Archive for September 4th, 2021

‘Fearing Persecution, Afghan Hazara Shia Muslim Families Find Refuge in Pakistan’s Quetta’
News18
3.9.21

 

1.The current issue of The Art Bulletin (103:3, Sept 2021), includes Alexander Brey’s excellent article on jigsaw masonry, ornament, and Umayyad world-making, “Fragmentation and Reassembly: Decoration, Technique, and Meaning at an Early Islamic Platform” (pp. 17-41), as well as Angela VanHaelen’s “Strange Things for Strangers: Transcultural Automata in Early Modern Amsterdam” (pp. 42-68), including the works of al-Jazari and the Banu Musa.

For general info, see: https://www.collegeart.org/publications/art-bulletin/https://www.collegeart.org/publications/art-bulletin/

For information regarding the Bulletin’s submission process: https://www.collegeart.org/publications/art-bulletin/submissions)

 

 

 

2. Webinar Series – Deccan Heritage Foundation

Restarts 10 September.

Registration page is now available: https://www.deccanheritagefoundation.uk/events/webinars/registration

For previous recordings, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfT8egrdGJ1yWYAWgCz3oIQ

 

 

 

3. Website Announcement – Hazine Post – The Pen’s Screech: Muslim Spiritual Practice of Arabic Calligraphy

A new essay titled The Pen’s Screech: Muslim Spiritual Practice of Arabic Calligraphy has been published on the Hazine website. The author, Noman Baig, discusses the challenges of developing a theoretical and practice-based Arabic calligraphy course in an academic setting and takes us through the life of the Pakistani Arabic calligraphy master Kashif Khan. The essay is an intimate account of how Muslims calligraphers approach the practice of Arabic calligraphy both practically and spiritually. Here’s an excerpt:

“To propose and teach a practice-based course in a highly academic setting is a formidable task. Practitioners usually face resistance from theoretically minded academics who perceive hands-on training as a lowbrow vocation. Last year in 2020, after practicing Islamic calligraphy for a year under a disciple of Kashif Khan (b. 1978), I decided to teach an undergraduate course on the subject at the newly established liberal arts college Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan.

 

 

 

4. Call for Applications – American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) Fellowships, 2022-2023

The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) is pleased to announce 2022-2023 fellowship programs for students and scholars based in the U.S. and Canada:

ARIT / National Endowment for the Humanities Advanced Fellowships for Research in Turkey cover all fields of the humanities, including prehistory, art, archaeology, anthropology, literature, and linguistics, as well as all aspects of history.  The fellowships support applicants who have completed their academic training.  The fellowships may be held for terms ranging from four months to a full year.

ARIT Fellowships for Research in Turkey are offered for research in ancient, medieval, or modern times, in any field of the humanities and social sciences.  Post-doctoral and advanced doctoral fellowships may be held for various terms, for terms from one month up to one academic year.

Applications for ARIT and ARIT-NEH fellowships must be submitted to ARIT by November 1, 2021.  The fellowship committee will notify applicants in late January 2022.

ARIT Summer Fellowships for Advanced Turkish Language in Istanbul offers intensive advanced study of Turkish at Bogazici University for summer 2022.  Participants must have two years of Turkish language study or the equivalent.  The application deadline will be in early February 2022.  The fellowships cover round-trip airfare to Istanbul, application and tuition fees, and a maintenance stipend.

For further information please see the ARIT webpage at https://aritweb.org/fellowships/

 

 

 

5. Keynote lecture by Maxim Romanov for the 3rd Summer school in Islamicate digital humanities for scholars in manuscript studies held in Hamburg University on Monday 6th September at 5:30 pm (CEST) Hamburg time.

This is the zoom link for attending the lecture:

 

 

 

6. 2021-2022 Baskerville Institute Lecture Series begins September 22nd at 12 PM (MT) or 2 PM (EST).

This lecture is entitled “Peace Corps in Iran: A History of Friendship and Contributions” by Professor Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi. 

The lecture coincides with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the US Peace Corps and we are delighted to start the Baskerville Institute Lecture Series with Professor Rostam-Kolayi.

Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi is Professor of History and Department Chair at California State University, Fullerton. She is the director of an oral history project on Peace Corps Iran and has interviewed many former volunteers. Her articles are published in Iranian Studies, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, and Middle East Critique, and book chapters in Iran and the Surrounding World, The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, and The Routledge Handbook of the Global Sixties.

Though studies of Iran-U.S. relations of the late twentieth century often narrate accounts of bitter resentment and deep mistrust, the story of the U.S. Peace Corps program in Iran, which operated from 1962 to 1976, provides a complex picture of engagement between Iranians and Americans. This talk discusses how the Peace Corps came to Iran, its formative years and peak in the mid-to-late-1960s, why it departed from Iran and its layered legacy at the program’s 60th anniversary.

Register Now: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7edRNAmuT1irKHQxo7od6g

 

 

 

7. The Portolan, Issue 111: British Mapping of Afghanistan (Ristow Prize), Joachim Lelewel’s Editing of Early Maps, Exploration of the Southwest, Spanish Enlightenment, Vavassore’s World Map, and more

Below is information on the Fall 2021 issue of The Portolan recently published and mailed. See https://washmapsociety.wildapricot.org/about-the-portolan.

THE PORTOLAN: JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON MAP SOCIETY
ISSUE 111 (Fall 2021)
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Issue 111 (Fall 2021) was published in August 2021 and is in distribution to all members of the Washington Map Society.

This issue includes Emily Boak’s 2020 Ristow prize-winning essay on the British mapping of Afghanistan, Matthew Edney’s article on Joachim Lelewel’s editing early maps, Wesley A. Brown’s favorite map that engages James W. Abert’s exploration of the southwestern United States, Dirk de Pagter’s journey of maps by Don Juan Corradi, Donald McGuirk’s discussion of Giovanni Vavassore’s Tuto il Mondi Tereno (c. 1522), Ira Lourie’s inquiry about A.J. Johnson’s maps, and four book reviews.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Portolan is published three times per year; issue 112 is due for release in late December 2021 / early January 2022.

 

 

 

8. Call for Papers: 8th Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies/Intensive Course

We are pleased to announce the Eighth Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies, which will take place at the Philipps-Universität Marburg.

As in preceding years, the conference will have both themed and open sessions (7-9 July 2022), and it will be preceded by a three-day intensive course (4-6 July 2022) presenting a multi-disciplinary approach to environmental studies in pre-modern Egypt.

Themed Day: This year’s conference will be a joint cooperation of the Faculty of Islamic Studies at the University of Marburg and the EGYLandscape Project (www.egylandscape.org). As such, the themed portion of the conference on the 7^th of July will be “Environment and Nature in the Mamluk Sultanate”. With environmental studies of the Mamluk period a growing but still new field, this themed day will survey the topic broadly. We welcome papers related to land use, hydrology and irrigation, disease and famine, flora and fauna, crops and food, and anything related to these topics. This theme may be interpreted and explored from a literary, political, art historical, economic, archaeological, or any other approach. The focus is on broadening the scope and view of environmental studies of the Mamluk Sultanate.

For the themed day, a maximum of 12 to 15 paper proposals will be selected. If there are more proposals received on this theme, some of the authors who are not selected for the conference may be given the possibility to publish their contributions in the conference’s proceedings. Each paper will be allocated twenty minutes with an additional ten minutes for discussion.

Paper Panels: The remaining two days of the conference (8 and 9 July) will be structured in panels, which may focus on any aspect of the intellectual, political, social, economic, and artistic life of the Mamluk period. The panels will be organized into presentations of three to four papers of twenty minutes each. Panel proposals must be made by a representative, who will be responsible for the panel’s organization. Please note that in case of the cancellation of 2/3 or 3/4 papers in a panel, the panel will be withdrawn from the program.

Language: The official language of the conference and its proceedings will be English.

Fees: The conference registration fees will be fifty (50) euros for participants and attendees. A farewell dinner will take place on the last day (9 July) at a cost to be determined. Payment of the fees (registration and farewell dinner) must be received by 30 April 2022 (information on the method of payment to be used will be provided in the first circular, which will be sent in January 2022). Participants must make their own travel arrangements; information and suggestions for accommodations will be provided in the first circular.

Proposals: Paper proposals for the themed day must be submitted electronically to https://mamluk.uchicago.edu/school-of-mamluk-studies.html by 31 October 2021. Panel proposals must be submitted in the same manner by 30 November 2021. The paper proposals should provide the name and a one-page CV of the speaker, a provisional paper title, and an abstract of a maximum of 1500 characters (about 300 words) per paper. Panel proposals must be submitted as such, including the relevant information for each component paper as well as the name of the panel’s chair (the chair can be one of the panelists).

Acceptance: Paper and panel proposals will be peer-reviewed. A first circular will be sent by January 2022 to those whose proposals have been accepted, and to those who have expressed interest in attending the conference as listeners.

Publication:

1. a) Themed day: the papers will be published in a volume(s) of proceedings.
2. b) Panels: selected papers will be published in Mamlūk Studies Review.

 

 

Intensive course: “A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Environmental Studies in Pre-Modern Egypt”

A three-day, intensive course in methodological approaches to environmental studies in pre-modern Egypt will be held on 4-6 July 2022 immediately before the Eighth Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies. The course is intended for advanced graduate students and other qualified participants. It will be instructed by Ghislaine Alleaume (Aix-Marseille University), Allison Gascoigne (University of Southampton), Nicolas Michel (Aix-Marseille University), and Yossef Rapoport (Queen Mary, University of London). The course will cover a variety of topics, including: an introduction to archaeological methods in environmental history, historiography and research methods for the environmental history of pre-modern Egypt, an introduction to GIS (geographic information systems), and the use of map resources generally.

Since the number of the participants will be limited (a maximum of 15), those who desire to take part in the course are requested to submit a CV, a statement of purpose (1-2 pages), and a letter of recommendation by someone familiar with your work to the following email address: sms2022marburg@gmail.com by the end of January 2022. Those who are selected for the course will be notified by the end of February 2022, at which time information about the method of payment for the course fees will be provided.

We are pleased to announce that in partnership with the EGYLandscape Project, there will be two scholarships for graduate students, who would like to attend the intensive course. In addition to covering the course fee, the scholarship will also pay for travel and accommodations. If you would like to be considered for the EGYLandscape scholarship, please submit an additional short statement (paragraph) expressing such a need alongside the statement of purpose. We ask that only students who do not have access to institutional funds or whose funds are limited apply. Students from the Middle East region are encouraged to apply.

The course fee is two hundred (200) euros, which also includes the registration fee for the subsequent conference (7-9 July). The fees must be paid by 30 April 2022. 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 are excited to welcome you to the Universitätsstadt Marburg,

Albrecht Fuess and Anthony Quickel (local organizers) – sms2022marburg@gmail.com

with, Frédéric Bauden (Université de Liège), Antonella Ghersetti (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice), and Marlis Saleh (University of Chicago)

 

 

 

 

9. MEM Fellowship for Graduate Students of Color: Call for a Second Round of Applications

As promised in our July 2020 Statement on Anti-Racism, the Board of Directors of Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is pleased to announce the second round of applications for our new fellowship to support graduate students of color in medieval studies attending the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). In light of uncertainties around travel to the 2021 meeting, we have decided to use this round to help graduate students of color who wish to attend (either virtually or in person) pay the registration fee.

In order to be considered in this round, please send a paragraph containing the following information to the MEM secretary (Zayde.Antrim@trincoll.edu): your graduate program/institutional affiliation; whether or not you are a MESA member; a brief statement about why you wish to attend the MESA annual meeting; and any other sources of funding available to you. We will review applications as they come in, so that we can fund as many as possible before MESA’s September 15 pre-registration deadline. We will continue to consider applications as long as we have funds available (up to our pledged total of $1500). Please note that we are willing to reimburse participants or attendees who have already paid the registration fee if they demonstrate need. Any questions about the process should be directed to the MEM secretary (Zayde.Antrim@trincoll.edu)

 

 

 

10. Harvard University – Assistant Professor in Medieval Islamic History

http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=61774

Deadline: 15, October 2021

 

 

 

11. AKU-ISMC Winter Programme – Gender in Muslim Contexts 17-25 January 2022

The nine-day course will be held online and run by leading experts on gender and Islam.  The programme will bring together scholars and students from diverse backgrounds to discuss key issues in the study of gender in Muslim contexts and is open to advanced undergraduate students, graduate students and those with prior interest in the subject or a record of study in a related topic .

Module topics include:​

• Gender and Sharia
• Gendering Migration
• Islamic Feminism
• Men and Masculinities

More details on fees, application process, the programme structure, lecturers and guest speakers are available at the website.

Please do direct any queries to joseph.barnes@aku.edu

 

 

 

12. CFP – Religion and Bioethics: A Sociological Perspective

For further information, see:

https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/25414/religion-and-bioethics-a-sociological-perspective

Submission deadlines are 31 January 2022 (for Abstracts) and 04 July 2022 (for full manuscripts).