Archive for July 16th, 2024
Shii News – Academic Items
1.International Conference on “Philosophy, the Political, and Politics of Translation in the Modern Islamic World”, Scholarly Network Philosophy in the Modern Islamic World (DFG), Berlin, 10-13 March 2025
We are looking for proposed contributions on philosophy, translation, and the political, especially with regard to particular concepts in translation, translation as a historical phenomenon, translations and teaching, and philosophical reflections on the practice of translation. Researchers in early phases of their academic career and/or from the MENA region are especially encouraged to apply.
Deadline for proposals: 25 August 2024.
Information: https://philosophy-in-the-modern-islamic-world.net/intern-conf-philosophy-political-politics-call
2. 59th International Conference of the ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies on “Orientalism and the Levant during the Second Half of the Second Millenium (1500-2000)”, University of Oxford, 6-8 July 2026
The Levant includes Iraq and Iran and the entire coastlands from Asia Minor to Egypt. All papers given at the conference will be considered for publication in a future edition of the ARAM Periodical, subject to editorial review.
If you wish to participate in the conference, please contact aram@ames.ox.ac.uk
3. 60th International Conference of the ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies on “Educational Western Missions in the Levant 1300-1918 AD/CE”, University of Oxford, 8-10 July 2027
The Levant includes Iraq and Iran and the entire coastlands from Asia Minor to Egypt. All papers given at the conference will be considered for publication in a future edition of the ARAM Periodical, subject to editorial review.
If you wish to participate in the conference, please contact aram@ames.ox.ac.uk
4. Articles for Journal “Forum Islamic-Theological Studies”
Papers in English and German are invited in the following areas: – Qur’anic Studies and Qur’anic Exegesis (tafsīr) – Hadith Studies – Sufism – Islamic Legal Theory and Hermeneutics (fiqh) – Islamic Ethics – Islamic Philosophy – Systematic-Discursive Theology (kalām) – Islamic Religious Education – Sociology of Religion on Muslims in Europe or the West – Contributions on current discourses on Islam and Muslims in Europe –Islam and Pluralism, Islam in Europe – etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 October 2024. Information: https://ojs.nomos-journals.de/index.php/fits/CfP
5. Article pour Revue Annales Islamologiques 61, 2027 « Aspects pluriels de l’écriture de soi dans l’adab prémoderne (IIIe/IXe-XIIe/XVIIIe siècles) »
Les articles figurant dans ce volume concerneront des textes d’adab au sens large de ce terme (incluant aussi bien les textes historiographiques que littéraires), qui comportent une composante autobiographique et/ou qui relèvent de l’ego-document et qui ont été produits en langue arabe dans l’aire culturelle arabo-musulmane entre le IIIe/IXe et le XIIe/XVIIIe siècles, quelle que soit leur nature générique.
Les propositions doivent être envoyées avant le 30 septembre 2024.
Information : https://iismm.hypotheses.org/104325
6. New Journal: “Rivista di Studi storici del Mediterraneo” – International Review of Mediterranean Historical Studies
This journal promotes a global perspective on the historical dynamics of the Mediterranean, transcending geographical boundaries. Contributions are invited about topics that transcend any conventional periodization in order to investigate the complex network of relations and influences relating to different Mediterranean contexts and foster historical knowledge of the Mediterranean.
Information: https://rivistastoricadelmediterraneo.it/en/the-mediterranean-world/#more-117
7. Ibn Arabi’s Religious Pluralism: Levels of Inclusivity
F Abdel-hadi
Routledge, 2025
8. IHF Academic Committee Announcement
The second cycle of the Iran Heritage Foundation’s 2024 grant programme, with the deadline of August 31st, 2024 is now open for receipt of application.
With the overall aim of fostering knowledge and appreciation of Iran’s rich cultural heritage research grants in various academic disciplines are awarded. The particular emphasis (in alphabetical order) is on archaeology, arts, history, linguistics, and literature, though applications from other disciplines will also be considered.
Projects to be supported may include the most various academic initiatives, from fieldwork to workshops to building databases and digitising images, and will – as previously – privilege new research such as editions and translations of key texts. In order to support multiple initiatives grants of up-to a maximum of £3,000 will be considered.
In this second cycle, the Committee will also award two book prizes; one in memory of Iradj Bagherzade, the late founder of I.B. Tauris Publishing (now a subsidiary of Bloomsbury Publishing), as an enabling prize to defray some of the costs of a book still to be published; and the other for an already published book making a significant contribution to the world of Iranian studies.
The application process and conditions for the grants as well as book prizes can be viewed on our website.
To apply please click here.
For Terms and Conditions please click here
9. 2025 Mohamed Ali Foundation fellowship programme: call for applications
This residential fellowship (Apr-June 2025) carries a grant, accommodation and meals, and is a valuable research and publication opportunity for early career (post-doctoral) or established scholars working on the modern history of Egypt and the wider region: more details are provided in the online notice.
The application deadline is Tuesday 1 October 2024.
Past fellows’ papers are available online:https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/school-government-international-affairs/research/fellowships/the-mohamed-ali-foundation-fellowship-programme/visiting-fellows-and-mohamed-ali-foundation-fellowship-papers/
Further information at:
10. Call for Chapter Abstracts:
Two Handbook Projects on Iranian and Iranian Diaspora Studies
Overview of the Project
Bloomsbury Academic has approved a proposal for two handbook projects: The I.B. Tauris Handbook of State and Society in Modern Iran, and, The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iran and Iranians in the Modern World.
State and Society in Modern Iran will highlight current and critical approaches to a classic subject in the field: the modern emergence of Iran as a nation-state since ca. 1800. Iranians in the Modern World will highlight scholarly trends that situate Iran in modern regional and global contexts and explore the transnational experiences of diverse groups with heritage ties to Iran.
The development timeline aims for the publication of both books by the winter of 2026 so they can join the catalog of I.B. Tauris Handbooks.
Authors of approved abstracts will be entitled to a copy of the book upon completion and have opportunities to participate in workshopping events with fellow authors and editors via Zoom. For fullest consideration, please send your abstracts to Camron Michael Amin at camamin@umich.edu by September 7th, 2024 (sooner is always better). Reach out any time if you have questions about this opportunity. I will note that the publications will be peer-reviewed. Chapters can be either traditional research presenting new findings or different forms of engaged scholarship (review essay, annotated translations of texts, annotated field notes or essays on research methodology). The essential criteria is for contributions to serve as both a guide to the state of the field and as a platform for further inquiry.
Chapter abstracts should be no more than 1000 words and clearly indicate which book and section the contribution is intended for. Each book has two sections (described in more detail below), and we anticipate approving 10 chapters for each section.
Looking forward to seeing your chapter abstracts! If you want to chat informally, please reach out to me at camamin@umich.edu to schedule a Zoom (or, better yet, let’s connect at the AIS Conference in Mexico City).
Camron Michael Amin
Professor of Middle East and Iranian Diaspora Studies
Coordinator of Middle East Studies, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Research Director for the Inclusive History Project-Dearborn
Contributing Editor-in-Chief
More Detail on the Handbooks
Book I: I.B. Tauris Handbook of State and Society in Modern Iran
Section 1. Society, State and the Spaces in Between
Scholars have long described the gradual but inexorable rise of a modern state in Iran since 1800 with ever-increasing powers over individuals and groups. More recently there has also been a growth in scholarship about the role of non-state institutions, market forces and informal networks that coexist with and complicate the power of the state.
Potential subjects for this section include but are not limited to: Iran’s press and mediascape, Iran’s shifting demographics, Iran’s banking system, Iran’s labor movement(s), digital resistance and authoritarianism, Iran’s technocracy, evolving state and dissident ideologies, education and society, the military and society, Iran’s parliaments, municipality-level politics, Iran’s constitutions and legal reform/practice, and how different segments of society have experienced the state.
Section 2: Social Complexity Inside a Changing Iran
With the initial expansion of the state in the 19th century came simultaneous efforts to regulate it and to make it more responsive to society’s priorities. The emergence of Iran’s modern legal system as a site of social-political contestation provides a way to understand and historicize the practical implications of competing political ideologies and social movements in Iran.
Potential subjects for this section include but are not limited to: Intersectionality and Women.Life.Liberty, Iranians and courts, LGBTQ+, consumer culture, changes in urban and rural life, mobility, non-profit and private institutions, censorship and the arts, the domestic economy (energy and non-energy sectors), popular religion and religious diversity in Iran.
Book II: The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iran and Iranians in the Modern World
Section 1: Iran as a Regional and Global Actor
For all the nuance scholars have added to the narrative of the expansion of the power of the Iranian nation-state, one feature of Iran’s modern experience is its official integration into regional and global diplomatic and economic frameworks. This section explores both state and non-state influences on Iran’s image and impact on the world stage.
Potential subjects for this section include but are not limited to: The GCC and Iran, Iran and BRICS, Iran and OPEC, Iran and UN, Iran’s soft power initiatives, Iran’s foreign policy establishment, Iran’s proxies and clients, state and dissident efforts to influence global opinion, Iran and tourism, Iran as refuge for and exporter of asylum seekers, “Iran” as a brand in the global culture, and Iran’s influence on transnational shi’ism.
Section 2: Iranian Expatriate Communities and Diasporas
There’s no understanding Iran’s modern experience without considering its transnational aspects. Decades before the revolution of 1979 generated a growing global Iranian diaspora, Iranian expatriate communities were influencing politics and culture in Iran itself and formed an essential dimension of Iran’s participation in global and regional trade. The exact number of Iranians in diaspora is unknown. However, it is estimated that since the 1979 Iranian revolution between 5 to 8 million Iranians have left Iran legally and illegally. Given the relatively large number of Iranians in diaspora, the research on Iranian diaspora has predominantly been US-centered and scholars have paid less attention to Iranian immigrants in other regions.
Potential subjects for this section include but are not limited to: Iranian communities in the Middle East, The Iranian diasporas in the Americas, The literary cultures of the diaspora , second-generation Iranians in diaspora, Iranian women in diaspora , comparative transnational family dynamics, the influence of expatriate Iranian communities on domestic Iranian politics and culture, recreating Iran in the diaspora, pluralism in the Iranian diaspora, and interactions between Iranian and other global diasporas.
11. UCLA Pourdavoud Institute:
Achaemenid Workshop 2 Day 1 Videos Available!
We are pleased to share with you the recorded lectures from the first day of the Second Achaemenid Workshop, The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East, hosted at the University of Innsbruck and co-sponsored by the Pourdavoud Institute in Obergurgl, Austria on July 3–7, 2023.
The first workshop, hosted at UCLA in Spring 2023, introduced a new series of symposia, dubbed Achaemenid Workshops (AchWorks), which, building on the strength of Achaemenid studies in the past decades, seek to revisit and reassess the state of Achaemenid scholarship over the coming years with a dozen workshops hosted at leading institutions of ancient studies around the globe. Coordinated by the Pourdavoud Institute in conjunction with AchWorks’ Organizing Board, the workshops aspire to become an intellectual hub for Achaemenid studies, while also affording an institutional framework to foster future generations of scholars working on the Achaemenid world.
On July 3-7, 2023, the second Achaemenid Workshop titled “The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East (7th – 2nd c. BC),” took place in the alpine settlement of Obergurgl, Austria. In addition to being part of AchWorks, the conference was embedded in the context of the Austrian Academy of Science commission “Transformation Processes and Empire in the Ancient Worlds of Afro-Eurasia.” The talks and program focused on the emergence, fall, and transformation processes of the Achaemenid empire (6th–4th century BCE), contextualized by preceding developments in the period of the Neo-Assyrian empire under the Sargonids (7th century BCE) and by an outlook on the early Seleucid period (3rd–2nd century BCE).
The Third Achaemenid Workshop will be hosted by Columbia University in New York and co-sponsored by the Pourdavoud Institute and Yarshater Center at UCLA on February 21–22, 2025. The Institute shall record this workshop, with lecture videos to be include in our Online Video Library.
For all videos, see:
https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/videos/
12. CALL FOR PAPERS
Iranian Masculinities Across Time: Historical Perspectives
University of California, Santa Barbara
This projected volume explores the diverse experiences, performances, and discourses involving men and masculinities in Iranian society and culture over a broad span of time, from antiquity to the present day. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Mapping historical and/or modern masculinities and institutions and various definitions of masculinities.
- Outsiders’ perceptions, stereotypes, and experiences of Iranian masculinity from the ancient Greeks to the modern period.
- How media ideals and ideologies of masculinity have changed through the 19th-21st centuries.
- Hegemonic and non-hegemonic masculinities; marginalized masculinities, outcast/pariah/abject masculinities; resistant masculinities; ethnic / non-urban / regional/ racialized/class-based masculinities.
- Masculinity and religion; religious and divine masculinities.
- Patriarchy and law.
- Man-making practices, places, and things; passages into manhood; masculine life stages: boyhood, manhood, fatherhood, etc. and life roles (work, volunteerism, parenthood, and more)
- Masculinity and the body; the manly/masculine body; masculinity and sports; masculinity and disability, sexual dysfunction, bodily non-normativity, and/or physical impairment
- Masculinity, same sex desire, and sexual orientation
- Challenges of studying Iranian men and masculinities
- Masculinities in sociopolitical movements
- Masculinities in the arts (including graphic arts, cartoons, cinema), architecture, material culture.
- Masculinities and musical performances
- Masculinities in children’s literature
- The effects of patriarchy on men and boys; the roles of men and boys in bringing about gender equality
- The unmanly; masculinity and women / the feminine
- Masculinity, violence, and emotions
- Male Advocates of Women’s Rights and Gender Equity in Modern Iranian history.
- newly emergent forms of masculinities for a more democratic Iranian society
Proposals/abstracts from all disciplines and all fields are welcomed. They may focus on Iran, the Iranian plateau and neighboring regions, or the Iranian diaspora, and may examine any period from the second millennium BCE up to the present.
Please send your proposal/abstract of no more than 300 words by September 15, 2024 to both Janet Afary (jafary@ucsb.edu) and John W. I. Lee (jwilee@history.ucsb.edu). Individuals whose proposals/abstracts are accepted will be invited to submit a paper (20-25 pages). Deadline for receipt of the paper will be in April 2025. A conference celebrating the authors and exploring the key themes of the projected volume will be held at UCSB in 2025-2026.
- July 16, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment