Archive for September 7th, 2021

1.The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) are pleased to inform you that we are in the final stages of development for the new iteration of Archnet.org.  ARCHNET NEXT, aka Archnet 3.0, is the first major revisioning since of the site since 2013.  ARCHNET NEXT should be available sometime in the next 3-6 weeks.  The fundamental principle that guided this revision can be summarized in one word: accessibility.

1. ARCHNET NEXT will be more responsive to users in all corners of the world, and on all sorts of devices. A Globally Distributed Content Delivery Network positions content on servers around the world so that it is closer to Archnet’s end users.  This expedites the delivery of material without complicated routing across networks of servers.  This will improve the experience for users on slower connections such as those in more rural areas and in developing nations.
   While Archnet will continue to deliver a first-class experience to desktop users, it has been designed to work equally well on tablets and mobile phones. In addition, ARCHNET NEXT takes advantage of this availability on mobile devices by incorporating a “Near Me” feature so that mobile users can find points of interest near their current location. ARCHNET NEXT also conforms to W3C accessibility guidelines for users with disabilities.
   New browsing features will make it easier for all users to get to sites, authorities and collections directly from the home page.  Quick filters and a robust search engine allow users to find precisely what they are looking for more quickly and easily.
   ARCHNET NEXT was developed in collaboration with Performant Software Solutions LLC, based in Boston, MA and Charlottesville, VA. Specialized in Digital Humanities projects, the firm updated the back end technologies that, greatly increasing the efficiency with which Archnet can process queries of a database that has developed since its inception to become the largest online library focused on the built environment of Muslim societies.
   Archnet is a free, intellectual resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues with a particular focus on societies in which Muslims are or have been a significant cultural presence.  Our mission is to provide ready access to unique visual and textual material to facilitate teaching, scholarship, and professional work of high quality. Archnet is an authority, a growing repository, and a tool for teaching and learning about the architecture of Muslim societies, past, and present.
   The virtual library contains published records for over 8500 sites and 1100 authorities.  Users can access and download more than 9,500 publications and 125,000 images and videos.
   For updates, please subscribe to our mailing list. For additional inquiries contact us using archnet-next@mit.edu

 

 

 

2. Online Course – Warfare in Muslim Material Cultures: From Egypt to Bilad al-Sham

Military architecture through recent archaeological excavations and arms and armour in the Royal Armouries Collections.

The course presents Muslim material cultures in a very specific context: warfare in the Middle East and Egypt during the Medieval and Modern Ages. War played a very important role in Muslim cultures and through the study of military architecture and arms and amour, the course will explore art and architecture in a war context to explain identity and changes in Muslim societies from the Arab conquest to the eve of the colonial period. Most of the arms and armour which will be presented during the course are from the Royal Armouries’ collections, from some of its most well-known treasures to objects rarely made available for public view.

Read and download course structure.

Learning Outcomes

This course links Muslim and Christian cultures through war and peace, diplomacy and social changes. All aspects of Muslim societies will be studied through the lens of military architecture, arms, and armour. Following this short course, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate between the role of warfare in Muslim societies in the Middle and Modern Ages;
• Learn about the importance of cultural exchanges between the East and West;
• Study the impact of the past to understand the relations between Muslims and Christians in today’s society;
• Receive a methodological background on archaeology, history and art history;
• Recognise the different types of Muslim fortifications by geographical area and period;
• Distinguish between different types of Muslim arms and armour by geographical area and period.

Course Convenors

Stephane Pradines is an archaeologist, Professor of Islamic art and architecture at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London. He is a specialist of trade and Islamisation in the Indian Ocean, from the Swahili coast to the Maldives. He is also a specialist of warfare in medieval Africa. He was the director of the excavations of the Walls of Cairo in Egypt from 2000 to 2016. He is now in charge of the excavations of the fort of Lahore in Pakistan. From 2008 to 2015, Stephane Pradines, Abbes Zouache and Mathieu Eychenne were co-directors of an international research programme on War in the Medieval Middle East organised by the French Institute of Archaeology in Cairo (IFAO) and the French Institute in Near East, Beirut-Damascus (IFPO). Professor Pradines has published many articles and books on military architecture, fortifications, arms and armour from the Fatimid to the late Ottoman period.

Natasha Bennett is the Curator of Oriental Collections at the Royal Armouries, UK. Natasha read History at Durham University (2004 – 2007). She joined the Royal Armouries in 2011 as a Curatorial Assistant and was confirmed as Curator in 2017. The Royal Armouries holds the UK’s national collection of arms and armour. Natasha works with the Asian and African collections. Her remit includes an enormous spread of arms and armour mostly between the 14th and 20th centuries, so her areas of research and publication are necessarily wide-ranging. She is the author of Chinese Arms and Armour (Leeds: Royal Armouries, 2018). She has also published work on the accumulation and interpretation of South Asian arms and armour at the Armouries during the 19th century, Asian matchlock guns, the Royal Armouries’ Sudanese collection and Japanese armour.

Date and Time

22 and 29 November, 2021, 13:30 – 16:30 (London Time).

Organisers

The Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations and Royal Armouries Museum, UK.

Registration

Book your ticket and join us online via Zoom by clicking here.

 

 

 

3. POSITION: Visiting Assistant Professor in Arabic Studies,

Carnegie Mellon University: Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences: Modern Languages

Location

Pittsburgh, PA

Open Date

Aug 30, 2021

Deadline

Oct 1, 2021 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time

Description

The Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University invites applications for the position of Visiting Assistant Professor in Arabic Studies, beginning in January 2022, for a three-year appointment, pending satisfactory review after the first year. Applicants must have native or near-native fluency in Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic and at least one dialect) and English. Ph.D. in Arabic language, literature, cultural studies, applied linguistics, or a relevant field is required. Of particular interest are candidates whose research focuses on one or more of the following areas: literary and cultural studies, translation theory and practice, second language acquisition and literacy, bilingual studies, and/or technology-enhanced learning. Candidates are required to demonstrate evidence of an active research program and expertise in the latest approaches to classroom instruction, material development, and computer-assisted language learning. The teaching load is 3+2.

Preferred qualifications: In addition to the required qualifications, the successful candidate is expected to show familiarity with blended/hybrid language instruction or willingness to receive training in this area as needed; ACTFL OPI certification in Arabic is highly desirable.

Responsibilities: The successful candidate is expected to maintain an active research program, teach Arabic language courses at various levels, engage in curriculum design and material development, and participate in student and outreach activities.

The Department of Modern Languages offers a minor in Arabic Studies at both our Pittsburgh and CMU-Qatar campuse in Doha. The program emphasizes oral proficiency, cultural literacy, and the use of technology-based resources to enhance linguistic and cultural learning. The successful candidate will benefit from a strong and growing support of interdisciplinary humanities research and teaching at Carnegie Mellon, including such initiatives as the Center for the Arts in Society, Humanities@CMU, and Askwith Kenner Global Languages and Cultures Room.

Carnegie Mellon University is an equal opportunity employer committed to increasing the diversity of its community on a range of intellectual and cultural dimensions. Carnegie Mellon welcomes applicants who will contribute to this diversity through their research, teaching and service, including women, members of minority groups, protected veterans, individuals with disabilities, and others who would contribute in different ways.

Carnegie Mellon University also seeks to meet the needs of dual-career couples and is a member of the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) that assists with dual-career searches.

Qualifications

PhD in Arabic language, literature, cultural studies, applied linguistics, or a relevant field.

Application Instructions

To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by 11:59pm (ET) on October 1, 2021. Applicants should submit 1) a current CV, 2) a cover letter addressing research, teaching, and evidence of commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and 3) the names and contact information for three professional references.

Application Process

This institution is using Interfolio’s Faculty Search to conduct this search. Applicants to this position receive a free Dossier account and can send all application materials, including confidential letters of recommendation, free of charge.

Apply Now

 

 

 

4. ONLINE Panel: “Islamo-leftism and Debates on Class, Gender, and Religious Hierarchies in France”, Center for Middle East Studies, Brown University, 23 September 2921, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

Hosted by Professors Nadje Al-Ali and Katharina Galor. In recent years, a group of French intellectuals have questioned the benefit of academic research that explores questions of ethnicity, race, gender, intersection-ality, post-colonialism, and Islamophobia. They blame American society and academia for influencing French left-wing scholars and activists.

Information and registration: https://watson.brown.edu/cmes/events/2021/islamo-leftism-france

 

 

 

 

5. ONLINE and IN PERSON Symposium: “Notions of Jihad Reconsidered: Perspectives on Media, Materiality, and Political Violence”, Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz and Kunsthalle Mannheim, 6-8 October 2021

Bringing together international scholars, the symposium explores how different notions of jihad and political violence have been shaped by discursive formations in academia, media, and the arts. It takes the aesthetic dimensions of images and sounds that have emerged in the engagement with 9/11 and its aftermath as a starting point to rethink the various notions of jihad and its relation to political violence.

Information and registration: https://notions-of-jihad.uni-mainz.de/

 

 

 

 

6. Workshop: “Utopias in the Middle East and Beyond”, Centre for Islamic and West Asian Studies (CIWAS), Royal Holloway University of London, February 2022

Organised by Simon Wolfgang Fuchs (Freiburg) and Thomas Pierret (Aix-en-Provence). Scholars are invited with various disciplinary backgrounds to take stock of the many utopias that have shaped (or, at least, strove to shape) the Middle East and adjacent regions throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 October 2021. Information: https://utopiasinthemiddleeast.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

7. ONLINE Conference: “Islamic Perspectives on Exotheology”, 10-11 May 2022

Organised by Shoaib Ahmed Malik, Zayed University and Jörg Matthias Determann, Virginia Commonwealth University, etc.. Questions to be asked: Are extraterrestrials even metaphysically or hermeneutically possible in Islamic thought? If extraterrestrials exist, how would this impact Islamic jurisprudence and/or ethics? What philosophical implications could there be for Muslims if extraterrestrial life exists? Etc.

Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2021. Information: https://www.academia.edu/51090491/Call_for_pa-pers_Islamic_Perspectives_on_Exotheology

 

 

 

 

8. Conference on “Social Justice in Multicultural Settings”, Arab Academic College, Haifa, 7-9 June 2022

Conference sessions will explore the relationship between social justice and multiculturalism, especially as they are related to education. In Israel with four major religions, teachers, educators, academic researchers and policy makers live social justice issues every day. Presenters from around the world will bring experi-ences from their cultural contexts.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 December 2021. Information: http://sjms2022.arabcol.net/sjms2022arabcol/

 

 

 

 

9. Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME

The ability to teach a survey course in modern Middle Eastern history is required; the ability to also teach a course on the history of Palestine and Israel is preferred. We are also interested in candidates whose teach-ing can address inter-disciplinary and methodological questions in Middle Eastern and North African studies.

Deadline for application: 15 October 2021. Information: https://careers.bowdoin.edu/postings/7739

 

 

 

10. ONLINE Digitization Workshop of the Islamicate Digital Humanities Network (IDHN), 29 September 2021

The first half will provide an outline of the basic equipment and techniques needed to put together a mobile digital suite. The second half will be devoted to the various challenges and issues those working in the field encounter when undertaking digital humanities projects outside the academic setting.

Information and registstration: https://idhn.org/conferences

 

 

11. Alpheios Tool explained for Arabists

Around ten years ago, our Peter posted the Alpheios Project here for the first time:
http://amirmideast.blogspot.com/2011/11/alpheios-texts.html
In the meantime, there are tools for morphological analyses of Arabic texts (classical and modern). You can implement these tools into your browser and learn from them. Hakan Özkan in his insightful video-tutorial explains how to make use of it.
https://youtu.be/y45JZCVtol4

The Alpheios Reading Tool … enables you to get definitions (in a pop-up window) of Arabic words with one click directly into your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari).  One major dictionary the tool uses is E.W. Lane’s Arabic-English lexicon, which makes this tool especially useful for premodern texts. Alpheios also runs a morphological analysis of the selected Arabic word and thus makes it easier for you to see the underlying root or basic form. Watch the video for details.