Archive for January 31st, 2026
Shii News – Academic Items
1.PhD studentship (Medieval Arabic and Islamic Studies) at the University of Exeter
(UK): ‘Pustules, Palaeogenetics and Pandemics from Galen to Rhazes: How to do the
Early History of Smallpox and Measles’
The Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies (IAIS) wishes to recruit a Graduate Research
Assistant to support the work of Professor Nahyan Fancy, Institute of Arabic and Islamic
Studies, within the interdisciplinary project: ‘Pustules, Palaeogenetics and Pandemics from
Galen to Rhazes: How to do the Early History of Smallpox and Measles’. This Wellcome
funded post is available from September 15 2026 to March 15 2030 (42 months). Funding
covers salary and UK home or international level PhD fees for that period.
The successful applicant will contribute to the work of the project through (1) supporting the
research and publication activities of the academic team as they focus around the works of
Rhazes; and (2) undertaking their own research project exploring pandemics, disease and
medicine in the early Medieval Islamicate world.
The kinds of research topics you might be interested in include, but are not limited to:
Religious responses to fatal diseases and/or epidemics in medieval Islam.
Animals and epidemics
Translation, Disease and Medical Writing
Theories of the spread of diseases
Depictions of diseases in medieval Arabic literature and/or poetry
You can find more details of the project, and the research team, through the webpages of
Exeter’s Centre for the study of Science, Technology, Ancient Mecdicine and Philosophy
(STAMP). (https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/stamp/2026/01/20/pustules/ )
Application: For more details of the position, the job requirements, and the application
process see the University of Exeter Job Board: ‘Graduate Research Assistant in IAIS with an
option to undertake a PhD’. You will need to provide: cv, cover letter, writing sample and
PhD project proposal with your application.
The closing date for completed applications is 26th March 2026. Interviews are expected to
take place in the week beginning April 20th 2026.
For further information please contact Professor Nahyan Fancy: N.Fancy2@exeter.ac.uk .
2. Séminaire “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges” – 5e séance mercredi 4 février 18h-19h30
nous avons le plaisir de vous convier à la troisième séance du séminaire “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges”, qui se tiendra mercredi 4 février 2026, 18h-19h30, en salle 3.01 à l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 3eétage).
Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir M. Stefano Pellò, Université de Venise “Ca’ Foscari”, pour une conférence intitulée : Kafiristan in Persian Sources (ca.1500-1800): Ethnographical Imagination across the Hindukush.
Résumé:
The historical region formerly known as Kafiristan (whose heart, as it is well-known, was officially renamed as Nuristan after Abd al-Rahman Khan finally conquered it in 1896), has been the object of a considerable interpretative imagery in pre-colonial and early colonial writings. As a matter of fact, long time before Rudyard Kipling made the name Kafiristan familiar to (and misunderstood by) the British and European public with his famous short novel The Man Who Would Be King (1888), the still unconverted high-altitude region between present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan had been richly discussed by Persianate observers. Looking at some little-known Persian sources produced in and around this region, I will thus explore here the Persianate textual territories of Kafiristan, showing how much literary conventions have consistently overlapped with historical observations and “ethnographic” descriptions. More specifically, I discuss how the conventional poetic ethno-geographical tropes of kāfir and kāfiristān interact with “historical” Kafir peoples and cultures in the Hindukush: I’ll do this by focusing on a few cases from the Persian hypertext, including the lyrical and epic poetry of Chitral master poet Bābā Siyar (c.1770-c. 1840) and the first Persian ethnography on the Kafirs (ca. 1840), composed by a Pashtun secretary from Peshawar at the behest of French general Claude-Auguste Court.
Vous trouverez l’intégralité du programme 2025-2026 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges” en ligne sur le site du CeRMI: L’Afghanistan à travers les âges – Centre de recherche sur le monde iranien
Vous trouverez également ici le lien de connexion: https://zoom.us/j/96136711428?pwd=jqZ3lotYx6re8bpoU4uAYPl9GRM1CF.1
3. Kyushu University – Associate Professor in Inamori Frontier Program
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/69704/kyushu-university-associate-professor-inamori-frontier-program
4. Call for Proposals for a Graduate Student Colloquium:
The Visual Culture of Algeria Through Exchange, Circulation, and Global Networks
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
UCLA & Online
Proposal submission deadline: February 27, 2026
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies is inviting graduate students from UCLA and beyond to submit a paper proposal for a graduate student colloquium “The Visual Culture of Algeria through Exchange, Circulation, and Global Networks.” The Colloquium will take place on April 29, 2026, at UCLA and online, and is organized by UCLA graduate students Ava Hess (Art History), Yubai Shi (Art History) and Sarp Tanridag (Architecture and Urban Design).
A central aim of the colloquium is to rethink dominant narratives of Algerian (and broader Maghribi) modernism. The growing interest in Algerian modern art and architecture often remains limited by national or colonial temporal frameworks. While colonial histories remain central to understanding nineteenth- and twentieth-century Algeria, recent scholarship reminds us that colonialism alone cannot account for the complexity of North African cultural production. Here, we will investigate the circulations and exchanges that have shaped artistic practice and visual culture across beylical, colonial, post-independence, and contemporary periods, while also attending to practices and media that have been marginalized in standard accounts of modernism. We encourage papers that propose new ways of writing Algerian art history and visual culture—for example, moving beyond rupture-based temporal models, colonial or nationalist canons, and conventional medium-bound studies. We are especially interested in work that treats circulation (of objects, materials, techniques, or ideas) and networks (institutional or independent, regional or transnational) as methodological tools for rethinking periodization, media hierarchies, and artistic agency.
Please submit an abstract in English of no more than 300 words, a one-line biographical statement, and a CV via the submission link by February 27, 2026. Applicants will be notified within one week of the deadline.
5. Call for Applications: FLAS Summer 2026 Fellowship
Application deadline: February 20, 2026
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies is currently accepting applications for its Summer 2026 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS).
Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships are provided by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Title VI program. The program is intended to broaden the nation’s pool of area and international specialists.
The FLAS program supports UCLA graduate and undergraduate training in Middle East and North African (MENA) studies and modern languages of the region including: Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish. Other less commonly taught languages of the region may be considered for funding as well. Graduate and undergraduate students who are studying the languages at intermediate level or higher are eligible. Beginning level of a language may be undertaken by graduate students only if the student already is at advanced level in a second MENA language. Past awardees may reapply.
FLAS Summer Award Amount:
Summer Program Tuition and Fees – up to $5,000
Student stipend – $3,500
New and continuing UCLA graduate and undergraduate students may apply. All FLAS application materials, including faculty recommendations, must be submitted online by February 20, 2026.
6. You are invited to celebrate the launch of new books in the Edinburgh University Press series The Islamicate East: New Approaches to Texts and History, with a welcome from Alison MacDonald, Interim Director of the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford.
Join author Arezou Azad, Programme Director of Invisible East, for a discussion on new approaches and trends in Islamic history through Persian sources. An expert panel will include:
- Edmund Herzig, Masoumeh and Fereydoon Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies
- Yasmin Khan, Professor of Modern History
- Zuzanna Olszewska, Associate Professor in the Social Anthropology of the Middle East
The evening will begin at 5.30pm in the lecture theatre of Oxford Lifelong Learning, Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square.
Registration is essential — free tickets are available here.
7. Call for Papers: Springer Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions
Updated Islam Section — Springer Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions
The editors of the Springer Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions invite proposals for updated and newly commissioned entries for the Islam section in an upcoming revised edition. Scholars working on Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latina/o/e/x communities in the United States are warmly encouraged to contribute.
We seek entries that reflect current scholarship, emerging research areas, and the expanding diversity of Muslim communities across the region. Contributions may be topical, geographical, or thematic, and may vary in length depending on the scope and importance of the subject.
Deadline for proposals: March 1, 2026
Final entries will be due later in 2026.
More info at:
https://www.lacisa.org/call-for-papers-springer-encyclopedia-of-latin-american-religions
8. The Book of a Thousand Judgements: A Sasanian Law-Book
Mazda, 2026
https://www.mazdapublishers.com/book/book-of-a-thousand-judgements
9. Research Associate in Refugee Studies
University of Leicester
Applications are invited for a Research Associates in Refugee Studies to join a multi-country research programme on LGBTIQ+ asylum and forced migration, based in the School of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leicester. Working closely with Dr Diego García Rodríguez and a network of international partners, the post-holders will design, co-design and conduct ethnographic fieldwork, support mixed-methods surveys, and work with civil society organisations and experts by experience.
Deadline | 1 February 2026
More information
10. Tenure-track Assistant Professor Position in Arabic Literature
American University of Beirut
The Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages at the American University of Beirut invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Arabic Literature, covering all periods of the Arabic literary tradition. The appointment is expected to begin on August 15, 2026. Applicants must hold a PhD in Arabic Literature or a closely related field at the time of appointment.
Deadline | 15 February 2026
More information
11. Call for Papers | Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (MEIS) Graduate Student Virtual Symposium
Workshop, University of Alberta, 15 May 2026
Submissions are welcomed from graduate students from whose research engages with any aspect of socio-cultural, historical, religious, artistic, or political issues in Muslim contexts. We particularly encourage proposals grounded in critical and decolonial approaches that center the voices, lived experiences, and struggles of Muslims and other marginalized communities resisting systemic and epistemic violence.
Deadline | 2 February 2026
12. Call for Applications | International Fellowships Programme 2026
Funding Call, The British Academy & The Royal Society
The International Fellowships programme provides support for outstanding early career researchers to make a first step towards developing an independent research career through gaining experience across international borders. Each award is expected to involve a specific and protected research focus with the award holder undertaking high quality, original research.
Deadline | 11 March 2026
13. Upcoming Conferences at LSE
Registration is open for three upcoming conferences hosted by the LSE Middle East Centre:
- Reframing Iraq: Power, Politics, and Paths to Inclusion, 14 February 2026
- Kurdish Studies Conference 2026, 29 April-1 May 2026
- Algeria: Historical Struggles and Imagined Utopias, 28-29 May 2026
14. Islamic Art & Architecture at Play
Lecture | AKU-ISMC | 18 February 2026
In this lecture, Glaire Anderson will be discussing her work, which bridges video games, GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) and academic sectors. She will discuss how her recent experiences as a games industry consultant and collaborator, as a speaker at #GDC2024 and as an academic game developer and entrepreneur engages with ongoing debates about historical and cultural representations in games, and the positive social impact of games.
More information
15. UCLA lectures:
Brief Rise and Fall of Late Ottoman Islamists and Their Legacy
Historiography of the Middle East Lecture Series
A virtual lecture by Andrew Hammond (Australian National University)
Moderator: James Gelvin (UCLA)
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM PST
Online
Incoming: Words and Movement from the Periphery in Arabic Travel Writing
A lecture by Björn Bentlage (University of Bern/University of Munich)
Moderator: Nile Green (UCLA)
Thursday, February 5, 2026
3:30 PM – 5:30 PM PST
Bunche Hall 10383
Water Knows No Borders:
Transboundary Water Sources in the Middle East
A lecture by Eilon Adar (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Moderator: Yoram Cohen (UCLA)
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST
Online
https://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/event/17448
16. HYBRID Book Talk “Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam” by Ken Chitwood (University of Bayreuth), Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, 2 February 2026, 16:15 – 17:45 CET
Drawing on years of ethnographic research and more than a hundred interviews, Ken Chitwood tells the story of Puerto Rican Muslims as they construct a shared sense of peoplehood through everyday practices. Borícua Muslims thus provides a study of cosmopolitanism as a reality that complicates scholarly and public conversations about race, ethnicity, and religion in the Americas. Expanding the geography of global Islam, Borícua Muslims is an insightful reckoning with the mani-fold entanglements of identity amid late-modern globalization.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/3pj8m8wy
17. International Conference “Maritime Connections: Jews Across the Indian Ocean”, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipol, India, 16-18 February 2026
The program contains many papers related to the Levante: https://mrtmsummit.com/program/
18. Early Modern Ottoman Studies (EMOS) Conference IV: “Entangled Histories in/of the Mediterranean: Ottoman and Wider Perspectives, 14th – 18th Centuries”, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece, 11-12 September 2026
The conference aims to examine the Empire’s integral position in this maritime world through politics, warfare, intermediaries, and networks of exchange. In this vein, the conference invites contributions grounded in Ottoman archives as well as those incorporating perspectives from non-Ottoman milieus (such as Venetian, Spanish, French, or North African), with the aim of facilitating a genuine dialogue between diverse historiographical traditions.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 February 2026.
Information: https://historiansnet.com/call-for-papers-2026/
19. Library Traineeship (Civil Service, “Bibliotheksreferendariat”), Profile “Arabic and Islamic Studies” at the Bavarian State Library, Bayreuth and Munich
The two-year preparatory service (A13h) is starting 1 October 2026 with a practical year in Bay-reuth, followed by a theoretical year in Munich. Field profile C: Arabic and Islamic Studies; Mas-ter’s degree required, PhD desirable. Full-time, on-site; appointment as civil servant on probation.
Deadline for applications: 25 February 2026.
Information: https://interamt.de/koop/app/stelle?0&id=1393142
20. 8 Fellowships for Studies on “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity” at the “Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM)”, Tunis, September 2026 – April 2027
Applications are welcome from postdoc and advanced scholars in five interdisciplinary research fields: Aesthetics & Cultural Practice, Inequality & Mobility, Memory & Justice, Resources & Sustainability, and Identities & Beliefs.
Deadline for applications: 2 March 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/msk2vjwz
21. Spring School “Islamicate Concepts: Between Particularism and Universalism” of the “European Network for Islamic Studies (ENIS)”, Freie Universität Berlin, 14-17 April 2026
We welcome RMA-students and PhD-candidates who engage with questions in Islamicate con-texts. What is the relative weight of local actors and semantics on the one hand and of external influence on the other? How can local meanings be related to and made fruitful for broader theorizing? Contributors are invited to reflect on central concepts within their project from these angles.
Deadline for applications: 2 March 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/26hnzctavv
22. ONLINE Summer Skills Seminar “Reading Ottoman Turkish” with Oscar Aguirre Mandujano (University of Pennsylvania) The Mediterranean Seminar, 15-18 June 2026
The course will introduce participants to the Ottoman language, it’s alphabet, calligraphic styles, basic grammar and structure, as well as an overview of changes over time. The course will focus on primary sources often used by historians and the paleographic challenges they present. Par-ticipants should have at least one year of Modern Turkish and preferably some knowledge of either Arabic or Persian.
Deadline for applications: 26 April 2026. Information and program: https://tinyurl.com/3b9ewwpf
23. ONLINE Summer Skills Seminar “Medieval Mediterranean Coinage: An Introduction” with Alan Stahl (Princeton University), The Mediterranean Seminar, 22-25 June 2026
The seminar will introduce participants to the dynamic interactions of Roman and Sasanian coin-ages in the Late Antique period, which gave way to the tripartite division of Latin, Byzantine, and Islamic coinages of the succeeding centuries. We will examine how these three coinages devel-oped and interacted through the later medieval centuries, laying the groundwork for the modern monetary systems. No prior experience with numismatics is expected.
Deadline for applications: 26 April 2026. Information and program: https://tinyurl.com/2e6vwbmk
24. Academic Book Prize: “Riwaq Prize for Science and Culture” (Focus on Arab Cultures and Societies) by the “Orient Institute Beirut (OIB)” and “Der Divan – The Arab Cultural Centre”
Book publications by scholars at all career stages are eligible for nomination. Established scholars and publishers are eligible to nominate monographs. Self-nominations by authors are not ac-cepted. The prize is awarded in three language categories (Arabic, English, German); each of the three categories is endowed with €1,000. The winner in each category is selected by a jury con-sisting of three renowned scholars.
Deadline for nominations: 14 February 2026. Information: https://riwaqbookprize.com/en/
25. Articles on “The Socio-Political Role of Artists in Authoritarian Contexts in the Arab Region” for a Special Issue of the Journal “Rowaq Arabi”
This peer reviewed journal of human rights studies calls for submissions of abstracts of original research articles that explore topics related to the evolving dynamics of the socio-political role of art creators in the context of authoritarianism in the Arab Region. Relevant articles (English or Arabic) from all disciplines of social sciences, humanities and law are welcome and will be finan-cially compensated.
No deadline, submissions are processed until the issue is complete.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/tcbrepsa
26. Chapters on “Turkish and Ottoman Ecofeminists” for “The Handbook of Ecofeminism”
The volume will demonstrate that ecofeminism is not only a critical framework for exposing injus-tice but also a generative force for imagining and enacting emancipatory futures. Areas of eco-feminist studies: • Disability Studies • Materialism/New Materialism • Queer Studies • Postcolonial Studies • Posthumanism Studies • Criminal Rights • Spirituality/Enlightenment • Ecopoetry/Ecolit-erature.
Deadline for abstracts: 13 February 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yvxan2ta
27. New books:
New Book: “Women’s Empowerment through Public Space: Gendered Urban Experi-ences across the Middle East and Europe” by Hooshmand Alizadeh, Selda Tuncer, Josef Kohlbacher, and Sonya Karami, Springer, 2025, 240 pages
This book explores the transformative power of urban public space for women’s empowerment. Addressing a critical gap in the existing literature, the authors develop an empirically grounded methodology to measure women’s interactions and empowerment in contemporary public spaces across diverse urban settings. The book presents a fresh perspective on the intersection of gen-der, urbanism, and empowerment, and invites readers to engage in the ongoing dialogue shaping the future of urban public spaces.
Information: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-02009-3
New Book: “The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism” by Jaan Islam, Edinburgh Uni-versity Press, 2026, 368 pages
This is the first book to disaggregate linear histories of Jihadi-Salafism by shifting the focus from Wahhābism to Sunnism, including Māturīdite and Ashʿarite doctrinal schools and the ‘four schools’ of law. Based on archival research and interviews, it examines the thought of diverse Ulama. It highlights their profound commitment to the classical Islamic sciences, as well as their distinct interpretations of historical crises that befell the premodern Umma, ultimately articulating a vision for its future.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/axp4sucs
New Book: “Rethinking Islamic Modernism – Religious Identity and Community in Co-lonial North India” by Maria-Magdalena Pruss, McGill University Press, Montreal, 2026, 312 pages
Through an in-depth and multifaceted historical analysis of one of the foremost Muslim associations of colonial North India, the “Society for the Defense of Islam” (established 1884 in Lahore), Maria-Magdalena Pruss proposes a nuanced understanding of Islamic modernism as a mode of thought, highlighting its internal diversity and complex development over a period of more than sixty years.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/4wyxmftp
New Book “Sufism in Saudi Arabia Since 1979 – The Politics of Orthodoxy in Contem-porary Islam” by Besnik Sinani, Studies on Sufism, Vol. 11, Brill, 2026, 243 pages
This is the first full-length monograph to explore Sufism in Saudi Arabia since 1979 – a ground-breaking journey into a rarely seen side of the kingdom’s religious life. Drawing on rich fieldwork, in-depth interviews with Sufi practitioners, and archival research, the book brings readers deep into the spiritual networks that persist beneath the surface of state enforced Wahhabi orthodoxy. It traces a century of scholarly life in the Hejaz and examines the profound religious shifts unfold-ing under the rule of Mohammed bin Salman.
Information and full pdf: https://brill.com/display/title/70192
- January 31, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment