Archive for May, 2025
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Extended DEADLINE 30 May 2025 – Annual Arabic Pasts Workshop
Arabic Pasts is co-convened by Anna Chrysostomides (Queen Mary), Yossi Rapoport (Queen Mary), Hugh Kennedy (SOAS), Lorenz Nigst (AKU-ISMC), and Sarah Bowen Savant (AKU-ISMC).
The event is 9-10 October, 2025 in London.
The annual Arabic Pasts workshop brings together scholars at all career stages to reflect on methodologies, research agendas, and case studies for investigating history writing in Arabic in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond in any period from the seventh century to the present.
This year the Arabic Pasts workshop welcomes Queen Mary University of London as a partner. We will host the workshop in person at the Aga Khan Centre and welcome proposals that deal with the practical and conceptual challenges of working on history writing in Arabic. We encourage scholars working at all career stages to join us.
By way of example, papers might elucidate the following sorts of questions – or others:
- How do nations today tell their stories with respect to their pasts? In what ways do educational institutions, museums, media organisations and proponents of heritage use history writing to shape loyalties and senses of belonging in society?
- When and how did pre-modern and modern historians writing in Arabic conceptualize the history of Palestine as a distinct geographical and political unit? What are the Arabic historiographical traditions regarding the city of Gaza and its hinterland, and how have they developed in the last two centuries?
- How is the past used in creative arts, re-enactment, games, and augmented reality?
- What do we consider works of fiction and how do they differ in authorial intent from historical chronicles? Does this authorial intent make a difference in how we treat these sources? What can we learn from combinations of fiction and non-fiction sources, if anything?
- What is the relationship between Arabic and other languages and scripts in bi/multi-lingual and bi/multi-alphabetic texts (tarikh, documents, other genres) across time?
- How can marginalised communities and their varieties of Arabic be given due attention?
- How can all genders (including non-binary) be given due attention when our sources are often composed by male political, intellectual and religious elites?
- How can we explore the past algorithmically? Can digital methods enhance our understanding of the past? Can they also limit or even alter it? Which new digital tools are being developed? What seem to be particularly promising approaches? What is lacking?
Prior to the workshop, we will also run a hands-on workshop on digital methods for Arabic texts – no experience necessary. Please get in touch early if you are interested in joining as we will have to cap participation.
Please submit an abstract of 300 words or less in word document by 30 May 2025 to ArabicPastsConf@aku.edu. Also please be in touch if you would like to join the digital methods workshop.
2. Fellowships for Women Researchers (Gotha Research Library)
Germany
Within the framework of the “Thüringer Programm zur Förderung von Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen und Nachwuchskünstlerinnen”, the University of Erfurt (Germany) is offering three short-term scholarships for up to five months for female academics who have completed their doctorate to research the holdings of the Gotha Research Library for the year 2025. The scholarship can be taken up on 1 August 2025 at the earliest and ends on 31 December 2025 in any case. Depending on the focus, the scholarship holders are linked to the Gotha Research Centre at the University of Erfurt or to the Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection. The application deadline is 15 June 2025.
GOTHA RESEARCH LIBRARY
The Research Library (FBG), located in Gotha’s Friedenstein Castle, holds a remarkable collection on early modern and modern cultural history. After Berlin and Munich and alongside the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, it houses the most significant collection in Germany of historical sources from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. To these were added in 2003 the Perthes Collection Gotha from the holdings of the Justus Perthes Gotha publishing house, established in 1785. It is considered one of the most significant cartographic collections worldwide.
The library keeps and catalogues these sources, which are part of a European cultural heritage. The library collection encompasses c. 700,000 prints, of which about 350,000 are early modern. Additionally, it holds c. 11,500 manuscript volumes containing a considerable collection of manuscripts, autographs, and literary remains pertaining, among other things, to the cultural history of early modern Protestantism, as well as a collection of some 3,500 oriental manuscripts – the third largest of its kind in Germany. Moreover, the library provides a remarkable collection of letters by German emigrants to America.
The Perthes collection with its collection of maps, cartographic library, and the press archives offers a unique collection in situ. The cartographic collection is comprised of c. 185,000 maps from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century, produced by Perthes and other cartographic printers throughout the world. The cartographic-geographic library comprises 120,000 volumes, a genealogical-statistical book collection, as well as a complete exemplar of the Almanach de Gotha, produced by the Perthes publishing house. The press’ archive, with 800 linear metres of archival material, includes, inter alia, the editorial archive of Petermann’s Geographische Mitteilungen, a collection of the press’ specimen copies, as well as 1,650 copper plates. The FBG is headed by Dr Kathrin Paasch.
GOTHA RESEARCH CENTRE
The Gotha Research Centre (FZG), founded in 2004, is a central academic body of the University of Erfurt. Its main objective is to conduct and facilitate international interdisciplinary research projects in the field of cultural and intellectual history of the modern period, in close cooperation with the institutions and their holdings at Friedenstein Castle. Further information on current projects and thematic focuses can be found here. In addition, the centre offers a rich programme of (guest)lectures, conferences, and colloquia. Our goal is to serve as a platform where scholars from all over the world can conduct research and discuss their ideas and work in progress in a challenging and congenial atmosphere. The Gotha Research Centre is headed by Prof. Martin Mulsow.
CENTRE FOR TRANSCULTURAL STUDIES / PERTHES COLLECTION
The Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection (FKTS/SP), newly established at the beginning of 2021, is also a central academic body of the University of Erfurt. It sees itself as a platform for interdisciplinary research on the historical becoming of today’s global world. Its research is oriented towards the Gotha collection contexts since the end of the 18th century and focuses in particular on the Perthes Collection. The centre pursues independent as well as cooperative research projects, among others on the cartography of the oceans and the maps of Africa and Asia (further information here). It works closely with national and international scholars and strives for close cooperation with academics from the global south. The FKTS/SP is headed by Prof. Iris Schröder.
FUNDING PROFILE AND REQUIREMENTS
The programme aims at promoting academic research through the use of the resources of the Research Library Gotha and of the associated historic collection of the Justus Perthes Gotha Publishing House. Its academic orientation intends to carry on the universal spirit of the library itself and its diverse resources. In this sense, the programme has an open thematic and disciplinary character. The holdings of the Thuringian State Archive of Gotha, which is located in the Perthes-Forum, as well as collections held by the museums of the Schloss Friedenstein Foundation can be included in the research project, too.
The short-term is aimed at excellent young women academics with a doctorate who wish to start a new research project or continue or complete a work already begun and use the above-mentioned holdings for this purpose. At the time of the start of the fellowship, the applicant must provide evidence of having successfully passed the examinations within the framework of the doctoral procedure.
The monthly funding amounts to 2,000 euros. In addition, a family allowance of 300 euros is granted for one child and 150 euros for each additional child. The scholarship can be started from 1 August 2025 at the earliest. The scholarship must be completed by 31 December 2025. Regular presence in Gotha and active networking with local academics are required.
Please find the application details here: https://www.uni-erfurt.de/forschungszentrum-gotha/stipendien/fo
3. The University of Oxford is looking for a postdoctoral research associate to support a new collaborative project titled, ‘Knotted Histories: Early Modern Global Carpets, Global Exchange and the Public Country House.’
Led by Prof. Nandini Das (Oxford), Dr Francesca Leoni (Ashmolean Museum), Dr Christo Kefalas & Emma Slocombe (National Trust), ‘Knotted Histories’ aims to illuminate the potential of global carpet collections for rethinking scholarship and heritage sector practice relating to wider histories of production and consumerism, sociability and embodiment, and global networks of exchange.
For more details about the project, the post’s requirements and how to apply, please see the following link:
Closing date: 12 noon, 6 June, 2025
4. 2025 BRISMES Annual Conference
Newcastle University • 1-3 July 2025
We are pleased to announce that registration for non-speaking delegates for the 2025 BRISMES conference “Destruction, Loss, and Recovery in the Middle East” is now open until 12 June 2025.
Please see our provisional conference programme, which includes over 80 panels and plenaries covering diverse topics that fall within and beyond the conference’s main theme.
We look forward to our keynote speech by Dr Rana Barakat (Birzeit University), titled “Palestine Teaches: Why History Matters”. We are also very pleased to host the roundtable plenary “Ruins and Rebuilding: Academic and Activist Solidarities Across Borders”.
Registration for non-presenting delegates open:
https://register.oxfordabstracts.com/event/73980?preview=false
5. ONLINE Lecture “Crafting Communities into Contact: Contextualizing Glyptic Interconnections in the Levant, Egypt, and Aegean (ca. 2500-1500 BCE)” by Nadia Ben-Marzouk, W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, 21 May 2025, 16:00 CET
Stamp and cylinder seal amulets have long factored into debates on the nature of east Mediterranean inter-connectivity during the late third to early second millennium BCE. This lecture presents new research identifying and contextualizing the widespread appearance of a glyptic koine, arguing for sustained interaction and a new focus on the role of skilled labor in the making of an east Mediterranean exchange system.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/bdhj24sv
6. ONLINE Book Discussion “Edward Said: The Politics of an Oppositional Intellectual” with Author Nubar Hovsepian, American University in Cairo Press, 21 May 2025, 18:00 CET
The political, cultural, and personal dimensions of Edward Said’s thought will be discussed – from his groundbreaking work Orientalism to his enduring advocacy for Palestinian rights and his vision for justice and humanism in global affairs. The conversation will also reflect on Said’s relevance in today’s world and Hovsepian’s unique insights as both a scholar and someone who knew Said personally.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/3jxabb67
7. Conference “The Kurdish Issue and the Developments in the Middle East”, Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (CEMMIS), University of the Peloponnese, Institute of Inter-national Relations (IDIS), Athens, 24 May 2025, 8:30 – 18:30 CET
Information and program: https://cemmis.edu.gr/images/events/cemmis_agenda_kurdish.pdf
8. ONLINE Séminaire “Paris, Venise, Rome et Constantinople en conflit. Qui protège les églises catholiques de Smyrne au XVIIe siècle ?” avec Alper Metin (Università di Bologna), École Francaise de Rome, 26 mai 2025, 17h30 – 19h00 CET
Ce séminaire éclaire un aspect méconnu de “l’Histoire de la Latinité” en Méditerranée orientale : la rivalité franco-italienne autour de la protection des églises et de l’administration des paroisses catholiques dans les territoires ottomans. L’étude des mutations survenues durant les guerres vénéto-ottomanes (1645-1718), qui renforcèrent l’influence française au détriment de la Sérénissime, révèle la complexité des enjeux politiques, religieux, architecturaux et urbains dans l’Égée.
Information et inscription : https://tinyurl.com/3ex5e27c
9. International Conference “Crises and Preaching in the Middle East: Lexis, Framing, Timings: 19th ‒ 21st Centuries in the Middle East”, PredicMO, Institut Français in Amman, 26-27 May 2025
By focusing on how crisis and preaching have intersected across religious traditions since the late 19th century, this international conference seeks to shed light on the transformation of religious discourse in the contemporary Middle East.
Information and registration: https://iismm.hypotheses.org/122793
10. International Workshop on “Education, Power and Possibility: Rethinking “Quality Education” in the Middle East”, Unit for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Societies (MOMuG), University of Bern, January 2026
This workshop seeks to critically interrogate the notion of “quality education” as international policy directive and universal ideal by examining how the concept of quality education is constructed, negotiated and/or challenged in the Middle East. Our focus will be on how local actors – including educators, students, civil society organizations, policymakers and communities – define and deliberate on what constitutes quality education. Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 May 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2s6vh9f5
11. Postdoctoral Position (2 years) in the project “Mapping Occult Sciences Across Islamicate Cultures” Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Qualification: PhD in Early Modern Ottoman or Islamic Studies, or related fields; – an excellent command of Classical Arabic and Ottoman Turkish (the knowledge of additional languages such as Persian is considered an advantage); – an outstanding publication record relative to career stage; – academic writing and presentation skills in English.
Deadline for applications: 14 June 2025. Information: Contact fatmasinem.eryilmaz@uab.cat1
12. “German-Yemeni Autumn School” for German Master Students Studying in Germany, Amman, Jordan, 29 September – 3 October 2025
The Autum School is organized by the ” Woman Research & Training Center” at Aden University and the “Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO)” in Bonn. We are looking for students with good knowledge of English, who either a) have experience with civil society organizations or demonstrated interest in the topic of social cohesion, science communication and/or Yemen through courses taken and internships done.
Deadline for applications: 8 June 2025.
Information: https://carpo-bonn.org/weitere-inhalte/german-yemeni-autumn-school-in-amman
13. Call for papers : The pilgrimage to Mecca as a social experience
Three dimensions will be emphasized here: The hajj as religious experience and dramaturgy of salvation. – The hajj as an issue of governance and a vector of collective identity. – The hajj as a means of experiencing space.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 October 2025. Information: https://journals.openedition.org/arabianhumanities/15236
14. International Conference “Crises and Preaching in the Middle East: Lexis, Framing, Timings: 19th ‒ 21st Centuries in the Middle East”, PredicMO, Institut Français in Amman, 26-27 May 2025
By focusing on how crisis and preaching have intersected across religious traditions since the late 19th century, this international conference seeks to shed light on the transformation of religious discourse in the contemporary Middle East.
Information and registration: https://iismm.hypotheses.org/122793
- May 17, 2025
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Shii News – CfP – IIS: ‘Ismaili Perspectives on Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Ether (deadline: 2.6.25)
- May 16, 2025
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Hybrid: ‘Shiʿi Materiality Beyond Karbala’ – F G Marei (London, 5pm, 19.5.25)
- May 14, 2025
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. ONLINE Webinar ‘The Connected Histories of James Baillie Fraser’s The Kuzzilbash: A Tale of Khorasan’
with Brenden Benjamin
British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), 28 May, 2025, 5:00 pm UK Time
Information and registration:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t3w6U1w3RMmE26sS95oqPA#/registration
2. Upcoming online course:
The Meaning of Life in Islamic Thought
July 28– August 02, 2025 | Live Sessions
Hosted by the Sadra International Institute, this unique academic course brings together internationally recognized scholars to explore one of the most profound questions of human existence: What is the meaning of life? through the lens of Islamic philosophy and theology.
📚 Course Topics Include:
- The Concept of Life and Its Purpose in Islamic Thought – Dr. Maria Massi Dakake, George Mason University, USA
- Revelation as a Source of Meaning in Islamic Thought – Dr. Khalil Andani, Augustana College, USA
- The Path to the Perfect Human in Islamic Mysticism – Dr. Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, Florida International University, USA
- Mulla Sadra and the Transcendent Philosophy of Life, Dr. Oliver Leaman, University of Kentucky, USA
- Understanding the Meaning of Life through Islamic Theology – Dr. Ahab Bdaiwi, Leiden University, Netherlands
- Evil and the Search for Meaning in Islamic Thought – Dr. Sajjad Rizvi, University of Exeter, UK
This course is ideal for students, researchers, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Islamic intellectual traditions and their relevance to contemporary questions of purpose, existence, and fulfillment.
Register here: https://sadrai.com/meaning-of-life-in-islam
3. Call for Expressions of Interest – Visual Anthropology Book Review Editor (2025-2028)
(This is a voluntary role)
Visual Anthropology seeks a new Book Review Editor, the position is also open to a team of two or three people. The position(s) is suitable for a person with a PhD in a field relevant to visual research and practice. This is an exciting time to join VA as we develop the journal and introduce new content types and strategies. This is a high profile position suitable for applicants who are committed to actively and creatively participating in the relaunch of a pivotal journal for our discipline, and engaging with scholars and practitioners in the field. VA publishes approximately five book reviews per issue (with 4 issues a year), requiring the Book Review Editor(s) to identify and commission up to 20 book reviewers each year.
The Book Review Editor(s) will work directly with book publishers to have hard copy or e-books sent directly to reviewers as they are identified.
As the Book Review Editor(s), the successful candidate(s) will manage the commissioning, review and acceptance process for book reviews submitted to the journal, in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief.
The Book Review Editor is responsible for:
- Identifying books for review and coordinating the delivery of review copies/e-books from book publishers to the author,
- Identifying potential book reviewers and commissioning submissions. This includes providing clear instructions as to the format and range of the book review and submission procedures,
- Corresponding with book review authors (e.g., acknowledging receipt of a submitted book review; providing information about its editorial review as necessary),
- Providing feedback to book review authors (e.g., editing reviews to the standard of the journal, including content, references and book information, etc.; conveying the editorial decision and providing guidance for revisions),
- Keeping accurate records to ensure that there is a sufficient flow of reviews,
- Proving progress reports and updates to the Editor-in-Chief and the Associate Editor as required.
Although the Book Review Editor will have independent authority in selecting the reviewers and the books reviewed, the final decisions will be with the Editor-in-Chief.
The Book Review Editor is encouraged to be innovative in their approach. VA welcomes book review sections (where important books on mixed themes are reviewed) and book review symposia (several reviews on newly published key books and comparisons of two or three related books by a single author). We are also open to proposals for launching something new and exciting, as well as for the continuation and revitalisation of book reviews.
Applications should include:
- Your professional C.V. (two pages)
- An example of a book review that you have contributed to a journal yourself
- A Cover Letter of no longer than one page to include the following:
- Your motivation for applying for this role,
- How you would go about undertaking the role and any experience or skills you bring to it,
- Your vision for a new book review section.
Please send your applications (should be sent as attached PDF file) to the Editor-in-Chief (P.Khosronejad@westernsydney.edu.au ) by 30 May 2025 (end of day).
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/gvan20
4. ‘Khayyām Literacy among Turkman Copyists, Yāraḥmad Rašidi’s Ṭarabkhānẹ’
DONNINI, Piero
Studia Iranica, 52/1 (2023)
https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=3294138&journal_code=SI
5. On Monday 26/5/2025, from 3.00 pm – 4.30 pm CET, Simon Stjernholm will discuss his latest book “Sensing Islam: Engaging and Contesting the Senses in Muslim Religiosity” (Bloomsbury). After the book talk, Merve Rehyan Kayikci will offer a response, which will be followed by a Q&A.
Abstract
Simon Stjernholm – “Sensory Engagements in the Study of Muslim Piety”
How have practices and imaginaries of sensing been religiously engaged and contested by Muslims? How do contemporary Muslim practices and debates concerning religious sensing relate to historical precedents?
In his new book Sensing Islam: Engaging and Contesting the Senses in Muslim Religiosity (Bloomsbury), Stjernholm analyses examples dealing with contemporary Sufism and Muslim religious oratory in order to explore practices and imaginaries of sensing. Combining the research fields of Islamic Studies, anthropology of Islam, material religion and sensory studies, this book covers a range of materials, including writings by Muslim religious authorities, ethnographic material, audio recordings and videos. In this talk, he will present the general framework of the book and discuss a few examples of its analyses in detail.
Simon Stjernholm is Associate Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Copenhagen. His work is situated in the anthropology and history of Islam, with particular focus on Sufism and Muslim preaching.
Discussant Merve R. Kayikci is a postdoctoral researcher at the KADOC Documentation and Research Center on Religion, Culture and Society, Belgium.
To register for this meeting, click here.
To subscribe to IED’s maillist, click here.
6. The Islamic College:
A one-day workshop: An adventure in the realm of spiritual & moral personal experiences
Sunday 18 May 2025
10 am – 7 pm (London time)
Venue:
The Islamic College 133 High Road London NW102SW
Register here:
https://islamic-college.ac.uk/islamic-college-events/
7. RUB Workshop June 11-13: The Reception and Transformation of the Late Ancient Knowledge Tradition in the Arabic-Muslim World
The Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) is thrilled to invite you to our upcoming workshop, “The Reception and Transformation of the Late Ancient Knowledge Tradition in the Arabic-Muslim World.”
The workshop’s theme is a key research area of our institute at the RUB. It covers a wide range of topics and texts, and is the first in a series of events to promote the institute’s newly established professorship dedicated to the history of knowledge and its transfer from late antiquity into the Arabic-Muslim world.
Please consider joining us and the distinguished speakers on campus for what we hope will be a memorable and enlightening event.
🗓 Date: June 11–13, 2025
📍 Location: Building GB, Room 5/160, Ruhr University Bochum (Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany)
Day One (Keynote Address):
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
18:15–19:45 Asad Ahmed (Berkeley/Paris): “The Legacy of Avicennism in Nineteenth-Century South Asia”
Day Two:
Thursday, June 12, 2025
09:15–09:30 Opening Words by Cornelia Schöck & Andreas Lammer
09:30–10:45 David Wirmer (Cologne): “Ibn Bāǧǧa on the Agent Intellect as ‘Form of Forms’”
11:00–12:15 Ibrahim Safri (Munich): “Re-Thinking Aristotle: An Atomist Account of Motion in Pre-Modern Islamic Philosophy”
13:45–15:00 Miriam Rogasch (Cologne): “al-Fārābī’s Influence on Avicenna’s Ontology of Essence”
15:15–16:30 Alexander Lamprakis (Munich/Utrecht): “The Sources and Afterlife of the Section on Logic in al-Lawkarī’s Bayān al-ḥaqq bi-ḍamān al-ṣidq”
17:00–18:15 Paul Hullmeine (Munich): “al-Bīrūnī’s Reception of Greek Knowledge”
Day Three:
Friday, June 13, 2025
09:00–10:15 Joschka Dunz (Würzburg): “Psychology and Epistemology in Ibn al-Haytham’s Optics”
10:30–11:45 Hanif Amin Beidokhti (Bochum): “In Defence of the Peripatetics: Suhrawardī against Abū l-Barakāt on Void and Body”
11:45–13:00 Cornelia Schöck (Bochum): “Systematic Place and Function of the Division of the Signification of Terms in Avicenna’s Theory of Science”
- May 13, 2025
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Hybrid Lecture: Fabrizio Speziale, “Noah’s Grandsons and the Elephant: Functions of Persian Pseudonymous Texts in South Asia”, 2 June 2025
The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, and the Japan Office of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies are pleased to announce a lecture by Professor Fabrizio Speziale (EHESS). The talk will explore pseudonymous Persian texts as a strategy to domesticate non-Muslim technical knowledge and to legitimize the status of Muslim professional groups in Persianate South Asia. The event will be held in a hybrid format, with online participation available via Zoom.
Lecture Title:
Noah’s Grandsons and the Elephant: Functions of Persian Pseudonymous Texts in South Asia
(Abstract below)
Speaker:
Professor Fabrizio Speziale (École des hautes études en sciences sociales)
Profile: https://www.ehess.fr/fr/personne/fabrizio-speziale)
Date:
Monday, 2 June 2025, 18:00–19:30 (JST)
Venue:
Room 305, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo), University of Tokyo
and online via Zoom
How to Participate:
(1) In-person attendance: No prior registration is required.
Please note: The institute’s entrance doors will no longer be accessible from outside after 18:00. We recommend arriving before that time. A contact telephone number for those arriving late will be posted at the entrance.
(2) Online attendance: Please register at https://forms.gle/hMtJDBoAJ8ujpGaL9 .
A Zoom link will be sent by noon (JST) on the day of the event.
This lecture is co-organized by the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo (Regular Research Project W–1, “Approaches to the ‘Persianate World'”) and the Japan Office of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies.
Contact Info:
Kazuo Morimoto
Email: morikazu[at]ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
2. CALL FOR PAPERS
International Conference on GLOBALISATION IN LANGUAGES, EDUCATION, CULTURE, AND COMMUNICATION (GLECC2025)
https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fglecc.org%2F2025%2F&data=05%7C02%7C%7C4e3aedbf0dbb4fb4a60e08dd8d0d8753%7C2e9f06b016694589878910a06934dc61%7C0%7C0%7C638821811444508841%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=QBJiW%2B%2FTEVEMMVTPZuJyLSnCxyIa4MbyYgBYiGVGvss%3D&reserved=0
Dates: 30-31 July 2025 (main conference)
Venue: Manchester, U.K.
Submission deadline extended to: 18 May 2025
Keynote speakers confirmed:
1.“Beyond borders: The interplay of international mobility, culture, and commerce” by Professor Zheng Wang, University of Dundee, UK.
2.“Rethinking language and culture education for a reglobalising world” by Dr Derek Hird, Lancaster University, UK.
The past two decades have witnessed remarkable advancements in the studies into Education, Second and Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting, Cultural Studies & Communication. This growth can be largely attributed to the forces of globalisation. Consequently, adopting the globalisation perspective is timely and provides a natural framework for connecting these diverse yet interlinked disciplines.
This conference aims to bring together researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers to disseminate research outcomes, share insights, discuss findings, exchange visions, and identify challenges and trends in an interactive and immersive multidisciplinary environment. The submissions take the forms of abstract, full paper, panel discussion, and workshop proposals.
There is a “conference first” policy in place. Selected papers will be invited to further develop into full journal articles free of APCs. Conference proceedings will be published open access with an ISBN.
There will be optional pre-conference workshops on 29 July and post conference events on 1 August.
Looking forward to the possibility of working together, and we eagerly await your response.
Warm regards,
GLECC2025 Organising Committee
3. Call for Papers
‘Faithful’ Mothers and the Politics of Nurturing Future Secular Citizens
19th June 2025
A Knowledge Exchange Symposium (funded by British Academy VF grant)
Deadline for Abstracts: 26th May 2025
Mothering in relation to religion remains highly understudied, particularly in relation to non-mainstream models of mothering. In a world ridden with inter-communal conflict, this symposium will explore the significant but unrecognised roles that mothers play in the formation of citizens and state-building beyond times of conflict. By exploring how mothers navigate everyday faith and the pushes and pulls of the largely secular contemporary state, it will forefront their socio-political agency, reinstating them as influential actors and not just victims of conflict. It will bring together mothering practices across communities from the global south, to reflect on their analytical, social and political relevance for diasporic communities in the global north. Further, it is hoped the symposium will enable the laying of the ground in thinking around faith and fathering and non-normative parenting. The symposium will break new scholarly ground in religious studies, feminism and sociology and anthropology and revitalize mothering and religion as a field of study. In particular, among other related issues we hope to explore the following research questions:
- When different religious communities live side by side, what impact does this have on practices and ideas of mothering?
- How might a mother’s religious identity shape her lived experience of mothering in the context of the secular state?
- How do state ideologies and policies concerning development, dislocation, or the modern schooling system intersect or clash with practices of mothering, fathering and non-traditional forms of parenting?
- How can learnings from mothering practices from the global south be used to understand diasporic mothering in the global north?
This knowledge exchange symposium is part of the British Academy Visiting Professorship grant funded project. Hosted by Coventry University, it will bring together scholars to critically engage with mothering, fathering, non-normative parenting in the context of the study of religion and everyday faith. The event’s discussions are intended to inform the creation of a network of scholars, facilitate future research and grant applications and possibly plan a proposal for a panel for upcoming conferences and even a special issue for a relevant journal.
For accepted papers, we will be pay for travel costs (for one person per paper) up to 100 pounds per person and contribute towards accommodation costs up to 105 pounds per person for one night only. We will be able to fund a maximum of 20 presenters accordingly.
Submission Guidelines: Please submit proposals that explore one or more of the questions raised above. Feel free to come up with and explore new questions or propose reflective thought papers, formative ‘laying the groundwork’ papers and the like. Proposals to include an abstract of no more than 300 words accompanied by the paper title, presenter’s name and short bio (100 words), institutional affiliation and contact information. Please submit via this form: https://forms.office.com/e/6mrKik4fUV
Enquires: Professor Rowena Robinson (rowena@iitb.ac.in) Professor Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (ac0967@coventry.ac.uk)
Key Dates:
- Abstract Submission Deadline: 26th May 2025
- Notification of Acceptance: 30th May 2025
Registration
Further details about the registration process will be circulated and posted on the website
We look forward to your contributions and to advancing the discussion on religion, faith and mothering, fathering and non-normative parenting in the global south and north.
Symposium Organisers
Professor Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, Professor Rowena Robinson
4. N Ferreira, ‘What Is the Value of the Persianate to Afghan Studies? or, What Can Afghan History Tell Us about the Persianate? Lessons from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’
PMLA, 2024 139/2, 307-13
5. Le CeRMI a le plaisir de vous convier à la prochaine séance du séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien”, qui se tiendra jeudi prochain, 15 mai 2025, 17h-19h, en salle 4.15 à l’INaLCO(65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 4eétage).
Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir M. Austin O’Malley (University of Chicago), pour une conférence intitulée: “Mixtapes and Local Jams: Selection and Regionality in the Nozhat al-majāles, an Early Collection of Persian Quatrains“.
Résumé:
Among the Persian metrical forms, the quatrain (robāʿi) stands out for its brevity, popularity, and wide use in an array of social situations and performance contexts, from humble “folk” recitations to sermons and samāʿ sessions to courtly symposia. In this talk, I will investigate the 13th-century Nozhat al-majāles, one of the earliest extant collections of quatrains organized by theme, to better understand the role quatrains played within courtly settings and the larger literary ecosystem. Although centered on the Nozhat, the discussion will also make use of early “genre codes” that discuss the social contexts of quatrains’ production and circulation (i.e., Shams-e Qays’ Moʿjam, the Qābus-nāma) as well as the biographical anthology of ʿOwfi and discourses of Neẓāmi-ye ʿArużi.
Taken together, these investigations show how 13th-century, northwest Iranian potentates engaged in literary culture not only by receiving the “prestige verse” of polished panegyric, but also by presiding over and participating in a more ephemeral process of selection, exchange, and appreciation of quatrains, which were attributed to a wide variety of individuals who were not necessarily professional poets, and many of which were not ultimately preserved in divāns.
Orientations bibliographiques:
– Davidson, Olga M. “Genre and Occasion in the Rubāʿiyyāt of ʿUmar Khayyām: The Rubāʿi, Literary History, and Courtly Literature.” In Writers and Rulers: Perspectives of Their Relations from Abbasid to Safavid Times, edited by Beatrice Gruendler and Louise Marlow, 133–44. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2004.
– Meier, Fritz. Die schöne Mahsati. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1963
– Mir-afżali, Sayyed ʿAli. “Bar-rasi-ye Nozhat al-majāles (bakhsh-e avval).” Maʿāref 4, no. 1 (1376 [1997]): 90–147.
– Mir-afżali, Sayyed ʿAli. “Bar-rasi-ye Nozhat al-majāles (bakhsh-e dovvom).” Maʿāref 14, no. 2 (1376 [1997]): 135–327.
– Seyed-Gohrab, Ali Asghar. “The Flourishing of Persian Quatrains.” In Persian Lyric Poetry in the Classical Era: Ghazals, Panegyrics, Quatrains, edited by Ehsan Yarshater, 488–568. Vol. 2 of A History of Persian Literature, edited by Ehsan Yarshater. London: I.B. Tauris, 2019.
– Shamisā, Sirus. Sayr-e robāʿi dar sheʿr-e fārsi. Tehran: Āshtiāni, 1363 [1984].
– Sharvāni, Jamāl Khalil. Nozhat al-majāles. Edited by Moḥammad Amin-Riyāḥi. 2nd ed. Tehran: ʿElmi, 1375 [1996–97].
Pour rappel, vous retrouverez le programme 2024-2025 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien” sur le site du CeRMI :
6. DEADLINE 16 May 2025 – Annual Arabic Pasts Workshop
Arabic Pasts is co-convened by Anna Chrysostomides (Queen Mary), Yossi Rapoport (Queen Mary), Hugh Kennedy (SOAS), Lorenz Nigst (AKU-ISMC), and Sarah Bowen Savant (AKU-ISMC).
The annual Arabic Pasts workshop brings together scholars at all career stages to reflect on methodologies, research agendas, and case studies for investigating history writing in Arabic in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond in any period from the seventh century to the present.
This year the Arabic Pasts workshop welcomes Queen Mary University of London as a partner. We will host the workshop in person at the Aga Khan Centre and welcome proposals that deal with the practical and conceptual challenges of working on history writing in Arabic. We encourage scholars working at all career stages to join us.
By way of example, papers might elucidate the following sorts of questions – or others:
- How do nations today tell their stories with respect to their pasts? In what ways do educational institutions, museums, media organisations and proponents of heritage use history writing to shape loyalties and senses of belonging in society?
- When and how did pre-modern and modern historians writing in Arabic conceptualize the history of Palestine as a distinct geographical and political unit? What are the Arabic historiographical traditions regarding the city of Gaza and its hinterland, and how have they developed in the last two centuries?
- How is the past used in creative arts, re-enactment, games, and augmented reality?
- What do we consider works of fiction and how do they differ in authorial intent from historical chronicles? Does this authorial intent make a difference in how we treat these sources? What can we learn from combinations of fiction and non-fiction sources, if anything?
- What is the relationship between Arabic and other languages and scripts in bi/multi-lingual and bi/multi-alphabetic texts (tarikh, documents, other genres) across time?
- How can marginalised communities and their varieties of Arabic be given due attention?
- How can all genders (including non-binary) be given due attention when our sources are often composed by male political, intellectual and religious elites?
- How can we explore the past algorithmically? Can digital methods enhance our understanding of the past? Can they also limit or even alter it? Which new digital tools are being developed? What seem to be particularly promising approaches? What is lacking?
Prior to the workshop, we will also run a hands-on workshop on digital methods for Arabic texts – no experience necessary. Please get in touch early if you are interested in joining as we will have to cap participation.
Please submit an abstract of 300 words or less in word document by Friday, 16 May 2025 to ArabicPastsConf@aku.edu. Also please be in touch if you would like to join the digital methods workshop.
7. Anna Contadini’s masterclass at Harvard-I Tatti on two illustrated pages from al-Jazari’s automata of 755/1354 is now published and can be viewed here:
URL
https://vimeo.com/1054171670?turnstile=0.QxjHDSDHh8E0FkKdd5nu3iV9jRRUG6SqvYHlAg…
8. Marcus Milwright’s seminar on ‘Messages from the Past: Temporal Relationships in the Study of Early Islamic Visual Culture’ can now be found on the dedicated ReSIA YouTube channel here:
ReSIA – SOAS Research Seminar in Islamic Art – YouTube
URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNIibY2LlRY&list=PL1z_PGhPjwcqXOrrMPQeQS_OJ0Bd4…
9. The Islamic College:
Zoom Monthly Talk: The Quran and its English Translations
A Talk by Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem
Wednesday 14 May 2025
6 pm – 7:30 pm (London time)
On Zoom
https://islamic-college.ac.uk/event-register/
10. Zahra Institute – Two talks:
“Language Ideologies and the Discursive Construction of the Persian Language Hegemony in Iran”
Wednesday, 21 May: 12pm Central / 1pm Eastern
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/97305224624?pwd=TY35GbblrFDvcIizxaadWcqJHexeis.1
Jaffer Sheyholislami (Ph.D., Carleton University) is a Professor at the School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of Kurdish Identity, Discourse and New Media (Palgrave 2011) and has co-edited a special issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language devoted to Kurdish sociolinguistics (2012). He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming volume Oxford Handbook of Kurdish Linguistics. Sheyholislami’s research centers on general linguistics, critical discourse studies, sociolinguistics, and language policy and planning.
“Breakthroughs in Kurdish Lexicography”
Wednesday, 28 May: 12pm Central / 1pm Eastern
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/95130568250?pwd=Dok0HCmMDhvIhdaNw6yyiKbdiyYauu.1
Michael Chyet (Ph.D., UC Berkeley) retired in June 2024 from his position as Cataloger of Middle Eastern languages at the Library of Congress. Formerly he was Senior Broadcast Editor of the Kurdish Service of the Voice of America, and professor of Kurdish at the University of Paris and at the Washington Kurdish Institute. Chyet is working on a third, expanded edition of his Kurdish-English dictionary, Ferhenga Birûskî.
11. WZO’s Annual Seminar
Sunday 01st June 2025 at 10:30
World Zoroastrian House, 1 Freddie Mercury Close, Feltham. TW 5DF London
Please email Shahin Bekhradnia, shahinbekhradnia@hotmail.com , to reserve your seat.
10:30 Opening Remarks
10:45 Alexandra Buhler: Political, economic and social implications of the relations between Zoroastrians in India and Iran during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
12:00 Dr. Khodadad Rezakhani: The Heart of the Empire: Ctesiphon and DilĒrānšahr in the Sasanian World
13:00 Light Refreshments will be available with a vegetarian option.
14:00 Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis: Royal Splendour: the art of the Sasanian kings
15:00 Questions to the Panel of Speakers.
15:30 Close
12. Online lecture. Collecting Islamic and Turkish Art at the Harvard Art Museums with Ayşin Yoltar-Yıldırım.
May 16. 6pm (Turkey). Presented by the Ankara Friends of ARIT.
This talk focuses on the history of art collecting at Harvard by introducing the museum’s history, beginning with the establishment of the Fogg Museum in 1895 and continuing to the present day. It will feature major supporters and donors, the evolving museum culture, provenance studies, and highlights from the Turkish-Islamic collection of the museum. Ayşin Yoltar-Yıldırım is the Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, at the Harvard Art Museums.
For Zoom Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/XNBdDQ5ATpOmsu7nAEEEDQ. Contact email: ankfarit@gmail.com.
For more information, visit https://aritweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Aysin-Yoltar_.pdf
URL
https://aritweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Aysin-Yoltar_.pdf
13. ONLINE Lecture “Debate and Dialogue: Polemics, Kalam, and the Artistic Inscription in Islamic Spaces” by Hamidreza Azarinia (University of Tehran), Leiden University, 11 May 2025, 15:30 CET
This event is part of the lecture series “Material Culture, Art, and Archictecture of Pre-Safavid Shīʿism” connected with the ERC-funded project “Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shīʿī Community”.
Information and registration:
14. ONLINE Book Talk “Sensory Engagements in the Study of Muslim Piety” by Simon Stjernholm (University of Copenhagen), “Islam, Ethics and Diversity (IED) Network”, Universities of Gent & Zürich & Brussel, 26 May 2025, 15.00 – 16.30 CET
How have practices and imaginaries of sensing been religiously engaged and contested by Muslims? How do contemporary Muslim practices and debates concerning religious sensing relate to historical precedents? This book analyses examples dealing with contemporary Sufism and Muslim religious oratory in order to explore practices and imaginaries of sensing.
Information and registration: https://iednetwork.ugent.be/sensory-engagements-in-the-study-of-muslim-piety/
15. 23rd Annual Conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID): “Defending Democracy in the Muslim World: Why Democracy is Crucial in the Age of Global Authoritarianism”, Georgetown Capitol Campus, Washington, DC, 29 May 2025
Information, program, and registration: https://tinyurl.com/yck6awyh
16. HYBRID “Young Researchers 3rd Indo-Persian Conference”, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 31 May – 1 June 2025
Information, program, and registration:
https://iismm.hypotheses.org/files/2025/05/YRIPW3-ProgrammeSchedule.pdf
17. Workshop: “Forms of Urbanity in the Persianate World”, EHESS, Paris, 4 June 2025
The workshop explores the processes of urbanization and the forms of lived urbanity in the eastern Islamicate world in the medieval and the early modern period. It interrogates the religious, social, economic and cultural dimensions of the urban spaces of Persianate societies in Iran, southern Asia and the Indian Ocean by offering a granular analysis of urban experiences, filtered through a variety of archival, textual, literary and material sources.
Information and program: https://crh.ehess.fr/index.php?10278
18. ONLINE Lecture on “Making Islam Work: Islamic Authority Among Muslims in Western Europe” by Thijl Sunier (VU University Amsterdam), “Islam, Ethics and Diversity (IED) Network”, Universities of Gent & Zürich & Brussel, 23 June 2025, 15.00 – 16.30 CET
In this talk, Sunier will explore the diverse ways in which Islamic authority is constituted, with a specific emphasis on the role of ‘ordinary’ Muslims. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted among Muslims in Western Europe from the mid-1980s to 2020, he aims to shed light on the multifaceted dynamics of Islamic authority in this context.
Information and registration:
https://iednetwork.ugent.be/making-islam-work-islamic-authority-among-muslims-in-western-europe/
19. 4th Manuscript Culture Symposium: “Mecmuas in the Ottoman World: Interdisciplinary Approaches and Current Research”, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Hamburg University, 28-30 May 2026
Mecmuas are composite manuscripts as well as multiple-text manuscripts. We invite papers with codicological, literary, cultural, historical or other perspectives on mecmuas and seek to bring together scholars at various stages of the research process.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 May 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ymvxwe27
- May 10, 2025
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- May 08, 2025
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- May 08, 2025
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Shii News – SRW: Incidents of Anti-Shiism April 2025
- May 07, 2025
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Shii News – Academic Items
1. The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies in collaboration with the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago
present
“Exploring Persian Language Pedagogy through Sadriddin Ayni’s Literary Lens: Using ‘Notes’ as a Teaching Resource”
Dr. Mehrak Kamali
Ohio State University
Saturday, 10 May 2025, 1:00 EDT/12:00 Central Time
Zoom Registration Link:
https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/ekqkKaUzQhiQ08ptyUy5TQAfter registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
2. Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies – Fellowship in the History of Islamic Art & Material Culture
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=68743
Closing date: 20.5.25
3. The Latest Open Access issue of the Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
Articles
‘In the End, We Are Just Bureaucrats’: Shifting State Affects and Bureaucracy in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Lana Askari
Property Documents in Post-Revolution Tunis: Stately Affects and the Multitemporality of Transition Politics
Rosa Sansone
Dismembered Attachment: Documents and the Embodied Continuity of Regional Wars in Iran
Ahmad Moradi
- May 06, 2025
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