Archive for June, 2023
- June 19, 2023
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Shii News – Academic Items
1.Metadata Librarian for Middle Eastern Languages
The University of Chicago: The Library
Location : Chicago, IL
Open Date: Jun 09, 2023
Description
The University of Chicago Library is seeking an innovative and forward-thinking individual for the position of Metadata Librarian for Middle Eastern Languages. The University of Chicago is home to one of the world’s great collections for the study of the Middle East. The Middle Eastern collection in Regenstein Library is recognized by scholars throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle East as one of the premier research collections in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies in the world. The collection supports undergraduate, graduate, and faculty research and teaching in all disciplines of the social sciences and humanities including history, literature, language, religion, philosophy, bibliography, art, political science, anthropology, music, sociology, and film.
The collection, amounting to over one million items, consists of monographs, serials, microformat materials, lithographs, maps, films, photographs, video and audio tapes, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and electronic resources, covering the area between Central Asia and the Atlantic Ocean and from Asia Minor to sub-Saharan Africa. It includes materials in the principal languages of the Middle East—Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and their dialectical variants—as well as the relevant materials produced in various languages in North America, Europe, Japan, the states of the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere in the world. The successful candidate will be responsible for original and complex copy cataloging of monographs, serials, electronic resources and visual materials in all subjects, in Middle Eastern and other languages as necessary.
Working in the central Metadata Management Services Unit, and working closely with the Librarian for Middle Eastern Studies, the Metadata Librarian for Middle Eastern Languages will provide leadership and coordination for the metadata provision for the University of Chicago Library’s extensive collection of Middle Eastern resources that is responsive to the needs of the user community and supports the Library’s vision and goals.
The position reports to the Head of Metadata Management Services, a section of the Technical Services Department that provides leadership and expertise for the Library’s cataloging activities and creation and management of metadata. Metadata staff are involved in national and local activities related to implementation of BIBFRAME and linked data, and provide strategic direction on metadata standards for the Library’s resources and the University’s institutional repository.
The University of Chicago Library is a long-time member of the Library of Congress Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) and contributes to BIBCO/NACO/SACO/CONSER programs. The Metadata Management Unit is also active in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Cooperative Cataloging Partnership (BTAA CCP), and the Library of Congress’ Electronic Cataloging in Publication Program (ECIP), which provides pre-publication metadata for the University of Chicago Press publications as well as those of other scholarly publishers.
The successful candidate is expected to combine a thorough understanding of cataloging and metadata standards, Middle Eastern resources, library user needs and behaviors with technical and interpersonal skills. As a member of the library’s professional staff, the Metadata Librarian for Middle Eastern Languages is expected to contribute to the library by serving on committees and by participating in library-wide programs and activities, and is expected to be active professionally both locally and nationally.
Responsibilities and Duties
- Performs metadata creation and management through original and complex copy cataloging with all associated authority work, according to the following standards:
- Resource Description and Access (RDA) via RDA Toolkit
- Library of Congress-PCC Policy Statements
- Library of Congress Program for Cooperative Cataloging (BIBCO/NACO/SACO/CONSER)
- Library of Congress classification via Classweb
- MARC 21 formats for Bibliographic and Authority data
- National standards pertaining to providing access to resources in non-Latin scripts
- Contributes to metadata activities related to Middle Eastern materials, such as digital library metadata development and remediation and enhancement of existing metadata
- Proposes and reviews workflows and policies around the metadata creation for Middle Eastern materials, and trains staff, as needed.
- Participates in departmental projects and initiatives experimenting with new forms of metadata creation
- Engages in professional service and research activities in areas appropriate to the position and to academic librarianship
- Participates in grant management, including in leadership roles, promoting improved access to hidden collections and digital access initiatives.
- Contributes to the development of local, national, and international metadata standards and applications.
Qualifications
Required:
- Library/Information Science degree from an ALA accredited institution OR advanced degree in Middle Eastern studies.
- Study of, or background in Middle Eastern Studies
- Demonstrated knowledge of current national cataloging/metadata standards, knowledge of subject analysis and classification systems.
- Advanced reading knowledge of Arabic and Persian
- Ability to communicate effectively in English
Preferred:
- Previous cataloging experience in an academic/research library, applying current standards and systems including MARC21, RDA, Library of Congress Classification, Library of Congress Subject Headings, OCLC Connexion, and library management and discovery systems
- Reading knowledge of Turkish, Ottoman Turkish or Hebrew
- Experience contributing to the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (BIBCO, NACO, SACO, CONSER)
- Knowledge of current trends, resources, and methodologies in cataloging and metadata as they relate to description and discovery of materials in Middle Eastern languages
- Experience applying non-MARC metadata standards (e.g., Dublin Core)
- Understanding of linked data principles, including RDF and ontologies as well as emerging metadata standards (e.g., BIBFRAME) and identity management systems (e.g., ISNI, VIAF, ORCID)
Application Instructions
To Apply: Submit cover letter, curriculum vitae, and reference contact information online through the University of Chicago’s Academic Recruiting website: apply.interfolio.com/126668. Review of applications will begin after July 9, 2023. Screening of applications will continue until the position is filled or the search is closed.
Salary and Benefits: Appointment salary based on qualifications and experience. Benefits include retirement plan, insurance, and paid time off.
Questions: Contact University of Chicago Library Human Resources, libraryhr@uchicago.edu
2. ASPIRANTUM, the Armenian School of Languages and Cultures, is delighted to present four exceptional online courses. Please take a look at the course descriptions below for more information.
1. Learn Persian through Early Classical Persian Prose
Three weeks, from Oct 30, 2023, to Nov 17, 2023
https://aspirantum.com/courses/learn-persian-through-early-classical-persian-prose
2. Learn Persian through Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat
Three weeks, from Oct 09, 2023, to Oct 27, 2023
https://aspirantum.com/courses/learn-persian-through-omar-khayyam-rubaiyat
3. Learn Persian Through the Shahname
Two weeks, from Sep 25, 2023, to Oct 06, 2023
https://aspirantum.com/courses/learn-persian-through-shahname
4. Middle Persian Online School
Three weeks, from Sep 04, 2023, to Sep 22, 2023
https://aspirantum.com/courses/middle-persian-pahlavi-school
3. Celebrating Journal of Abbasid Studies‘ 10th Volume
Brill is celebrating Journal of Abbasid Studies reaching its 10th volume. We are happy to share with you a selection of outstanding and remarkable articles published in the journal in recent years.
These articles were specially selected by the Editors-in-Chief and will be offered as free access until 31 December 2023. No need to sign up for an account.
4. CFP: Session at the 36th conference of the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA), Lyon, France, 23 to 26 June 2024
Dressing Bodies, Dressing Spaces: Challenges and New Approaches to Textiles and Adornment (300-1600) / Habiller le corps, Habiller l’espace: Enjeux et approches aux textiles et à l’adornement (300-1600)
Organizers: Patricia Blessing (Princeton University), Eiren Shea (Grinnell College), and
Elizabeth Dospel Williams (Dumbarton Oaks)
Chair: Maximilien Durand (Musée du Louvre)
To submit an abstract, please visit https://www.cihalyon2024.fr/fr/appel-a-communications and create a new submitter account.
Deadline for submissions: 15 September 2023.
With any questions about the session, please contact Elizabeth Dospel Williams, williamse@doaks.org
Holistic consideration of the interrelationships of pre- and early modern bodies and spaces across Eurasia (300—1600) has been limited by conceptual frameworks divided into geographic, temporal, and methodological specialization. Thus, work on dress has dealt with personal appearance, highlighting questions about identity through clothing, jewelry, and accessories. Likewise, scholarship on interior decoration has considered the relationship of ephemeral design elements to permanent architectural forms through function and placement. Further, scholarship on the body’s presence in space has tended to work with movement, placement, and perception of abstracted bodies, rather than concrete figures weighed down by clothing and jewels.
These approaches, divided largely by medium, reflect art historiographical biases and technical specializations which silo, on the one hand, experts in textiles (weaving), jewelry (metalwork), and sculpture (architecture), or of art historians, archaeologists, and architectural historians, on the other. Similar divisions of body and interior also occur in the broader perspective of material culture theory, while modernist aesthetics have further obscured the interrelatedness of human form and spatial environment. Museum contexts reinforce this divide: objects tend to be isolated within cases, leading to a view of these pieces as context-free, while the museumification of historical spaces means that attendant furnishings are often displayed in special exhibition spaces, whereas historical rooms lie empty.
The proposed panel considers adorned human bodies in their spatial environments to forge new theoretical frameworks drawn from decorative arts historiography, ornament studies, sensory archaeology, anthropology, and material spatiality. An intermedial approach is essential, such as advocated in Luke Lavan and Ellen Swift’s (2009) work on late antique dress and interior decoration and in Jonathan Hay’s (2010) explorations of the somatic experiences of surfaces in early modern Chinese decorative arts objects. Recent efforts to draw together diverse Eurasian experiences of dress and furnishing textiles include a conference on medieval wearables at the Bard Graduate Center (2022) and a panel on embodied movement and interior decoration at the ICMS-Kalamazoo (2023). We seek papers that:
- articulate new theoretical approaches that treat pre- and early modern dress and furnishings as coherent visual and material systems;
- consider the concept and metaphor of “dress,” viewing bodies as structures for adornment and decor, and buildings as immersive environments that respond to the embellished body;
- evaluate dress and furnishings in a cross-cultural or comparative global framework, particularly in terms of status, value, ritual, identity, and somatic experience;
- include contributions that draw from museum collections, given the history of textile research and collections in Lyon.
5. Graduate Study Day – “Egyptian Textiles and Medieval Indian Ocean Trade”, Dumbarton Oaks Museum – October 13
October 13, 2023 | In conjunction with the ongoing interdepartmental project “Passage Between Worlds: Exchanges Along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in the Middle Ages.”
Egyptian Textiles and Medieval Indian Ocean Trade
Friday, October 13, 2023
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Applications due: July 17, 2023
In conjunction with the ongoing interdepartmental project “Passage Between Worlds: Exchanges Along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in the Middle Ages,” the 2023 Dumbarton Oaks Museum Graduate Study Day Egyptian Textiles and Medieval Indian Ocean Trade will consider Indian cotton textiles found in Egypt, India, and Indonesia and emblematic of a vibrant maritime trade network found east of the Mediterranean Sea in the late antique and medieval periods.
The workshop will be co-taught by Elizabeth Dospel Williams (Dumbarton Oaks), Anna Kelley (University of St. Andrews), Sumru Belger Krody (The George Washington Museum and The Textile Museum), and Arielle Winnik (Yale University), who will discuss the trade, manufacture, and use of textiles across the Indian Ocean in the premodern periods.
In the morning, these scholars will present their current research, with a particular focus on recent exhibitions featuring Indian textiles. After lunch, participants will spend the afternoon studying textiles from the Dumbarton Oaks Collection in object storage and the Cotsen Textiles Collection at the Textile Museum.
Funding
Dumbarton Oaks will reserve participants’ accommodation in its on-site Guest House for one night (October 12) and will arrange for Friday lunch in the Refectory. Participants should book their own travel to Washington, to be reimbursed up to $600 upon submission of receipts.
Applications
Currently enrolled graduate students in good standing are eligible to apply. Dumbarton Oaks does not sponsor J1 visas for Study Day attendees. We encourage applicants from graduate programs in art history, archaeology, history, classics, religious studies, and other fields who might benefit from close engagement with our collections and from training in material culture approaches.
To apply, please submit a CV and cover letter with a brief summary of the candidate’s research interests, plans for future research, and an explanation of why attendance is important to the candidate’s intellectual and professional development. All materials should be submitted as one pdf to museum@doaks.org . Applications are due July 17, 2023.
6. ‘Muslim Minorities and Application of Islamic Law in Europe’
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 42/4, 2022
Asif Mohiuddin & Abd Hadi Bin Borham
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13602004.2023.2191911
7. ‘Do discriminatory laws have societal origins? The diffusion of anti-Ahmadiyah regulations in Indonesia’
Politics and Religion, online 8.6.23
M Buehler
8. CFP: Arts of the Indian Ocean
Toronto, Canada
May 2-4, 2024
Conveners: Sarah Fee (Royal Ontario Museum) – Zulfikar Hirji (York
University) – Ruba Kana’an (University of Toronto)
Keynote Speakers: Iftikhar Dadi (Cornell University) – Stephen Murphy
(SOAS) –
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Fiction Author, Kenya) – Samira Sheikh (Vanderbilt University)
Collaborators: Deepali Dewan (Royal Ontario Museum) – Kajri Jain (University of Toronto) – Pedro Machado (Indiana University) – Chantal Radimilahy (University of Antananarivo) – Fahmida Suleman (Royal Ontario
Museum) – Nancy Um (Getty Research Institute) – Richard Vokes (University of Western Australia) – Aga Khan Museum – Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Conference Call for Papers
The ‘global turn’ in academia brings a renewed focus on the Indian Ocean and its diverse histories of mobilities and interactions. The ocean’s unique climatic systems of seasonal monsoon winds and currents and its geographic contours whose littoral shapes the shorelines of Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica have over millennia facilitated and sustained movements of human and non-human animals, plants, minerals, things, and ideas.
The historical formation of the Indian Ocean’s ecologies, mobilities, and economies have been regular subjects of scholarly enquiry and research, and the focus of numerous publications, conferences, and workshops. By contrast, there has been limited attention on the study of the Indian Ocean’s distinctive materialities and artistic expressions, both past and the present, and their roles in forging connections between the region’s peoples and generating new visual and expressive cultures. Additionally, scholarship on the Indian Ocean’s material and artistic worlds is often siloed by disciplinary approach, medium of production, periodization, ethnicity, religious affiliation, nationalism, or geographical demarcation.
Arts of the Indian Ocean will bring together knowledge producers from diverse backgrounds and scholarly arenas to present and discuss research and work on the materialities and artistic expressions in the Indian Ocean world, across geographies — from eastern and southern Africa, through the Gulf and Red Sea to South and Southeast Asia and the south China Sea — as well as across temporalities — from antiquity up until the present-day. The conference aims to gather emerging and established researchers from the fields of archaeology, art history, history, architecture, museum studies, anthropology, visual studies, material culture, and fashion studies, as well as practicing artists from around the Indian Ocean region.
Arts of the Indian Ocean seeks to open up new questions on the multiple pasts, presents, and futures of the Indian Ocean through the examination of the creation, production, and circulation of material culture in a wide range of forms including the visual arts, portable objects, manuscripts and maps, ships and navigational instruments, landscape, architecture, and the built environment, textiles and dress, photography and film, as well as the digital and plastic arts.
We welcome the submission of individual papers presenting case-based object studies as well as full panel proposals that engage in one or more of the following topics: production, materials, circulation, reception, transformation, connectivity, exchange, encounter, mobility, fluidity, transmediality, pilgrimage, ecology, faith and the spiritual, intimacy, materiality, heritage, imaginaries, (dis)placement, marginialities, resistance, violence, collecting and collections, decolonization, futurity, or the sensory.
The conference will be held in a hybrid format (virtual and in-person) to facilitate the participation of colleagues from around the world. The in-person gathering will be held in Toronto, Canada. Travel scholarships may be available for graduate students and colleagues working in the Indian Ocean region. Selected papers will be included in an edited volume.
Submissions of Individual Paper Abstracts and Panel Proposals
Individual Paper Submissions should include:
• Name, affiliation, and contact information • Abstract of 200-300 words • 1 to 2 images (related to proposed paper) • 100-word author bio
Panel Proposal Submissions should include:
• Names, affiliations, and contact information of panel organizer and panelists • Panel title and abstract of 100 words • Abstract of 200-300 words for each paper • 1 to 2 images (related to each proposed panel paper) • 100-word bio for each panelist
Send all Submissions by email attachment in a single pdf to:
ArtsOfTheIndianOcean@gmail.com
Deadline for Submissions: September 15, 2023
Notification of accepted Abstracts and Panel Proposals: October 5, 2023
Send all inquiries to: ArtsOfTheIndianOcean@gmail.com
9. CIHA 2024 Congress call for Papers
The Call for papers for the 36th Congress of the Comité international d’histoire de l’art (CIHA) is open!
- Deadline :15 September 2023
- Over 90 sessions with chairs from all over the world!
The CIHA conference is open to researchers from all professional backgrounds in the broad field of art history. Proposals from young researchers are welcome.
Submissions should be written in English or French. Papers may be presented in either language.
Proposals must be submitted on the submission platform only: find the access below.
Papers will be presented in person in Lyon at the Centre de Congrès – Cité internationale, from 23 to 28 June 2024.
Speakers are responsible for their own registration, travel and accommodation fees.
We invite you to get in touch with your institutions of affiliation to find out how to finance your participation in the Congress. The organising committee is actively seeking support for the mobility of researchers. Please check regularly the the “Call for Grants” section of the website.
The 36th CIHA Congress Lyon 2024 will host more than 90 parallel sessions over the 4 days of conferences, from 23 to 28 June 2024.
To submit your proposal, consult the texts of the calls for papers below. An index of the names of the session chairs is included at the end of the document.
Download the list of calls for papers
The submission of your proposals is only possible on the submission platform: find the access below.
Submit your paper proposal
To find out more, download the submission procedures below and visit our FAQ page.
10. Hybrid Conference – STUDIES IN INDO-PERSIAN CULTURAL EXCHANGES AND THE POZZI COLLECTION, Museum of Art and History in Geneva – June 29
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Switzerland, particularly Geneva, has been home to artistic treasures that witness rich cultural exchanges between peoples and regions. Among these treasures is the exceptional Pozzi Collection of Persian paintings housed at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva. This collection represents one of the most significant collections of Persian paintings assembled by European private collectors during the 20th century. It was bequeathed by Jean Pozzi (1884-1967) the French Plenipotentiary Minister to the museum.
Transmission of knowledge and exchange of expertise are notably discernible in the Indo-Persian world, where languages, religions and cultural materials have been shared over several centuries. Art amateurs from Europe, fascinated by Indo-Persian and more generally by Islamicate arts and material cultures, assembled rich collections from the end of the 19th century. To what extent have these exchanges and fascination been reciprocal, and in which domains are they more perceptible today? Moreover, while gender studies have received ample attention in several subfields of global studies in art and literature, they have been overlooked in Indo-Persian studies.
This hybrid international colloquium aims to show the importance of these exchanges and to offer a critical dialogue to contribute to the understanding, knowledge, preservation and respect of material and immaterial heritage.
For Zoom registration: https://www.mahmah.ch/colloque-international
- June 17, 2023
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- June 15, 2023
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- June 14, 2023
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Shii News – ADHRB: UN Body Calls for Release of Release of Dr. Al-Singace
- June 13, 2023
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Shii News – Academic Items
1. Iran at War, Interactions with the Modern World and the Struggle with Imperial Russia
M Behrooz,
Bloomsbury, 2023
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/iran-at-war-9780755637379/
2. 7th International Symposium on „Politics and Society in the Islamic World”, University of Lodz, Poland, 26-28 October 2023
We invite researchers from different disciplines: science, sociology, cultural studies, regional studies and who combine various disciplines. Presentations will analyze various parts of the Islamic world to explore domestic policies of the states inhabited by Muslims as well as foreign policies and international relations, and issues connected with the presence of Muslims in the West.
Deadline for abstracts: 10 July 2023.
Information: https://www.kbwipa.uni.lodz.pl/en/islamic-symposium/islamic-symposium-2023c
3. ISAR Ottoman Sciences Symposium Series IX: “Ethics in the Ottoman Empire: Scholars, Works, and Problems”, Istanbul Center for Research and Education (ISAR), 15-16 December 2023
The symposium aims to illuminate the works, sources, methods, tendencies, aims, and theories of individual scholars who dealt with ethics on one hand, and to illuminate the principles, various aspects, and stages of the contemplation on ethics in the Ottoman Empire on the other.
Deadline for abstracts: 25 June 2023. Information:
https://www.isar.org.tr/en/symposiums-workshops/ethics-in-the-ottoman-period/call-for-papers-13
4. Conference “Women and the History of State Building in Postcolonial African Countries”, Department of African Studies, University of Vienna, 6-7 June 2024
The conference aims to retrieve histories of African women’s contribution to the postcolonial politics of state building. Who were the women who vied for positions of power, how/why did they campaign, for which ideas? What did they achieve during their political mandates? What impact did they have? What are the methodo-logical challenges that emerge when writing these histories?
Deadline for abstracts: 15 October 2023. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announce-ments/12874833/cfp-women-and-history-state-building-postcolonial-african
5. Two PhD Positions (3 Years) in the Research Project “Bibliotheca Arabica – Towards a New History of Arabic Literature”, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig
Requirements: MA in Islamic Studies, Arabic philology or a related discipline; excellent knowledge of Arabic and preferably one other primary language of the Islamicate world; experience in working with Arabic manuscripts; proficiency in academic English as well as the ability to work with secondary literature in modern European languages as well as Arabic.
Deadline for applications: 31 July 2023.
Information: https://www.saw-leipzig.de/de/ausschreibungen/stellenausschreibungen
6. Faculty Position in Classical Ottoman History (1300-1700), Department of History, Bilkent University, Ankara
Preference will be given to those who can demonstrate excellence in research, publications and teaching. The Department of History particularly welcome applications from scholars who will enhance standing thematic and interdisciplinary strengths in the department. Candidates must have completed the Ph.D. by 1 September 2023.
Deadline for applications: 1 August 2023. Information: https://history.bilkent.edu.tr/job-opportunities/
7. Visiting Lecturer in Modern Hebrew and Middle East Studies, Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures (MESALC), University of Virginia
The successful applicant will have native or near-native fluency in Israeli Hebrew, experience in second-language pedagogy at the university level, and an active scholarly engagement with Israel and/or Palestine in its Middle Eastern context.
Deadline for applications: 3 July 2023. Information: https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2023/06/08/visiting-lecturer-in-modern-hebrew-middle-east-studies
8. Prizes of the “Syrian Studies Association” for an Outstanding Dissertation and an Article on Syria
In 2023, the SSA seeks submissions for the most outstanding dissertation published between July 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023, and the most outstanding article or book chapter published between July 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023.
Deadline for applications: 15 July 2023. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/12875629/syrian-studies-association-call-2023-prize-submissions
9. MA in “Mediterranean Studies” 2023/2024, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of the Peloponnese, Corinth
The MA is designed to be a flexible and dynamic umbrella program that covers an array of pressing issues, such as: Conflict, security and nationalism in the Mediterranean; democratization and civil society; human rights and activism; inter-cultural dialogue; energy security and environmental challenges, etc.
Deadline for applications: 30 June 2023. Information: https://med.pedis.uop.gr/
10. Persian International Summer School, Center for Persian Studies, University of Belgrade, Serbia, 3-21 July 2023
Instructors: Native Persian-speaking university professors. – Levels: Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced. – Hours per week: 20 hours per week / 60 hours in total.
Information and registration: https://farsi.fil.bg.ac.rs/summer-school/
11. Fifth International Winter School on “Social Media, Surveillance and Societies of Control”, Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, Doha, 6-11 January 2024 The Winter School will address the interaction between social media, surveillance, and control by governments and corporations and the vulnerability of popular culture to manipulation and control through social media. The School welcomes submissions from advanced PhD students and early career scholars special-ized in different social science and related computer science and engineering disciplines across the globe. Funding for travel expenses is available on a competitive basis. Deadline for applications extended to 8 July 2023. Information: https://www.dohainstitute.org/en/Events/winter-school-5th-round-2024/Pages/index.aspx
12. Articles for the “Syrian Studies Association Bulletin”
The Journal invites feature, news, and research article proposals, as well as book reviews, for its Fall 2023 issue, covering issues of contemporary or historic interest in Bilad al-Sham and modern Syria in the disciplines sociology, religion, journalism, history, anthropology, international relations, archeology, media studies, environmental studies, music / art studies, etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 August 2023. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/12875628/cfp-syrian-studies-association-bulletin-fall-2023-issue
13. Articles Featuring Research on Istanbul’s Past and Present for the Journal “YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies”
The journal is accepting submissions of original research articles, opinion pieces and visual essays (Meclis), book and exhibition reviews in Turkish or English, by researchers working on any period of the city through the lens of history, history of art and architecture, archaeology, sociology, anthropology, geography, urban planning, urban studies, and other related disciplines in humanities or social sciences.
Deadline for submissions: 20 June 2023. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/8330/discussions/12741885/yillik-annual-istanbul-studies-5-2023-and-6-2024-call-papers
14. Research project RE-VISUALIZE ” “Gender in Islam in the Francophone Digital World.”
We are pleased to announce the launch of our website: Home | Re Visualize , as part of our research project on “Gender in Islam in the Francophone Digital World.”
(Women | Re Visualize , French version)
“Re-Visualize: Muslim Women Digital Empowerment” is a research project co-funded by the ERASMUS+ program of the European Union, and is carried out by a consortium consisting of the Université Saint Louis in Brussels, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Lorraine, the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, and the PLURIVERS’ELLES Studies and Training Association.
The project stems from the desire to create a dynamic of collaborative research and knowledge sharing between universities and associative structures, in other words, to combine scholarly perspectives with field expertise.
The website provides a detailed presentation of the project, its activities under “Re-Visualize,” and upcoming productions. It also includes information about the research team members and the university partners involved in the project.
Our goal is to establish an online platform to disseminate the results of our research, share reflections, and engage in debates with the academic community and stakeholders in the field of gender in Islam.
We are grateful to the European Commission for their financial support and to our university partners for their collaboration and commitment to this project.
Malika Hamidi
15. The University of Sydney (Australia) is opening up to 40 new positions for early career researchers (= less than 10 years since PhD or equivalent). The subject areas are Climate change, health, and sustainability–any discipline.
Full details here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/research/research-funding/research-fellowships/sydney-horizon-fellowships.html.
Research challenges
Climate change, health, and sustainability are three of our most pressing contemporary challenges. Drawing on and developing their disciplinary and multidisciplinary skills, Fellows will address these challenges and advance potential solutions. The latter may include the development of novel technologies, biomedical, legal, business, design, policy, and political instruments.
Fellows will be supported to join existing Centres and form new communities of practice across the schools and faculties of the University, working together to address the three grand challenges.
Eligibility
Applicants must:
- be less than ten years since the award of their PhD (or equivalent) at the closing date of the application, relative to opportunity,
- commit to working on the Fellowship from the agreed start date of the award,
- obtain and maintain the right to work in Australia,
- apply via the Sydney Horizon Fellowships application page – applications, including attachments and questionnaire responses will not be accepted via other methods.
Applicants will be asked to provide their ORCID iD (where available) in their application to assist with the assessment process.
The Sydney Horizon Fellowships are open to all disciplines. Applicants must propose research that addresses at least one of the challenges of climate change, health or sustainability.
Applications close 11:59pm on Wednesday 5 July 2023 AEST.
16. Recording of the 10th IDHN Conference is online!
Dear friends and colleagues,
The recording of our 9th IDHN Conference from May 30, 2023 is online: https://youtu.be/cTah_2hLmZ0.
It is also posted on our IDHN forum: https://idhn.org/forums/topic/9th-idhn-conference-recording/
We thank our presenters for their generosity in sharing their inspiring research with the IDH Network and look forward to seeing you at our upcoming 10th IDHN Conference in the fall of this year!
17. Persian Art in Qajar Period (Video: Exhibition in Armenia)
Exhibition at Matenadaran Museum, Yerevan (Armenia)
VIDEO:
- June 13, 2023
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Shii News – ‘The Influence of Philosophy and Sufism on the Imamology of Twelver Shī`ism in the 14th Century (in Japanese)’ – N Nishiyama
Oriento, 65/2 (2022), 115-127.
http://www.j-orient.com/backnumber/
Abstract:
Although Imamology has always been central to the theological doctrines of Twelver Shī`ism (al-Ithnā `Asharīya), the matter of how it was developed and revised during the Il-Khanid period has not yet been satisfyingly studied. According to previous research, although Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274) and his disciple al-`Allāma al-Ḥillī (d. 1325) tried to integrate the Islamic philosophy which had been systematized by Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037) into their traditional theology, the philosophy had little effect on their Imamology. With regard to theologians’ attitude to Sufism, it has been the common view that most Twelver thinkers did not approve of merging Sufi ideas into their theology before Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. 1385), who is known as a Shī`ite adherent of Ibn `Arabī (d. 1240). This paper argues that Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn al-Ḥillī (d. 1369/70), who was a son and disciple of al-`Allāma and a teacher of Āmulī, but who as yet has been scarcely studied, introduced the philosophical theory of the soul and the training theory of Sufi sm into his Imamology. It also shows that philosophy and Sufism already had influenced the Imamology of Twelver Shi`ism in the 14th century. Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn’s predecessors such as al-`Allāma had limited the role of the imams in divine assistance (luṭf) to physical actions and denied any impact on people’s hearts. However, Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn interwove these outside theories into traditional theology, and developed his Imamology in that he expanded the imams’ instructive role in divine assistance into the psychological realm. Moreover, he developed a new description of the imams’ infallibility (`iṣma): he formulated that the imams can act rightly in all circumstances by virtue of the perfect asceticism (zuhd), achieved by the perfection of their rational souls.
- June 12, 2023
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Shii News – Academic Items
1. Jameel Scholarships
The Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK is a leading academic institution for research and teaching about Islam and Muslims in Britain.
We have 1 International PhD Jameel Scholarship and 2 UK PhD Jameel Scholarships in British Muslim Studies available for suitably qualified students with an innovative and significant PhD proposal.
The PhD is based at the School of History, Archaeology and Religion and supervised by the Islam-UK Centre at Cardiff University.
We are seeking exceptional applicants with a First Class or high Upper Second Class Honours Degree or Masters’s Degree (or equivalent).
Research proposals are invited on topics that clearly align with the research interests and expertise of staff at the Islam-UK Centre. Proposals must demonstrate exceptional academic merit, potential and relevance to Muslims in the UK.
Relevant areas of research interest include:
- Islam and Public Life
- Islam in Prison and Rehabilitation
- Islam and the Media
- Muslim Religious Professionals including Chaplaincy and Imams
- Mental Health and Islam
- Pastoral Care and Pastoral Theology
- Imams and Religious Leadership
- Islamic Law in Britain
- Religious Authority, Revival Movements, Tradition, and Modernity in Britain
- Islam and Muslims in Wales, British Muslim History
- Socio-economic inequality amongst British Muslims
- Mixed methods research
- Muslim Women and Islam
The scholarship is funded by the Jameel Foundation.
How to apply
For further details on the scholarship and information on how to apply, please visit the PhD studentships and projects webpage.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 23:59 Monday 3 July 2023.
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/centre-for-the-study-of-islam-in-the-uk/study/jameel-scholarships
2. Science Communication, Islam and Muslim Communities
A lecture on Muslim perceptions of science hosted by the Institute for STEMM in Culture and Society (ISTEMMiCS) and the Science and Technology Cluster in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Policy, University of Birmingham
29.6.23, 6.30 pm UK time.
While there have long been lively discussions about gender and racial inclusiveness in science communication, Muslims, one of the UK’s most marginalised populations, have largely been ignored. This is despite Muslims being a group whose members are often described as being especially resistant to science, with news media regularly claiming they stand in opposition to everything from evolution to COVID regulations.
In this public lecture, Stephen H. Jones will use a range of data to look at what British Muslims really think about science and at the question of whether, and how, science communicators should engage Muslim members of the public. Drawing on a new research project hosted at the University of Birmingham, ‘Science and British Muslim Religious Leadership’, the lecture will offer particular insight into Islamic authorities’ role in arguing for and against scientific theories and how they approach issues such as human origins, organ donation, and engaging with secular society.
This lecture is free to attend. Refreshments and snacks will be provided. You can register at the following link:
3. CHSTM working group on Medieval European Medical Manuscripts, Monday 12 June: Ayman Atat on Arabic manuscripts as witnesses of pharmaceutical knowledge
CHSTM working group on Medieval European Medical Manuscripts takes place next week, Monday, 12 June, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm BST/11:00 am to 12:00 pm EDT. We are very pleased to welcome Dr Ayman Yasin Atat (Technical University of Braunschweig).
* Please note that we are meeting on a Monday rather than our usual Thursday slot! *
To join the working group and receive the Zoom link, visit
Ayman Yasin Atat (Technical University of Braunschweig), ‘Manuscripts as Storytellers. What Could Manuscripts as Witnesses of Pharmaceutical Knowledge Tell Us? A Case Study of Rawḍat al-ʿiṭr Manuscript’
4. Bloomsbury Webinar:
‘Presentism in Teaching History: A Live Webinar with Professional Historians’
26 June, 10 am ET/3pm UK time
The trend of presentism in history has caused sufficient controversy over the past year to garner mainstream media coverage in The Atlantic, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and more.
Join six professional historians and go beyond the headlines to explore the trend of presentism in teaching history. Drawing on their teaching experience as well as their recent exclusive articles in the digital resource ‘Bloomsbury History: Theory & Method’, each historian will discuss their article in turn, including how its subject matter lends itself to presentism, before turning to a panel discussion with all six participants about the overall trend of presentism in teaching.
This event is chaired by Associate Professor Tyson Retz, who is a member of the editor team for ‘Bloomsbury History: Theory & Method’.
For more information and to register:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9716850295599/WN_PEMb5t30Tpa20WkyzsLraw#/registration
For the texts to be discussed (free access), see:
https://www.bloomsburyhistorytheorymethod.com/featured-content
5. Doha Residence Program in Advanced Arabic & Social Studies
Spring Semester 2024
A limited number of merit-based tuition waiver and housing support
The Language Center at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) is pleased to announce its Spring semester 2023-2024 Residence Program in Advanced Arabic Language and Social Studies.
The Program is a unique forum for academic and cultural exchange between the DI’s predominantly native Arabic- speaking graduate students and faculty (from across the Arab world) and their international non-native or heritage peers.
The Residence Program is offered for one semester on site in Doha. It meets the language, culture, and academic needs of advanced non-native and heritage graduate students who wish to strengthen their language and cultural skills, as well as prepare for specific challenges related to their academic areas of expertise. The Program is delivered entirely in Arabic and consists of a twin advanced language-training and academic components.
The language-training component prepares students to function professionally in Arabic and offers dedicated courses in language, translation, and content-based instruction. The program adapts to the academic needs of students as a base for linguistic and cultural acquisition, emphasizes productive and presentation skills, and develops higher levels of proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and translation.
The academic component gives fellows the opportunity to take advantage of the wide array of unique graduate-level courses the DI distinguished faculty teach in Arabic through its academic units: The School of Social Sciences and Humanities and the School of Public Administration and Development Economics. For more detailed information about the DI, please go to:
https://www.dohainstitute.edu.qa/EN/Pages/default.aspx
The Residence Program is an important part of the DI’s mission to establish, maintain, and nurture intellectual links and two-way dialogues between its students, faculty, and the international learning and research community. The DI aims to create an enduring legacy of intellectual innovation and education within the Arab world and beyond. It assumes and promotes the Arabic language as a tool of scientific inquiry, an official language in public discourse, and a primary language for teaching and research.
To Apply to the Doha Residence Program, click on the link below:
https://dilc.wufoo.com/forms/zvlz3kp0kd4036/
Semester Program Features:
- 6 credits of Intensive Arabic,
- A language partner,
- Option to audit graduate academic courses taught in Arabic if eligible,
- Option to have an academic partner,
- Access to the DI rich conferences, symposia, and guest lectures.
Admission Requirements:
- Advanced level in Arabic,
- Tuition fees: 9,000 QAR (approximately 2,250€ or 2,465$),
- Housing: 11,000 per semester (approximately 2,650€ or $3000).
Program Dates:
- Application Deadline: August 15, 2023
- Start of Classes: January 07, 2024
- End of Program: April 25, 2024
6. Zoom: SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies
Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry Memorial Lecture – The Sassanian Empire: A Fire That Was Extinguished
6.00pm, Tuesday 13 June 2023
This lecture is about the Sassanian Dynasty which ruled Persia for over 400 years and was a bulwark against the Roman Empire, which could never cross the Euphrates river because of the resistance put up by the Persians.
The lecture takes the audience through a series of remarkable Monarchs, some of whom ruled a vast empire with justice and sagacity. Zoroastrianism was the state religion for these 400-odd years, which was finally put out by the invading Arabs who imposed Islam on this great nation. Two earlier dynasties had ruled Persia for 200-odd years, and 400-odd years respectively.
To register:
7. Leighton House
Imagination Unbound: An Evening of Persian Poetry
7.00pm-8.30pm, Thursday 22 June 2023
Poetry is the art par excellence of Iran and the Persian speaking world. For more than a thousand years, poetry has enhanced and sustained the lives of Persian speakers, and for many centuries now, these rapturous expressions of love, longing, and acceptance of providence are enjoyed by Western audiences through translation.
Join Narguess Farzad, author and Senior Lecturer in Persian Studies, as she discusses how Persian poetry remains the unrivalled means of encapsulating experiences and emotions, memories, traumas, and delights. The evening will include a selection of classical and contemporary poetry, recited in Persian and in English translation, by British actor Matt Addis.
To attend:
https://leightonhouse.digitickets.co.uk/event-tickets/49169?catID=48518&
8. The British Museum
Luxury and power: Persia to Greece
04 May – 13 August 2023
Drawing on dazzling objects from Afghanistan to Greece, this exhibition moves beyond the ancient Greek spin to explore a more complex story about luxury as a political tool in the Middle East and southeast Europe from 550–30 BC. It explores how the royal Achaemenid court of Persia used precious objects as markers of authority, defining a style of luxury that resonated across the empire from Egypt to India. It considers how eastern luxuries were received in early democratic Athens, self-styled as Persia’s arch-enemy, and how they were adapted in innovative ways to make them socially and politically acceptable. Finally, it explores how Alexander the Great swept aside the Persian empire to usher in a new Hellenistic age in which eastern and western styles of luxury were fused as part of an increasingly interconnected world.
More information:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/luxury-and-power-persia-greece
9. Frontline Club
Screening +Q&A: Nazanin with Richard Ratcliffe
7.00pm-8.30pm, Thursday 06 July 2023
The behind-the-scenes account – part love story, part thriller – of how Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was thrown into a Tehran jail, and how her family battled to get her home.
Chaired by Ramirta Navai, an Emmy and Robert F. Kennedy award-winning British-Iranian journalist, documentary producer and author. She has reported from over forty countries and has a reputation for investigations and work in hostile environments.
Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/screening-qa-nazanin-with-richard-ratcliffe-tickets-641440805717
10. ‘Current debates and emerging trends in the history of science in premodern Islamicate societies’
History of Science, 2023
N Fancy, et al.,
This roundtable brings together contributions from nine senior, mid-career and junior scholars who work on the history of science in pre-1800 Islamicate societies. The contributions reflect upon some of the challenges that have historically constrained the subfield, how they have sought to overcome them, and what they see as some of the more productive and fruitful turns the field has taken and/or should take in the future. A central trend in all contributions is how they seek to confront the combined weight of colonialism, Orientalism, and the teleological history of science that continues to haunt contemporary discussions in both academia and the general public with regards to science in pre-1800 Islamicate societies.
Without diminishing the pioneering achievements of the generations of historians who have preceded us, and upon whose work we continue to rely, this combined weight has tended a) to marginalize the study of occult sciences in Islamicate societies; b) to emphasize investigations of content from an etic perspective of how we got to the present, which is primarily seen as how the scientific content is connected to the rise of modern science in Europe; and c) to concomitantly marginalize the study of science in post-1200 Islamicate societies, particularly those with little to no connection to the rise of “Western” science. The contributions build upon conversations that took place among participants in December 2019 at a workshop at New York University (NYU), Abu Dhabi Institute in New York City, funded by a grant from NYU Abu Dhabi.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00732753231154690
11. Early Sciences 2023 Essay Prize
Early Science and Medicine and the Early Sciences Forum of the History of Science Society are joining together to run a prize competition for the best essay focusing on early science, medicine, technology, and other forms of natural knowledge across the globe before 1800. We especially welcome submissions from early career scholars. The author of the winning essay will receive a $200 award and the piece will be published as an article in Early Science and Medicine 29 (2024) subject to peer review; the committee will provide mentorship throughout the process. The winner will be strongly encouraged to attend the 2023 History of Science Society Conference meeting on November 9-12 in Portland, Oregon as the prize will be awarded at the Early Sciences Forum Meeting.
We invite you to submit unpublished essays between 8,000 and 15,000 words in English that are not under consideration at another journal. Please follow the ESM style guide and make sure that your paper has been anonymized. ESM publishes images in color and black-and-white; the author will handle permissions. Please submit essays by August 1, 2023 via this form (https://forms.gle/5bzAJigAaAruSRfQ9). For questions, please email earlysciencesforum@gmail.com.
12. Position: UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies Associate Director
Job Title: Associate Director, UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies
Start date: Monday, August 7, 2023
Hours: 40 hours per week
Pay: $64,500 – 79,100
Mode: Hybrid, Monday-Friday 8-4:30, occasional evening/weekends
Apply online here – due Thursday, June 22
Position Description:
This position is located in the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies within the College of Arts and Sciences. The staff and programs of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies work to provide the University and the people of North Carolina with a campus hub to promote an understanding of the Middle East through teaching, research, and community outreach, and to explore and promote cross-regional approaches to Middle East and Islamic studies, including sponsorship of a wide variety of activities that bring together interested faculty and students from a large number of academic disciplines. The Associate Director will be involved in all aspects of Middle East and Islamic studies program development, including management of the Center’s Title VI and Foreign Language and Area Studies award from the U.S. Department of Education while organizing and overseeing day-to-day center programs such as workshops, conferences, and lecture series. The Associate Director will also work closely with the Center’s Director, Outreach Manager, and Business Manager, as well as the Center’s partners at Duke University and Durham Tech.
Required Qualifications:
M.A. or Ph.D. in a Social Science or humanities field required, with academic background and experience in Middle East or Islamic Studies; candidates demonstrating comparable independent research productivity or comparable background in independent academic or instructional activities, will accept a relevant bachelor’s degree (or foreign degree equivalent) and 3 or more years of relevant experience in substitution. The candidate will have expert knowledge of Middle East or Islamic studies, well-developed communication skills, experience in writing and administering grants, and administrative experience.
Preferred Qualifications
At least two years of experience in a professional capacity in the field of international studies, such as teaching in a related field, budget management, program development, grant proposal, and/or research. Basic knowledge of at least one Middle Eastern language preferred
Apply online here – due Thursday, June 22
For questions about the position, please contact Claudia Yaghoobi yaghoobi@email.unc.edu
- June 10, 2023
- 0 Comment