Archive for March 16th, 2024
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Approaching Architecture in the Muslim World: Novel Paths of Investigationsquestions the historiography of the field of ‘Islamic Architecture’ by scoring particular instances that fractured its foundations or methods that shaped its objects of study. Collectively, the contributions in this issue address the topic from theoretical concerns as well specific case studies andaddress three moments of rupture in the architecture of the Muslim world: ‘visuality’, ‘typology’, ‘displacement’. The aim of this issue, then, is to open new horizons for rethinking ‘Islamic’ architecture and suggest novel interrogative paths in order to challenge the canonical frameworks, which have dominated our approaches in discussing architecture in the lands of Islam, namely ‘typology’, ‘regionalism,’ ‘master narratives,’ and ‘patronage’.
See: https://brill.com/view/journals/mcmw/4/2/article-p279_8.xml
2. The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien invites researchers to apply for up to 4 postdoctoral fellowships for the academic year 2024/2025 for the research program EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE EAST—THE MIDDLE EAST IN EUROPE (EUME).
Location: Berlin / Closing Date: 8 April 2024, 12.00h (noon) CEST
Also see:
The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien invites researchers to apply for up to 4 postdoctoral fellowships for the academic year 2024/2025 for the research program EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE EAST—THE MIDDLE EAST IN EUROPE (EUME).
Location: Berlin / Closing Date: 8 April 2024, 12.00h (noon) CEST
Also see:
https://application.trafo-berlin.de/procedure/758011e1-f349-4f6a-bf79-ae9d9dee2e69
3. Mosque: Approaches to Art and Architecture,
Idries Trevathan, ed..
Routledge, 2024
4. The Sharafnāma as a Case Study in the Ecolinguistics of Kurdistan
Wednesday, March 20th, at 2 p.m. Eastern the third event in our Spring Speaker Series. (Note: Please check the time difference as daylight savings time started once again in the US.)
The event will take place on Zoom. It will be free and open to the public.
During this event, Sacha Alsancakli will present, “The Sharafnāma as a Case Study in the Ecolinguistics of Kurdistan.” Sacha is a cultural historian of the Islamic world, whose work focuses on historiography and the history of the book. His presentation will delve into the Sharafnāma, which is regarded as an important text on Kurdish history. He will examine its author’s discourse on the Kurdish language and the ecolinguistics of the multilingual land of Kurdistan.
Speaker Series: The Sharafnāma as a Case Study in the Ecolinguistics of Kurdistan
When: 2:00 pm Eastern, Wednesday, March 20th
Where: https://zoom.us/j/92784270041?pwd=MFhBUmtkMVR1OGN0V2JtQTZycGwwQT09
For more information on Zahra Institute and our upcoming events, visit our website: https://www.zahrainstitute.org/.
5. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers over 400 unique awards for U.S. citizens to teach, research, and conduct professional projects in more than 130 countries. Explore awards available in the 2025-26 competition.You can join the more than 400,000 Fulbrighters who have come away with enhanced skills, new connections and greater mutual understanding.
We encourage you to visit our website for application resources:
– Getting Started
– Application Guidance
– Open Awards in the 2025-26 Competition, searchable by discipline, country/region, etc.
– Webinar Schedule and Archive
– Office Hours, a great way to get your questions answered live by Fulbright staff
We look forward to receiving your application by our deadline of September 16, 2024. To receive program updates and application resources, connect with Fulbright.
6. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
‘Securitizing the Sacred: Pilgrims’ Trails across Digital Landscapes’
(University of Toronto, August 22-24th, 2024)
We invite abstracts for a three-day International Symposium on the state of pilgrimage (incorporating religious tourism) in the context of global security. The event will bring together specialists in different areas of pilgrimage, including academics, tourism providers and operators, local authorities and infrastructure administrators, religious communities, civil liberties organizations, art specialists and artists, and social media influencers. Our aim is to enable different stakeholders to collaborate in considering issues of digitality, security, datafication and mobility that form increasingly significant dimensions of the underlying socio-technical infrastructures of religious journeying.
THE THEMES OF THE SYMPOSIUM
Over the past two decades, physical travel has increasingly been aided by digital technologies. Some of the questions that drive our inquiry include: Who is responsible for gathering data on pilgrims, and how is such data used? What policies exist regarding types of information and knowledge that can be gathered from pilgrims? What aspects of pilgrims’ data can be deemed sensitive and in need of protection? Are there cross-cultural differences in data collection and practices over how pilgrims’ data is used? What are the implications for pilgrims regarding conditions or situations that may render them ineligible for or excluded from pilgrimage, and who gets to decide?
Behind such empirical questions are powerful concerns relating to data justice that we wish to explore: How might we determine whether there is sufficient transparency about where data is stored and processed, and by whom? What criteria should we use to decide these questions over justice, identity, and mobility? We also invite papers on broader conceptual and theoretical questions concerning the intersections of pilgrimage, mobility, and security.
SUBMISSIONS
In addition to our keynote speakers, we also seek submissions in the following categories:
- Papers (includes completed research papers and research-in-progress papers)
- Posters (need not be in English)
- Sessions (one or two hours) for Interactive Engagement (including hands-on workshops developed around case studies, panels with a range of stakeholders, scenarios, etc.)
- Alternative formats (we have an exhibit space for photographs, films, material objects that speak to the theme, and artefacts exemplifying data trails, etc.)
We invite abstracts from scholars and practitioners working on different religious traditions and disciplinary perspectives. We also encourage community engagement projects, and practical applications of theory. We welcome submissions from outside of Canada.
Examples of topics include:
- Pilgrims’ online activities including information gathering prior to the journey, or using web-based booking systems
- The role of social media in maintaining contacts and networks during and after the pilgrimage
- Pilgrims as producers of data that may be circulated and accessed through digital trails
- Travelers’ risks of exposure to multiple forms of bio- and market-related surveillance and associated data mining
- Roles played by political and commercial organizations who are increasingly significant gatherers of information from and about pilgrims
- Examples of assemblages of systems including booking systems, apps, CCTV, biometrics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), ID cards, and other monitoring mechanisms
- Security measures, security infrastructure in sacred places and in pilgrim destinations
Submissions will be accepted through April 20, 2024 by 11:59pm EST. All submissions will be refereed and must be in English (even if for a poster). They must include the author’s name and position; full affiliation including email and telephone; a brief bio; presentation title, up to five keywords, and an abstract of no more than 500 words for individual submissions and no more than 1000 words for panels/sessions. Email your submissions to: securitizingthesacred@gmail.com
TIMELINE
- April 20, 2024 (11:59pm EST): Proposal submission deadline (extended abstracts).
- May 15, 2024: Refereeing/peer-review completed; acceptance/rejection decisions.
- August 22-24, 2024: Securitizing the Sacred Symposium, Toronto (Canada).
ORGANIZERS AND SPONSORS
The symposium will be held at the University of Toronto. The local organizers are Dr. Nadia Caidi (nadia.caidi@utoronto.ca) and Dr. Simon Coleman (simon.coleman@utoronto.ca).
For inquiries, email us at securitizingthesacred@gmail.com
7. The School of Law and the Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World at the University of Edinburgh seek to appoint a Lecturer in Law in the Globalised Muslim World for a September 2024 start.
This three-year fixed term appointment is ideal for scholars seeking to develop their teaching and research profile. The Lecturer will contribute to the development of the Edinburgh Law School and the Alwaleed Centre’s research profiles as well as to their teaching and outreach activities. The Lecturer will undertake programme and course organisation as part of the Edinburgh Law School and Alwaleed Centre’s MSc and Honours programmes. The Lecturer will also take the lead in teaching and dissertation supervision, as well as contribute to other subject areas as appropriate. Ideally the expertise of the successful candidate will enable them to cover key aspects of Islamic/Sharia law and positive law in the contemporary Muslim world.
For further information including how to apply, click here: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DGK877/lecturer-in-law-in-the-globalised-muslim-world.
The closing date for applications is 5 April 2024.
8. The Journal, Iranian Studies, invites proposals for roundtables. Topics in all areas of social sciences are welcome.
Iranian Studies inaugurated the roundtable initiative in issue 2 of 2023, with a roundtable on Writing capitalism in Iran. Since then, three more roundtables have been commissioned: in issue 3 of 2023, we hosted a roundtable on the Woman Life Freedom movement, in issue 2 of 2024 one on minoritized communities in Iran, and one on diaspora politics is forthcoming.
Roundtables typically include 5-7 short pieces, each consisting of approximately 3,000 words, to showcase new research in the field, re-assess well-established interpretative trends by bringing to light new evidences or introducing new approaches, and/or offer focused analyses on important issues in current affairs, whose impact may be long lasting. Our goal is to centre the journal of Iranian Studies in discussions and exchanges between social scientists, introducing new debates and ground-breaking analyses in our journal.
Topics include, but are not limited to, the sociology and history of modern Iran, the Persianate world and their diasporas; social aspects of the arts, religions and literature; Iran’s domestic and international politics, and politics of the Persianate world and their diasporas; transborder and transcultural contamination in the arts, culture, political thought and policies, between the Persianate regions and the world; history and politics of slavery, capitalism, racism, transnational solidarities, civilizational exchanges and contemporary political mobilizations.
Proposals should include a 500-700-word description of the topic and rationale for the roundtable, highlighting its contribution to existing scholarly debates. Proposals may include a list of contributions, each with a title, author, and a 300- word abstract. Roundtables should have one or more editors. Editors will be responsible for leading the publication process and making sure that every contribution conforms to the journal style and is ready for peer review. All roundtable contributions go through an expedited review process, which assesses the quality of each piece and makes a recommendation about its feasibility for publication.
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. They are competitively selected on the basis of their quality and innovation.
You can submit your proposal to Dr Paola Rivetti at paola.rivetti@dcu.ie by June, 17, 2024.
9. 3rd Annual Khamseen Graduate Student Presentation Award
Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online offers Topic and Term talks to support teaching, learning, and research in Islamic art, architecture, visual culture, and related fields. Since the website’s launch in Fall 2020, new contributions by scholars in the field have consistently grown our catalogue. In 2022, we successfully launched the first annual Khamseen Graduate Student Presentation Award; Sylvia Wu’s winning contribution on the Ashab Mosque in Quanzhou, South China, can be viewed here. The second iteration followed in 2023, when Namrata Kanchan won the award for her talk on figural obliteration within an early modern South Asian manuscript, available here.
While the PhD is a requirement for general submissions, Khamseen‘s Graduate Student Presentation Award enables advanced PhD students to feature their expertise and contribute to Khamseen.
For the 3rd Annual Khamseen Graduate Student Presentation Award, we invite PhD candidates (ABD) to submit a polished script of ca. 1,500 words and an accompanying PowerPoint slide show for a Topic presentation. The award recipient will work with our team to revise and then record their presentation, and they also will receive a $500 honorarium upon their presentation’s launch on the Khamseen website.
Submission Guidelines:
Applications due: April 15, 2024
Notification of decisions: May 15, 2024
Eligibility:
PhD candidates (ABD) and advanced PhD students in their third year or above (for doctoral programs without candidacy) enrolled in a degree-granting program in Islamic art and allied fields. We do not accept applications from undergraduate and Masters students.
Application Procedures:
Candidates should submit a polished script of ca. 1,500 words and an accompanying PowerPoint slide show for a Topic presentation. Additionally, applications should include a 3-5 sentence summary of the presentation, a 2-page CV, and a note of support from a PhD advisor or dissertation committee member.
Please submit materials to TeamKhamseen@umich.edu; notes of support by advisors and queries by candidates also should be sent to TeamKhamseen@umich.edu.
10. Islamic Studies PhD and MA scholarships, Exeter
The Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies is pleased to announce it MA and PhD scholarships for the academic years 2024. Please do distribute them widely. These are dedicated funded scholarships for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies students, and the details are as follows:
Al-Qasimi PhD Studentships can be viewed here.
IAIS Masters Excellence Awards
2x Home award here and 2x International here.
Shireen Abu Akleh MA Scholarship in Palestine Studies
1x Home OR International here.
- March 16, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment