Archive for 2021

1.CFP – Different Visions Issue on Visual History of the Working Class in the Middle Ages (400-1530)

CALL FOR PAPERS

The discipline of art history is closely tied to the art market and to wealthy donors and collectors, and for this reason has long identified with the upper class. Many art historians betray a tendency to identify with the elite. For example, Ruth Mellinkoff, in her fine book Outcasts, expresses a typical attitude when she asserts, “While we who live in the era of the common man publicly extol his virtues, privately we admire and covet the attributes of the upper class.” There are innumerable publications on medieval queens, wealthy art donors, and the luxury objects that they commissioned, but few studies concern the laboring class. In part this is because medieval sources are less interested in workers than in the elite. It is more difficult to write an art history from below because there are fewer textual and visual sources, but it can be done, as earlier scholars have shown. Outstanding examples include J. J. G Alexander’s study of peasants, Deidre Jackson’s essay on labor, and Ruth Mellinkoff’s book Outcasts, among others.

A future issue of Different Visions will be devoted to exploring those who labored. We welcome proposals for articles that explore any aspect that builds towards a visual history of the working class in the Middle Ages (400-1530). Essays may examine images of the laboring class or the objects that were part of their lives, or any other relevant topic. Michael Uebel and Kellie Robertson have shown that in every European language the medieval word for “labour” had an “unambivalent connotation of pain, suffering, and fatigue.” Do visual images confirm this? How is labor depicted? What role does the intersection of gender, race, and class play in medieval images of laborers? How does medieval art show animals or other nonhumans who labor? Have medieval images been used to support modern ways of seeing labor and capital, production and consumption? Does the Aristotelian contempt for labor affect medieval images? Which objects were associated with working class? Which material and immaterial qualities were associated with workers?

Please submit an abstract of about 150 words by March 30 to Diane Wolfthal at dianewolfthal@yahoo.com. Those whose abstracts are selected for publication will be asked to submit their article by July 30. Contributors will then share their research through a zoom conference to be held Aug. 15. Final, revised drafts will be submitted Dec. 31.

2. Open Access Bibliography (in German) of Arabic and Islamic Studies by Serdar Aslan

The Islamic Scholar Serdar Aslan has created a very comprehensive bibliography (work in progress) of the whole range of sciences related to Arabic and Islamic Studies.

3. Islamic Art and Architecture, Robert Hillenbrand (Thames & Hudson) – March 2021

https://thamesandhudson.com/islamic-art-and-architecture-world-of-art-9780500204559

1. STUDENT BURSARIES: New MSc The Globalised Muslim World, University of Edinburgh

The Alwaleed Centre at the University of Edinburgh is launching its new MSc The Globalised Muslim World in September 2021.

To mark the launch of the programme, the Centre is offering ten £3000 student bursaries which are available to both UK and international/EU students.

To be eligible to apply for a bursary, prospective students must submit their application by 29th March 2021.

Further information about the programme and the bursaries can be found here: www.alwaleed.ed.ac.uk/msc-the-globalised-muslim-world

2. Open Access Journal: Journal of Medieval and Islamic History

Journal of Medieval and Islamic History (in Arabic حولية التاريخ الإسلامي والوسيط) is an annual peer-reviewed journal issued by Seminar of Medieval and Islamic History, History Dept., Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University. It is founded in 2000 AD by Prof. Rafaat Abdul-Hamid, Prof. Ahmed Abdel-Raziq, and Prof. Tarek M. Muhammad. It is a scholarly print and open access on-line international journal, which aims to publish peer-reviewed original research-oriented papers and book reviews in the fields of Medieval History, Medieval Slavonic History, Crusades, Byzantine History, Byzantine Egypt, Islamic History, and the relations between East and West.

Journal of Medieval and Islamic History encourages and provides a medium for the publication of all original research contributions of significant value in all aspects of Medieval History and Civilization are welcome. It aims to publish research that contributes to the enlargement of historical knowledge or the advancement of scholarly interpretations.

The certified abbreviation of the journal is JMIH. It is presided over by a distinguished board of Historians and Academicians and is backed by an international advisory board panel consisting of prominent individuals representing many well-known Universities. JMIH publishes high-quality papers and review papers, too. It gives the chance to the academics to publish their top papers, book reviews, and studies widely.

https://jmih.journals.ekb.eg/

3. Webinar via zoom – Intercultural Relations in New Zealand in Commemoration of Christchurch Mosques Massacres 15 March

Organized by The University of Waikato Islamic Studies Group, New Zealand

More details available on:  https://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/UWISG/events

4. University of Edinburgh – Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies PhD Scholarship

The Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh is delighted to invite applications for one PhD scholarship in any area within its expertise.

Applications for both the Scholarship and the PhD must be made by the 3^rd May 2021.  Successful applicants will be advised by no later than the end of June 2021.

Full information and the admissions portal can be found at:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-funding/postgraduate/international/humanities/languages-literatures-cultures/islamic-middle-eastern-studies

5. University of Edinburgh – PhD Scholarship

European Research Council (ERC) project: The Finances of the Caliphate: Abbasid Fiscal Practice in Islamic Late Antiquity (CALIPHAL FINANCES)

In order to be considered for the scholarship, please ensure that you have applied for the PhD programme in the first instance and then use the application form to apply for the scholarship, the deadline for both the PhD and Scholarship applications is the 3^rd May 2021.

Successful applicants will be advised by no later than the end of June 2021.

Full information and application portal at:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-funding/postgraduate/uk-eu/humanities/literatures-languages-cultures/phd-european-research

6. The IISS at the University of Michigan is pleased to announce our next event with Sara Nur Yıldız entitled The “Talisman of the World”: Mawlāna Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī and the Mongols in 13th-Century Seljuk Anatolia on 16 March, 1:00-2:30 PM (ET).

Please register here: https://myumi.ch/K4nN

For more information: https://ii.umich.edu/islamicstudies/news-events/events.detail.html/80967-20824898.html

For any questions, please contact the IISS Coordinators:

IISScoordinators@umich.edu

7. Religious Hatred, Prejudice, Islamophobia and Antisemitism in Global Context

P Hedges, Bloomsbury, 2021

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/religious-hatred-9781350162860/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=NL-CT_Religious%20Hatred_Mar%2021_UK

8. Horner Jarrahi Persian Studies Speaker Series lecture by Houri Berberian

March 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

The University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invite you to a virtual talk by Houri Berberian, author of “Roving Revolutionaries: Armenians and the Connected Revolutions in the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman Worlds.” The lecture is part of the Horner Jarrahi Persian Studies Speaker Series, established by Carolina alumni Shaida Jarrahi Horner ’93, MAC ’94 and Vance L. Horner II ’92.

For further information and to register, see:

https://cseees.unc.edu/event/houri-berberian/

Download paper at:
‘From Disciples to Missionaries: The Trans-Continental Trajectory of the Khoja ShiaIthna-Asheri Community from South Asia to Latin America’

For further information on The Latin America and Caribbean Islamic Studies Newsletter, in which this paper appears, click here.