the challenges in this context, the program offers academically rigorous and innovative analysis and solutions delivered by diverse and internationally acknowledged scholars and professors of exceptional faculty.

Deadline for applications: 1 May 2018. Information: http://cns.ba/vijesti/call-for-applications-iiit-european-summer-school-islam-in-europe-challenges-of-pluralism/

10. The Islam-UK Centre at Cardiff University is pleased to invite applications for the Jameel Scholarships, starting September 2018. 

Fully-funded x 3 MA ‘Islam in Contemporary Britain’ (fees, stipend and research ‘allowance’ of £1,000)

http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/islamukcentre/ma-jameel-scholarships/

Fully-funded x 3 PhD scholarships (fees, stipend and research ‘allowance’ of £2,500 per annum for 3 years)

http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/islamukcentre/phd-jameel-scholarships/

Closing date for Scholarship applications: 4 May 2018

For all enquiries, please contact: jameelscholarships@cardiff.ac.uk

Will the real Pakistan stand up, please?

Two headlines this month beg the question US officials have been grappling with for more than a decade: Will the real Pakistan stand up, please? Pakistan’s The News reported that the government had designated Islamabad as a pilot project to regulate Friday prayer sermons in the city’s 1,003 mosques, of which only 86 are state-controlled, in a bid to curb hate speech, extremism and demonization of religions and communities.

1.The University of Cambridge is seeking to appoint a Language Teaching Officer in Persian in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, to begin on 1 September 2018. The post is a permanent position, subject to a 9 month probation period.

Full details of the post and how to apply can be found here: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/16958/

Informal enquiries about the post can be directed to Dr Christine van Ruymbeke (email: cv223@cam.ac.uk)

The closing date for applications is midnight GMT on 29 April 2018. Interviews will take place during the week commencing 14 May 2018.

2. [From another listserve:] The Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris has been stepping up the pace with which it is posting scans of its old microfilm collections. I’ve only been working with Latin MSS, so I don’t know if this is also happening with its considerable collections in other languages. But now that so many MSS are coming online, it is becoming truly transformative of the quality of work one can do in creating comprehensive dossiers of works. Granted, the qualityof many of these films is mediocre to poor. You have the option to download the complete PDF of any of them, but I have found those downloaded PDFs to be of even poorer quality. So when I do need to do a screen grab, I usually prefer to do it from the scan displayed online.

The method I use to access the films is clumsy. If someone knows a method that gives quicker access (doing a general search through Gallica is a nightmare), do let us know. What I do is this:

• Go to the main archivesetmanuscrits Acceuil page for “Collections”: http://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/pageCollections.html
• Choose Département des Manuscrits
• Then choose your language
• Then, within any given language, you will be given increasingly subdivided sections to find the shelfmark you are looking for
• Once you’ve found the shelfmark you want, open the page and look at the bottom for a link “Accéder au manuscrit numérisé” — that will take you to whatever digitized facsimile they have, whether a scanned microfilm or, in rarer cases, new digital photography

3. CfP: Call for papers: Future of Salafism Conference

Wednesday, 5 December 2018 to Thursday, 6 December 2018

University of Oxford

https://csia-oxford.org/call-papers-future-salafism-conference

4. Afghanistan, Volume 1, Issue 1 (2018)

https://www.euppublishing.com/toc/afg/1/1

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a refereed journal published twice a year in April and October. It covers all subjects in the humanities including history, art, archaeology, architecture, geography, numismatics, literature, religion, social sciences and contemporary issues from the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. Articles are not restricted to the present borders of Afghanistan and can include the surrounding regions, but must relate to Afghanistan.

Print ISSN: 2399-357X Online ISSN: 2399-3588

Published on behalf of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies

5. ‘The Apocalypse of Ecstasy: The Poetry of Shah Ismāʿīl Revisited’

Amelia Gallagher

Pages 361-397 | Published online: 27 Mar 2018

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00210862.2017.1401862

Bahrain: Official Threatens Online Crackdown

(Beirut) – Bahrain’s interior minister has threatened to crackdown on dissidents and activists who criticize the government online, Human Rights Watch said today. Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa, the interior minister, said on March 25, 2018, that the government was already tracking accounts that “departed from national norms, customs and traditions,” and threatened unspecified new legislation and heavy punishments against “violators.”

Khoja Studies Course | The World Federation of KSIMC

Our President, Dr Moledina, – along with a team of 8 members – recently spent an extremely eventful ten days travelling across India, visiting and catching up on progress in the region regarding The World Federation projects.

Inside the US war in Yemen – 48 hills

One of the most important US Senate votes in decades took place recently, and few people know it happened. On March 20, Senators voted on whether to stop US support for Saudi Arabia’s vicious war in Yemen by invoking the War Powers Act.

An interview with Abdulaziz Sachedina on His Life and Scholarship – Maydan

The following interview with Professor Abdulaziz Sachedina was conducted in 2016 and presented here after his editorial interventions for purposes of accuracy. We hope that scholars of all age cohorts will benefit from this interview on Professor Sachedina’s life and scholarship. Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu (AT): Thank you, Professor Sachedina for agreeing to speak to Maydan.

1.Conference: „Serbest Kurdish Studies“, Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1-2 June 2018  

This year’s conference will focus on three themes: The development of Kurdish Studies as a field, the idea of Kurdistan and its transformation in relation to political and cultural change in the region and diaspora, and the possibilities and dilemmas of Kurdish politics across the Middle East region

Deadline for abstracts: 30 March 2018. Information: http://buffett.northwestern.edu/programs/kurdish-studies

2. PhD Scholarship in Arab and Islamic Studies, IAIS, University of Exeter, UK

The Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies is seeking to recruit one excellent doctoral student whose area(s) of specialization fit(s) and complement(s) the research interests of our academics. The award covers: payment of tuition fees for 3 years; maintenance allowance for accommodation and living expenses of £14,777 per annum. The studentship is open to Home/EU and International students.

Deadline for applications: 10 April 2018. Information: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/money/fundingsearch/awarddetails/?id=3062

3. Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Sociology/Anthropology of the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, IAIS, University of Exeter, UK

The post holder will contribute to further enhancing the research profile of the Centre for Gulf Studies and of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, particularly in areas related or complementary to the sociology and anthropology of the contemporary Gulf and Arabian Peninsula.
Deadline for applications: 18 April 2018. Information: https://jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=818054LD3g&WVID=3817591jNg&LANG=USA

4. History Assistant Professor in Middle East History, Department of History, United States Military Academy

Applicants will be evaluated on the following criteria: 1) academic accomplishment (a Ph.D. is preferred), 2) ability to teach the Middle East version of “Regional Studies in World History” and the “Modern Middle East” elective, 3) demonstrated proficiency in student-centered and active-learning instruction, 4) demonstrated scholarly potential, 5) demonstrated potential to contribute to cadet development.

Deadline for applications: 30 March 2018. Please mail applications to Richard.Lovering@usma.edu

5. Assistant Professor of Arabic, Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, Virginia Military Institute

Three-year, non-tenure-track appointment, beginning 1 August 2018, with conversion to tenure-track very likely. Specialization open; Ph.D. in Arabic / Arabic Studies or related field required. The successful candidate should provide evidence of experience in teaching Arabic language, literature and culture at all levels.

Deadline for applications: position open until filled. Information: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000416542-01

6. Articles for “Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization (JITC)”

JITC invites Call for Papers on the following themes for the upcoming issues of the journal: Spring 2018: “Islamism and Post-Islamism”, fall 2018: “Postcolonial Studies and Muslim” and spring 2019: “Anthropology of Islam”. The scope of the Journal is deliberately given as wide a berth as possible; various aspects of Islamic Thought & Civilization, Social and Natural sciences, Islamic, Oriental and Occidental Studies, Comparative Religions and Civilizations as well as contemporary issues that interface with Islam in the current geopolitical environment are addressed.

Deadline for spring 2018 abstracts: 30 April 2018. Information: https://www.umt.edu.pk/jitc/Call-for-Papers.aspx

7. Book Award Nominations, Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS)

Books must be nominated from one or more individuals using the AMEWS Nomination Form 2018 to attest to the quality and potential impact of the particular work on the field of Middle East gender, sexuality, feminist and women’s studies.

Deadline for applications: 1 May 2018. Information: http://amews.org/amews-book-award/

8. The Board of Directors of Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is pleased to announce its inaugural prize for best dissertation on the medieval Middle East (500-1500 CE).

In an effort to recognize excellent doctoral research in the field, MEM will award its first biennial prize at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association in San Antonio, Texas, in November, 2018. Dissertations filed and defended between June 30, 2016, and June 30, 2018, will be eligible for this year’s prize.

Applicants must be current members in good standing of Middle East Medievalists to be considered. To join MEM or renew your membership please go to: http://islamichistorycommons.org/individual-membership-signup/. Deadline for electronic submissions is August 1, 2018.

For submission details, please contact:

Dr. Kristina Richardson
Associate Professor of History
Queens College, City University of New York
65-30 Kissena Blvd.
Queens, NY 11367
USA
kristina.richardson@qc.cuny.edu

9. The Centre for Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter is seeking to
recruit one full-time postdoctoral research fellow (for 2 years) who
will contribute to further enhancing the research profile of the Centre.

Salary: £34,520 – £42,418, depending on qualifications and experience.

Application deadline: *24 April 2018*.

More information and details: https://bit.ly/2DTKiyl

Proceedings of the Annual International Conference on Shi’i Studies

£10.00 – £25.00 THE ISLAMIC COLLEGE Proceedings of the First Three Annual International Conferences on Shi’i Studies (2015, 2016, and 2017) The Annual International Conference on Shi’i Studies is organised by the Research and Publications Department of The Islamic College, London.

Saudi Prince Mohammed’s religious moderation unlikely to change Asian realities

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may be seeking to revert his kingdom to an unspecified form of moderate Islam but erasing the impact of 40 years of global funding of ultra-conservative, intolerant strands of the faith is unlikely to be eradicated by decree.