Archive for March 30th, 2021

The current online study day on Shi’ism in Europe is a unique opportunity for young and senior scholars to deliberate on each other’s concerns and research outcomes in a particular collaborative atmosphere. We are honored to contribute to this first online study day on Shi’ism in collaboration with some scholars motivated by the shared objective of mapping the research agenda on Shi’a studies in some European and Middle Eastern countries. These contributions will certainly help us understand the multiple ways in which Shi’ism evolve in the European and Middle Eastern contexts. We hope that this event will facilitate scientific exchange on the contemporary Shi’ism and introduce new research ideas and collaboration opportunities between scholars of this field of study.

The conference language is English. Each speaker will present his/her paper in 20-minutes, followed by 10 minutes Q&A.

For further information, click here.

1. Webinar – Ziad Jamaleddine, “Drawing The Isolated Mosque” (Series: Re-Approaching Architecture of the Lands of Islam) – 6 April, 2021 / 1 PM EST

From the early nineteenth century onwards, the depiction and analysis of mosque architecture by Europeans, central to the Western discovery of the lands of Islam, has been heavily shaped by Orientalist visual constructs. From the exoticized but scenographic environments depicted by Orientalist painters to the later “scientific” and technical drawings produced by archaeologists and historian, the representation of mosque architecture has had deep impact on disciplinary understandings of these buildings. To trace this effect, this paper will analyze the evolution and reproduction of the plans of five historical mosques through their publication in several of the canonical survey texts of Islamic architecture produced by Western scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through this study of the shifts in each building’s representation, the paper will argue for a relationship between the purification and isolation of the drawing and the translation of the mosque into an idealized and timeless monument. Articulating this connection highlights the gaps of knowledge reproduced with these canonical texts and their impacts on the discipline of architecture.

Jamaleddine is an Assistant Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (NY), and co-founder of L.E.FT Architects (Beirut). His writings have been published in Climates: Architecture and the Planetary Imaginary (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2016), The Arab City: Architecture and Representation (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2016). Among his built projects is the award-winning Moukhtara Mosque (2017).

Register here for the link: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-c8k2dqKQqqg0fIEoaIrEA

 

 

 

 

2. Medieval & Early Modern Studies Festival 18-19th June 2021

This two-day event celebrates Medieval and Early Modern history, 400 – 1800, and encourages applications from a wide range of interdisciplinary topics, including but not limited to, politics, religion, economics, art, drama, literature, and domestic culture. MEMS Fest aims to be an informal space in which postgraduate students, early career researchers, and academics can share ideas and foster conversations, whilst building a greater sense of community. Undergraduate students in their final year of study are also welcome at the conference.

We invite abstracts of up to 250 words for individual research papers of 20 minutes in length on ANY subject relating to the Medieval and Early Modern periods. The research can be in its earliest stages or a more developed piece.

We also encourage 700-word abstracts proposing a three-person panel, presenting on a specific subject or theme in Medieval or Early Modern studies. If you have an idea and would like us to advertise for it, please contact us at memsfestival@gmail.com.

Deadline for all Paper and Panel Proposals is Friday 30th April 2021. All applications must be sent to memsfestival@gmail.com with ‘MEMS Fest 2021 Abstract’ as the subject of the email. 

This opportunity allows you to showcase your research in a friendly environment and to network with fellow scholars from far-reaching institutions. For more information please contact us on Facebook, Twitter, or at memsfestival.wordpress.com. Please do not hesitate to ask questions.

MEMS Festival 2021 is supported by the Centre of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent.

 

 

 

 

3. ONLINE Seminar “Obscene and Sacred Dimensions of Medieval Persian Poetry: Sa’di’s Literary Pornography as “Counter-Text” to Mystical Lyric” by Domenico Ingenito (UCLA), 31 March 2021, 4:00 pm-6:30 pm GMT

As a part of a LGBTQ Iran series, this webinar talks about pornographic depictions of , often same-sex, sexual passions as portrayed in classical Persian literature.

Information and registration: https://www.soas.ac.uk/smei/events/31mar2021-obscene-and-sacred-dimensions-of-medieval-persian-poetry-sadis-literary-pornography-as-cou.html

 

 

 

 

4. ONLINE Lecture: “Esoteric Authority and Sufi Networks of the hajj. East African hajj Accounts, 1898-1951” by Anne K. Bang (University of Bergen), Leibnitz Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 1 April 2021, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm CET

This talk presents a selection of East African travel and hajj accounts and takes note of how the hajj itself is described. It argues that travellers tended to emphasize the esoteric authority they had obtained on their journey (encounters with shaykhs dead and alive) over normative rituals such as the hajj.

Information and registration: https://www.zmo.de/en/events/esoteric-authority-and-sufi-networks-of-the-hajj-east-african-hajj-accounts

 

 

 

 

5. ONLINE Seminar: “Mosques and Islamist Activism: Spatial Evidence from Interwar Cairo” by Steven Brooke, Middle East Studies Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 19 April 2021, 12:00 pm CST 

The author`s findings seek to deepen our understanding of the conditions under which certain mosques become sites for Islamist mobilization, and demonstrate how historical spatial data can be utilized to study political activism.

Information and registration: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nSoGrP0TT1O0rfdJoPE2Hg

 

 

 

 

6. ONLINE 7^th International Graduate Conference on “Materiality In the Eastern Mediterranean World”, Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies (CEMS), Central European University (Vienna/Budapest), 28-29 May 2021

We welcome approaches that focus on the relations between humans and their physical surroundings, the way they understand, perceive, and use them. Moreover, in turning towards the material, the conference intends to explore connections and entanglements between human/non-human, spiritual/physical, and phenomenological/epistemological.

Deadline for abstracts: 5 April 2021. Information: https://cems.ceu.edu/cems-graduate-conference-2021

 

 

 

 

7. International Conference: “Musical Sources and Theories from Ancient Greece to the Ottoman Period”, Ruhr-University Bochum, 10-12 June 2021

Papers will focus on Arabic, Persian and Byzantine music theory, instruments and ways of transmission, with their roots in Ancient Greece and an outlook onto Ottoman and Safavid music. Call for Papers closed. Guests are welcome!

Information: https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/orient/aktuelles/index.html.en

 

 

 

 

8. ONLINE International Society for the Sociology of Religion 36^th Conference: “Religion in Global/Local Perspective: Diffusion, Migration, Transformation”, 12-15 July 2021

Global migration, labor mobility and travel lead to the diffusion of religion, but also to the questioning of religious boundaries and their potential transformation. The difference between religion, spirituality, culture, and nonreligion become themselves diffuse and even blurred. People feel, rediscover and redefine their religious and non-religious horizons in new ways through their everyday lives. This conference highlights the transnational, global and local character of these issues and aims to explore the nature of religious diffusion, encounters, and transformation.

Information: https://conference-system.sisr-issr.org/conferences/conference-2021/#papers

 

 

 

 

9. ONLINE Summer Conference of the “Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE)”, 24-25 July 2021

ASTENE organises conferences biennially to allow for a coming together of those with an interest in early travel and early travellers in Egypt and the Near East.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 April 2021. Information: conference.astene@gmail.com;  http://www.astene.org.uk

 

 

 

 

10. ONLINE or HYBRID: Fifth Annual Doctoral Conference in Religious Studies: “Wellbeing, Harm, and Religion”, Masaryk Universita, Central European University, Charles University, University of Pardubice, Brno, Czech Republic, 9-11 September 2021

The aim of the conference is to create a platform for the study of the intersections amongst religion, health, and diverse cultural conceptions of harm and wellbeing.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 April 2021. Information: https://religionistika.phil.muni.cz/where2021

 

 

 

 

11. International Conference: „Media Aesthetics of Occidentalism“, Centre for Near and Middle East Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, 26-28 January 2022

The conference pursues the central question “How do media aesthetic qualities contribute to the constitution of Occidentalist discourses?”

Deadline for abstracts: 31 May 2021. Information; https://www.online.uni-marburg.de/okzidentalismus/index.php/2021/02/08/internationale-abschlusstagung-26-bis-28-januar-2022/

 

 

 

 

12. Eight Fellowships (2 years) of the “Academy in Exile” at the Forum Tansregionale Studien in Berlin and the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) in Essen

Eligible are scholars from any country, who have a PhD in the humanities, social sciences, or law, and who are at risk because of their academic work and/or civic engagement in human rights, democracy, and the pursuit of academic freedom.

Deadline for applications: 31 March 2021. Information: https://www.academy-in-exile.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AiE_Call_for_Applications-VW-February_2021-Extension.pdf

 

 

 

 

13. Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern Studies (Focus Israel and the Jewish World), University of Groningen

Candidates should have a broad expertise in the contemporary Middle East, with focus on the (modern) history, politics and culture of Israel and the Jewish world in their Middle Eastern context; proficiency in Modern Israeli Hebrew and in Modern Standard Arabic.

Deadline for applications: 12 April 2021.

Information: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S00087BP

 

 

 

 

14. Assistant/Associate Professor of Arabic, American University in Dubai, Fall 2021

Qualification: Ph.D. in Arabic Literature and/or Linguistics from a Western accredited university; previous experience of teaching Arabic in a Western higher education system, with high ratings of teaching effectiveness.

Information: https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2021/03/23/assistant-associate-professor-of-arabic

 

 

 

 

15. Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York

One-year appointment, beginning fall semester 2021. The successful candidate should have expertise in a field of broad concern to peace and conflict studies, including but not limited to: regional or transnational conflict, gendered conflict, ethnic or religious conflict, racialized policing/violence, etc. We welcome applicants with disciplinary training in sociology, anthropology, political science, international relations, international studies, history, or geography.

Review of applications will begin on 26 March and continue until the position is filled.

Information: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/18202

 

 

 

 

16. Assistant Professor in Critical Middle East/North Africa Studies and/or Middle East/North African Diaspora Studies, University of Illinois, Chicago

We are especially interested in candidates with a critical approach whose work addresses one or more of these themes: transnationalism, critical race and/or empire, militarism/war, social movements, gender/sexuality, energy and climate justice, critical health/medicine, and media/popular culture.

Deadline for applications: 9 April 2021. Information: https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2021/03/26/assistant-professor-anthropology-middle-east-and-muslim-societies

 

 

 

 

17. Funding up to £20,000 with Large Research, Research and Study Grants, British Institute at Ankara (BIAA)

The BIAA supports academics and research focused on Turkey and/or the Black Sea region. The Institute welcomes applications across the arts, humanities and the social sciences, including but not limited to archaeology, ancient and modern history, heritage management, and contemporary issues in public policy and political sciences.

Deadline for application: 28 April 2021. Information: https://biaa.ac.uk/opportunities-grants/open-calls

 

 

 

 

18. ONLINE Residence Program in Advanced Arabic Language and Social Studies, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Fall Semester 2021

The program meets the language, culture, and academic needs of advanced non-native and heritage graduate students who wish to strengthen their language and cultural skills, as well as prepare for specific challenges related to their academic areas of expertise. The Program is delivered entirely in Arabic.

Deadline for application: 31 May 2021.

Information and registration: https://dilc.wufoo.com/forms/ra88et51c17saf/

 

 

 

 

19. Chapters for Edited Book on “Muslims and Societies in Africa” (Including Arab Muslims of North Africa), University of Abuja

To what extent has the Muslim life been resilient or influenced by colonialism and globalisation? What is the extent of conformism or dissonance from the various constructs that determine Muslim identity. How does being a Muslim matter in the social, political and economic spheres of African societies.

Deadline for abstracts: 10 April 2021. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/7149932/muslims-and-societies-africa

 

 

 

 

20. Articles on “Theoretical and Experimental Issues in Arabic Linguistics” for Special Issue of “Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature”, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, University of Haifa

Articles are invited on: Phonology and morphology; Grammar of Classical and Modern Standard Arabic; Semantics and pragmatics; Sociolinguistics; Psycholinguistics; Discourse analysis; Syntax of the Qurʾān, written in English or Arabic.

Deadline for submissions: 10 April 2021.

Information: http://alkarmil.haifa.ac.il/index.php/en/instruction-for-authors

 

 

 

 

21. Tomayto, Tomahto: Identifying Azerbaijani Manuscripts in the British Library Collections