Archive for 2019

For ADHRB Weekly Newsletter 287 click here.
See also BIRD Weekly 222.

Summer School: Working in an Indian Archive: Indo -Persian records from Hyderabad,

Hyderabad, India, 19 .8.-30.8.2019.

Application deadline: 15 February.

For further information, see https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/63733.html

2. The Middle East and North African Graduate Student Organization (https://menas.arizona.edu/MENA), the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), and the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies (MENAS) at the University of Arizona invite you to participate in the 19th Annual Southwest Graduate Conference in Middle Eastern and North African Studies to be held on March 28, and March 29, 2019 in Tucson, AZ. 

This conference aims to strengthen ties between academic disciplines, provide a platform for graduate students to present their research, exchange ideas, and create a network of emerging scholars spanning a variety of fields. We encourage abstract submissions not only from students within Middle Eastern and North African Studies programs, but also from Linguistics, Literature, Area Studies, Law, LGBT/Queer Studies, Journalism, Gender and Women Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Public Health, Religious Studies, Sociology, Translation Studies, Anthropology, Economics, Geography, History, Music, and other studies related to the Middle East and North Africa from all time periods.

Internal applicants (UA) are encouraged to submit proposals for individual papers and pre-organized panels. Individual paper abstracts must be 250 words and submitted as a Microsoft Word or PDF file. In the body of the email, please include the author’s name, paper title, school, and department affiliation, phone number, and email address. A panel organizer must submit an anonymous panel proposal that includes the description of the panel and an abstract for each paper on it. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out within two weeks of the submission deadline. For further information, please submit your inquiries to uamena@gmail.com. Select papers will be published in our academic peer-reviewed online journal Zaytoon.

Submission deadline: February 22nd, 2019

Submit abstracts to UAMENA@gmail.com

3. Call for Applications: British Library PhD Research Placements

The British Library is now accepting applications for PhD research placements in 2019-20. A wide range of projects are available and full details, including information on how to apply, is available here: https://www.bl.uk/news/2019/january/phd-research-placements-2019

Our PhD research placement scheme is designed to offer opportunities for current PhD students to apply and enhance research, communications and analytical skills and expertise outside of Higher Education as part of their wider research training and professional development. A PhD research placement at the British Library offers the chance to experience research in a different environment to that of a university, to engage with a range of different research users and audiences, to gain insights into different potential postdoctoral career paths, and to make a tangible contribution to the activities and programmes of a national library and major cultural organisation.

The application deadline is 5 pm on Monday, 18 February 2019.

Most placements can take place any time between May 2019 and March 2020 (any restrictions to this are specified in the individual placement profiles). Each placement is for 3 months full-time or (if feasible) the part-time equivalent.

For the current Call for Applications, the placement topics are (please see the website for detailed profiles):

• Art, poetry and memory: Contemporary UK Artists’ Books
• Chinese works of art in the British Library Visual Arts collections
• The Treasures of Danzan Ravjaa
• Identifying and using map images in born-digital collections
• Digitisation of archives: benefits and opportunities
• George Orwell’s Collection of Political Pamphlets
• Greek Papyri of Late Antique Egypt
• Assessing the impact of the British Library’s major heritage acquisitions
• Life on the Home Front: Experiences of the Second World War in Britain
• Communicating international engagement at the British Library
• The ‘long tail’ of UK born-digital publications: What can we learn from legal deposit data?
• Illumination in Persian manuscripts
• Making the case for the national library – exploring the value of how collections are used
• Practice research at the British Library
• Historic photographs of the Silk Road
• Public policy development at the British Library: Soft Power and international working
• Taras Shevchenko at the British Library: Mapping and linking our collections
• Analysing topographical image making c. 1600-1824
• Trade Literature in the British Library collection
• The oriental manuscripts collection of Sir William Jones (1746-94)
• Women’s History Online Resources
• Exploring working-class writing at the British Library

If you have any questions please contact Research.Development@bl.uk.

4. Two Arabic positions at William and Mary.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures

The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the College of William and Mary invites applications for a one-year, non-tenure track Visiting Assistant Professor position that will begin August 10, 2019.  We are looking for professional, skilled language instructors with experience and competence in teaching Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and at least one dialect in a communicative, proficiency-based manner from elementary to intermediate levels. Applicants should have native or near native fluency in MSA, one dialect and English. An MA or higher in Arabic language or literature is required, in addition to a successful proficiency-based teaching record. The successful applicant will be expected to be an effective teacher and will have a 3-3  teaching load.

Required: A Master’s degree in Arabic language, literature or culture is required, in addition to a successful proficiency-based teaching record.

Preferred: Ph.D. or ABD is preferred at the time of appointment August 10,2019 in addition to having a successful teaching record in an American University.

Applicants must apply online at https://jobs.wm.edu.  Submit a curriculum vitae, a cover letter including statement of research and teaching interests, and a sample syllabus for a course you would like to teach. You will be prompted to submit online the names and email addresses of three references who will be contacted by the system with instructions on how to submit a letter of reference in addition to having a successful teaching record in an American University.

For full consideration, submit application materials by the review date, March 15, 2019. Applications received after the review date will be considered if needed and the position will remain open until filled.

Information on the degree programs in the Arabic Studies Program may be found at http://www.wm.edu/as/modernlanguages/arabic/index.php.

Lecturer of Modern Languages and Literatures (Arabic Studies)

The Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at the College of William and Mary invites applications for a non-tenure-track lecturer position that will begin August 10, 2019.  We seek an individual with expertise in Arabic Studies. The successful applicant will be expected to be a professional skilled instructor who can teach at all levels of the curriculum, both Arabic language and Arabic/Middle Eastern cultures courses.  The former require implementation of innovative pedagogical techniques. The latter require a strong theoretical background to teach cultural studies courses.

Applicants should have native or near native fluency in MSA, one Arabic dialect and clearly speak and understand English.  This instructor should also be able to function well in the William & Mary classroom environment where students expect a high level of give and take, and interactive, organized learning. The successful candidate will be expected to be an effective teacher and will have a 3-3 teaching load. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and teaching experience.

Required: A Master’s degree is required in Arabic language, literature or culture is required, in addition to a successful proficiency-based teaching record.

Preferred: A Ph.D. or ABD is preferred at the time of appointment begins (August 10, 2019).  In addition to having a successful teaching record at an American University.

Applicants must apply online at http://jobs.wm.edu. Submit a curriculum vitae, a cover letter which includes statement of research and teaching interests, a sample syllabus for a course you would like to teach.  You will be prompted to submit online the names and email addresses of three references who will be contacted by the system with instructions on how to submit a letter of reference (at least one of which must speak directly to teaching ability).

For full consideration, submit application materials by the review date, TBD at posting time 2019.  Applications received after this review date will be considered if needed.

Information on the Arabic Studies program in the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures may be found at http://www.wm.edu/as/modernlanguages/arabic/index.php.

The College of William and Mary values diversity and invites applications from underrepresented groups who will enrich the research, teaching and service missions of the university.

5. The Ernst Herzfeld Gesellschaft (EHG) | Ernst Herzfeld Society for Studies in Islamic Art and Archaeology and the Eötvös Loránd University are pleased to invite you to the 15th colloquium of the Society to be held in Budapest, July 4–6, 2019, under the title Spaces and Frontiers of Islamic Art and Archaeology.

THEME

The concepts of frontier, boundary, and border, and consequently of spaces and regions they delimit, have left a persistent mark on the perception of geography, whether expounded in pre-modern Muslim textual sources, or by modern geostrategists. The medieval Hudud-al-ʽAlam (Limits of the World, 372/982) suggests, encapsulating in its title the defining significance of boundaries, that such divisions, imposed by mountains, rivers, or deserts, are inherent and natural markers to differentiate spaces and regions. The spatial turn, related also to changes in Central and Eastern Europe not so many years ago, has brought the concept to the forefront once again, also in scholarship on visual and material culture, art history, and archaeology.

Attempts to do away with the constraints of the inherited perception of a trans-regional Muslim world have brought about new approaches of looking at them. Such experiments have inevitably created new, perhaps more subtle, ruptures: temporal junctures between past and present understandings of things, and new, globalized distinctions. Spatial and regional delimitations rely on conceptual frames within which entities are defined, yet definitions themselves remain fluid despite our dependence on the very idea of definition. ‘Islamic art’ is among the definitions that fall short of  assuming a generally accepted outline, often particularly in the regional art historiography of the countries that supposedly are covered by the term. Postulating sets of criteria to imply that the visual and material culture of a Muslim community, or Muslim society, was perceived by that community or society as ‘Islamic’ may lead to unsatisfying results, yet scholarly discourse on art and archaeology needs a discussion of these attempts.

The 15^th colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld Society invites papers, and encourages panel proposals, to address the ways in which Islamic art developed within or expanded beyond external, internal, confessional, and political limits and resulted in a diversity of visual and material cultures. There will be, as usual, also room for papers that report on current research outside of the main theme of the colloquium.

PROCEDURE

The colloquium is planned to begin with a keynote lecture on the evening of Thursday, July 4, 2019. It continues with panel sessions on Friday and Saturday, July 5–6. A meeting of graduate students is scheduled for Thursday, July 4, for which a separate call will be circulated. The graduate meeting is planned to include also a discussion panel with professionals speaking on research skills, publishing, and finding a job.The annual general assembly of the Ernst Herzfeld Society will be held on Friday or Saturday afternoon.

Please submit your panel or paper proposal for the colloquium by March 1, 2019 to Dr Iván Szántó: szanto@caesar.elte.hu  All proposals will undergo a peer review selection process. Acceptance will be notified in the first week of April 2019.

Pre-arranged panels will preferably include three presentations. It is of course also possible to submit individual papers, which will be presented in open panels. Each presentation is limited to 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion (or 30 minutes of discussion per panel). The colloquium languages are English and German.

– Individual papers: Please submit a title and an abstract of no more than 300 words.

– Pre-arranged panels: Please submit a title and an abstract of no-more than 500 words presenting the topic and the aim of the panel, as well as a provisional list of speakers.

If you want to submit a paper proposal for the graduate meeting, please send your title and abstract to Sarah Johnson: sarah.cresap.johnson@gmail.com

Registration and participation in the colloquium are free for members of the Society. Other speakers and participants are asked to pay a conference fee equivalent to the annual membership fee of 50 € (reduced 25 €). We kindly request that speakers and participants organize their own travel and accommodation. A list of hotels located in the vicinity of the colloquium venue will be sent in due course.

With best wishes,

6. Intensive course: Mamluk Archival Material

A three-day intensive course on Mamluk archival material, intended for advanced graduate students and other qualified participants, will be offered by Professor Emad Badr al-Din Abu Ghazi (Cairo University). This will be held at Waseda University on June 12-14, 2019, immediately before the sixth conference of the School of Mamluk Studies. The course will enable students to develop reading skills in Arabic archival material related to the study of the Mamluk period and provide related contextual knowledge. It will deal with various types of archival material, including waqf-related documents, theRagusa/Dubrovnik documents, Ottoman land registers (which include Mamluk land records), and diplomatic documents, among others. The course requires advanced or intermediate level of Arabic reading knowledge.  Please note that the course will be taught in Arabic.

Since the number of participants will be limited (a maximum of 10), those who desire to take part in the course are requested to submit a CV, a statement of purpose, and a letter of recommendation by someone familiar with your work to the following email address: sms2019tokyo@gmail.com by the end of January, 2019. Those who are selected for the course will be notified by the end of February 2019, at which time information about the method of payment for the course fees will be provided.

The course fee is 35000JPY (approximately US$315), which also includes the registration fee for the subsequent conference (June 15-17). The fees must be paid by April 30, 2019. Registration and participation will not be confirmed until payment is received. Participants must make their own travel arrangements. The local organizer will provide suggestions for lodging.

We look forward to meeting you in Tokyo.

Tetsuya Ohtoshi, Waseda University (local organizer)

sms2019tokyo@gmail.com

Frédéric Bauden, Université de Liège

Antonella Ghersetti, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice

Marlis Saleh, University of Chicago

7. Two AUC Summer Courses for Islamic Studies in Cairo for Graduate and Advanced Undergraduate Students

The general program (June 16 – July 12) covers Qur’an, Hadith, Islamic Law, and Sufism while the Islamic Law program (July 14 – August 8) covers origins, cases, criminal law, and post-colonial law

Deadline for application: 15 April 2019. Information: www.cairosummerinstitute.com

8. Conference: “Key Concepts in Interreligious Discourses: The Concept of Person and the Concept of Sexuality in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, 13-15 February 2019

See program at https://www.kcid.fau.de/files/2019/01/KCID_Person_Sexuality_Folder_RZ_Freigabe_2.pdf

9. Workshop on “Youth Politics in the Middle East”, Amman, 19-20 June 2019

This workshop aims to move beyond simplistic descriptions of youth in the Middle East in favor of richer scholarship that takes young people seriously as social actors, and explores how their cultural, educational, economic, and local experiences intersect with politics and political struggle. Papers will be published as an issue of the open access POMEPS Studies series.

Deadline for proposals: 15 February 2019. Information: https://pomeps.org/2018/12/10/call-for-proposals-june-2019-workshop-youth-politics-middle-east/?fbclid=IwAR168JBbAFOMNZE21bGcmH8rXVorcRkx9cnhcUxLgSN7Q0w28tEL-cAjxKE

10. Seminar for Arabian Studies, University of Leiden, 11-13 July 2019

This international forum 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://mailchi.mp/01b457455b66/bfsa-bulletin-call-for-contributions-1658909?e=18cf0337f7

11. PhD Research Fellowship on “Biopolitics in the Middle East”, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo

The fellowship is part of the project “The Lifetimes of Epidemics in Europe and the Middle East” which sets out to analyze and understand the different temporalities of epidemics. Qualification requirements:  A Master’s degree or equivalent in Middle Eastern studies, medical humanities, cultural history, history of science, historical International Relations or relevant fields.

Deadline for applications: 1 February 2019. Information: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/161059/doctoral-research-fellowship

12. Call for Applications- Aga Khan Museum- International Research Grant

The Faaiza Lalji and Ameel Somani

Aga Khan Museum Art History Student Gift

The Aga Khan Museum (AKM) is pleased to announce the availability of research grants, generously supported by Faaiza Lalji and Ameel Somani.  The Faaiza Lalji and Ameel Somani Aga Khan Museum Gift has been created to support PhD Art History candidates studying at higher education institutions worldwide with the costs of travel and accommodation related to research at the Aga Khan Museum.

The Aga Khan Museum

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada is the first museum in North America that is dedicated to presenting the artistic, intellectual, and scientific heritage of Muslim civilizations across the centuries from the Iberian Peninsula to China. Through education, research, and artistic collaboration, the Museum aims to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of the contributions made by Muslim civilizations to world heritage and to promote tolerance and mutual understanding among people. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, a world-renowned architect and winner of the Pritzker Prize, the Museum opened in September 2014 and is home to a renowned collection of 1000 pieces of art from the Muslim world. To learn more about the collection and the upcoming programming at the Museum, visit, www.agakhanmuseum.org

International Research Grant

This research grant supports Art History PhD students internationally with their doctoral theses. Applications will be assessed based on the fit of the proposed research with the collections and resources available at the Museum, and the time proposed to undertake the work. Awardees are expected to spend the majority of their research time on the trip at the Aga Khan Museum, and to provide a short presentation of their research to an internal forum of Museum staff, which will then be shared with Faaiza Lalji and Ameel Somani.

Grants of a maximum of CAD $5,000 will be awarded to support researchers with their travel and accommodation in Toronto.

Requirements

Applications are restricted to Art History PhD candidates in support of research related to their doctoral theses.

To apply for a research grant, the applicant is required to have their research program pre-approved by the Aga Khan Museum. A letter of support from the office of the Director is required as part of the application.

To apply, candidates are asked to submit:

• their CV;
• a cover-letter of no more than two pages outlining their proposed research proposal, including the object list (if applicable), and days to be spent at the Aga Khan Museum and other Toronto museums;
• a budget consisting of costs for travel to and from Toronto and accommodation during the stay;
• a letter of support from the office of the Director of the Aga Khan Museum.

Applications will be reviewed once per year and must be received by 31st March.  Candidates must be eligible to travel and stay in Canada. Candidates are advised to confirm their eligibility to travel to Canada before submitting their application so that there are no disappointments later.

Please submit applications to:

International Research Grant

C/o Director’s Office

Aga Khan Museum

77 Wynford Drive

Toronto, ON M3C 1K1

Canada

Email:research.grant@agakhanmuseum.org

13. Virginia Commonwealth University – VCU – Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair in Islamic Art
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=58186

14. The Center for the Humanities and the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University invite applications for two one-year postdoctoral fellowships, beginning July 1, 2019. The fellows will take a leading role in a research project on themes in Culture, History, and Translation, a project funded by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research at Tufts under its Research and Scholarship Strategic Plan.

We seek two junior scholars whose research builds upon the traditional strengths of humanities – languages, textual interpretation, ethics and values – to rethink society, culture, art, religion, and civilization beyond the national unit that previously organized many studies. This project considers longer histories of connection, exchange, and interdependency in ways that unsettle discretely bounded territories and recast received historical periods, by reconsidering formerly studied “areas” such as: the global study of Europe, transoceanic studies, hemispheric American studies, global Black diaspora studies, and transregional Arabic studies, among others.

The fellow will receive a stipend of $48,000, will be eligible for Tufts University health benefits, and will have a workspace at the Center for the Humanities at Tufts. Fellows will be expected to teach one course in a topic related to their area(s) of specialization, or to participate in equivalent work of course design and planning, during the academic year, as well as participating in other designated activities.

Qualifications

Candidates must have a PhD. The area of disciplinary specialization is open and may involve one or more of the following disciplines: anthropology, history, comparative literature, religion, material and visual culture, critical theory. However, the Culture, History, and Translation project is particularly interested in interdisciplinary scholarship with the ability to think broadly and experimentally across conventional geographic, thematic or temporal norms. Specifically, we seek scholars whose work engages the concept of translation as interceding on settled notions of culture and history and as imbricated in constructions of colonialism, race, empire and diaspora.

Application Instructions

Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, a 2500-word research description, and three confidential letters of reference, submitted directly by the authors, and uploaded to Interfolio. All application materials must be submitted via Interfolio at: http://apply.interfolio.com/58991. For additional information, applicants may contact the Center for the Humanities at humanities@tufts.edu. Review of applications begins on February 1, 2019 and continues until the positions are filled.

15. Hamad bin Khalifa Travel Fellowship

The 8^th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art

The organizing committee invites applications for fellowships to support attendance at the 8^th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art to be held in Doha, Qatar from November 10 to 11, 2019. The due date for applications is March 1, 2019.

The Hamad bin Khalifa Travel Fellowship provides full financial support for up to 5 individuals (advanced graduate students or early career scholars) who will present new and cutting-edge research in a dedicated workshop on November 9, 2019 with the Symposium speakers, Co-chairs, and Virginia Commonwealth University students and faculty.  This workshop will not be open to the public. Presentations shall engage with the symposium’s theme: The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art. Fellowships cover the cost of travel, meals and lodging, and special events during the entirety of the Symposium, from the Fellows’ Workshop on November 9 through the speaker presentations on November 11. Preference is given to applicants from diverse backgrounds with long-standing research interests in Islamic art. Participants at the symposium and workshop will include more than two dozen leading international scholars researching the cross-cultural strands of Islamic art beyond its traditional borders. Each fellow’s presentation will be 15 minutes and will be followed by discussion.

Applications include a statement of interest of up to 100 words, a presentation title and abstract of up to 300 words, and a 2-page CV.  To apply, please visit www.islamicartdoha.org.

16. Mamluk Cairo, a Crossroads for Embassies. The volume offers an up-to-date insight into the diplomacy and diplomatics of the Mamluk sultanate with Muslim and non-Muslim powers. The 28 essays cover the whole chronological span of the sultanate as well as the various areas of the diplomatic relations established by (or with) the Mamluk sultanate.

Frédéric Bauden and Malika Dekkiche

Mamluk Cairo, a Crossroads for Embassies. Studies on Diplomacy and Diplomatics, Frédéric Bauden and Malika Dekkiche (eds.), Leiden and Boston 2019, xxviii-882 pp., ISBN 978-90-04-38463-7

https://brill.com/view/title/39256