Archive for August 8th, 2026
Shii News – Academic Items
1. The non-human mystics of Islam: animals as pious worshippers in early Sufism’
A Salamah-Qudsi
BSOAS, June 2026
2. RGQ 2026 (Review of Global Qur’anic Studies of the Year): 2end meeting
Sponsored by Ind. Int. Quranic Parliament (IQP)
Aug 18-19, 2026
Review of IQSA Vienna 2026 papers With participation of:
Prof. Ghassan El-Masri, Europe
Prof. Abdulla Galadari, Asia
Prof. Roberta Sabbath, America
Prof. Abdelmajid Benhabib، Africa
More info. via:
https://event.fourwaves.com/iqp2026
🔺 Registration:
https://event.fourwaves.com/iqp2026/registration
____
🔸 المجلس الدولي المستقل للقرآن الکریم
🔹Ind. Int. Quranic Parliament (IQP)
http://zabanshenasitarikhi.ir/
ahmadi_mh@ut.ac.ir
3. Call for Papers: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Ibrahim Pour-Davoud
TentativeTitle: Studies in Ancient Iranian Culture, Avestan Literature, and National Identity: Essays in Memory of Ibrahim Pour-Davoud.
We are pleased to invite submissions for an upcoming edited volume (Festschrift) dedicated to honoring the monumental legacy of Professor Ibrahim Pour-Davoud (1886–1968)—pioneer of Iranian studies, scholar of the Avesta, and champion of ancient Persian literature and culture.
Pour-Davoud’s groundbreaking translations and commentaries on the Avesta and Old Iranian texts laid the foundation for modern Iranian philology and inspired generations of scholars in the fields of Indo-Iranian linguistics, ancient history, Zoroastrian studies, and Persian literary history.
Suggested Topics & Themes
We welcome original, unpublished research papers from established scholars, early-career researchers, and independent specialists. Contributions may focus on, but are not limited to, the following thematic areas:
- Avestan & Old Iranian Philology: Textual criticism, linguistics, and translations of Old and Middle Iranian languages.
- Zoroastrianism & Ancient Iranian Religions: Rituals, theology, iconography, and historical development of Iranian belief systems.
- Historiography & Memory of Pre-Islamic Iran: The reception of ancient Iranian history and mythology in Persian literature (e.g., the Shahnameh).
- Intellectual Legacy of Ibrahim Pour-Davoud: Re-evaluations of his life, translations, national vision, and impact on modern Iranian cultural identity.
- Iranian Cultural Contacts: Interdisciplinary studies exploring connections between ancient Iran and neighboring civilizations (Mesopotamia, Greece, India, Central Asia).
Submission Guidelines
- Abstract Submission: Please submit an abstract of 300–500 words along with a short bio (max 150 words) by November 15, 2026.
- Acceptance Notification: Authors will be notified by January 10, 2027.
- Full Chapter Submission: Completed manuscripts should be between 6,000–8,000 words (including references and endnotes) and are due by July 25, 2027.
- All submissions must be written in English.
Note to Contributors: All submitted chapters will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process prior to final publication.
For more information, please contact Mr. A, K, Jabbari, Publisher.
4. The Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World at the University of Edinburgh is seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Associate (0.8 FTE, fixed term for 24 months) to join the internationally funded research project ‘The Global Landscapes of Muslim Lives: Latin American and Caribbean Intersections’, led by Dr Kholoud Al-Ajarma (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Kenneth Chitwood (University of Bayreuth), and funded by the AHRC and DFG.
This is an exciting opportunity to develop and deliver an independent programme of ethnographic and qualitative research on contemporary Muslim communities in Latin America and/or the Caribbean. Working within the Alwaleed Centre, you will undertake original fieldwork, contribute to high-quality publications, collaborate with an international research team, and play a key role in shaping new understandings of Muslim lives, networks and institutions in an under-researched global context.
The closing date for applications is Wednesday 26 August at 11:59pm BST. To view the full advert and submit your application CLICK HERE.
5. GLOBAL GULF
Geo-Economic, Geo-Political, and Geo-Technological Transformation
in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar
N Janardhan
Gerlach
Hardcover, 214 pages, ISBN: 9783959941990
https://gerlachpress.com/9783959941990
6. Belonging on Both Shores: Mobility, Migration, and the Bordering of the Persian Gulf. Lindsey R. Stephenson (Stanford University Press, 2026). Pp. 218. $70.00 cloth.
7. CfP: CAA Session: Picturing Entanglements: Transcultural Creatures in Medieval Eurasian Art
The session will be held on location.
From the simurgh perched on Sasanian textiles to dragons coiling through Yuan porcelain, creatures—real and imagined—were among the most mobile and mutable figures of the medieval Eurasian visual world. They migrated across textiles, metalwork, ceramics, paintings, manuscripts, and prints, shedding and acquiring attributes as they crossed linguistic, religious, and political frontiers. A phoenix in East Asia was not quite a simurgh in the Islamic world, yet the two could share a silhouette, or hybridize altogether. Such creatures did not merely illustrate cross-cultural exchange; they were the very vehicles through which artists, patrons, and viewers co-produced meaning, continually transforming and reinvesting these figures with new significance in the process.
This panel convenes scholars working across the art histories of the Eurasian visual world to examine how zoomorphic imagery materialized transcultural entanglement between roughly 500 and 1500 CE. We invite papers that treat creatures as agents rather than ornaments: as carriers of diplomatic meaning, as sites of iconographic negotiation, as problems of translation, and as catalysts for artistic invention. Why did artists adapt foreign beasts to local visual idioms? What was lost, gained, or generated in the passage? How might attention to creaturely imagery help us move beyond diffusionist models toward richer accounts of medieval connectivity? Interdisciplinary approaches, including those drawing on the environmental humanities and material studies, are especially welcome.
The call for papers is open until 31 August.
Please submit your title, abstract, and CV through the CAA website.
Contact Information
Yuxi Pan, SOAS University of London
Contact Email
URL
https://caa.confex.com/caa/2027/webprogrampreliminary/Session18322.html
8. Fons Vitae: Rumi Series
https://fonsvitae.com/product-category/sufism/jalaluddin-rumi/
9. Conference – “From the Balkans to Bengal in Baltimore: Engaging Diasporas, Shaping Publics, and Reimagining Islamic Art in American Museums”
“How should American museums that present Islamic art engage the diasporic communities that are increasingly recognized as key public constituencies? What strategies might best encourage communities to move from viewing art to responding to it—and in doing so, reshape how it is interpreted in public spaces? Join curators, practitioners, and scholars of Islamic art, art history, and history for this two-day conference, hosted at the University of Maryland and the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore.
To find out more and register, please go to https://arthistory.umd.edu/research-innovation/balkans-bengal-baltimore-engaging-diasporas-shaping-publics-and-reimagining
The schedule is as follows:
Thursday, September 24, 2026
Location: Ulrich Recital Hall, Tawes Hall, University of Maryland
9:30-10:00 Registration
10:00-10:30 Welcome and Introductions
10:30-12:00 Panel #1: Interpreting and Presenting Islamic Art, moderated by Ünver Rustem, Johns Hopkins University
Ekin Akalın, University of Nantes and the Autonomous University of Madrid, The Missing Showcase of Modernity in Islamic Art Galleries and the Ottoman Military Painters (1839-1939)
Elnaz Latifpour, University of Virginia, Rewriting the Label: Interpreting Qashqai and Southern Iranian Weavings in Western Museums
Constance Jame, Musée d’art Roger-Quilliot, Performing the Objects: Beyond Materiality and Art Historical Discourses
12:00-1:30 Lunch
1:30-4:00 Panel #2: Curating Islamic Art and Muslim History in American Institutions, moderated by Karin Zitzewitz, University of Maryland, College Park
Nadirah Mansour, Lake Forest College, Building a Collection of Arabic Calligraphy by Living Artists at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Acquisitions, Interpretation and Community Outreach
Rachel Winter, Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, When Paintings Become About Palestine: Samia Halaby in Michigan
Hiba Abid, New York Public Library, Uncovering Islamic Heritages in New York: Fostering Community Connections via Niyū Yūrk and Further Initiatives
Amy Landau, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, Curating the work of an Iranian American artist in “Tehrangeles”
Ladan Akbarnia, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Silent Revolutions and Small Victories: Reflections on curating Islamic visual culture
Location: Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, University of Maryland
4:15-4:45 Tour of LANDLINE, curated by Islam & Print, University of Maryland Art Gallery
4:00-5:30 Reception, Atrium
5:30-7:00 Keynote, Stefan Weber, Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin, moderated by Peter Wien, University of Maryland, College Park, Rm. 2203
Friday, September 25, 2026
10:00-10:15 Meet at Walters Art Museum
10:15-12:15 Guided Tours of Islamic Galleries at Walters and Making Space/Islam & Print
12:15-1:30 Lunch at the Helmand, registration required
Location: Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street Baltimore, MD 21201
1:30-2:30 Special Collections Tour, Pratt Library
2:30-4:30 Panel #3: Engaging Communities, Reimagining Publics, moderated by Harold Morales, Morgan State University
Alison Kysia, Independent Artist, Muslim American Artist in the U.S.: Contemporary perspectives on art, faith, and identity
Melissa Forstrom, Purchase College, SUNY, and Ashley Dimmig, Crossman Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Sharing Authority: Engaging Historic and Contemporary Diasporic Community Members at the Walters Art Museum
Basmah Arshad, University of North Texas, ‘If Not Now, When?’: The Arab American National Museum During the Post-9/11 Era and Afterward
Sarah Slingluff, University of Maryland, College Park, Beyond the Museum Walls: Challenges and Opportunities in Curating Islamic Art for Virtual Audiences
4:30-5:30 Social Gathering at Stem & Vine
10. Conference: God, Human, Machine | 28 – 30 September 2026 | University of Erfurt (Hybrid)
We are pleased to announce our upcoming conference God, Human, Machine: Images and Imaginaries of Religion in the Age of AI at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Addressing a critical but underexplored dimension of the AI–religion nexus, the conference brings together theoretical and empirical perspectives, connecting scholars and practitioners working at the intersections of Religious Studies, Anthropology, Art History, and Science and Technology Studies. The programme features two keynote lectures by Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan) and Gregory Price Grieve (UNC Greensboro), a conversation with religious digital image creators, and seven panels exploring the relationship between human imagination, religious knowledge, and AI systems.
The detailed conference schedule is on our event webpage: https://www.uni-erfurt.de/to/godhumanmachine
Registration via the conference webpage is open until 16 September.
For any queries, please contact Afaf Abdelrazek via aiimagery@uni-erfurt.de
Please join us for this exciting opportunity to engage with cutting-edge research and critical debates about the ways in which AI image systems and human imaginaries of religion shape each other across traditions, cultures, and social contexts.
Best wishes,
Christoph Günther
Programme
Day 1: 28 September 2026
09:30 – 10:00 Opening remarks
10:00 – 12:00 Panel 1: Sensory and Spatial Aspects (Chair: Christoph Günther)
Tino Grisi (Politecnico di Milano): The “How” of the Rite: AI-Generated Polyhedral Synthesis and the New Imagery of Ecclesial Spaces
Nesrine Mansour (University of Colorado Boulder): What the Machine Cannot See: A Manifesto for Sacred Imagination in the Age of AI
Isobel Dickson (Dublin City University): Envisioning Artificial Intelligence: Mysticism, AI Ethics, and the Religious Imaginary of Starmirror
13:30 – 15:30: Panel 2: Revealing the Hidden and Unimaginable (Chair: Afaf Abdelrazek)
Wajeeha Naween (Bahria University Karachi Campus): The Ghost in The Pen: AI, Barakah and the Future of Islamic Calligraphy
Barbara Denuelle (University of Kent): Seeing with the Eye of the Heart: Sufi Epistemology, Visual Imagination, and AI-Generated Images
Fitri Murfianti (Leiden University): Seeing the Unseen: AI Images, Digital Miracles, and the Remaking of Religious Imagination in Indonesia
15:45 – 17:30 Traversing Design, Art and Devotion: A Conversation with Religious Digital Image Content Creators (Roundtable)
17:45 – 19:15: Keynote (Chair: Christoph Günther)
Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan): Pandora’s Black Box: Techno-Orientalist Images of the Prophet Muhammad in the Age of AI
Day 2: 29 September 2026
09:00 – 11:00: Panel 3: The Politics of AI-charged Imaginaries (Chair: Farwa Ejaz)
Efstathios Kessareas (University of Erfurt): Reimagining Hellenic Polytheism through AI: Aesthetics, Ideology, and Power
Rasool Akbari (University of Bonn): Ambivalences of AI-Rendered Iranian Cultural Imaginaries: A Case Study of the Sun and the Lion
Kathrin Trattner (University of Zurich): “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” The role of generative AI in the digital martyrdom of Charlie Kirk
11:15 – 12:15 Bias Datasets, Artificial Hate and Racist Intelligence: A Conversation with Ari Temkin, followed by the art installation The Jewish Dataset (2025)
13:15 – 14:15 Guided VR Demonstrations: ThePuja.App, VR Hajj, and VR Karbala
14:15 – 16:15: Panel 4: Interactions with AI-generated Imagery (Chair: Jasmin Eder)
Jan Philipp Hahn (EZW, Berlin): Visualizing Divine Authority: The Persuasive Power of AI-Imagery in Interreligious Online Debates
Feeza Vasudeva, Katja Valaskivi (University of Helsinki): Godbots and Religious Mediation: An Exploratory Study of Religious AI Interaction
Sofia Tsourlaki (SOAS University London): Reclaiming Revelation: Use AI to Visualise Qur’anic Meanings Beyond the Authority of the ʿUlamāʾ
16:30 – 18:00: Keynote (Chair: Fouad Gehad Marei)
Gregory Price Grieve (UNC Greensboro): Cave of Dreams: Designing Ethical AI Worlds for the Study of Religion and Human Responsibility
Day 3: 30 September 2026
09:00 – 11:00: Panel 5: Re-Conceptualising AI & Religious Imagination (Chair: tba)
Thowhidul Islam & Nurul Amin (International Islamic University Chittagong), Iftekharul Islam (University of Dhaka): Between Khayāl and Code: Artificial Intelligence and the Islamic Philosophy of Imagination
Arulchelvan Sriram (Anna University): From Darshan to Dataset: AI-Generated Divine Images & the Transformation of Seeing in Hindu Practice in Tamil Nadu
Kris Ramlan (Goethe University Frankfurt): Artificial Imagination? Ibn ʿArabi’s Ontology of the Imaginal and AI-Generated Presence
11:15 – 13:30: Panel 6: AI Images and Imaginaries of Religious Pasts and Futures (Chair: Christiane Gruber)
Murtala Ibrahim (FU Berlin): Machines of the Final Hour: AI as Eschatological Portent in West African Islam
Katharina Yadav (University of Zurich), Feeza Vasudeva (University of Helsinki): Aesthetics and (Religious) Imagination in Hindu and Christian AI Images
Babak Rahimi (UC San Diego): AI Karbala: Artificial Visuality, Shiʿi Mourning, and Futurity
Christoph Günther (University of Erfurt): “Your first day in jannah” vs. “POV: you wake up in jahannam”: AI Images of Paradise and Hell
15:30 – 17:30: Panel 7: Ethical Entrainment, Moral Cultivation, and Postcolonial Subjectification in the Age of AI (Chair: tba)
Maria Majorie Purino University of San Carlos): Hsing Yun’s Humanistic Buddhism: Cultivating AI & Digital Humanities
Myra Abubakar (National University of Singapore): Selective Legacy 2.0: AI-Generated Imagery and the Algorithmic Curation of Postcolonial Islamic Memory
Mohamad Zreik (Sun Yat-sen University): AI and the Revival of Confucianism: Virtual Teachings and Moral Imagery in Contemporary China
11. Ars Orientalis invites submissions of innovative articles on the arts of the broad geographic area of Asia, from the ancient period to the contemporary. We seek original, previously unpublished work that reflects insightful interventions, including but not limited to comparative or interdisciplinary approaches, multimedia content, and digital humanities methods.
Manuscripts should be 8,000 to 12,000 words (including endnotes).
Ars Orientalis is a digital publication with a print-on-demand option. The digital volume also allows for the incorporation of other media, such as video, sound, and 3D models. Visual material must include permissions for print and online reproduction.
We are currently accepting submissions for volume 58 to be published in December 2028. Articles must be received by September 1, 2026, to be considered.
Submissions should be sent to ArsOrientalis@si.edu.
Guidance, submission, and style guide for articles can be found here https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/submit-research/.
Contact Information
Ars Orientalis
Freer Research Center
National Museum of Asian Art
Contact Email
URL
https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/submit-research/
12. Grabar Travel Grant
Deadline: August 15, 2026
This competition is open to graduate students (doctoral candidates) who have been invited or accepted as participants in a scholarly conference or other professional meeting for the purpose of presenting papers, chairing sessions or moderating discussions.
The maximum amount of the award is $2,500 USD.
Applicants must be HIAA members in good standing at the time of application. Grabar Travel Grants must be used within 12 months of the award date.
Applications must include the following five components and be submitted in a single PDF to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by August 15, 2026:
- Application cover sheet, available here
- A cover letter explaining the applicant’s purpose in participating in the conference, the expected benefits of participation, and an itemized travel budget
- Curriculum vitae
- Letter of acceptance from the conference/session organizer(s)
- Abstract of the paper to be presented
In addition, a letter of recommendation from the applicant’s primary supervisor should be sent directly to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by the deadline.
Applicants from outside the United States are responsible for meeting the requirements and obtaining any visas necessary for visits to or residence and research in the United States. Upon request, HIAA will supply documentation of the grant and/or fellowship award, the dates of the award, and financial support.
For further details and to apply, please visit: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/opportunities/hiaa-prizes/grabar-grants-and-fellowships
13. The Critical Studies on Terrorism annual conference will take place at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on Tuesday 8 September and Wednesday 9 September 2026.
Venue: G.06, 50 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JU
The Critical Studies on Terrorism annual conference will take place at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on Tuesday 8 September and Wednesday 9 September 2026. Critical Terrorism Studies has witnessed a growing engagement with decolonial and postcolonial perspectives over the past years that have challenged the continued, even if inadvertent, Eurocentrism of the discipline and its dominant approaches. Despite these advances, the field continues to grapple with enduring forms of Eurocentrism in its conceptual frameworks, research agendas, and scholarly conversations. It is therefore time for CTS to consider a more radical re-orientation of the direction it has been taking since its foundation. In light of this, The Critical Studies on Terrorism working group is calling for an initiative that bridges the fields of CTS and Critical Muslims Studies (CMS)
Information and Registration:
14. “Multilingual Transmission and Sufi Lexicography: ʿAbdul Razzāq Kāshānī and the Transmission of Ibn ʿArabī”,
in Religions as part of the Special Issue
Multilingualism, Translation, and Religion in the Premodern Islamic World(s):
Texts, Contexts, and Crossroads.
Leila Chamankhah
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/17/7/837
15. Workshop “Migration and Mobility in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Borderlands (19th – 21st Centuries)”, University of Vienna, 13-14 November 2026
We particularly invite contributions from fields such as history, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, spa-tial and border studies, which address various instances of trans-border mobility, specific borderlands border-zones, transnational diaspora networks, minority histories, memory, and memory production within the context of Ottoman and post-Ottoman space.
Deadline for abstracts: 17 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yjuphfjx
16. Editor (5 Years) for the Journal “Turkish Studies”, London
This role is a great opportunity for an academic with a strong research background in Turkish Studies and who has the commitment, drive and ability to help further develop this leading academic journal. The role would suit mid-career or senior scholars who are keen to make a significant impact on the scholarly field and are able to dedicate the requisite time and attention to the journal. Applicants should have the capacity to devote approximately 10-12 hours each week to the role.
Deadline for applications: 13 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2anhmd2p
17. Two Associated Editors (3 Years) for the Journal “Turkish Studies”, London
Qualification: A PhD in a relevant discipline. – Working in a Social Science discipline and active in research pertaining to Türkiye. – Experience with academic publishing. – Excellent skills of written and spoken English, and a commitment to linguistic detail. – The capacity to devote approximately 5-6 hours each week to the role. – Experience with working effectively with independent peer reviewers.
Deadline for applications: 14 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2phw25n7
18. Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in the Pre-Modern History of the Islamicate Middle East or Central Asia, University of Chicago
Qualification: PhD in a relevant field. – Demonstrated ability to carry out original independent research in the areas of the search, resulting in publications in leading venues. – Excellent command of either Classical Arabic or Persian required. – Research competency in an additional Middle Eastern/Central Asian language (Arabic, Persian, Turkic languages, or other relevant language). – Demonstrated ability or potential for excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching.
Deadline for applications: 19 October 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/190288
19. Articles for the “Journal of Arabic Linguistics Tradition”, Volume 24
We welcome scholarly articles that contribute to the study and research in the field of Arabic linguistics tradition, encompassing the whole range of phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, lexico-graphic, and other related analyses and specific contributions of linguists since the tradition’s earliest inception (around the 8th Century) until the end of the 15th Century. The journal also welcomes trans-lation articles, especially those accompanied by commentary and/or analysis sections, as well as book reviews.
Deadline for contributions: 15 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ykt7w6a8
20. Chapters on “Lives Beyond the Archives: Alf Muslimah Research Competition” for an Ency-clopaedia of Leading Muslim Women, Al-Mujadilah Research, Doha
Proposals are invited for research-based entries for “Alf Muslimah”, a forthcoming encyclopaedia doc-umenting the lives, intellectual contributions, and social impact of leading Muslim women across the globe and throughout the ages. The project sets out to recover the stories of exemplars whose achieve-ments and legacies have been overlooked, underrepresented, or preserved only through local commu-nity histories, oral traditions, or regional archives.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/b2f46jk2
- August 08, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment