1.Call for Submissions – HIAA Winter Newsletter – Member News (Due December 3)
Please remember to submit entries (recent publications, exhibitions, new positions, and honours) for the Member News section of our upcoming Winter newsletter.
The winter newsletter also includes a section for dissertations in progress in Islamic art.
We highly encourage all graduate students to share their information. Dissertation supervisors are requested to share this information with their students regardless of membership status.
For your convenience, we have created a form in which all this information can be compiled: https://forms.gle/3AHFBrfZY3L1CEsD9
We request that you complete this form by Friday, December 3, 2021 to ensure its inclusion in the newsletter
2. EuQu Panels on ‘The Turkish Wars and the Study of Islam in Early Modern Europe’
A Series of Panel Discussions
Organized by Paul Babinski, Asaph Ben-Tov, and Jan Loop
Mondays from 15 November to 6 December; 17.00 to 19.00 CET
Sign up: https://teol.ku.dk/afd/the-european-quran/conference-2021/
This series of panel discussions examines the nexus between wars with the Ottoman Empire and the study of Islam and the Qur’an in early modern Europe. It sketches a broad historical trajectory from the fall of Constantinople into the eighteenth century, tracing how conflict informed popular views of Islam and impacted the material conditions and practices of orientalist scholarship, through looted orientalia (manuscripts, coins, textiles, metalwork) and prisoners who assisted orientalists as scribes and amanuenses. Each panel focuses on a particular stage of conflict, with papers exploring the interrelations between knowledge production and armed conflict from a variety of perspectives. Following these moments over time, we will consider how intensifying coordination between the agents of orientalist scholarship—those who procured, copied, collected, and interpreted the objects of orientalist interest – contributed to shifting views of Islam across Europe.
See also:
https://euqu.eu/2021/10/04/the-turkish-wars-and-the-study-of-islam-in-early-modern-europe/
3. Full-time open-rank faculty positions at the Department of Comparative Literature, Koç University
Koç University
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Department of Comparative Literature
The Department of Comparative Literature at Koç University invites applications for several full-time open-rank faculty positions to begin September 2022. We are particularly interested in candidates with comparatist research profiles in the following areas:
The successful candidates will have active research agendas and demonstrable records of original research in their fields. The candidates are expected to engage in the intellectual life of our Department with diverse theoretical, methodological, and linguistic interests, and to teach broadly on the Department’s curriculum as appropriate.
Junior appointments are at the rank of Assistant Professor and initially for a period of four years with opportunities for renewal and advancement. The teaching load is four courses per year. ABD candidates must be on track to complete their PhD before the start date.
The Department of Comparative Literature is expanding and has launched an MA program in 2021. Therefore, the successful candidates are also expected to complement the Department’s existing strengths and actively participate in further curriculum development. For more information, please visit the Department’s website: https://cssh.ku.edu.tr/en/education/comparative-literature/about/
Located in Istanbul, Turkey, Koç University is an internationally recognized, English-instruction research university. The university actively supports faculty members who apply for European Union and TÜBİTAK research grants, and it offers a competitive benefit package (e.g., housing support, private insurance, K12 package, research funding).
Interested applicants should submit the following documents online at this website: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/20440
The deadline for the application is December 29, 2021.
Informal inquiries about the position may be directed to the search coordinators:
Dr. C. Ceyhun Arslan (cceyhunarslan@ku.edu.tr) or Dr. Meliz Ergin (mergin@ku.edu.tr)
Inquiries concerning the application procedure and related matters may be made to the faculty administrator Ms. Merve G. Dalyaprak (mdalyaprak@ku.edu.tr)
4. The Routledge Companion to the Qur’an
Edited By George Archer, Maria M. Dakake, Daniel A. Madigan
5. Call For Pitches – Manuscripts and Material Culture (Hazine)
Why are manuscripts critical to Islamic and Islamicate studies, and how do they impact pedagogy? How does material culture help us venture into the past, and how do manuscripts affect religious practice, be it Muslim, Coptic, Armenian, etc? Hazine is seeking 3-4 pieces on manuscripts and material culture from the Mashriq, Maghreb, East Africa, West Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey, Iran, Greece, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean broadly that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
Send pitches to hazineblog[at]gmail.com. This is an open-ended call.
Pitches should be no longer than 300 words and should be accompanied by a few sentences telling us who you are. Pitches (and pieces) are accepted in English; we accept essays and are open to different forms such as resource guides, archive reviews, as well as creative formats like zines and comics. We welcome different forms of style as we expand the essay category of the site but do have a look at the essays we’ve run previously, like this one on typography and this one on archivy, because they demonstrate what we’re really looking for: a strong point of view. Completed essays –if accepted– will be 2000 words or less. Deadlines for completed pieces are flexible. Each piece is paid at least 100 USD upon publication; we are in the process of adjusting our fees.
All pitches will receive a response.
https://hazine.info/call-for-pitches-manuscripts-and-material-culture/
6. Scenes From the 16th-Century Ottoman Empire, Book 1
Türkische Manierenbuch From Kassel University Library 40 Ms. Hist. 31
ISBN: 978-90-6921-30-8,
Edited by: Mehmet Tütüncü & Ömer Erdem with contributions from Magnus Reesel (Frankfurt) & Zeynep Öztürk (Istanbul) and Paul Brood (Groningen) Graphic Designer: Omer Erdem
© Copyright 2021, SOTA Haarlem, 366 pages, 21×27 cm full colour.
Sample pages: https://www.academia.edu/59941085/
7. Virtual Conference – The II International Conference on the History and Culture of Perfume – Open Registration
The II International Conference on the History and Culture of Perfume will be held from December 1 to 3, 2021, entirely in virtual format through the Microsoft Teams platform.
The celebration of the II International Conference on History and Culture of Perfume aims to continue the work begun with the previous edition and expand the scope of its objectives: the vindication of perfume as an object of study in the Humanities, the interdisciplinary and international exchange of research results related to perfume and smell, as well as the growing expansion of the field of sensory studies, beyond visuality. This conference will bring together academic contributions from a range of specialists from different areas of knowledge, together with the invited intervention of professionals from outside the field of research, but linked to the professional development of perfume and associated artistic manifestations.
The central thematic axis will be based on academic reflection on the cultural values of perfume—historical, artistic, scientific, technological, experiential, social…—through which it is intended to build a multidisciplinary identity with which to approach this current object of study.
Keynote speakers: David Howes (Concordia University), Annick Le Guérer (Independent), Mª. Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual (Universitat de València), Cecilia Bembibre (University College London), María del Rosario Caballero Rodríguez (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha) and Héctor Manuel Enríquez Andrade (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia).
Registration open until: November 30th.
Reduced fees by early registration until: November 20th.
Check the conference programme and the reduced and special fees through the following link: https://www.ucm.es/capire/perfume21
8. ASPIRANTUM – Armenian School of Languages and Cultures
Learn Persian through Saadi’s Golestan
3 weeks, from Jan 10, 2022 to Jan 28, 2022
Online from Yerevan, Armenia
Apply by Dec 15, 2021
Price: $900
https://aspirantum.com/courses/learn-persian-through-saadi-golestan
This course will be organized on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays each week (4 days each week, 12 days over three weeks) and will include 42 hours of intensive Persian teaching (3.5 hours during each day).
In addition to reading and discussing the Golestan every day, students will read an article in Persian by an Iranian scholar about a unique aspect of the Golestan. These readings are available in our syllabus. Every day the class will start with a discussion of the homework and the mentioned article. Following this, students will read, interpret and decipher one or several stories from the Golestan. Finally, each day’s class will end with a discussion and questions.
9. American University – Sharjah – Faculty | The Ahmed Seddiqi Endowed Chair in Gulf and Middle Eastern Studies
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=62425
The application deadline is December 10, 2021.
10. The Visual Arts Working Group for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley is pleased to invite colleagues to attend an upcoming online lecture by Prof. Margaret S. Graves (Indiana University): ‘Abbasid Painting as Process: The Shifting Status of the Image.
We will convene at 4 pm pst on November 18.
To register:
https://berkeley.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0tdu-pqzsiHNbFE2b8S8nfxCcLSDkAFEJc
Abstract
The invigorated Arabic and Persian textual traditions of the tenth to early thirteenth centuries have left us a small but important collection of descriptions of image-making, often framed within legends of painterly prowess. Images in these textual descriptions are durational, cumulative and often—though not exclusively—produced through competitive performances involving multiple artists. These medieval records of the image have often been absorbed into transhistorical theories of Islamicate image reception. However, I suggest that there is in fact a shift in the status of the image that takes place on the eve of the early modern period, prior to which we can trace a medieval fascination with image-making as process and performance that is equal to—or even exceeds—the beholder’s share of witness and wonder at the painting as a completed artefact. Bringing together textual sources, the eight known manuscript images of the famous Nizami story of the Greek-Chinese painting competition, and objects that attest to other ontologies of the pre-modern image, this lecture goes looking for the ephemeral acts that constituted the medieval image in word and deed.
11. ‘Mosque: Innovation in Object, Form and Function,’ that will take place at the King Abdul Aziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in November 24-25 2021.
Here is the link for getting access to the event by registration, and for the programme and list of speakers: https://www.ithra.com/en/programme/2021/mosque-innovation-object-form-and-function/
12. Two opportunities provided by Oxford’s Bodleian Library for Afghan scholars and/or scholars of all nationalities working on Afghanistan-related topics:
The Bodleian Library has just announced a new call for Afghan scholars to apply for project funding. There are two strands of funding, one of which is working with a programme at Oxford, such as our own. Applications are taken on a rolling basis. Details can be found here: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowships/afghan-scholars-programme
The new call has just been announced as well. These fellowships are given for up to 6 months for scholars to work on any of the Persian rare books and manuscript holdings in the Bodleian. They are open to scholars of all nationalities. This year, applications are especially invited for research connected to the study of Afghanistan and its history, culture and literature. Eligibility and application details can be found here: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowships/bodleian-visiting-fellowships
13. The Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Dept. I: Near Eastern and Classical Archaeology, at the Faculty of Linguistics, Cultures and Arts of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main invites applications for the following position as civil servant or public employee starting at the earliest possible date:
Professorship (W1 with Tenure Track)
for Islamic Archaeology and Art History
Deadline for applications: 10 December 2021.
5e journée d’études sur le chiisme contemporain’
vendredi 19 novembre 2021 – 10:00 – 16:00
Journée organisée avec le soutien du Laboratoire d’études sur les monothéismes (LEM), et du Groupe Sociétés Religions Laïcités (GSRL).
Organisateurs : Constance Arminjon (EPHE – PSL, GSRL) et Rainer Brunner (CNRS, LEM).
Lieu : Maison des sciences de l’Homme – 54, boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris, salle 20.
More information and to register:
https://www.ephe.psl.eu/agenda/5e-journee-d-etudes-sur-le-chiisme-contemporain
Hidden Empires and Muslim Sectarian Identities: The Emergence of Shi’a Sects in Early Islam (7th – 10th Centuries CE)
Mohammad Sagha, Humanities Teaching Fellow, University of Chicago
Date: Monday, November 15, 2021, 3:00pm to 4:30pm, EST
Location: Online Zoom Webinar
To Register:
https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_elngLU1kRAaHwlgqf8nMMA
1.ONLINE “Hakluyt Society Symposium 2021 – Decolonising Travel Studies: Sources and Approaches”, Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs), University of Warwick, 10-12 November 2021
Program and registration:
2. ONLINE Webinar: “Reflections on Afghanistan” with Professor Noam Chomsky, SOAS, London, 12 November 2021, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm GMT
Professor Chomsky will address some of the most pressing concerns surrounding the ongoi ng conflict in
Afghanistan, including Taliban rule, US policy in Afghanistan post 9/11, drone warfare, the refugee crisis, and
future solutions. He will also be taking questions from an online audience.
Information and registration:
3. ONLINE Webinar: “Creative Radicalism in the Middle East: Culture and the Arab Left after the Uprisings” by Caroline Rooney (University of Kent), London Middle East Institute, SOAS, 16 November 2021, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm GMT
In her account of the Arab uprisings, Caroline Rooney outlines the importance of aesthetic strategies and creative expression in the left’s critique of authoritarian and Islamic extremist discourse during the revolutions. Using a wide array of texts and sources she offered a way for the left to reclaim ethical and progressive ‘radical’ values co-opted by political leaders and extremists in the Middle East.
Information and registration: https://www.soas.ac.uk/smei/events/cme/16nov2021-creative-radicalism-in-the-middle-east-culture-and-the-arab-left-after-the-uprisings.html
4. ONLINE Workshop: “Colonial Baggage: Global Tourism in the Age of Empires, 1840s–1970s”, Munich Centre for Global History and German Historical Institute Washington, 18-19 November 2021
Information and registration: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/8859007/colonial-baggage-global-tourism-age-empires-1840s%E2%80%931970s-zoom
5. 19th Media Workshop on “Aesthetics and Material Cultures: New Approaches within Islamic Studies” with Dr. Alina Kokoschka (Berlin/Lübeck), Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, LMU Munich, 13-14 January 2022
Up to ten participants will be chosen to discuss selected academic articles about aesthetics and material culture in the Middle East in n an intense reading session of four hours.The texts will b distributed in advance. Deadline for application: 1 December 2021.Contact Dr.Bettina Gräf (b.graef@lmu.de ).
Information:
https://www.naher-osten.uni-muenchen.de/wasistlosaminstitut/veranstaltungen/cfp-19mws/index.html
6. Workshop: “Travel, Mobility, and Cultural Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa”, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 9-10 April 2022
We invite paper proposals from any discipline in the humanities or social sciences that address topics relating
to travel and mobility in, to, and from the Middle East and North Africa (region in any historical era.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2021.
Information: https://sites.google.com/su.edu/sermeiss/meetings_1/spring-meetings?authuser=0
7. Resident Fellowships (Post Doc, 1-12 Months in 2022) at the “RomanIslam Center for Comparative Empire and Transcultural Studies”, University of Hamburg
Fellowships are available for scholars who have completed their doctoral degree and established an inde-pendent research profile. Applicants should be engaged in a research project related to the Center’s interests in Romanization and Islamication in the period and area in question.
Deadline for applications: 30 November 2021.
Information: https://www.romanislam.uni-hamburg.de/documents/cffellows-2022.pdf
8. PhD Student Position (36 Months) in the Project “Digital Edition of Sources on Habsburg-Ottoman Diplomacy (1500-1918)”, Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Vienna
Your profile: Completed studies in history; Experience in archive work, especially with handwritten early modern sources; Working experience with TRANSKRIBUS, TEI and other editing tools are advantageous; Flexibility, communication skills, creativity, team spirit.
Deadline for applications: 30 November 2021.
Information: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/subsites/Jobs/I.H.B/IHB136DOC121_e.pdf
9. Director of Modern Language Programs (Focus Near Eastern Languages), Harvard University
The Director will head and coordinate all aspects of the program, which currently consists of Arabic, Persian,Turkish, Hebrew, Yiddish and Armenian. The ideal candidate must be able to teach all levels of Arabic language and have a record of successful experience with American academic institutions.
Deadline for applications: 15 December 2021.
Information https://academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/10792
10. Assistant Professor of Modern Persian Literature and Culture, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Requirements: Ph.D. in modern Persian Literature; ability to teach courses in English about modern Persian Literature in English Translation, History of Modern Persian Literature, Modern Persian Society and Culture through Literature and Film, and/or Iranian Cinema. Applicants are expected to have native or near native proficiency in Persian,
Deadline for applications: 3 December 2021.
Information: https://asia.ubc.ca/job-opportunities/copy-2/
ONLINE Mathieu Terrier (CNRS, LEM) : « L’opposition au pouvoir dans le shi’isme imâmite à la période prémoderne : de la révolte armée au contre-pouvoir spirituel », IISMM, Paris, 9 novembre 2021, 18h30 – 20h CET
Ses recherches portent principalement sur les ouvrages de « vies et doctrines des sages » dans le monde arabo musulman, l’évolution des idé es théologiques et philosophiques en islam shî‘ite de l origine à l ’époque moderne et la formation de la « philosophie shî‘ite » entre le XIVe et le XVIIe siècle.
Information et inscription https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e5Lagn9jhY
1.The Best Article Award in Kurdish Studies
This award, sponsored by Kurdish Political Studies Program at the University of Central Florida, recognizes the best article in Kurdish Studies by a rising scholar during the previous calendar year. In this year’s competition, social science and humanities articles published in English language peer-reviewed journals in 2020 were considered. The winning article is awarded $500. The selection committee was composed of Ceren Belge (Concordia University), Ozlem Goner (City University of New York), and Güneş Murat Tezcür (University of Central Florida).
Winner
The committee has unanimously found the following article worthy of the award.
Fırat Bozçalı (2020). Probabilistic borderwork: Oil smuggling, nonillegality, and techno‐legal politics in the Kurdish borderlands of Turkey. American Ethnologist, 47(1), 72-85.
The armed conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdish insurgents has been a central focus of scholarship. While the conflict waxes and wanes, Kurdish civilians in contested zones navigate multiple layers of judicial control and administrative surveillance in pursuit of a living. In his article, Bozçalı brings a refreshing perspective about how ordinary people engage in cross-border economic activities while aiming to avoid charges of smuggling. Based on 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork in judicial and commercial settings, Bozçalı demonstrates how the state’s attempts to curtail oil smuggling via the adoption of new technologies are effectively challenged by Kurdish traders and lawyers. The latter utilize uncertainty inherent to chemical tests and exploit the ambiguity between scientific and legal knowledge production to counter charges of smuggling. While these activities do not involve an alternative political sovereignty claim, they involve mundane forms of resistance and disrupt the state’s ability to control its borders. Bozçalı’s article is a splendid example of how an immersive approach could reveal counterintuitive empirical findings, generate new theoretical insights, and demonstrate the ability of Kurdish Studies to enrich broader scholarly debates about the scope and limits of the state power in borderlands.
Honorable Mention
The committee has also unanimously found the following article worthy of an honorable mention.
Zozan Pehlivan. (2020). El Niño and the nomads: Global climate, local environment, and the crisis of pastoralism in late Ottoman Kurdistan. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 63(3), 316-356.
In this fascinating article, Zozan Pehlivan traces the climatic changes in late 19th century Ottoman Kurdistan, first linking these to the global El Nino Southern Oscillation, then tracing how the ensuing drought, extreme cold, and lack of forage affected the livelihoods of local pastoralists, whose conflicts with peasants increased. Thoroughly original, and scrupulously researched, the article promises to open new avenues of research in the intersection of environmental and Kurdish studies, and inspire new approaches to the study of communal conflict in this critical period and beyond.
2. The Master’s program Cultural Studies of the Middle East, jointly hosted by the Universities of Bamberg and Erlangen, invites applications for the Visiting Professorship 2022-23!
The deadline to apply is January 07, 2022.
3. Near Eastern Studies and Digital Scholarship Conversations @IAS Joint Event
November 10, 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
The Study of Pre-modern Hebrew Philosophical and Scientific Terminology as a new Chapter in the Intellectual History of Europe and the Islamicate World: PESHAT in Context.
Speakers: Giuseppe Veltri (University of Hamburg), Reimund Leicht (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Michael Engel (University of Hamburg) and Florian Dunklau (University of Hamburg).
PESHAT in Context (www.peshat.org) is a long-term research project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and located at the University of Hamburg and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It investigates the formation and development of pre-modern philosophical and scientific terminology in the Hebrew language in its multi-cultural and multi-linguistic context(s). From a historical point of view, Hebrew philosophical and scientific terminology evolved from various attempts to re-formulate the intellectual culture that had developed among Jews in the Arabic-speaking Islamicate world in a new linguistic form and to make it accessible to new audiences. The formation of the “philosophers’ Hebrew” is thus a border-transcending phenomenon with roots in the Arabic-speaking world and reaching out to the intellectual history of medieval Europe. It is one of the major aims of PESHAT in Context to document and analyze the migration of philosophical and scientific concepts and idea through the study of the development of Hebrew terminology within its multilinguistic background. For this purpose, PESHAT in Context has created a multilingual digital thesaurus of philosophical and scientific terms accessible online, which is technologically founded on a newly developed database program. As a project in modern digital humanities, it provides tools and a unique platform to access a wide range of digital resources relevant for the linguistic, terminological and conceptual study of philosophy and science in Europe and the Islamicate world.
Register in advance here https://bit.ly/2Y9MAtv. After registering, you will receive an email containing information about joining the webinar.
Hosted by Sabine Schmidtke (School of Historical Studies, IAS) and María Mercedes Tuya (Digital Scholarship, IAS). For additional information email ds@ias.edu.
4. Global Performance Studies Journal – Call for Proposals – Issue 5.1: “Decolonisation and Performance Studies” (September 2022)
Call for Proposals
Issue 5.1: “Decolonisation and Performance Studies” (September 2022)
Proposal Deadline: 15 November 2021
This issue is multilingual. Proposals are accepted in Arabic, English, and Spanish. See links below for the CFP in the three languages:
Issue Editor
Dr. Nesreen N. Hussein (Middlesex University, London)
Co-Editors
Dr. Kevin Brown (University of Missouri)
Dr. Felipe Cervera (LASALLE College of the Arts)
5. Panel: Writing a Dissertation in Islamic Art & Architcctural History
Panelists: Catherine Asher (University of Minnesota), Martina Rugiadi (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Chanchal Dadlani (Wake Forest University), Zohreh Soltani (Ithaca College)
Date & Time: Monday, November 15, 2021 at 12 pm (Eastern)
Register at: https://umn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkdeyuqDkoG9PjMJJFMDvn8LI_pQ2rXtM1
This panel discussion is open to all graduate students working in topics related to Islamic art.
We encourage faculty members to circulate this announcement to their students.
To make the discussion as relevant as possible, we ask participants to complete this questionnaire in advance: https://forms.gle/7PpkdiVoZ9VhC3E39
Please submit responses by Monday, November 8, 2021.
6. New Exhibition – Cartier et les Arts de l’Islam: Aux sources de la modernité/Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity – MAD/DMA 2021-2022
Heather Ecker:
I wanted to announce the opening of our exhibition in Paris at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs (October 21, 2021 – February 20, 2022) and in Dallas at the Dallas Museum of Arts (May 14, 2022 – September 18, 2022). The exhibition, a culmination of a project of more than three years, is co-organised between the MAD and the DMA with the special collaboration of the Louvre and with Cartier. Diller, Scofidio + Renfro is the scenographer. It is a project in which archival materials (drawings, plaster casts, prints for glass plate negatives, books from Louis Cartier’s design library and notebooks of ideas) take pride of place alongside the jewels that emerged from those studies. It is a study of one firm’s creative response to the ornamental designs copied, catagorised and reprinted by theoreticians of the 19th century including Owen Jones, Jules Bourgoin, Collinot and Beaumont, Prisse d’Avennes and others, and its frank admiration for artists from the Islamic lands whose work was available in exhibitions, catalogues and Louis Cartier’s personal collection of manuscripts, paintings and objects. Indeed, inspirations from the ornaments produced by these artists appear to be at the root of Cartier’s modern style, including what became known as Art Deco. At each venue, the exhibition includes a partial reconstruction of Louis’ dispersed collection, much of it now at Harvard Art Museums. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, published by MAD, in two editions, English and French, edited by the four curators: Evelyne Possémé, Judith Henon-Raynaud, Sarah Schleuning, and myself. The English edition will be released in April 2022, distributed by Thames & Hudson.
https://madparis.fr/Cartier-et-les-arts-de-l-Islam-Aux-sources-de-la-modernite
7. Digital Dictionaries of South Asia
https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/
8. New National Book Critics Circle translation prize
Starting with the 2022 publishing year, the National Book Critics Circle is launching a new Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize to honor the best book of any genre translated into English and published in the United States (including publishing houses based abroad but which distribute in America). The prize recognizes books for their excellence and artistry and is open to translations of books authored by living or deceased writers; new translations of previously translated books will also be considered (this is a game changer for classicists — a new Beowulf or Iliad would count, as would any premodern title in any language tradition). The prize will judge the translated English-language book as a work itself.
As a member of NBCC, I’m thrilled to be on the prize committee along with Adam Dalva, Tara Wanda Merrigan, Shelly Frisch, Jane Ciabattari, and other talented authors, translators, and reviewers. Please reach out with any questions!
Best wishes,
Kevin
————————————————————————-
Kevin Blankinship, PhD
Assistant Professor, Arabic Language and Literature
Contributing Editor, New Lines Magazine
Brigham Young University, 3058 JFSB
Provo, UT 84602 | (801) 422-4684
kevin_blankinship@byu.edu | Homepage
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Academia | MuckRack
The purpose of this call is to assemble contributions from scholars – both established as well as early career – for an academic conference exploring the cultural exchanges between Arabic, Turkic, and Persian-speaking peoples and traditions across the medieval and early modern eras.
Prospective contributors should apply with a 200-word abstract of their proposed presentation/essay by 30th November 2021.
Twelve successful applicants will be notified before the end of the year, and invited to partake in a digitally held conference held on Tuesday 4th May 2022.
More information is available at this link.
10. Fellowship: Bahari Visiting Fellowships in the Persian Arts of the Book.
Deadline 30 November 2021
The Bodleian Libraries are now accepting applications for Visiting Fellowships to be taken up during the academic year 2022-23. Fellowships support periods of research in the Special Collections of the Bodleian Libraries, across a range of different subjects.
Details of the Fellowship terms and application process can be found on our Fellowships webpage. Please note that this year’s Bahari Visiting Fellowship applicants will be required to submit an article-length sample of their work along with their application.
Former Bahari Visiting Fellows presented their studies at the Persian Arts of the Book Conference in July 2021, and some of them are included in a series of short films created for the Bodleian.
The films can be watched on the YouTube channel of the Bodleian Librariesand one of them features Dr Arezou Azad, BIPS Trustee and former Bahari Visiting Fellow. The video can be watched here.
11. The seventh (2022) round of the BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize is now open for submissions, with the deadline set for 5pm GMT on Friday 7th January 2022.
For further information, including how to submit, please click here: http://www.brais.ac.uk/prize/2022.
12. Call for Book Manuscripts: The Early and Medieval Islamic World Series
I.B.Tauris, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, is seeking manuscripts and book proposals for The Early Medieval and Islamic World book series. For more information, including, series description, new and forthcoming titles and how to submit a proposal, please see the series page on our website and read below, or contact Rory Gormley, Commissioning Editor for Middle East history & culture (rory.gormley@bloomsbury.com).
Series Description
As recent scholarship resoundingly attests, the medieval Mediterranean and Middle East bore witness to a prolonged period of flourishing intellectual and cultural diversity. Seeking to contribute to this ever-more nuanced and textured picture, The Early and Medieval Islamic World academic book series promotes innovative research on the period 500–1500 AD with the Islamic world, as it ebbed and flowed from Marrakesh to Palermo and Cairo to Kabul, as the central pivot. Thematic focus within this remit is broad, from the cultural and social to the political and economic, with preference given to studies of societies and cultures from a socio-historical perspective. The series showcases unique voices on the medieval Islamic world, shining light into its lesser studied corners.
Key areas of focus are:
The series is published in collaboration with the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean. The society is dedicated to all aspects of the academic study of Mediterranean history and culture, from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries AD. It aims to foster cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary investigation, create a forum of ideas and encourage debate on intercommunal and transnational crosspollination within the medieval Mediterranean. For more information see: http://www.societymedievalmediterranean.com
For more information see the series website https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/early-and-medieval-islamic-world/, or to submit a proposal, please contact:Rory Gormley, Editor, Middle East history & culture rgormley@ibtauris.com
The department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh is delighted to invite you to an online conversation with Dr Lloyd Ridgeon on Thu, 18 November 2021, 17:00 – 18:00 GMT. We will discuss his new book, Hijab: Three Modern Iranian Seminarian Perspectives.
The event is free but you need to register via the link below:
https://hijabbooklaunch.eventbrite.co.uk
Dr Lloyd Ridgeon’s book addresses the differences of opinion among seminarians on the hijab in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It focuses on three representative thinkers: Murtaza Mutahhari who held veiling to be compulsory, Ahmad Qabil who argued for the desirability of the hijab, and Muhsin Kadivar who considers it neither necessary nor desirable.
Join Lloyd in conversation with Professor Nacim Pak Shiraz, Personal Chair of Cinema and Iran at the University of Edinburgh, to discuss the book and its themes.
‘The Qizilbāsh and their Shah: The Preservation of Royal Prerogative during the Early Reign of Shah Ṭahmāsp’
G. Aldous
JRAS, 2021
The ‘Alawī Religion: An Anthology
M. Bar-Asher, A. Kofsky
Brepols, 2021
The ‘Alawī religion, known for most of its history by the name Nuṣayriyya, emerged in Iraq over a millennium ago. An esoteric, syncretistic religion with a close affinity to Shī‘ī Islam, its origins are shrouded in obscurity. Over time, beliefs and rituals deriving from paganism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity were grafted to the radical Shī‘ī substrate, giving the religion its distinctive character. Throughout their history the ‘Alawites were a persecuted religious minority, but in the 1970s they came to power in Syria and retained absolute rule until recently. There is also a significant population in Hatai Province in southern Turkey.
Arising from the authors’ long-standing interest in the ‘Alawī religion, this anthology offers for the first time a selection from the distinctive literature of the mysterious religion. The book opens with a detailed introduction setting the background for the themes it will cover: the mystery of the divinity in the ‘Alawī faith; rituals and ceremonies; calendar and festivals; the doctrine of reincarnation; initiation into the divine mysteries and the esoteric circle; and finally, the identity and self-definition of the religion’s followers vis-à-vis Islam and other religions.
1. Call for Applications, 2022-2023 Faculty Leave Fellowship
The Crown Center for Middle East Studies is accepting applications for a one-year faculty leave residential fellowship for scholars of the contemporary Middle East. The fellowship is open to all disciplines—particularly politics, economics, history, religion, sociology, or anthropology—for the 2022-2023 academic year. Successful applicants must be tenure track or tenured professors (or equivalent) with a well-established publication record seeking a faculty leave appointment and interested in engaging in a substantive research or book project, mentoring the Center’s junior research fellows, and contributing to the Center’s /Middle East Brief/ series.
*Eligibility
*The 2022-2023 faculty leave fellowship is open to *all faculty members, tenured and non-tenured*, in the ranks of assistant, associate, full, and emeritus professor who work on the contemporary Middle East and North Africa.
*Terms
*The faculty leave fellowship is an academic year appointment beginning September 1, 2022 and ending May 31, 2023. The fellowship is designed to supplement the scholar’s faculty leave salary from their institution and will provide a stipend plus funding for research, travel, and related expenses. The fellowship stipend is set at three levels based on academic rank (or rank equivalency based on scholarly attainment): $40,000 for assistant professor or career equivalent; $50,000 for associate professor or career equivalent; and $70,000 for full professor, emeritus, or career equivalent. The Crown Center will determine the level based on the candidate’s rank or equivalent rank as of the application deadline. Fringe benefits, when not provided by the scholar’s home institution, can be made available during the appointment period.
Fellows are required to be *in residence* at the Crown Center during the tenure of the fellowship and be fully relieved of teaching and service responsibilities at their home university. During their residence, fellows write a /Middle East Brief/ and participate in all Crown Center events, including seminars, workshops, meetings, and retreats.
*Application Materials
*1. Cover letter
2. Curriculum Vitae
*Application Submission*: *https://academicprogramsonline.org/ajo/fellowship/19416* <https://t.e2ma.net/click/07zile/07bopb/spwxdq>
*Application Deadline
*January 1, 2022
*Notification
*April 1, 2022
*Inquiries
*You may direct inquiries to Kristina Cherniahivsky at crowncenter@brandeis.edu or call 781-736-5320. For more information, please visit *brandeis.edu/crown* <https://t.e2ma.net/click/07zile/07bopb/8hxxdq>.
2. ONLINE Lecture: “Representations of Iran by the Western Film Industry” by Angeliki Coletsou, Lecture Series: “10 Years So-called Arab Spring – A Critical Perspective”, Critical Students of Islamic and Arabic Studies (KIARA), University of Leipzig, 3 November 2021, 7:30 pm CET
The speaker compares Iran’s representations by the media before and after the Arab Spring and focuses on the portrayal of 2009 protests by comparing the American and some German cinematic representations of the country.
Information and registration: https://kiaradiekritischen.wordpress.com/ak-10-jahre-sogenannter-arabischer-fruehling/
3. HYBRID “3rd Annual Islamic Philosophy Conference of the American Society of Islamic Phi-losophy & Theology”, Harvard and Brandeis Universities, 3-5 December 2021
The aim of the conference is to promote the study of Islamic Philosophy, broadly conceived, in its historical and contemporary context.
Information: https://asipt.org/conferences/
4. ONLINE Book Launch: “A Companion to Early Modern Istanbul”, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative at NYU, 10 December 2021, 12:00 pm EST
This edited book (Brill, 2021) is the first collective effort to explore Istanbul, capital of the vast polyglot, multiethnic, and multireligious Ottoman Empire and home to one of the world’s largest and most diverse urban populations, as an early modern metropolis. This event brings together the editors, as well as a number of contributors, of the volume to discuss also the field of urban studies within Ottoman history.
Information and registration: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEpd-6vqToqHNbAfK8D5pKY8SSht99dPKx-
5. Mediterranean Seminar Workshop on “Sacred Space(s)”, Fresno State University, 11-12 February 2022
This workshop will explore how sacred spaces of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam helped shape, and were shaped by, inter-communal dynamics in the Mediterranean – including the Near East and North Africam, the Black Sea and Central Asia, and the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean – from prehistory to the modern era.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 November 2021. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/cfp-sacred-spaces-winter-2022-mediterranean-seminar-workshop-11-12-february-fresno-924964?e=82aeb6c61d
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.
Information: https://utopiasinthemiddleeast.wordpress.com/
7. International Conference: “Silk Roads by Land and Sea”, GUtech German University of Technology, Muscat, 9-12 March 2022
The conference will be organised by the RIO Research Centre Indian Ocean (www.rio-heritage.org). It seeks to contribute to the emerging field of “mobility studies”, shedding new light on the overland and sea networks stretching from the Eastern Mediterranean and East Africa to East Asia from the earliest times to the present day.
Information: http://silkroads.rio-heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/210729_Call-for-Papers_v2.pdf
8. 24th Annual International Congress of the Mediterranean Studies Association, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 25-28 May 2022
Proposals are invited for individual paper, panel discussions, and complete sessions on all subjects related to the Mediterranean region and Mediterranean cultures around the world from all historical periods. The official language of the Congress is English, but we also welcome complete sessions in any Mediterranean language.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 March 2022. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/cfp-mediterranean-studies-association-25-28-may-lisbon?e=82aeb6c61d
9. Eighth Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies, University of Marburg, 4-9 July 2022
The themed portion of the conference on 7July will be “Environment and Nature in the Mamluk Sultanate”. 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.
Information: https://mamluk.uchicago.edu/sms-conference.html
10. Assistant Professor in Digital Culture (Focus MENA), Northwestern University Qatar
We seek candidates with an active research program on digital culture in the West Asia and North Africa region, particularly Arab countries. Preference given to scholars whose research is comparative or transna-tional, who investigate questions of identity, values, aesthetics, affect, ethics, and who have linguistic com-petence and field experience in their research area.
Deadline for applications: 11 November 2021. Information: https://careers.northwestern.edu/psc/hr857prd_er/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM_FL.HRS_CG_SEARCH_FL.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST_FL&Action=U&FOCUS=Applicant&SiteId=1&JobOpeningId=42217&PostingSeq=1
11. Fellowships, Scholarships, and Awards of the American Center for Research, Amman, 2022-2023
Information: https://acorjordan.org/fellowships-2/
12. Tenure-Track Assistant Professor for North African Francophone Studies, Connecticut College
All thematic approaches are welcome, with particular attention to expertise in the fields of colonialism/impe-rialism, migration, feminism, gender, sexuality, Arabic, and Islamic Studies. Candidates will have demon-strated experience in the reading and analysis of a variety of cultural modes of production particularly litera-ture in many genres, but also film and screen, music, visual and graphic art, and possibly others.
Deadline for applications: 15 November 2021. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/97248
13. Assistant Professorship in the History of the Middle East (Tenure Track), University of Utah, Salt Lake City
The period of specialization is open. The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong commitment to re-search and to research-informed teaching at all levels of the undergraduate and graduate curriculum. Applicants must hold a Ph.D. in History or a related field at the time appointment begins (August 10, 2022). Previous experience in teaching and mentoring successful undergraduate research is preferred.
Deadline for applications: 5 November 2021. Information: https://utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/120720
14. Assistant Professor in Early Modern Mediterranean Religion, Northwestern University, Evanston
The successful candidate will be interested in the varied routes of religious, philosophical, and material exchange connecting Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and/or the Americas from 1500-1800. May specialize in Christianity, Islam, and/or Judaism.
Deadline for application: 15 November 2021. Information: https://religious-studies.northwestern.edu/about/open-faculty-positions/early-modern-search-2021.html
15. Intensive Course: “A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Environmental Studies in Pre-Modern Egypt”, University of Marburg, 4-6 July 2022
The course will be instructed by Ghislaine Alleaume, Allison Gascoigne, Nicolas Michel, and Yossef Rapoport. It will include an introduction to archaeological methods in environmental history, historiography and research methods for the environmental history of pre-modern Egypt, an introduction to GIS, and the use of map resources generally.
Deadline for application: 31 January 2022.
Information: https://mamluk.uchicago.edu/sms-conference.html
16. Articles for Journal “Occhialì – Rivista sul Mediterraneo islamico” in English, French, Italian or Spanish
Essays, analyses and translations concerning the Islamic Mediterranean are all acceptable: from religious forms to histories, from institutions to languages, social movements, changes, cultural representations, mi-gratory flows, in ancient times as well as today.
Deadline for articles: 15 November 2021. Information: https://blogperle.unical.it/wp/rivistaocchiali/cfp-no-9
17. Call for Papers
The journal Forum for Islamic-Theological Studies (FITS) is a peer-reviewed, international journal devoted to the interdisciplinary study of Islamic Theology and Religious Education, principally in Europe. FITS aims to provide an open space for academic dialogue within and across disciplinary and confessional boundaries to advance debates in the various sub-disciplines of Islamic theology and religious education as well as in the sociology of religion concerning ‘Islam’ and Muslims. Papers can be submitted in the following areas: Qur’anic Studies and Qur’anic exegesis (tafsīr); Hadith Studies; Sufism; Islamic Legal Theory and Hermeneutics (fiqh); Islamic Ethics; Islamic Philosophy; System-atic-Discursive Theology (kalām); Islamic Religious Education; Sociology of Religion on Muslims in Europe; Islam and Pluralism, Islam in Europe; Interreligious Studies: etc.
Deadline for contributions: 1 March 2022. Information: https://www.uibk.ac.at/islam-theol/docs/call-for-papers_fits_de_en-002.pdf
18. Chapters for edited volume on ‘Assessing Canada’s Footprint in the Middle East and North Africa. This book will be open to various scholarly approaches, such as from the fields of political science, diplomatic history, cultural studies, and more. Papers are invited to explore either bilateral relationships or thematic issues, and will be done in the broadest geographic understanding of MENA.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 November 2021. Information: Canada.MENA.Research@gmail.com
19. Exeter’s Monday Majlis: November programme
The Monday Majlis from the Centre for the Study of Islam (CSI) at Exeter continues with meetings in November (see the programme below). All members of the Islamic Studies community are welcome to attend – pre-registration is required – here is the blurb:
The CSI Monday Majlis is a Monday evening, online event, where invited speakers present on aspects of their current research. This may be a book they have recently published, a new project they are working on, or an exciting new potential avenue of Islamic studies research. They take place Mondays, online 1700-1830 UK time.
To register, click on the links below (separate links and separate registration for each Majlis).
1st November: Dr Bianka Speidl (Budapest) will talk about her new book Islam as Power: Shi‛i Revivalism in the Oeuvre of Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah (Routledge 2020).
To register click here: https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUtf-qvqT8oHtySTlXHEhcmPRlFPOtmJtTb
8th November: Dr Emily Selove (Exeter) and Professor Geert Jan Van Gelder (Oxford) talk about their newly published translations and commentary: The Portrait of Abū l-Qāsim al-Baghdādī al-Tamīmī. Parental guidance: prepare for some explicit medieval Arabic material from this fascinating 11th century text.
To register click here:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYucumsqTkpGtz3ZmD5Oh33I34LRAV1hAIQ
15th November: Professor Peter Morey (Birmingham) will talk about his research around Islamophobia and the novel.
To register click here:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIqcuqoqDwoHNYfMNRevBWwHvfd8gTca5Ph
22nd November: Professor Mirjam Kunkler (Swedish Collegium) will talk about her research on gender and Islam, with a focus on her programme “Wither Female Religious authorities?”
To register click here:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcpduqqqD4iHdYL4zzTe9rINLcAoW1toQ9A
29th November: Dr Nizamuddin Ahmed, in the second of his sessions, studies passages from Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam with us.
To register click here:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcvcuqtrz0uHN2nKsNij9e6llnbWyYp5ke3
In line with University of Exeter online seminar regulations:
20. Professor Roshanak Kheshti, “The Soundscape in Diasporic Iranian Cinema,” Friday, 5 November 2021, 4:00 p.M. EST/1:00 PST Zoom Registration: https://uoft.me/6VQ
Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies
The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Lecture Series
presents
The Soundscape in Diasporic Iranian Cinema
an online lecture by
Professor Roshanak Kheshti
University of California, Berkeley
Friday, 5 November 2021, 4:00 p.M. EST/1:00 PST
Zoom Registration:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Bio:
Roshanak Kheshti is Associate Professor of Theater, Dance amd Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. She is an anthropologist, feminist, queer and race theorist, born in Tehran, Iran, and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Her work sits at the intersection of sound, the senses, film and performance studies with an emphasis on diaspora and psychoanalysis. She is the author of Modernity’s Ear: Listening to Race and Gender in World Music (NYU Press, 2015) and Switched-on Bach (Bloomsbury Academic, 33 1/3, 2019). She is currently completing her third book, tentatively titled “We See with the Skin: Zora Neale Hurston’s Synesthetic Hermeneutics”. She has previously published in the Radical History Review, American Quarterly, Current Musicology, Feminist Media Histories, Hypatia, Feminist Studies, GLQ, Theater Survey, and Sounding Out!
Abstract:
This talk explores the question of diegetic film sound in diasporic Iranian cinema. Through Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Mitra Tabrizian’s Gholam and Bahman Ghobadi’s No One Knows About Persian Cats, I consider how the commonly held understanding of diegetic sound (or sounds that emanate from the story world of the film) becomes a troubled notion in this genre, challenging how the narrative world of the film is contained.