Archive for December 31st, 2025

1.UCLA: IRANIAN STUDIES OUTREACH/BILINGUAL LECTURE SERIES

Hasan Pirnia and Constitutional Experience: Articulation of Public Law and the Prospects of Modern State in Iran, 1905-1925

Ali Gheissari

University of San Diego

Persian Lecture

Sunday, January, 25, 2026 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time

Royce Hall 314

English Lecture

Monday, January 26, 2026 at 11:00am Pacific Time

Bunche Hall 10383

Hybrid Zoom option is available both days:

https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92182697630

2. BRAIS Annual Conference 2026: Call for Papers deadline Monday 5 January 2026

 For further information, and to submit your paper or panel proposal, click HERE.

BRAIS 2026 will be hosted by the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (Aga Khan University) & The Institute for Ismaili Studies, London on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 May 2026. We look forward to seeing many of you there!

If you have any questions at all about the conference, please do not hesitate to contact us on: brais.conference@ed.ac.uk.

3. CfP: Hispano-Arabic Mirror in the Mediterranean: How Art and Culture Keep Crossing Paths in the Basin

Description of the Volume:

This seminal study contributes to the advancement of hybrid cultures and identities, the editors of

this monograph aim to scan and materialize the multiple connections across the Mediterranean basin that

often times are overlooked. Cross-cultural intertwining between the Arab culture and the region of Northern Africa and Spain have been constant since the middle ages, as Andalusia, for example, was a melting pot of ethnicities. The mirror (evoking the “buried mirror” concept developed by Carlos Fuentes in 1992 in the book entitled the same), reflecting north and south, south and north, has been hiding in plain sight for centuries and this intertwined history has countless manifestations, including a current revival of this connection due to global migratory trends. The volume aims to bring to light new ways of understanding these imbrications.

The goal is to contribute to the debate and enhance the relevancy and current nature of these relationships from different perspectives, focusing on how much these cultures have in common rather than looking at the differences. For this reason, this project welcomes proposals that analyze past and present literary, filmic, artistic or cultural manifestations, and new ways in which these civilizations keep sharing paths, inevitably.

This volume is also open to other themes and lines of research not explicitly mentioned but that align with the central vision of the volume.

Possible lines of study, but not limited to:

-Artistic influences, a two directional path

-Aesthetic intertwine and crosspollination

-Literary shared spaces and intertextuality

-Visits, invasions, settlements, and legacies

-History of ideas: Intersections between art and society

-Thought and progress, contributions and mutual symbiosis

-Visible and not so visible overlaps and common understanding

-Revisions of manifestations that highlight the Mediterranean connection

-From the basin to the world: fusion culture exported or implanted in other parts of the world

-Hybridity conceptualization and theorical analysis in relation to the Hispano-Arabic culture

Timeline:

April 15th 2026: Reception of proposals: Title and Summary (200 words approx.).

November 31st 2026: First full version of the chapter to be completed.

Year 2027: Publication of the volume.

Length and Style:

No more than 20-22 pages (including notes, bibliography, illustrations, etc.) MLA style format (word length between 6000-8000 words), written in English.

Send proposals in English to:

Jorge Gonzá lez del Pozo jorgegdp@umich.edu & Wessam Elmeligi elmeligi@umich.edu

4. Call for Papers – al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature (2026 Volume)

We warmly invite high-quality, original submissions in the fields of Arabic language and Arabic literature. Articles may be submitted in either Arabic or English. All submissions received by 1 May 2026 will undergo double-blind peer review. Accepted papers are expected to be published in the last quarter of 2026.

Al-Karmil is committed to publishing rigorous and innovative scholarship, and we particularly welcome contributions that engage with classical, medieval, and modern Arabic texts from linguistic, literary, and interdisciplinary perspectives.

For reference, you may consult the journal’s most recent issue (2025) at the following link:

Al-Karmil Volume 46 Issue 1-2 (2025)