Archive for November 22nd, 2025
Shii News – Academic Items
1.THE TEXTILE MUSEUM JOURNAL SYMPOSIUM
Please join us for The Textile Museum Journal Symposium, a special program celebrating the centennial year of The Textile Museum on December 6, 2025. This free virtual program features interviews conducted with four authors who contributed to this year’s The Textile Museum Journal, which focused on new research illuminating aspects of The Textile Museum Collection.
For description of the program and to register, please visit: https://museum.gwu.edu/textile-museum-journal-symposium
2. The Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections is pleased to announce an online training introducing the Islamic art, architecture, and history of al-Andalus, taking place 1- 4 December 2025.
This short online series will introduce participants to the diversity of the art and architecture of al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia) from the eighth through fifteenth centuries. These sessions will cover broad historical context as well as the defining art and architecture of the key dynasties of the region, including the Cordoban Umayyad caliphate.
- Schedule: Each 1.5-hour session will be held between 12pm – 1:30pm – US / 5pm – 6:30pm UK/ 8pm – 9:30pm Istanbul
- Format: Live online on Zoom
- Topic: art, architecture, and history of al-Andalus
- Places are limited
Instructor: Dr. Sarah Slingluff, Postdoctoral Associate, Medieval Islamic Art, Art History and Archaeology University of Maryland & Lead Educator, Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections
Contact Information
Dr. Glaire Anderson
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art, School of History of Art, University of Edinburgh
Founding Director, Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections
Contact Email
URL
https://digitallabivcc.com/intro-to-al-andalus/
3. The programme for the 2025 annual meeting of MESA (Middle East Studies Association of North America) commencing Saturday, 22 November,
can be found at:
https://mesana.org/annual-meeting/program
4. 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 27 novembre 2025, 17h-19h, en salle 5.21 à l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 5eétage).
Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir notre collègue M. Julien Thorez, géographe, Chargé de recherche au CNRS (CeRMI) et Directeur de CartOrient, pour une conférence intitulée : De la maison à la to’yhona. Une géographie des cérémonies rituelles en Asie centrale.
Résumé:
Fondée sur des enquêtes et des relevés de terrain réalisées dans le cadre du projet ANR Ceremoniac « Fabriquer les inégalités ou construire le lien social. L’économie cérémonielle en Asie centrale soviétique et post-soviétique (1960 – 2020), cette intervention propose une approche géographique des cérémonies qui ponctuent le cycle de vie en Asie centrale. D’une part, elle souhaite montrer combien la préparation et la célébration de ces rites de passage, et en particulier des mariages, marquent le paysage, s’inscrivent dans l’espace et façonnent le territoire. D’autre part, elle développe une analyse des ancrages géographiques de l’économie rituelle qui révèle que les lieux du mariage se sont multipliés, spécialisés et disséminés au cours des dernières décennies. Elle montre que s’est opéré un déplacement de la préparation et de la célébration des to’y des espaces domestiques vers des espaces privés spécialisés et des espaces publics, c’est-à-dire de la maison vers la ville, dans un contexte de commercialisation et de spécialisation de l’économie rituelle.
Orientations bibliographiques:
– Abashin, S. N. 1999a Vopreki « zdravomu smysli » ? K voprosy o racional’nosti / irracional’nosti ritual’nyh rashodov v Srednej Azii, Vestnik Evrazii (1-2), pp. 87-107.
– Azimova, N. 2020 Ritual’naja èkonomika na primere svadebnyh obrjadov. Namangan, 2018 god, Obščestvo, gender i sem’ja v Central’noj Azii 4, pp. 87-106.
– Borisova, E. & S. Torno 2024 Images of Care: Marriage, family making, and the reproduction of the social order in Tajikistan, Journal of Eurasian Studies pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665241256969
– Cleuziou, J. 2024 Mariées à tout prix. Parcours de femmes, échanges rituels et démariages au Tadjikistan (Nanterre, Société d’ethnologie).
– Di Méo, G. 2001b Le sens géographique des fêtes, Annales de géographie 110(622), pp. 624-646.
– Ilkhamov, A. 2013 Labour Migration and the Ritual Economy of Uzbek Extended, Family Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 138(2), pp. 259-284.
– Khamrakulov, B. 2017 Wedding traditions and customs of Samarkand People (Tachkent, Yangi asr avlodi).
– Lobacheva, N.P. 1975 Formirovanie novoj obrjadnosti Uzbekov (Moscou, Nauka).
– Merchant Henson, T. 2005 Tradition et construction identitaire dans la musique de mariage des femmes ouzbèkes : à propos du kelin salom, Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie 18, pp. 39-50.
https://journals.openedition.org/ethnomusicologie/244?lang=fr
– Pétric, B.-M. 2002 Pouvoir, don et réseaux en Ouzbékistan post-soviétique (Paris, PUF).
– Reeves, M. 2012 Black work, green money: Remittances, ritual and domestic economies in southern Kyrgyzstan, Slavic Review 71(1), pp. 108-134.
– Ruffier, A. 2007 Samarcande – Identités et espaces festifs en Ouzbékistan (Montreuil, Aux lieux d’être).
– Sadigov, T. 2020 Household overspending on marriage: the scale of the problem and governement reactions around the world International, Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 40(11-12), pp. 1509-1532.
– Trevisani, T. 2016 Modern weddings in Uzbekistan: ritual hange from ‘above’ and from ‘below’, Central Asian Survey35(1), pp. 61-75.
– Turdalieva, Ch. & R. Provis 2017 Dynamics of Reciprocity and Networks of the Kyrgyz through Bishkek Toi Making, Central Asian Affairs (2), pp. 197-216.
– Werner, C. 1997 Marriage, Markets, and Merchants: Changes in Wedding Feasts and Household Consumption Patterns in Rural Kazakhstan, Culture & Agriculture 9(1-2), pp. 6-13.
Vous retrouverez prochainement l’intégralité du programme 2025-2026 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien” en ligne sur le site du CeRMI: https://cermi.cnrs.fr/seminaires-de-recherche/societes-politiques-et-cultures-du-monde-iranien-2025-2026/
Dans l’attente du plaisir de vous retrouver à l’occasion de ces séances, qui se déroulent en présentiel sur le site de l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII).
Bien cordialement,
Les organisateurs –
Simon Berger et Justine Landau
Contact: justine.landau@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr
5. Language, History, and Legacy: The New Issue of AUB’s Al-Abhath
https://executive-bulletin.com/education/language-history-and-legacy-the-new-issue-of-aubs-al-abhath
6. The history of Jewish communities in the Persian speaking world from the 19th century until today
Job ID: IFI114DOC225
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=pp87whtumr1xj5anw9ibr7bz48un944
The Austrian Academy of Sciences – ÖAW, the largest, non-university research center for foundational reseach is searching for a candidate for the position of a Prae-doc (Diss) (70%).
Your Tasks
The position is allocated within the framework of the ERC Project Persian Jews – History, Community, Memory. The research explores the history of Jewish communities in the Persian speaking world from the 19th century until today and is based on anthropological and historical methods and research questions, emphasizing original sources in Persian, Hebrew, and Judeo-Persian. It analyses the status of Jewish communities in the environment in which they lived, the circumstances of leaving and settling in new places and how the memory of the past is created in these processes. While the project emphasizes cultural and socio-economic dynamics, a strong focus is on the development and dissemination of religious thought among Persian speaking Jews and their interaction with other Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Besides the praedoc position, the project team includes two post-doctoral researchers in addition to the PI. As a whole, the research team is committed to a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue and seeks cooperation with the regions involved in order to promote plurilateral research perspectives.
The doctoral position is assigned to research on religious and literary aspects of 19th to early 20th-century Judeo-Persian communities. This includes the production and dissemination of texts, religious education and mysticism, as well as the exchange of these ideas in specific locales throughout the 19th to the 20th century (for example between Bukhara, Tehran and Jerusalem). The focus is envisaged in terms of historical and religious studies.
The successful candidate will pursue a PhD dissertation at the University of Vienna (cooperation / enrollment at another university possible upon agreement), while being integrated in the Institute of Iranian Studies.
Within the larger research project, the position offers the opportunity to link focused research on Persian Jewish communities to larger questions in the humanities, to develop research in continuous inter-disciplinary exchange and to thereby develop a broader outlook on the area of study. Opportunities for mentoring and training in career-relevant skills are available.
Your tasks:
- Pursuing a PhD dissertation project within the ERC project PersCom
- Presence in Vienna and engagement in the project as an active team member
- Active participation in the project’s activities in the domains of research and knowledge transfer
- International presentations and publication of project results
- Active participation in the activities of the Institute for Iranian Studies
Your Profile
- Completed MA in a humanities field relevant to the study of Jewish history in modern Iran or Central Asia
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills the languages relevant to your research (Persian, Hebrew)
- Good written and verbal communication skills in English, ability to publish academic articles in English
- Knowledge of Judeo-Persian and religious traditions among Iranian and / or Central Asian Jewish communities
- Openness to interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue
- Initiative and ability to work in a team
Our Offer
The position is awarded on a basis for 36 months (1 year + extension for 2 years) for an annual gross salary of € 39.208,80 paid out conditional on proof of enrolment at the university. PhD supervision arrangements depend on the chosen focus.
Please apply online including a (1) cover letter, (2) academic CV and (3) outline of planned dissertation project of research interest later than January 16, 2026. Any queries may be directed to Dr. Ariane Sadjed: ariane.sadjed@oeaw.ac.at
Use this link to apply: JETZT BEWERBEN Klicken Sie auf diesen Link, um sich für die Stelle zu bewerben.
The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) pursues a non-discriminatory employment policy and places great importance on equal opportunities and diversity. In particular, individuals from underrepresented groups are expressly encouraged to apply.
Contact
Main Contact: Dr. Ariane Sadjed ariane.sadjed@oeaw.ac.at
Institute for Iranian Studies, A-1020 Vienna, Austria
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften | Austrian Academy of Sciences
7. The University of Edinburgh
Caliphal Finances Research Fellow
Apply Before: 09/12/2025, 23:59
Caliphal Finances Research Fellow – University of Edinburgh Careers
8. UCLA:
Pourdavoud Lecture Series
Greek-Persian Encounters c. 550 – c. 330 BCE: Looking Beyond Stereotypes
Antigoni Zournatzi
Wednesday, December 3, 2025 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time
Royce Hall 306 and Via Zoom
9. Fifth Meeting of the Avicenna Study Group now also an online event! (2–4 December 2025)
Due to many inquires we have received from international colleagues who are unable to travel to Bochum and to attend the upcoming Fifth International Meeting of the Avicenna Study Group at the “Avicenna Study Center” (2–4 December 2025) in person, we have decided to make the event also available online via Zoom. In order to “zoom in”, please use the following link and credentials:
Link: https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/66612022942?pwd=3a2ddwbNacDIBYsDKVe0bKOAEKcjFs.1
Meeting-ID: 666 1202 2942
Password: 938409
10. Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature:
Three freshly announced courses on my website:
Advanced Middle Persian: Pahlavi Texts in Pahlavi Script (Weekly), January 24 – March 14, 2026.
The Shahname: Introduction to the Iranian Epic (Weekly), January 9 – February 27, 2026. During this edition we will be reading the chapter on thepādešāhi-ye Eskandar.
In addition, here is a recently published small list of “8 Must-Know Digital Projects in Iranian and Central Asian Studies” for you! You might find it useful.
Yours sincerely,
Ruben S. Nikoghosyan
Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature
Yerevan, Armenia
Website: www.ferdowsi.org
11. Edinburgh University Press:
Introducing Women Interpreting Islamic Law
Series Editors: Masooda Bano, Mirjam Künkler & Khaled Abou El Fadle
A home for new scholarship on women’s Islamic-juristic authority from the prophet’s era until today
Many influential women (ʿalimāt, muftiyāt, qadiyāt, mujtahidāt) in Islam’s past and present exercise(d) juristic authority, by issuing fatwas, informing Islamic legal court judgments, writing judicial treatises, and contributing to highly expert juristic scholarship. Women Interpreting Islamic Law features the best of new scholarship on women who built their religious authority through writing, interpreting or commenting on Islamic legal and juristic texts.
Find out more about Women Interpreting Islamic Law ( https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fddlnk.net%2Fc%2FAQjSfRCVwqMHGPmorJQFIITb7qkBKKiRjEHR6gTZP2H0nzB4RMojfHdR1uOcCZyZuZaUoFO-8IzTjw&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cf931a6838e014c82a83e08de28d442b8%7C2e9f06b016694589878910a06934dc61%7C0%7C0%7C638993089276238269%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=oTpkJ1ZuRh8oOquOCkWupKOS7B6stcbuZmhGVGM4%2FEg%3D&reserved=0 )
12. Homeira Qaderi webinar with “Universal Language” screenwriters
12/1 12pm Eastern
The last Yale Iran Colloquium Persian-language webinar of 2025 will be a conversation between our wonderful writer in residence Homeira Qaderi and three of the main participants in the writing of Matthew Rankin’s 2024 film Universal Language/Avaz-e buqalamun. I think most of this list would enjoy the film, set in a version of Winnipeg where everyone speaks Persian and the atmosphere is thick with Iranian New Wave allusions.
Rankin’s co-screenwriters Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati (who also co-stars with Rankin) and script consultant Armin Firouzabadi deserve much of the credit for its intensely specific Persian-Canadian fantasia. (They’re each also brilliant artists: Ila sculpts, Pirouz directs, Armin just came out with a lovely album.) And who better than Qaderi, a major Afghan novelist, to discuss diasporic Persian poetics with Nemati and the siblings Firouzabadi?
The session will be on Monday Dec. 1 at noon Eastern US time, and will be conducted in Persian. If you’re interested, sign up for the webinar here. If you’re near New Haven, we have a screening of the film that same Thursday Dec. 4 at 7pm (full details here), and otherwise, at least in the US, the film can also be rented online.
13. CUP: 40% off the latest Middle East studies titles for MESA2025
14. ONLINE Seminar “How Mediterranean French Became a Language of Contact between East and West”, German Historical Institutes in Paris and Rome, 25 November 2025, 17:00 – 18:00 CET
In the second half of the thirteenth century a linguistic shift started to unfold where vernacular languages began to flourish. The seminar will discuss how Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean became a site of intellectual, spiritual and linguistic contact, and what theoretical models were set in place to make this contact possible.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/3tryebpw
15. HYBRID Book Launch: “Islamic Law in Saudi Arabia” by Dominik Krell, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, 1 December 2025, 12:30 – 14:00 CET
The book offers an in-depth exploration of the Saudi judiciary in the twenty-first century. Drawing on Saudi legal literature and court judgments, as well as interviews with leading members of the judiciary, the book addresses two central questions: first, what is the Saudi jurists’ understanding of an Islamic judiciary? And second, how is this understanding reflected in the Saudi legal system, its laws, institutions, and court practices?
Information and registration:
https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/event/book-launch-islamic-law-saudi-arabia-dominik-krell
16. ONLINE Panel Session “Totally Glocally: Defending Academic Freedom – Developments and Challenges in the US and EU”, Forum for International Cultural Relations, Stuttgart, 3 December 2025, 18:00 – 19:15 CET
What risks arise for democratic societies when academic freedom is restricted and liberal scientific trends at universities are repressed? How can universities and research institutions become more resilient in order to secure their independence from funding bodies, whether state or private sector? How might illiberal practices affecting higher education institutions and academics themselves be described in more detail?
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/27eh98c8
17. ONLINE Book Talk “Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil” by Dr. Safaruk Chowdhury, American University in Cairo Press, 9 December 2025, 18:00 CET
This book explores four different problems of evil: human disability, animal suffering, evolutionary natural selection, and Hell. Each study argues in favor of a particular kind of explanation or justification (theodicy) for the respective evil. Safaruk Chowdhury unpacks the notion of evil and its conceptualization within the mainstream Sunni theological tradition, and the various ways in which theologians and philosophers within that tradition have advanced different types of theodicies.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/mzf2uxaf
18. Workshop “From Manga to Manifesto: Youth Culture, Protest, and the Global Circulations of ONE PIECE”, University of Hamburg, 26-27 March 2026
We invite contributions that investigate the transnational lives of symbols, the appropriation of Japanese visual culture in African and Middle Eastern contexts, and the ways in which global media imaginaries shape local expressions of political agency. How does ONE PIECE’s narrative of freedom, friendship, and resistance against corrupt authority resonate with the lived experiences of young activists in postcolonial societies?
Deadline for abstracts: 1 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ynm6zjwf
19. Two Postdoctoral Researcher Positions in South Asian Studies and Conflict Studies (Focus on the MENA Region), Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul
Qualifications: PhD degree completed within the last five years. – For South Asian Studies: proficiency in English and at least one regional language. – For Conflict Studies: proficiency in both Arabic and English. Completed an MA or PhD degree in conflict studies (or in related discipline with a thesis on conflicts in the MENA region), have knowledge of conflicts, preferably in the MENA region.
Deadline for applications: 5 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y45mvmfu
20. Postdoctoral Fellowship (Academic Year 2026-27) in Turkish Studies, Columbia University, New York City
The fellowship competition is open to candidates who have received their Ph.D. degree in the humanities or social sciences after 1 May 2023, and have written a dissertation on a topic related to Turkish Studies.
Deadline for applications: 15 December 2025. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/176852
21. Call for Articles for “Maydan: Journal of Arab, Semitic and Islamic Worlds”
The journal is aimed at PhD candidates, recent graduates, and Master’s students. It revolves around a broad conception of the Arab, Semitic and Islamic worlds, whi includes the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa), the Sahel, the Caucasus, as well as Central and South-East Asia. Maydan also welcomes submissions regarding the connections between these geographical areas and Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world. In the same vein, it appreciates contributions exploring the presence and the experiences of Arab, Semitic and Islamic worlds outside regions traditionally seen as “Arab” or “Islamic”, whi highlight the differences within these worlds. With this view, Maydan welcomes contributions focused on the connections between these areas and other communities and political, economic, social, and cultural dynamics affecting our globalized world.
Deadline for abstracts: 17 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/u7dsmv3y
- November 22, 2025
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment