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Archive for February 24th, 2026

Shii News – Academic Items

1.“The Mythmaking of Silk Roads: Reinventing Eurasian Heritage

  1. in Japan, 1880-1980”.

The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, and Cluster of Excellence “EurAsia Transformations” (Austrian Academy of Sciences and University of Vienna), are pleased to co-host the Tobunken Seminar: “The Mythmaking of Silk Roads: Reinventing Eurasian Heritage in Japan, 1880-1980”.

As the opening event of the four-day programme “EurAsia-Tokyo Academy”, this seminar aims at investigating, by focusing on Japan as a case study, how the knowledge of Eurasian
heritage acquired during the late nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries have influenced the way in which many people worldwide came to understand the visual, material and textual legacies of the trans-Eurasian trade network called “Silk Roads”.
Date and Time: Tuesday, 17 March 2026, 16:30 (JST)
Venue: Room 302, 3rd floor, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia,
University of Tokyo and online via Zoom
Language: English
Pre-registration is required for both in-person and online
participation. Please complete the registration form at
< https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforms.gle%2FUHwpGULSFWwpbops8&data=05%7C02%7C%7Ccc8948528d2548e7e42908de724aacab%7C2e9f06b016694589878910a06934dc61%7C0%7C0%7C639073862217779188%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=aBfvpCs7hph6Tor4qRZ88iKJTd%2B9ntUJeRRysxxgyvA%3D&reserved=0>
by Tuesday 10 March, 24:00 (JST).

A Zoom link will be sent to all
registrants by the end of the following day.
Co-organised by: Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of
Tokyo, and Cluster of Excellence “EurAsia Transformations” (Austrian
Academy of Sciences and University of Vienna)
Contact: Kazuo Morimoto (morikazu@ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp )
Programme
16:00-16:30 Arrival
16:30-16:45 Welcome: Kazuo Morimoto (The University of Tokyo)
Introduction: Yuka Kadoi (University of Vienna)
16:45-17:15 Shamim Homayun (The University of Tokyo)
Placing Afghanistan on the Silk Road: Japanese Encounters with the
Bamiyan Buddhas, 1926–1969
17:15-17:45 Francesca Fiaschetti (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Mapping the Steppe: Twentieth-Century Japanese Scholarship on Mongols
and Inner Asia
17:45-18:00 Discussion

 

 

 

 

2. In the Rose Garden: Poetic Reponses to Sa’di. Art of the Islamic Worlds at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.(Deadline: March 1)

Public program at MFAH: March 26, 2026.

Art of the Islamic Worlds invites creative writers to respond to the Gulistan (Rose Garden), the major work of the preeminent 13th century Persian poet, Shaykh Sa’di. A series of amusing, witty, and wise tales interweaving prose and poetry offer reflections on topics such as ‘Love and Youth,’ ‘The Customs of Kings,’ and ‘The Advantages of Silence.’ The work speaks to 21st-century concerns about ethics and justice, as it did to 19th-century poets including Emerson and Thoreau. A 19th-century illustrated manuscript of the Gulistan replete with lively paintings from the Indian kingdom of Alwar is on view in the Hossein Afshar Galleries for Art of the Islamic Worlds. Selected writers will read their works in the Art of the Islamic Worlds Galleries at the MFAH.

For details and submission information, please visit: https://www.mfah.org/art/in-the-rose-garden-poetic-reponses-to-sadi. Contact: ahosain@mfah.org.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Open Access Publication – Ars Orientalis 55

The National Museum of Asian Art is pleased to announce the launch of Ars Orientalis (AO) volume 55, co-published with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

AO is a journal of the latest research in art of the Middle East and Asia, a collection of scholarship that crosses academic disciplines and covers a range of time periods, materials, and regions. After decades of guest-edited thematic volumes, since AO 54, the publishers have returned to a model of open submission, inviting articles related to the arts of Asia without restriction. 

In addition to a range of articles on the arts of Asia, AO 55 introduces “New Directions,” an occasional feature comprising a longer, non-peer reviewed article on current scholarship and/or the state of the field. The inaugural “New Direction” piece, written by Gülru Necipoğlu, is based on her 2023 Freer Medal presentation at the National Museum of Asian Art. It offers a fresh perspective on a highly innovative pictorial language that developed in Iran and Iraq at the turn of the fourteenth century and stands out for its adoption of both Chinese and European aesthetics. “Conversations from the Field” is a timely mediation on the role and function of physical and digital replicas of works of art. One essay examines the role of plaster casts of Ancient Near Eastern art and the use of digital apps to strengthen the experience of these works at the Museum of Ancient Near East, Harvard University. A second essay discusses replicas of the rarely seen treasures of the Shōsōin Temple in Nara, Japan. Expanding on the theme of replicas, the “Digital Initiatives” explores the benefits and limitations of interactive digital models for objects of religious art.

The volume is available Open Access: https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/browse-volumes/ars-orientalis-issue-55/. The physical volume is also available for pre-order here https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/order-ars-orientalis/

Table of Contents 

New Directions 

Conversations from the Field

Digital Initiatives

 

 

 

 

 

4. The Islamic College – Short Course: Recitation of the Qur’an
Course name:Recitation of the Qur’an
Type:In-house short course
Instructor: Mrs Alsalemi
Intended for: Men and women over 18 years

Course Structure:

Course fees:

  • £100 for 6 sessions
  • £200 for 12 sessions

Schedule:
5 June – 28 August
Every Friday morning, 10:30am – 12:30pm

More information: E-mail admissions@islamic-college.ac.uk or
phone +44 (0) 208 451 9993

Register at:

https://islamic-college.ac.uk/registration-recitation-of-the-quran/

 

 

 

 

5. Hybrid: UCLA

Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series

Ancient Iran and Central Asia

Interactions and Shifting Identities

Professor Frantz Grenet (Collège de France)

A Series of Four Lectures in March 2026 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time

Royce Hall 314 and via Zoom

Lectures

Wednesday, March 4, 4:00 pm PST

“A World between Worlds: Geography, History, and
Identity of the Early Kušāns
(First Century CE)”

Friday, March 6, 4:00 pm PST

“Kušān Rulers: In Search of an Imperial Narrative
(Second to Fourth Centuries CE)”

Monday, March 9, 4:00 pm PDT

“Eastern Iranian Contributions to the Construction of the Šāhnāme: Kušāno-Sasanians, Sīstānīs, and Sogdians

(Fourth to Eighth Centuries CE)”

Wednesday, March 11, 4:00 pm PDT

“Philhellenism among the Hunnic Elites
(Fifth to Eighth Centuries CE)”

A public reception will follow the final lecture.

Register at:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZe_cBLuKnqqj9EeyA6_ztn0RkV6UCmch3IQU004bGv8ml3A/viewform

 

 

 

 

 

6. Harvard University – NELC – Lecturer in Armenian Studies
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/69814/harvard-university-nelc-lecturer-armenian-studies

Closing date: 21 March, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

7. Call for Workshop Abstracts
Friendship: Intimacy, solidarity, and political transformations in South Asia and the Middle East

The Center for Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS) at Villanova University invites you to submit abstracts for consideration in a workshop on Friendship: Intimacy, solidarity, and political transformations in South Asia and the Middle East to be held at Villanova on 13-14 November organized by Anusha Hariharan (Villanova) and Aslı Zengin (Rutgers). The accepted papers will be considered for a forum in the Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (JSAMES).

The age-old Aristotelian axiom that ‘friendship forms the basis of political life’ (Ward 1997) has always found purchase in studies of politics across the humanities and social sciences. However, the elevation of friendship as the ideal relationship that provides the moral foundation for democracy became expedient around the mid-20th Century. The end of World War II, and administrative decolonization across Asia and Africa not only illuminated social inequalities, but also gave birth to new nation-states. While the ‘citizen’ was the desired base unit of political life, the ‘friend’ was touted as the relationship category that spoke most to ethical life (Foucault 1997; Derrida 2005; Gandhi 2006; Roach 2012; Nixon 2015). The relational category was – and still is – seen to espouse the central ethics and values of liberalism: equality, fraternity and fellowship. Such essential values, newly minted nation-states believed, would enable fledgling democracies, like themselves, to flourish (Ambedkar [1957] 2011).

Concerns problematizing friendship have become even more pertinent and expedient in the twenty-first century, where it starts to form the critical basis for political life under fascist regimes that erode the human spirit and the moral fabric of communities globally (Whitaker 2011; Nagar et al 2016; Chowdhury and Philipose 2016; Forster and White 2025). Centering these concerns, this workshop brings together scholars of South Asia and the Middle East where major political upheaval has unfolded in the last quarter of a century. Ranging across the humanities disciplines of History, Anthropology, Human Geography, Global/Area Studies, Gender and Queer Studies, participants are asked to center the study of friendship in the context of political activism, community-building and world-making. The symposium participants will be invited to engage with the following questions:

  1. How do friendship relations form the ethical basis for political solidarity and human flourishing in the twenty-first century?
  2. What are the different aspects of emotional, ethical and political labor required by activists and community organizers to maintain friendship and solidarity in the longue durée, and work towards social and political transformation in local and global contexts?

The idioms of friendship across South Asia and the Middle East are also inscribed within the particular cultural histories and social dynamics in these regions (Ali and Flatt 2017). In both regions, friendship by default summons the category of the political, as friendship is the relational form that implies liberal choice is forged outside of the normative expectations of kinship and caste/clan. Further, scholars have demonstrated how friendship represents a form of social resistance to both normative society’s boundaries and the state’s repression of intimacy across ethnic, denominational, religious or caste-based differences (Tambar 2019, Hariharan 2025, Zengin 2026, Kanagasabai and Phadke 2023). Friendship communities, in that sense, offer us a glimpse of prefigurative politics, where activists enact the egalitarian and democratic societies that pepper their future political imaginaries.

This workshop will pay attention to these extant cultural idioms and genealogies of friendship, and in doing so, will further Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s (2010) invitation to: “create knowledge that is location-specific rather than location-bound”. Mapping friendship relations specific to the macro-region of South Asia and the Middle East offers us new avenues to theorize protest cultures and the everyday life of revolution through the lens of intimacy in a part of the world where communities have not only survived the political upheavals they have witnessed in the twenty-first century, but are thriving and flourishing owing to collective human creativity.

All accepted papers will be considered for publication in a forum of the Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (JSAMES), a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the CAIS and published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The JSAMES is interested in interdisciplinary scholarship that explores the unique political, social, and economic formations and their historical antecedents that contribute to region-making in our contemporary age. The JSAMES is edited by Samer Abboud (Villanova University). Further journal information, including a list of editorial board members, can be found here.

Please direct any questions to JSAMES’ Managing Editor, Dina Baslan (dina.baslan@villanova.edu). For submissions, fill out this form.

The workshop timeline is as follows:

April 3                         Submission of abstracts (~250 words)

Late April                    Notification of acceptance

Early September          Virtual participants meetings

October 5                    Submission of paper drafts (~4000 words)

November 13-14         Workshop

January 15                    Submission of final papers for review (4000 words)

Contact Email

dina.baslan@villanova.edu

URL

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdElZvt7yWa9otyW4XpLp-28DXRM_cZ5gZs0x2…

 

 

 

8. Hybrid: The University of Edinburgh – Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

The 2026 Montgomery Watt Lecture will take place on Monday 2nd of March at 5pm in Lecture Theatre A (40 George square).

Prof. Emily Selove from the University of Exeter will present on:

Medieval Arabic Magic between Historical Cartoons and Philological Inquiry

Abstract

This lecture explores key themes in the study of Medieval Islamic occult texts, focusing especially on jinn and other unseen entities invoked in Arabic grimoires such as Sirāj al-Dīn al-Sakkākī’s (d. 1229) Kitāb al-Shāmil wa-baḥr al-kāmil. We will examine the methods by which sorcerers, philosophers, and other thinkers of the age studied the nature of these beings and the best way to interact with (or avoid) them. We will also explore the relationship of illusion and trickery to magic and the esoteric in this historical context. Each topic is illustrated with a historical cartoon from Popeye and Curly: 120 Days in Medieval Baghdad. Thus we will walk the line between seriousness and play (jidd wa hazl) in approaching the study of Medieval Arabic literature in general, and the Islamic Occult in particular.

If you would like to join us in person please register here: https://wm-watt-lecture-selove.eventbrite.co.uk

If you would like to join us online, please email marie.legendre@ed.ac.uk for the zoom link.

See also: https://llc.ed.ac.uk/islamic-middle-eastern/events/watt-lecture

Posted in: Academic items