Archive for February 15th, 2025
Shii News – Academic Items
1.The Department of Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Chicago is honored to have Prof. Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi as speaker in the Heshmat Moayyad Lecture Series 2025. The lecture will be in person and on zoom on Wednesday, Feb 19 at 5:00 PM US Central Time at The Tea Room, The Social Science Research Building.
Title
Rights Civilization and Governmentality: The Cyrus Cylinder and ‘Equality Rights’ in Cold War Iran
Abstract
“Rights Civilization and Governmentality: The Cyrus Cylinder and ‘Equality Rights’ in Cold War Iran” explores the interplay between historical memory, social rights, and the contested conceptions of governmentality and constitutionality in the four decades prior to the 1979 Revolution. Offering a corrective to the ideological and linear revolutionary narratives of Pahlavi Iran, this historical inquiry elucidates how a multi-confessional conception of Iran and its constitutionally sanctioned “equality rights” of citizens was reconceived at “a moment of danger” during WWII when Iran was invaded by the Allied forces and Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925-1941) was forced to abdicate. It explores how the endeavor for the promotion of legal equality of women and non-Muslims was opposed on religious and constitutional grounds by those who conceived of Iran as a “Shi‘i nation” (millat-i Shi‘ah). Exploring the concurrent and protracted efforts of lawyers and jurists (fuqaha) to promote two divergent modes of governing the everyday conduct of citizens—one based on “equality rights” and the other on Islamic jurisprudence––this lecture offers a historically situated account of the rights question in Iran in the decades before the 1979 Revolution.
Full information at:
2. Indiana University’s Summer 2025 Language Workshop is now accepting applications for its intensive immersion programs in Arabic, Chinese, and Russian!
- Learn 1 year of language in 2 months and earn college credit
- Accelerate your learning with daily 1-on-1 skills training
- Live the language in immersion housing and classes
- Speed your learning by studying alongside enthusiastic and talented language learners
Rolling Application Deadline
- May 16, 2025
Learn more and apply here: https://languageworkshop.indiana.edu/overview
Questions? Email the Language Workshop at languageworkshop@iu.edu or join virtual office hours.
Contact Information
Kathleen Evans, Director, Indiana University Language Workshop
Contact Email
URL
https://languageworkshop.indiana.edu/index.html
3. The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien invites researchers to apply for up to 3 postdoctoral fellowships forthe academic year 2025/2026 for the research program EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE EAST—THE MIDDLE EAST IN EUROPE (EUME).
Location: Berlin / Closing Date: 26 March 2025, 12.00h (noon) CET
FAQ (PDF): https://www.eume-berlin.de/fileadmin/bilder/Forum/Ausschreibungen/CfA-2025-26-FAQ.pdf
EUME seeks to rethink key concepts and premises that link and divide Europe and the Middle East. The program draws on the international expertise of a growing network of scholars in and outside of Germany and is embedded in university and extra-university research institutions in and outside of Berlin. EUME supports historical-critical philology, rigorous engagement with the literatures of the Middle East and their histories, the social history and life of cities and the study of Middle Eastern political and philosophical thought as central fields of research not only for area or cultural studies, but also for European intellectual history and other academic disciplines. The program explores modernity as a historical space and conceptual frame. EUME is interested in questions relating to ongoing transformation processes in and between Europe and the Middle East, in re-imaginations of the past and present that contribute to free, pluralistic and just societies.
The program puts forward three programmatic ideas:
1) supporting research that demonstrates the rich and complex historical legacies and entanglements between Europe and the Middle East; 2) re-examining genealogical notions of mythical ‘origins’, and ‘purity’ in relation to culture and society; and 3) rethinking key concepts of a shared modernity and future in light of contemporary cultural, social, and political divisions and entanglements that supersede identity discourses as well as national, cultural or regional canons and epistemologies that were established in the nineteenth century.
EUME supports and rests upon interconnected research fields and themes that mark the open framework for the fellowship program that constitutes EUME:
Travelling Traditions: Comparative Perspectives on Near Eastern Literatures
represented by Friederike Pannewick (Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies/Department for Arabic Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg) and Samah Selim (Rutgers University – New Brunswick) reassesses literary entanglements and processes of translation and canonization between Europe and the Middle East.
Cities Compared: Governance, Participatory Mechanisms and Plurality
represented by Ulrike Freitag and Nora Lafi (both Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin) contributes to the debates on civil society, participation, deliberation, opinion formation, citizenship, migration and mobilization from the experience of cultural and religious differences in cities around the Mediterranean and beyond.
Tradition and the Critique of Modernity: Secularism, Fundamentalism and Religion from Middle Eastern Perspectives
represented by Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva) tries to rethink key concepts of modernity like secularity, tradition, and religion in the context of experiences, interpretations, and critiques from the Middle East in order to contribute to a more inclusive language of culture, politics and community.
Politics and Processes of Change, Archaeologies of the Present, and Imaginations of the Future
are research themes that emerged during the last years and are represented by the work of several EUME Fellows and members of the Collegium (e.g. Cilja Harders, Friederike Pannewick, Rachid Ouaissa, Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin).
The Prison Narratives of Assad’s Syria: Voices, Texts, Publics (SYRASP), directed by Anne-Marie McManus, and Beyond Restitution: Heritage, (Dis)Possession and the Politics of Knowledge (BEYONDREST), directed by Banu Karaca, are two ERC funded projects related to EUME, hosted at the Forum.
Since 1997, more than 400 scholars from and of the Middle East have been EUME Fellows, who, by their scholarly projects, engagement, and their inquiries into the order of knowledge, society and politics, shape the academic program of EUME that is coordinated by Georges Khalil, Jessica Metz, Claudia Pfitzner and Rashof Salih at the Forum Transregionale Studien.
Fellowships
We invite scholars in the humanities and social sciences who want to carry out their research projects in connection with the Berlin-based program. The up to three fellowships announced here are intended to contribute to the mobility of researchers, and are primarily addressed to scholars from outside Germany. This year we especially encourage scholars from Palestine and its diaspora to apply.
As the number of fellowships we are able to offer is limited, we invite interested scholars also to apply with their own funding or contact us with the inquiry for support in finding third party funding. If this may be an option, please contact us via eume(at)trafo-berlin.de anytime.
Applicants should be at the postdoctoral level and should have obtained their doctorate within the last seven years. Fellows gain the opportunity to pursue research projects of their own choice within the framework of Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe. Successful applicants will be fellows of EUME at the Forum Transregionale Studien, and associate members of one of the university or non-university research institutes listed below or connected to the Forum Transregionale Studien.
The fellowships start on 1 October 2025 and will end on 31 July 2026. Postdoctoral fellows will receive a monthly stipend of 2,500 € plus supplements depending on their personal situation. Organisational support regarding visa, insurance, housing, etc. will be provided. Fellows are obliged to work in Berlin and to help shape the seminars and working discussions related to their research field. The working language of EUME is English.
Application Procedure
We kindly ask you to submit your application via the secure online application platform of the Forum Transregionale Studien by 26 March 2025, 12.00h (noon) CET:
https://application.trafo-berlin.de/
Please note that applications by email will not be considered.
As part of your application, you will be asked to prepare and upload the following:
— a curriculum vitae (including a list of publications);
— a project description (no longer than 5 pages), stating what the scholar will work on in Berlin if granted a fellowship, and
— the names of two university faculty members who can serve as referees (no letters of recommendation required).
In case of questions, please consult the FAQ or send an email to eume(at)trafo-berlin.de
Institutional Framework
Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME) has been initiated in 2006 as a joint research program of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. It builds upon the previous work of the Working Group Modernity and Islam (1996-2006). Since 2011 EUME is continued at the Forum Transregionale Studien.
In scholarly terms EUME is steered by a Collegium that currently consists of Ulrike Freitag (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin), Cilja Harders (Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin), Nora Lafi (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin), Rachid Ouaissa (Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg / MECAM – Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb), Friederike Pannewick (Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg), Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva), Samah Selim (Rutgers University), and Stefan Weber (Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin).
The Forum Transregionale Studien (Forum) is a research organization for the promotion of cross-border cooperation between scholars of different expertise and perspectives on global issues. Transregional approaches connect and confront diverse disciplines, regional, national and local positions and insights on global issues. The Forum provides scope for exchange on questions of science policy, epistemology and ethics, and develops infrastructures and formats that allow transregional research ideas and projects to be tested, implemented and communicated. The Forum is constituted by its members and the diversity of their research expertise and networks. It is committed to strengthening regional studies and to the principle of non-hierarchical research. It appoints scholars from around the world as fellows and engages in joint research programs and initiatives with partners from universities and research institutions in and outside Berlin. The Forum is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Higher Education and Research, Health and Long-Term Care.
The Forum currently supports the following research programs and initiatives: Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME), Prisma Ukraïna – Research Network Eastern Europe, and re:constitution – Exchange and Analysis on Democracy and the Rule of Law in Europe. The Forum is a member of the consortium of MECAM: Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb, and of the research college EUTIM: Europäische Zeiten/European Times – A Transregional Approach to the Societies of Central and Eastern Europe. Zukunftsphilologie: Revisiting the Canons of Textual Scholarship and 4A_Lab: Art Histories, Archaeologies, Anthropologies, Aesthetics are connected programs developed at the Forum that are continued at other institutions.
For more information on the Forum, its programs, initiatives and communication, please visit
www.forum-transregionale-studien.de
TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research
https://trafo.hypotheses.org/
For further information on EUME and for detailed information on the research fields and themes, please visit
www.eume-berlin.de
For information on the research institutions in Berlin participating in EUME, please visit
— Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/
— Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics, Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science,
Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/en
— Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
https://www.zmo.de
— Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/en/friedrichschlegel
— Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/en/e/islamwiss
— Museum for Islamic Art
https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/museum-fuer-islamische-kunst/
— Seminar for Semitic and Arabic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/en/e/semiarab
— Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg
https://www.uni-marburg.de/de/cnms
— MECAM – Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb
https://mecam.tn/?lang=en
Contact Email
URL
https://www.eume-berlin.de/en/homepage
4. Indiana University’s Summer 2025 Language Workshop is now accepting applications for its intensive online Pashto program!
- Learn 1 year of language in 2 months
- Enjoy 18 hours of live instruction per week, plus cultural activities
- Combine the effectiveness of intensive study with the convenience of an online class
- Speed your learning by studying alongside enthusiastic and talented language learners
Rolling Application Deadline
- May 16, 2025
Learn more and apply here: https://languageworkshop.indiana.edu/pashto
Questions? Email the Language Workshop at languageworkshop@iu.edu or join virtual office hours.
Contact Information
Kathleen Evans, Director, Indiana University Language Workshop
Contact Email
URL
https://languageworkshop.indiana.edu/index.html
5. Book Conversation by Dr. Marilyn Jenkins-Madina
Date: March 4th, 6:00 pm
Place: Columbia University, 825 Schermerhorn Hall
Dr. Marilyn Jenkins-Madina is Curator Emerita of the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During the forty years she served as a curator in that department, she played a key role in helping to create the museum’s first major (ten-gallery) installation of Islamic art as well as adding to the collection and organizing special exhibitions. With an MA in Art History from Columbia University and a PhD from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, she has lectured widely, published over 30 articles, and written or co-authored seven books, including the classic Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250 with Richard Ettinghausen and Oleg Grabar. Her memoir, The Lure of the East: A Curator’s Fascinating Journey, was published by Rodin Books in 2024. Please join Dr. Jenkins-Madina in her discussion of her book in conversation with Dr. Lila Abu-Lughod at Columbia University, on March 4th at 6:00 pm.
If you plan on attending, we kindly ask you to register at this Google form no later than February 28th at 3:00 pm to be able to access the Columbia campus: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeru2mAJDzowUFoLW1GaquMSu0LEzifmUNI8D2KVs2i9n5rNQ/viewform
6. The CeRMI is pleased to invite you to the next session of the seminar “Societies, Politics and Cultures of the Iranian World”, which will be held next Thursday, February 20, 2025, 5pm-7pm, in room 4.15 at the INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII,4th floor).
We are pleased to welcome Ms. Eva Zahiri (CeRMI, IFI, Sciences-Po), for a lecture entitled: “For an Islamic Law of Our Time: The Renewal of Legal Thought in Iran“.
Summary:
The purpose of this presentation is to examine the transformation of Islamic law in Iran since the 1990s and 2000s. Contrary to the traditional interpretation of foqahā, which is rooted in objective natural law and an apologetic perspective, some contemporary Iranian jurists favor the method of historicity and the critical approach, with a view to enshrine legal subjectivity and equality. Although they do not belong to an established movement, they embody anembryonic but lasting historical process of ongoing restructuring.
Their doctrinal innovations were part of the rationalist usūlī tradition while renewing it in the light of the needs of Iranian society, which was recomposing itself. Despite the diversity of trends and nuances, all stress the need to think of the social contract on the basis of a renewed theory of law and a system of law guaranteeing legal certainty in national legislation. Their goal is to update and perpetuate the cardinal principle of justice to reflect the current Iranian way of life and maintain the universality of Islam.
Bibliographical orientations:
D āwood pherahi, fikh wa siyāsat rate irān-a mo’āser, vol. 1. ET 2 Tehran, Nasr-e, 1392/2013.
– Mohsen KADIVAR, Haqq al-nās. Eslām va hoquq-e bashar, Téhéran, Kavir, 1387/2008.
– Mohammad RĀSEKH, “Sharia and Law in the Age of Constitutionalism,” Journal of Global Justice and Public Policy, vol. 2, n° 2, 2016.
Sedigheh Wasmaghi, Zan, Fikh, ESL ām, Tehran, Samadiyeh, 1386/2007.
As a reminder, you will find the 2024-2025 program of the monthly research seminar “Societies, Politics and Cultures of the Iranian World” on the CeRMI website:
Contact: justine.landau@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr
7. The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin is hosting a conference showcasing new academic books on the study of Middle Eastern Literature in its ongoing “New Perspectives on Middle Eastern Literatures and Cultures” series.
The conference will start on Thursday, February 27th at 3:30pm with a keynote speech by Nergis Ertürk. The rest of the talks will take place on Friday, February 28th. See this page for the full Friday schedule.
Register for the conference here: https://new-books-on-ME-lit.eventbrite.com.
The event will also be streamed live on Zoom. Register on the Eventbrite page for a virtual attendance ticket, and you will be sent the Zoom link.
8. ONLINE Lecture: „Tents and Fortresses, Palaces and Caves: Literary Architectures in Nezāmi’s Book of Alexander“ by Prof. Paul Losensky (Indiana University), Brown University, Providence, RI, 20 February 2025, 18:00 – 19:15 h CET
Building projects frame the career of Alexander the Great as told by the Persian poet Nezāmi Ganjavi (d. 1209) in his „Eskandarnāmeh“. Although Alexander`s encounters with palaces, religious sites, and domestic dwellings, shape his character significantly, leading to an ascetic critique of architecture as a whole, a critique symbolized by the natural shelter of the cave.
Information and registration: https://events.brown.edu/event/tents-and-fortresses-palaces
9. HYBRID Book Talk “The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century” by Zozan Pehlivan, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative, New York University, 20 February 2025, 23:30 h CET
The lecture will illuminate the environmental roots of intercommunal conflict in Ottoman Kurdistan during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on insights from climate science, agronomy, and zoology, Pehli-van offers a groundbreaking perspective on how extreme climate disruptions fueled tensions between Christian Armenian peasants and Muslim Kurdish pastoralists.
Information and registration: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/uOiEHhBMSHWh1_m4P5otOA#/registration
10. Workshop “Inheriting Empire? Transformations and Contestations of “Ottoman” Heritage”, Berlin, 13-14 March 2025
Through a focus on (post)-Ottoman lands and imaginaries, this workshop aims to engage with civilization, empire, nation, and heritage as constructs in flux, forever dependent on individuals, objects, ideas, and places that carry inherited meanings and become catalysts for new kinds of meaning making, as well. We will examine how multiple political projects have engaged in memory-making and heritage-making practices.
Deadline for registration: 7 March 2025. Information and program:
11. Extended deadline:
Workshop “Faking It – Forgery, Fraud, Deception and Dissimulation in the Pre-Modern Mediterra-nean (Including Near East and North Africa)”, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 10-11 April 2025
Proposals are welcome from scholars of all ranks from across all disciplines of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, as are papers from the Sciences, that engage in the broadest sense with social, historical and cultural aspects of the Mediterranean language, linguistics, literature, culture, society, art, and social, economic and political history, as well as anthropology, sociology, and other related humanities and social science disciplines.
Extended deadline for abstracts: 29 February 2025. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/cfp-faking-it-forgery-fraud-deception-and-dissimulation-mediterranean-seminar-spring-2025-workshop-10-11-april-cleveland-2535779?e=82aeb6c61d
12. [KAIS] 2025 Korean Association of Islamic Studies (KAIS) International Conference Call for Papers
The Korean Association for Islamic Studies (KAIS) is pleased to announce that the upcoming joint international conference on “Religious Harmony and Tolerance in a Globalized, Multicultural Society-Religious Diversity and Social Solidarity: Beyond Conflict to Harmony-” will be held at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on May 30th, 2025.
Founded in 1989, KAIS is the only academic association in Korea dedicated to Islamic Studies, with over 200 members from domestic and international universities and research institutions. The association has played a pivotal role in establishing and promoting Islamic Studies in Korea, which was once considered an academic void in the field.
In 2025, KAIS aims to expand its reach beyond Korea by fostering cooperation with universities, research institutions, and public organizations in key Islamic countries. In this regard, we kindly request the cooperation of your esteemed institution for this international conference and encourage the active participation of interested scholars.
This international conference, jointly organized by KAIS, the Korean Association for Buddhist Studies (KABS), and Christianity academic associations in Korea, will feature in-depth discussions on religious diversity, conflict, coexistence, and harmony.
《Session Details》
Session 1 will address “Islamophobia and Migration“. This session will examine the experiences of Muslims who have settled in Korea and the challenges they face. Through insightful presentations and in-depth discussions, we will explore the lives of Muslims living in different cultures and consider how we can move toward greater coexistence and harmony.
If you (or members of the association) are interested in participating, please respond to this email (Islamhakhoe@hanmail.net ) by February 28th, 2025 with a 250-300 abstract, including the title of the paper in English, along with a CV. The CV should include personal information (name, nationality and email address), affiliation & position, research interests, and research activities.
Papers should be presented in English, and participants wishing to present in Arabic should provide the title in English. For the publication of the conference proceedings, we recommend that manuscripts should be 5 to 10 pages on A4 paper or a PPT presentation with no more than 20 slides. The deadline for paper submission is April 30, 2025.
For inquiries or further information, please contact KAIS via our official email: islamhakhoe@hanmail.net
- February 15, 2025
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment