Archive for March, 2022
Shii News – Live/Zoom IIS Book Launch – ‘Command and Creation: A Shi’i Cosmological Treatise’ (London, 17.3.22, 6pm UK Time)
- March 10, 2022
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Shii News – CfP: extended deadline for 1st AMI Graduate Islamic Studies Conference (Birmingham, 28-29 May)
The Al-Mahdi Institute is pleased to announce that the deadline has been extended for the call for paper for the 1st AMI Graduate Islamic Studies Conference.
The conference is aimed at graduate students at the masters level working in the field of Islamic studies with the aim of providing those intending to pursue a career in research and academia with an opportunity to gain experience presenting at a conference and to network with like minded peers.
Students enrolled on a masters programme (taught or research) in any discipline at the time of the conference at any university or institution in the United Kingdom are invited to submit abstracts on any topic in Islamic studies, broadly conceived as the study of Islam and Muslim societies.
The conference will be held in-person at the Al-Mahdi Institute between Saturday the 28th May and Sunday the 29th May 2022. Provisions are in place should the conference be required to move online due to changes in public health guidance.
The new deadline for submissions is 23.59 GMT on the 18th March 2022. Abstracts sent after this date will not be considered.
There are arrangements in place for accommodation. Further information on this will be provided when the abstracts have been selected. The cost and arrangement of travel is the responsibility of each person attending. Participants are encouraged to speak to their respective universities who often offer financial support for attending conferences.
For those selected to speak but who will face financial difficulties attending, please email the conference convenor. Lunch and dinner will be provided for each conference participant thanks to the hospitality of the Al-Mahdi Institute.
Further details can be found at the following link: https://ami.is/gc
- March 09, 2022
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Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE Webinar: “Manifestations of a Sufi Woman in Central Asia” by Dr Aziza Shanazarova (Columbia University), Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies Lecture Series, University of Manchester: “Empowering Muslim Women in History, Literature, and the Arts”, 8 March 2022, 15:30 GMT
The lecture series is organized by Prof Zahia Smail Salhi < zahia.smailsalhi@manchester.ac.uk > and Dr Ha-toon AL FASSI < hatoon.alfassi@manchester.ac.uk >, the University of Manchester, School of Arts, Languages and Culture.
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/93450525800
2. HYBRID International Conference “Silk Roads by Land and Sea”, German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech), Muscat, 9-12 March 2022 – POSTPONED to later in 2022
The conference will be structured around five sections, namely Cultural Heritage, Natural Sciences, Human-ities and History of Religions, Social Anthropology, and finally, Historic Politics and Economics. Dealing with these five sections, the presentations will take place in two parallel strings: “Silk Roads by Land” and “Silk Roads by Sea”.
Information: http://silkroads.rio-heritage.org/
3. HYBRID Lecture: “The Rise and Fall of Postcolonial Charisma” by Prof. Mohammed Bamyeh (University of Pittsburg), Freie Universität Berlin, 7 April 2022, 16:15 pm – 8:00 pm CET
Anti-colonial movements in the global south were often personified by a savior leader or a visionary character. Bamyeh discusses the disappearance of this charismatic expectation in recent protest movements with spe-cial focus on the Arab uprisings of 2011 and 2019. He proposes similarities and contrasts between postcolo-nial charisma and phenomena such as contemporary populism and cults of personality.
Information: https://www.sfb-affective-societies.de/veranstaltungen/termine/2022-03-02_keynote_Bamyeh.html.
Registration: polvoro@zedat.fu-berlin.de
4. Workshop: “Travel, Mobility, and Cultural Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa”, South-east Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 9-10 April 2022
Papers will be presented from any discipline in the humanities or social sciences that address topics relating to travel and mobility in, to, and from the MENA region in any historical era.
Information: https://sites.google.com/su.edu/sermeiss/meetings_1/spring-meetings?authuser=0
5. 6th Doctoral Conference and Central European Symposium for the Academic Study of Religion (CESAR): “Transformations of Religions in Times of Crises: Spiritual Alienation and Rethink-ing of Ethics”, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, 1-3 September 2022
Themes: How do different religions or spiritualities interact with each other in times of crisis?How spiritual alienation affects both social and religious systems around the world?How secular society views the role of religiosity in times of crises? What is a role of social media and how do they affect the double dynamic of spiritual alienation and unification?
Deadline for abstracts: 15 May 2022.
6. International Workshop: “Travelling Matters: Rereading, Reshaping, Reusing Objects Across the Mediterranean (1492-1923)”, Haifa Centre for Mediterranean History, 8 September 2022
The workshop intends to tackle objects as sources and subjects of the history of cross-cultural encounters in innovative ways. We intend to discuss objects flowing in all directions and we wish to concentrate on the “second-handedness” of displaced objects.
Deadline for abstracts: 10 April 2022.
7. Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor of Arabic, University of Notre Dame, IN
Applicants should have at least an M.A. in linguistics, literature, Middle Eastern Studies, or relevant field, as well as preparation in communicative language pedagogy. Applicants should also have native or near-native fluency in Modern Standard Arabic, at least one dialect, and English, and some experience teaching Arabic at the university level.
Deadline for applications: 20 March 2022. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/103344
8. Doctoral Scholarships of the Gibb Memorial Trust
Applications for scholarship of up to £2,000 are invited from students working on the pre-modern Middle East (7th century to 1918) registered for a PhD at a British university.
Deadline for applications: 15 April 2022.
Information: https://www.gibbtrust.org/scholarships/
9. Hamsa. Journal of Judaic and Islamic Studies, # 8 (2022) : Arabists and Hebraists (18th– 20th century)
It is intended to summon up Arabists and Hebraists whose activity was developed inside or outside the Academy. The chronological range extends from the 18th to the 20th century, allowing the inclusion of the begin-ning of modern Arabic and Hebraic studies, in Europe, Middle East and new American states, as also others less obvious regions of the world. ]
Deadline for abstracts: 30 April 2022. Information: https://journals.openedition.org/hamsa/2460
10. Articles for New Journal “Indonesian Journal of Religion, Spirituality and Humanity”, State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga, Indonesia
IJORESH is committed to the scholarly study of the dynamic interplays among religion, spirituality and humanity. It particularly focuses on the works which deal with anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, philosophy of religion, history of religion, religious education, religious literature, the-ology, religious law, religious studies, Islamic studies, and religious tourism.
Submission deadline: 15 April 2022.
Information: https://e-journal.iainsalatiga.ac.id/index.php/ijoresh/index
11. Articles for Journal of Language and Inscription: Studies on Old, Middle and New Iranian Languages and Inscriptions. We welcome original and as yet unpublished contributions in German, English, and French from all research areas of studies on old, Middle and new Iranian languages and inscriptions. Reviews can also be submitted at any time.
Deadline for articles: 15 September 2022.
Information: Mdehaghi@ut.ac.ir
12. The British Library
Arabic Manuscripts from Southeast Asia in the British Library
Today’s guest post is by Prof. Andrew Peacock of the University of St. Andrews.
13. CALL FOR PAPERS International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA)
Special Issue: Climate Change and the Built Environment in the Islamic World
Thematic volume planned for May 2024 (IJIA 13.2)
Proposal submission deadline: April 30, 2022
This special issue of IJIA focuses on the impact of the current climate crisis on the built environments of the Islamic world. Environmentalist scholar and eco-theologist Seyyed Hossein Nasr once said that the natural environment occupies a type of ‘sacred’ space in the world, an elevated position that exists only because nature is ‘always in danger of desecration’ (Chidester and Linenthal 1995). In fact, many scientists are now seeing our current global predicament as evidence of the emergence of a ‘fifth nature’ or ‘post nature’, referring to a world ‘after’ nature or potentially beyond or in addition to it, which expands the central definition of the ‘natural’ to include man-made waste, environmental pollution, and importantly climate change as part and parcel of a lived and living ecosystem (Apotsos and Venter 2020). To this end, this special issue takes up the challenge of unpacking this complex topic by utilizing architecture as a space of discourse for thinking about how one might craft a theory of ‘critical environmentalism’ across the Islamic world. Currently accounting for 40 per cent of the world’s total energy usage per year, the built environment provides a fitting platform for a consideration of climate change and attendant environmental themes such as sustainability – broadly defined as ‘the endurance of systems and processes’ – towards examining how such realities are made manifest through the lens of diverse spatial templates within Muslim societies around the globe.
To this point, many architectural approaches being explored in the contemporary period as potential solutions to building in an increasingly unstable climatic future are rooted in historical practices, many of which emerged in proto-Islamic lands. Archaeological evidence from North Africa and the Middle East, for example, not only suggest that early civilizations used thermodynamically efficient materials like earth to build in desert environments, but also developed an understanding of how to generate livable microclimates through infrastructural design and engineering. Some of these early approaches have also served as the basis for some of the first modern attempts at crafting climate-appropriate design, spearheaded by architects such as Hassan Fathy (Egypt) and his utilisation of AT (Appropriate Technology), and even certain contemporary structural counterparts like Dubai’s new eco-mosque in Hatta, which opened in 2021 and uses both solar panels to reduce its energy usage and water treatment units to reuse water for irrigation and cleaning due to the lack of potable water sources in the region. Importantly as well, such building projects and approaches also gesture towards shifting conditions and modes of being in the world, realities informed by numerous different perspectives ranging from social, cultural, economic, and even religious modes of existence. In 2021, the Saudi Arabian government issued a fatwa on the topic of water reuse, requiring mosques in both Mecca and Medina to recycle wastewater or ‘grey water’ due to the limited potable water resources in the region and the extreme drain on regional water resources that events like the annual Hajj provoke. Some see this as evidence of the emergence of a ‘Green Deen’, or an approach to sustainability that positions environmental stewardship as a faith-based ordinance.
Contemporary considerations of the effects of climate change on built environments throughout the Islamic world also compel a reconsideration of the continuing fallacy imposed by western Enlightenment thought that the relationship between architecture and the environment is one of mutual exclusion. Although advancements in green technology, the growth of design fields oriented around biomimetic applications, and the development of sustainable building materials such as ‘cradle to cradle’ products are shifting the relationship between built form and the environment in a more cooperative direction, the fact remains that architectural practice continues to position the natural environment as a separate, distinct realm to be studied and above all controlled, a largely non-collaborative system that rarely overlaps with the built environment unless forced and often actively opposes it.
To this end, this special issue encourages contributions that explore the role of architecture and the built environment in shaping the contours of current climate change and environmentalist discourse in the context of diverse socio-political, cultural, and economic spheres throughout the Islamic world. Contributions might consider past and present events, circumstances, and spaces that offer different or nonconventional interpretations of environmentalism and even the idea of ‘nature’ itself as a space of multiple perspectives, definitions, and concerns, as well as how communities individually encounter and define environmental concerns and incorporate natural design elements into structural responses and solutions specific to the context. Papers might additionally address how architecture as an analytical mechanism challenges established approaches and tendencies that position the built environment in opposition to environmentalist concerns by recognizing its capacity to act as a type of text composed of multiple narratives and registers of knowledge that reflects the value system and frameworks operating within a society at a particular moment with regards to the environment.
Papers should adhere to the IJIA’s remit, which is defined broadly as ‘the historic Islamic world, encompassing the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia, but also the more recent geographies of Islam in its global dimensions’. Further, contributors should fully exploit the self-reflexive potential of this remit towards addressing a spectrum of critical approaches to the built environment in the Islamic world that not only position architecture as a theatre of environmental performance, but also a platform from which to consider additional conditions revolving around issues of race, gender, ethnicity, culture, and politics as they relate to environmental challenges and concerns. To this end, this special issue not only aims to be strongly interdisciplinary, drawing from fields ranging from urban design, history, architecture, archaeology, sociology, and anthropology, but also accommodate a diversity of discourses that focus on regions, communities, and built environments not widely addressed in scholarship on Islamic space. Such case studies are particularly important toward generating a comparative interrogative approach to effectively consider the ongoing encounter/relationship between humanity and the natural world over time and space.
Examples of themes contributors might wish to explore include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Imagining sustainable futures/architecture as an environmentalist frontier
- Global warming, climate change, and its social/cultural impacts
- Natural aesthetics as design inspiration
- Green architecture in desert environments
- Environmentalism, heritage, and its discontents
- Eco-Islam and the ‘Green Deen’
- Armed conflict and its environmental impacts/implications
- Petropolitics and sustainable space
- Architecture and ecological conservation/preservation
- Non-traditional/emerging designs, materials, and spaces
- Colonial/postcolonial frameworks in environmental discourse
- AT (appropriate technology)
Articles offering historical and theoretical analysis (DiT papers) should be between 6000 and 8000 words, and those on design and practice (DiP papers) between 3000 and 4000 words. Practitioners are welcome to contribute insofar as they address the critical framework of the journal. Please send a title and a 400-word abstract to the guest editor, Michelle Apotsos, Williams College (IJIAsustainability@gmail.com), by April 30, 2022. Authors of accepted proposals will be contacted soon thereafter and will be requested to submit full papers by January 30, 2023. All papers will be subject to blind peer review. For author instructions, please consult: www.intellectbooks.com/ijia.
14. CFP – Conference: Book Ornament and Luxury Critique – Zurich, 15-17 September 2022
The research group “Textures of Sacred Scripture. Materials and Semantics of Sacred Book Ornament” (https://textures-of-scripture.ch) invites paper proposals for a three-day international conference on “Book Ornament and Luxury Critique”. The conference, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, is scheduled to take place at the Institute of Art History at the University of Zurich from 15 to 17 September 2022.
In his famous preface to Job, Jerome severely criticizes sumptuous luxury in the ornamentation of books: “Let those who will keep the old books with their gold and silver letters on purple skins (…) if only they will leave for me and mine, our poor pages and copies which are less remarkable for beauty than for accuracy” (Praefatio in librum Hiob, ed. Schaff/Wace 1890, 492). While this source is often cited as proof of the availability of luxurious copies of sacred scriptures in Late Antiquity, and the continuation of such splendor – despite clerical opposition – throughout the Middle Ages, the tradition of luxury critique it documents, and its further development, has received far less attention. When, how, and under what circumstances might book ornament be understood as offensive, and which strategies were employed to avoid such critique or to create books that are ostentatiously ascetic?
Since antiquity, philological correctness was opposed to ornament in the rhetorical discourse, which associated an overtly rich language with overblown luxury and female adornment. Already in Roman literature, this gendered discourse was projected onto the material artifacts of writing, a tradition that influenced the varied discussions about the materiality of sacred books and their status in Christian, Islamic and Jewish book cultures from Late Antiquity until the end of the Middle Ages and beyond. In all three religious traditions, the discourse concerning the ornamentation of scripture established connections “between ornamenting bodies, buildings and language, in which fancy forms are rejected in favor of plain, and embellishment opposed to simplicity in a dialect of truth and falsity” (F. B. Flood, in: Clothing Sacred Scriptures, ed. D. Ganz/B. Schellewald, Berlin/Boston 2019, 52).
The conference welcomes proposals that consider the entire range of such critique of book ornament in Christian, Islamic and Jewish book cultures, and that analyze their specific contexts and semantics, as well as “the spaces of negotiation, in which artists, commissioners and users could react to critical allegations without simply obeying them” (D. Ganz, as above, 34). The time range for proposed papers is from antiquity through the Middle Ages and beyond; early modern and Reformation studies as well as broader theoretical approaches are also welcome. Discussions across disciplinary boundaries are encouraged. Topics of particular interest are:
- material semantics of luxury and its opposites (especially the role of color, layout and format)
- critique of gilded script and the clothing of scriptures in gold, jewelry and textiles
- self-commenting books (e. g. Richard de Bury’s Philobiblon) and self-legitimation of ornament
- the ornament critique of the monastic orders
- the economics of luxury and its critique
- the rhetoric of luxury critique
- luxury critique and gender discourses
- luxury critique in an interreligious perspective
Speaking time for each paper should not exceed 30 minutes and will be followed by a discussion. The conference languages are English, German, French and Italian. Submissions should include the title and an abstract (max. 300 words) as well as the name, contact information and a short CV of the speaker. Proposals should be submitted to thomas.rainer@uzh.ch by 15 April 2022. Acceptance of papers will be confirmed at the beginning of May 2022. The conference is currently planned as an in-person meeting. Travel expenses and on-site accommodation of all speakers will be covered.
15. Available Publication – Book on Ottoman Inscriptions In Northern Black Sea
The board of SOTA Foundation is making the next book on Ottoman traces in Ukraine and its neighbours freely available on the Academia.edu page of its author. We hope to do a service to the honour and struggle of Ukrainian people.
https://www.academia.edu/73262023/
This book is designed as a catalog of Ottoman inscriptions found in the north of the Black Sea. Said region today consists of the territories of Ukraine, Moldova, Russia and Georgia. Although the Crimean peninsula is very important for Ottoman and Islamic history, it is not the subject of this book. The material found there is so great that another book can be made out of this one. Crimea has been the subject of some monographs and inventory studies in Turkey in recent years. Romania and Bulgaria, located in the West of the Black Sea, are not included here as they will be the subject of another book. Bender Castle, located on the territory of Moldova, is included in this book because it is a part of the Ottoman Bucak province. This book is dedicated to the Honorable People of Ukraine, who resisted the brutal invasion and occupation of Ukraine in 2022, and its digital copy was made free available on this occasion in February 2022. The book is in Turkish with an extensive Russian part about Bender.
16. The Mediterranean Review issued by the Institute for Mediterranean Studies at Busan University of Foreign Studies, Republic of Korea, is calling for papers.
The journal addresses Mediterranean regional affairs and discusses crucial
developments in culture and politics. It addresses global issues such as the
Mediterranean influence on international affairs and its multi-cultural
dimensions. We welcome the submission of manuscripts dealing with the fields
of History & Humanities as well as Social Sciences.
Subjects for paper: politics, economics, history, archaeology, literature,
languages, arts, society etc. regarding the Mediterranean
* Date of Submission : April, 18th. 2022. (Mon)
* Address to submit : imsmr@bufs.ac.kr / imsmr@ims.or.kr
* Date of publication:
No.1) 30th of June
No.2) 31st of December
Before submitting your paper, please refer to our code of research ethics as
well as to the text formatting and citation rules on our website:
http://www.imsmr.or.kr.
– Published Articles :
http://imsmr.cafe24.com/go/bbs/board.php?bo_table=Articles (click to move)
– Submission Guide : http://imsmr.or.kr/go/bbs/content.php?co_id=Guidelines
(click to move)
– Code of Ethics :
http://imsmr.cafe24.com/go/bbs/content.php?co_id=Code_of_Ethics (click to
move)
Please notice that we only accept manuscripts in the English language.
All submitted papers will be evaluated under a strict and fair peer review
process. Please notice that there is no guarantee for a submitted article to
be published.
The Editorial Board, Mediterranean Review
Institute for Mediterranean Studies,
Busan University of Foreign Studies65, Geumsaemro 485 beon-gil, Geumjeong-gu, Busan, Republic of Korea. (46234)
Tel) +82-51-509-6695 / +82-51-509-6670
E-mail) imsmr@ims.or.kr / imsmr@bufs.ac.kr
Website) www.imsmr.or.kr
17. Conversations with Emperor Jahangir
Richard Foltz
18. University of California – Los Angeles – Persian Language Lecturer
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=63106
Closing date: 29.5.22.
- March 08, 2022
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Shii News – Zoom: ‘The Craze for Safavid Carpets in Seventeenth-Century Europe’ – J Hallett (15.3.22, 12pm EST)
National Museum of Asian Art
Tuesday, March 15 at 12 pm EST, please join us for “Fit for a Palace: The Craze for Safavid Carpets in Seventeenth-Century Europe” with Jessica Hallett.
In the fifteenth century, the city of Venice was the principal gateway for the arrival of highly valued knotted-pile carpets with geometric designs from the Ottoman Empire. When the Portuguese opened the sea route to India in 1498, Asian carpets became more accessible to consumers in Europe. In Iran, the Safavids decided to seize the opportunity and capture this new overseas market. A revolution occurred in Safavid production with the rise of an urban carpet industry that reacted swiftly, embarking on innovative changes to materials, colors, designs, and dimensions to compete with cheaper Turkish carpets. In Europe, a craze ensued as the elite looked to substitute their old-fashioned geometric carpets with new floral ones, turning the floors of their palaces into gardens. In this talk, Jessica Hallett, curator of the Middle East and China at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, will address how the synergy between makers in Iran and consumers in Europe created this “craze.”
Jessica Hallett was guest curator for Iraq and China: Ceramics, Trade and Innovation at the National Museum of Asian Art (2004). She has curated many exhibitions in Lisbon, since then, including The Oriental Carpet in Portugal at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (2007) and The Rise of Islamic Art at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2019), both of which were awarded national prizes. Her publications include various academic articles and catalogues on ceramics, textiles, and carpets as well as the book Mamluk Glass in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (2000). She is currently preparing with Clara Serra a catalogue of Gulbenkian’s renowned carpet collection.
Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_I6w65FMNQtqOrQgSnzy17Q
For more information please visit our events page: https://asia.si.edu/events or contact us: AsiaScholarlyProgram@si.edu
- March 07, 2022
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Shii News – Academic Items
1.AKU-ISMC
23 and 30 May 2022 Short Course – Mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa (Zoom)
2. Workshop on Typologies in the Islamic Ethical Discourse
Orient-Institut Beirut & American University of Beirut
March 10 to March 12, 2022
For attendance in person, please fill the form: https://forms.gle/z32LFhCzXrHSRtV99
[Please note that physical attendance is limited to 25. If the limit is already reached, your registration will be accepted for online attendance. You will be contacted, if you are registered for physical attendance.]
Live streaming:
https://live.starleaf.com/ODYyNzg6MDcwNTI2 (Day 1: 10. March 2022)
https://live.starleaf.com/ODYyNzg6NDQ4NjEw (Day 2: 11. March 2022)
https://live.starleaf.com/ODYyNzg6MzQ0MTI0 (Day 3: 12. March 2022)
For more information you may refer to our website: https://www.orient-institut.org/events/event-details/typologies-in-the-islamic-ethical-discourse/
3. The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) is pleased to announce that applications for the Doctoral Scholarship are now open. The deadline for applications is 31 March 2022.
The IIS awards Doctoral Scholarships each year to suitable candidates who are interested in pursuing research at PhD level on a topic related to any of the Institute’s core research areas. The most relevant to the Institute’s research needs are:
- Ismaili studies
- Wider Shiʿi studies
- Qurʾanic studies
- Islamic law
- Education
- Manuscript studies
The scholarship is also open to any areas in which Islam can be analysed in one of its various manifestations (historical, theological, philosophical, legal, educational, political, ritual, cultural, etc.).
The Institute’s Doctoral Scholarships programme was established in 1997. Since then, more than 52 scholarships have been awarded. The Doctoral Scholarships are a vehicle for intellectual advancement, career progression and human resources development.
To apply, please download and complete the application form and submit it together with the required documents to scholarships@iis.ac.uk by 31 March. All documents must be submitted in PDF format.
The application form must be accompanied by:
- Cover letter
- Updated CV
- Personal Statement of Commitment
- Copies of graduate-level academic transcripts, including a copy of your Master’s diploma
- Copy of letter of acceptance to doctoral programme
- Three letters of recommendation
- Writing sample
- Doctoral research proposal
The IIS Doctoral Scholarships are available to Ismaili students from around the globe. Further information on eligibility can be found here.
Find out more about the Doctoral Scholarship Programme and how to apply.
For any other information, please email us on scholarships@iis.ac.uk.
4. From Erasure to Remembrance: Affective Memories of Egyptian Feminists – Hoda El Sadda (Online Lecture – MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2022 AT 3 PM – 4:15 PM EST)
https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIuc-CvqDstE9RPGCMh8I4tDI3DHN6GFDOI?_x_zm_rtai…
This lecture will shed light on the political and intellectual trajectory of a pioneer suffragette in the history of Egyptian feminism, Duriyya Shafik, with the aim of exploring the processes of remembrance and forgetfulness of dissonant feminist voices in cultural memory. Shafik was an outspoken advocate for women and human rights throughout the 40s and 50s. In 1957 she was put under house arrest and her name banned from public life on account of her strong opposition to undemocratic practices by the President of the Republic. In the aftermath of the 25th of January revolution in Egypt in 2011, Duriyya’s memory was revived and celebrated widely and in diverse contexts. The new political realities characterized by a cycle of hope and despair, resulted in a revisionist journey into Egypt’s recent history, notably the 1950s and 60s, a period which also witnessed another revolutionary turbulence. Durriyya’s remembrance in the past decade was fueled by an affective dissonance, a state of feeling, that is at the same time individual, social and political, that recognizes the incongruous elements in the dominant narrative.
Hoda El Sadda is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cairo University. She is also a feminist and an activist for women’s rights. In 1992, she co-founded and co-edited Hagar, (1992-1996) an interdisciplinary journal in women’s studies published in Arabic. Her research interests are in the areas of gender studies, comparative literature and oral history. She is author of Gender, Nation and the Arabic Novel: Egypt: 1892-2008 (Edinburgh UP and Syracuse UP, 2012); and co-editor of Oral History in Times of Change: Gender, Documentation and the Making of Archives (Cairo Papers, 35:1, 2018).
5. Online Lecture:
How studies in Latin America & the Caribbean can challenge the scales of observation & omission that compartmentalize global Islam
Tuesday 15 March 2022 || 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
(Central European Time)
Join the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies for a lecture by Dr. Ken Chitwood (Freie Universität Berlin) and a response by Prof. Dr. Claudia Derichs (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin).
Online: https://fu-berlin.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=218987e5c8b20ce72c5e7da24&id=6dfb27459f&e=f70992245e
————————————————————
Despite attempts to broaden our understanding of Muslim networks and the scale of global Islam, most treatments continue to sideline or completely ignore Latin America and the Caribbean. These silences and omissions are in large part due to a dominant area studies discourse that continues to rely on center-periphery models and compartmentalizes regions and spaces according to “epistemic borderlines which have been drawn and grown during decades of constructing a ‘world order’ that is ultimately defined by political power relations.” (Derichs 2015)
In this presentation, Chitwood outlines a new research project exploring multiple networks and assemblages that not only shape the contemporary Muslim community in the Americas, but also form part of the entangled reality of global Islam in the late-modern world.
Learn more here (https://fu-berlin.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=218987e5c8b20ce72c5e7da24&id=b82997f7ed&e=f70992245e)
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Copyright © 2022 LACISA, All rights reserved.
6. University of Edinburgh: Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities
‘Decolonising Ideas: a new podcast series’
The Institute is delighted to announce the launch of a new podcast series, Decolonising Ideas, as part of the Institute Project on Decoloniality (IPD ’24).
Informed by the work of a variety of IASH Fellows, Decolonising Ideas aims to introduce listeners to the theories and practice of Decoloniality, explore the breadth of decolonial inquiry occurring at the Institute, and examine how IASH scholarship relates to broader issues of coloniality across the Global South and Global North.
Our first episode, ‘Decoloniality and the Arab Majority World’, features Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellows Dr Nadeen Dakkak and Dr Ali Kassem as they discuss their scholarship, lived experience, and how their work is informed by and relates to theories of decoloniality.
For further information and to access the podcast at:
7. Zoom talk about the satirical periodical Molla Nasreddin (1906–1931)
Saturday, March 5th (4pm PST/ 7pm EST): A speech and conversation by Dr. Janet Afary (speaker) and Dr. Hasan Javadi (discussant) on the well-known satirical periodical Molla Nasreddin (1906–1931). As usual, we will start with the speaker’s speech, followed by a conversation between the speaker and the discussant, and closing with a Q&A session with the audience. You may also submit a question or two upon registration.
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TALK OVERVIEW: In the early 20th century, a group of artists and intellectuals in Transcaucasia reinterpreted a Middle Eastern trickster figure to construct a reformist and anti-colonial Muslim discourse with a strong emphasis on social and political reforms. Using folklore, visual art, and satire, their periodical Mollā Nasreddin reached tens of thousands of people in the Muslim world, impacting the thinking of a generation.
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SPEAKER: Janet Afary holds the Mellichamp Chair in Global Religion and Modernity at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is a Professor of Religious Studies. She is a historian of modern Iran and has a PhD in History and Near East Studies from the University of Michigan, where her dissertation received the Distinguished Rackham Dissertation Award. Previously she taught at the Department of History and the Program in Women’s Studies at Purdue University, where she was appointed a University Faculty Scholar. Her books include: Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2009, winner of the British Society for Middle East Studies Annual Book Prize); The Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism (Columbia University Press, 1996, winner of Dehkhoda Institute Book Awardj; and (with Kevin B. Anderson) Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (University of Chicago Press, 2005, winner of the Latifeh Yarshater Book Award for Iranian Women’s Studies); (with John R. Perry) Charand-o Parand: Revolutionary Satire in Iran (Yale University Press, 2016), Honorable Mention Lois Roth Persian Translation Prize.
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DISCUSSANT: Hasan Javadi was born in Tabriz, Iran to a distinguished family of administrators and scholars. He has taught English and Persian literature at the University of Cambridge, Tehran University and the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author and translator of numerous books, including Satire in Persian Literature, and Persian Literary Influence on English Literature. For Mage he translated Obeyd-E Zakani: Ethics of the Aristocrats and Other Satirical Works. His translations include: Forough Farrokhzad’s Another Birth and Other Poems, and with Willem Floor, Abbas Qoli Aqa Bakikhanov’s The Heavenly Rose-Garden: A History of Shirvan & Daghestan; Evliya Chelebi’s Travels in Iran and the Caucasus, 1647 and 1654; and Wake Up Call: Memoirs of a Moslem Woman’s Struggle to Educate Her People, 1907-1931. He edited Letters From Tabriz: The Russian Suppression of the Iranian Constitutional Movement.
Now retired, Dr. Javadi lives in the Washington DC area, where he is working on original scholarship and translations of Persian literature.
8. Panel (March 11): What is the Value of the Persianate to Afghanistan Studies?
To register for “What is the Value of the Persianate to Afghanistan Studies?” (Friday, March 11; 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific time), please click here.
Panel description below:
In recent years, the study of the Persianate world has gained more momentum. Scholars have discussed and debated its meaning, utility, and value as a category of analysis for different disciplines, and cultural and historical geographies. This panel will interrogate the value of the Persianate for the study of Afghanistan and Afghan history by using this evolving framework and its attendant methodologies and presuppositions as a point of entry into myriad historical, literary, and cultural sources and questions.
Our discussion will span the 16th through the 20th centuries and includes analysis of a varied body of primary sources in different languages: royal autobiographies, chronicle geography, poetry, medical records, diasporic periodicals, and others. The desired outcome of this discussion will be to articulate a more locally differentiated and less romanticizing use of the Persianate in our current scholarly milieu.
Panelists:
Marjan Wardaki (Yale)
Nicolas Roth (Harvard)
Nicole Ferreira (UC Berkeley)
Discussant:
Aria Fani (University of Washington)
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Aria Fani | www.ariafani.com
Assistant Professor of Persian and Iranian Studies
University of Washington, Seattle
9. Farzaneh Family Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Iranian Studies, College of International Studies, University of Oklahoma
Deadline for Applications: April 10
The University’s Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies invites applications for a two-year Farzaneh Family Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Iranian Studies. Disciplinary field is open. Applicants with a specialization in US-Iranian relations and/or the politics of contemporary Iran are especially encouraged to apply.
The term of the fellowship will begin on August 1st, 2022, at a salary of $40,000 per year, plus benefits and additional support for conference travel. Applicants must have received their PhD during the past five years, and no later than July 1st, 2022.
The fellow will be expected to be in residence at the University of Oklahoma during the term of the fellowship, teach one course per year in OU’s Dept. of International and Area Studies, organize a lecture series, and participate in the intellectual life of the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies.
In addition to a letter of application, applicants should include a full CV, two course descriptions for proposed courses to be taught at OU, a research statement describing the work they plan to complete during the term of the fellowship, full contact information (including email addresses) for two recommenders, and a statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Review of applications will begin on April 10th and remain open until filled.
All application materials must be submitted via email to Stephanie Sager at the Department of International and Area Studies, at the following email address: dias@ou.edu
For inquiries contact: Afshin Marashi (amarashi@ou.edu )
The mission of the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies is to coordinate a variety of teaching, research, and outreach activities at the University of Oklahoma that explore the history, culture, society, and politics of Iran, the Persian Gulf, and those regions historically shaped by the Persian language.
For more information about the Farzaneh Center see:
https://www.ou.edu/cis/sponsored_programs/farzaneh-family-center
- March 05, 2022
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- March 04, 2022
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Shii News – AMI CfP: ‘The Institution of Marriage in Islam and Modern Society’ (21-22.7.22)
Al-Mahdi Institute is pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the 10th Annual Contemporary Fiqhi Issues workshop on “The Institution of Marriage in Islam and Modern Society” is now open.
The workshop will be held over two days on 21st and 22nd July 2022 at Al-Mahdi Institute (Birmingham, UK).
Deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 15th April 2022.
Find out more.. https://www.almahdi.edu/events/marriage-in-islam/
- March 03, 2022
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Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE Lecture: “The Rituals of the Zoroastrians from Antiquity to the Present Day” by Prof. Dr. Alberto Cantera (Free University of Berlin), Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, 10 March 2022, 6:30 pm CET
Zoroastrian rituals are still accompanied by the recitation of texts in Avestic, an ancient Iranian language, in India, Iran and the diaspora. These texts were probably written before the 5th century BCE for the perfor-mance of similar rituals. Zoroastrianism is thus characterised by one of the longest ritual continuities in the world.
Information and registration: https://www.smb.museum/en/events/detail/the-rituals-of-the-zoroastrians-from-antiquity-to-the-present-day-2022-03-10-183000-127130/
2. 9es Journées d’études de la Halqa : « Marges, Marginalités, Minorations et Minorités dans les mondes musulmans contemporains (XIXe – XXIe siècles) », Lyon, 9-10 juin 2022
L’appel à communications est ouvert aux jeunes chercheurs et chercheuses de toutes écoles, universités et institutions, spécialistes de l’islam et des mondes musulmans, quelle que soit leur discipline (sciences sociales, art et littérature, islamologie, etc.).
Les propositions de communication (en français ou en anglais) doivent être adressées avant le 28 mars 2022 à l’adresse halqadesdoctorants@gmail.com.
Information : https://halqa.hypotheses.org/5108
3. HYBRID Session on “Islamic Seas and Shores – Connecting the Medieval Maritime World” during the Annual ASOR Meeting, Boston, Virtual 19-23 October 2022, In Person 16-19 November 2022
Focusing on how the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean connected far-flung cultures, communities, and economies, this session will explore these connections region-by-region, to create a broader understanding of the development, expansion, and impact of Islamic maritime networks.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 March 2022.
4. Conference: “Politics of Pasts and Futures in (Post-)Imperial Contexts”, DFG Graduate School “Empires”, University Freiburg, Germany, 1-3 December 2022
Members from all disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences, or interdisciplinary combinations within these fields, are invited to participate. Themes: Imperial pasts and their use as means of political justification; transformation of self-images or identities formed under imperial rule in times of crisis or in post-imperial situations; the effect of imperial pasts on imagined futures and progress.
Deadline for abstracts: 24 March 2022.
Information: https://www.grk2571.uni-freiburg.de/events/annual-conference-2022
5. Aquisitions Editor Islamic Studies, De Gruyter Verlag, Berlin
Profil: Abgeschlossenes Studium in Islamwissenschaft oder verwandtem orientalistischen Fach, idealerweise mit einer Promotion; erste praktische Erfahrungen in einem Wissenschaftsverlag oder im Publikationswesen; sehr gute deutsche und englische Sprachkenntnisse in Wort und Schrift; Arabischkenntnisse und idealer-weise Kenntnisse in einer weiteren nahöstlichen Sprache.
Bewerbungsschluss: 15. März 2022.
Information: https://de-gruyter.jobbase.io/job/xaf2p7pbiy0wh8wkeuqlzva8gjv53r9
6. Three Post-Doctoral Positions for Research on “Visuality in the Qur`an and Early Islam”, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Outstanding scholars can apply to join the research project for one of the following research areas: Vision and Visuality in Early Islamic Law and/ or theology; Vision and Visuality in Early Islamic Hagiography and/ or Historiography; Vision and Visuality in Arabic Poetry and/ or Early Islamic Rhetoric
Deadline for applications: 15 March 2022.
Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=63029
7. Lecturer in Arabic, Department of Middle Eastern and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Binghamton University (SUNY)
Applicants should hold at least an M.A. or Ph.D. in any Arabic Studies related field including language, lin-guistics, literature, translation, and foreign language education. We seek candidates who have experience teaching Arabic as a second language at institutions of higher education and who possess native or nearna-tive competence in Arabic and English.
Deadline for applications: 1 April 2022.
Information: https://binghamton.interviewexchange.com/candapply.jsp?JOBID=142918#pageTop
8. ONLINE Mentoring Session: “Planning for Publication?” MENA Social Policy Network, Early Career Research Initiative, Maastricht University, 16 March 2022, 12:00 pm – 13:30 pm CET
Working on social policy in the MENA and looking for opportunities to publish your work? We are hosting Daniel Mather from Elgar Publishing House and Dr Raimundo Soto from Middle East Development Journal to talk us through the publication process.
Information: https://www.menasp.com/en/news/sign-up-for-our-upcoming-ecr-workshop-on-how-to-publish/
9. Fellowships in France (2 or 3 Months) for Young Post-doc Researchers in Social Sciences and Humanities from the South and East Mediterranean
This program is open to researchers originating from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Marocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Syria and affiliated to one of the 140 Universities member of UNIMED.
Deadline for applications: 25 March 2022. Information: https://www.uni-med.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/English-Call-Unimed-2022.pdf
10. Ottoman Summer Program (OTSP)
Date: 27 June – 4 August 2022
Application Period: 15 February – 15 March 2022.
Organized by Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), this 6-weeks intensive in person summer program aims to develop students’ reading and comprehension skills and expertise on a variety of Ottoman sources including archival documents, various manuscripts, and epigraphic material. The material will present a wide array of content and narrative types. The program is designed to accommodate the needs of participants entering with different levels of Ottoman literacy. Ottoman classes are complemented by Persian, Arabic and modern Turkish classes.
Deadline for applications:15 March 2022.
Information: https://anamed.ku.edu.tr/en/programs/ottoman-summer-program/
11. Call for Submissions: Al Noor, the Undergraduate Middle Eastern Studies Journal of Boston College
Deadline for submissions: 4 April 2022.
Information:
12. “Kingdom of Clowns: Theatre as a Source for Writing History” by Sheida Dayani (Princeton) | Wed. March 2 @ Noon
ZOOM LINK TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT: https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1VmzDFaCROakQnIRsDTOUQ
Sheida Dayani
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies
Princeton University
Her current book project, Making History with Theatre in Modern Iran: Juggling Revolutionaries is forthcoming 2023.
13. The Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) will offer two seven-week intensive summer Arabic programs on AUB campus between June 22 and August 10, 2022.
The Arabic Language and Culture program is designed for students interested in developing overall proficiency in Arabic in both its Standard and Lebanese varieties. Emphasis is placed on the development of the various skills within a communicative, proficiency-based framework that perceives Arabic in all its varieties as “one language” and thus integrates standard Arabic and Lebanese colloquial within the same course, and that gives special attention to the development of intercultural competence in Arabic. The program provides instruction at different levels of proficiency from elementary to high advanced.
The Lebanese Arabic program offers intensive instruction at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. The program is designed for learners who want to devote their attention to the development of proficiency in Lebanese Arabic and thus places heavy emphasis on the speaking and listening skills and on building/enhancing intercultural competence.
Both programs provide intensive instruction and immersion in the language and culture through a rigorous academic program that is complemented by an integrated series of films, lectures, clubs, and community service activities. Students receive 9 credit hours that they can transfer to their home institutions.
The application deadline is April 15, 2022.
For detailed information about the academic content of the programs, application, cost, and financial support, please visit our website: http://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cames/sap/ or contact us on cames@aub.edu.lb.
14. Séminaire « Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien »
Séminaire mensuel du CeRMI
Jeudi 10 Mars 2022
Nous avons le plaisir de vous convier à la prochaine séance du séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien” organisé par le CeRMI, qui aura lieu le jeudi 10 mars 2022 de 17h à 19h, en présentiel et sur Zoom. Nous serons heureux d’y accueillir les deux conférences suivantes :
Philip Bockholt (Leipzig University):
“Translating Works of World History on the Western Fringe of the Persianate World: Two Case Studies from Ottoman Istanbul”
Abstract: From the 14th century onwards, thousands of works were translated from Persian and Arabic into Ottoman Turkish. Despite the rich source material, which includes works of various genres that can be found today in manuscript collections in Turkey, Europe, and North America, the individual agents in this transfer of knowledge have not yet been studied in depth. The aim of this paper is to examine the translation processes of two major works of Persian historiography, Mīrkhvānd’s Rawżat al-Ṣafā (Garden of Purity) and Khvāndamīr’s Ḥabīb al-Siyar (Beloved of Careers). Both chronicles cover the history of the Islamic world up to about 1500 and were translated in Ottoman Istanbul in the 16th and 18th centuries respectively. Based on the surviving manuscripts of the translations of both works, the question of who translated what exactly for whom and how the content of the works was adapted to the intended readership will be investigated. The two works lend themselves to this because the approach to multi-volume chronicles was different: while the translation of the Rawżat al-Ṣafā can be traced back to a single translator, the Turkish version of the Ḥabīb al-Siyar was produced by a team of translators directly commissioned by the grand vezir. The analysis of the translation processes sheds light on the relationships between scholars and patrons as well as on the transmission of texts against the respective religious and political background of the Eastern Mediterranean in the early modern period. In this context, broader questions about the concept of Persophonie / Persianate world at its western edge will also be addressed.
Selected bibliography:
İnan, Murat Umut: Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian Learning in the Ottoman World, in: Nile Green (ed.): The Persianate World: the Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca, Oakland/CA: UCP, 2019, pp. 75–92.
İnan, Murat Umut: Ottomans Reading Persian Classics: Readers and Reading in the Ottoman Empire, 1500–1700, in: Mary Hammond (ed.): The Edinburgh History of Reading: Early Readers, Edinburgh: EUP, 2020, pp. 160–181.
Mélisande Bizoirre (chercheuse associée au LA3M, UMR 7298)
« Utiliser l’art pour légitimer son pouvoir : Politiques artistiques des souverains iraniens après la chute d’Ispahan (1722-1750) »
Résumé : La période qui suit la prise de la ville d’Isfahan par les Afghans en 1722 et le démantèlement de l’empire safavide, a longtemps été négligée, notamment dans les études d’histoire de l’art. Elle s’avère pourtant féconde, surtout au regard du mécénat royal. Souffrant d’un fort déficit de légitimité, les différents souverains qui se succèdent sur le trône iranien utilisent la production artistique pour se mettre en scène et affirmer leur domination. Ils élaborent ainsi des stratégies destinées aussi bien aux puissances étrangères qu’à la propagande interne, qui leur permettent de se poser en défenseurs de la religion, en protecteurs du peuple et en continuateurs d’une histoire longue aussi bien turque que persane. Inscriptions monumentales, grands travaux et restaurations et imagerie royale témoignent de cette recherche de légitimité par la culture matérielle, tant à Isfahan que dans le Khorasan et plus largement sur l’ensemble du territoire iranien.
Orientations bibliographiques :
Michael Axworthy, The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, From Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant, London : I. B. Tauris, 2009
Ernest S. Tucker. Nadir Shah’s quest for legitimacy in post-Safavid Iran. Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2006.
Pour suivre la séance : en distanciel (Zoom) ou en présentiel (Salle 3.15, INaLCO, 65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris). Inscription obligatoire : http://www.inalco.fr/evenement/seminaire-cermi-societes-politiques-cultures-monde-iranien-1
- March 01, 2022
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