Archive for 2026
Shii News – Academic Items
1. New online Persian literature courses: Farrokhzad, Hafez, Rumi, etc.
Ghand-e Parsi Academy of Persian Language and Literature:
I. Forugh Farrokhzad’s Life and Works: A Deep Dive into Forugh’s Feminist Poetry
The sessions are designed for readers of Persian of all levels (basic, intermediate, advanced, and native speakers) as well as students who have no prior experience with this language and are interested in accessing Farrokhzad’s poetry in English translation. Readings and assignments, both in Persian and English, will be adapted to the individual needs and expectations of each student.
Schedule: Mondays, 22 June – 7 September, 2026
Time: 10:30–11:30 AM (US Pacific), 1:30–2:30 PM (US Eastern), 8:30–9:30 PM (Central European)
More info: https://www.ghandeparsi.com/summerschool/forugh
II. Rumi and Hafez: An Introduction to Persian Mystical Poetry
This course is designed for intermediate and advanced students of Persian as well as readers who are interested in discovering Rumi’s and Hafez’s mystical poetry in English translation.
Schedule: Mondays, 22 June – 7 September, 2026
Time: 9:00–10:00 AM (US Pacific), 12:00–1:00 PM (US Eastern), 6:00–7:00 PM (Central European)
More info: https://www.ghandeparsi.com/summerschool/rumihafez
III. How to Read Persian Poetry: From Iranian Epic Cycles and Omar Khayyam to Safavid and Indo-Persian Poets
(intermediate and advanced)
Schedule: Tuesdays, 23 June – 8 September, 2026
Time: 9:00–10:00 AM (US Pacific), 12:00–1:00 PM (US Eastern), 6:00–7:00 PM (Central European)
More info: https://www.ghandeparsi.com/summerschool/how
2. Deafness in the Premodern Mediterranean
17 – 18 November 2026
This VivaMente conference will explore the topic of deafness and the role of deaf people in Mediterranean antiquity and the pre-modern era, examining it from historical, medical and socio-cultural perspectives.
Despite its historical significance, this topic remains underexplored; however, academic interest in disabilities in the ancient world has undergone a significant renewal in recent years. In light of new research perspectives that move beyond the traditional, pathology-centred approach to encompass a broader consideration of social and cultural dynamics, the history of deafness and deaf individuals represents a field of study requiring an interdisciplinary approach.
Set within the increasing recognition of Deaf culture at public and academic levels, the conference is intended to situate deafness within the broader framework of the history of ideas. Rather than treating deafness solely as a social condition or an object of modern Deaf cultural studies, the conference will examine the evolving intellectual categories through which deafness was defined, explained and categorised in ancient and medieval societies. Particular attention will be paid to the historical transformation of concepts such as hearing, speech, silence, impairment, education, communication and disability, and to the ways in which these categories were shaped by philosophical, theological, legal, linguistic and medical discourses.
A central goal is therefore to promote dialogue between scholars of various disciplines to create the most comprehensive and multifaceted picture possible of deafness in premodern history. Beyond shedding light on specific aspects of ancient and medieval culture, this reflection also aims to encourage critically examining the persistence of certain historical conceptions in contemporary perceptions of deafness and disability as a whole.
Organisation
Scholars working on any area relevant to the conference are invited to submit a proposal consisting of a title and an abstract. Proposals should not exceed 250 words and should be accompanied by a short biographical note. Contributions may address any aspect relevant to the conference’s theme (ancient, medieval, and early modern), as well as broader comparative or methodological approaches.
The deadline for submission is 10 September 2026.
The organisers will select the proposals with a view to both the conference programme and the publication of the proceedings. Selected speakers will be invited to complete the registration process after acceptance. The conference proceedings will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication in the series Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine.
For further details and to register for this event, please click here
Andreas Hylla
Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) – Assistant Coordinator
Domus Comeliana, Via Cardinale Maffi 48, 56126 Pisa, Italy
Tel.: +39.02.006.20.51 – Mobile: +39.333.13.12.203
Email: ah@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org
3. Exceptionally rare 1948 recording of the Tehran Conservatory Choir. Conducted by the Persian-Armenian musician Roubik Grigorian, the choir performs the beloved folk songGolom Ey Golom:
Founded in the 1920s, the Tehran Conservatory Choir was the first choir to perform a repertoire in the Persian language.
4. CfPs:
Navigating Fragmented Legal Systems: Women, Agency, and Access in the Middle East
ScienceDirect special issue
https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/333965/navigating-fragmented-legal-systems-women-agency-and-access-in-the-middle-east
Mobilizing Sharīʿa, Law, and Gender Justice in Contemporary Muslim Societies: Legal Pluralism, Lived Islam, and Social Change
Springer Nature special collection in Contemporary Islam
https://link.springer.com/collections/cdgbhehfcj
International Symposium “Healing in Anatolian Culture”, Cappadocia, 24-26 September 2026
International symposium “Healing in Anatolian Culture,” to be held at Cappadocia University in Mustafapaşa, Cappadocia (Türkiye), on 24–26 September 2026.
Anatolia, at the crossroads of millennia of successive civilisations, developed a richly layered culture of healing. The knowledge of figures such as Aretaeus of Cappadocia and the pharmacologist Dioscorides of Anazarbus (Cilicia) converged, along the routes of the Silk Road, with the learning of Ibn Sina of Bukhara, shaping both medical practice and cultural life across the region. From antiquity to the present, healing practices in Anatolia have served as carriers not only of medical knowledge but also of belief systems, gender roles, ritual performance, and cultural memory.
The symposium examines the epistemological and practical dimensions of healing knowledge in Anatolia within a rigorous, interdisciplinary framework, bringing together the history of medicine, art history, archaeology, history, architecture, literature, gastronomy, folklore, and cultural studies. Particular attention is given to the visual and material culture of healing, to questions of identity, image, and cultural continuity, and to the central role of female healers — saints, folk midwives, herbalists, and ritual practitioners — in the transmission of healing knowledge.
The symposium is organised within the framework of an Erasmus Staff Week. Colleagues affiliated with a university may apply for Erasmus+ staff mobility support through their home institution to fund their participation.
Languages: Turkish and English.
Abstract deadline: 15 June 2026. Abstracts (maximum 300 words, with title and keywords) should be sent to sifainanatolia@kapadokya.edu.tr. Participation is free of charge; pre-registration is required.
Full details: https://sifainanatolia.kapadokya.edu.tr/en/home-page/
5. ONLINE Webinar: Mehmandari: Hosting and Minding Foreign Visitors in Safavid and Qajar Iran, with Rudi Matthee
British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), 30 June, 2026 5:00 pm UK Time
Mehmandari, the practice of having foreigners visiting in an official capacity welcomed, accompanied, and provided for by the host country, is very old in Iran. My presentation traces the historical roots of the practice and follows its development through the Safavid period and until late Qajar times. I next examine the responsibilities of the officer in charge, the mehmandar, to argue that, aside from serving as a court-appointed host, this official functioned above all as a minder, tasked to monitor the movements of envoys and to find out the real reasons for their visit. I further discuss the practice of accommodating visitors and their entourage and of providing them with victuals, the per diem official visitors were entitled to, and the burden this put on the local population, with all the corruption and graft it involved.
Information and registration:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8817805722380/WN_OtlBeUE4R4ixVSBvAbYk8Q#/registration
6. Summer 2026 funding: Laura Bassi Scholarship
The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. The scholarships are open to every discipline and the next round of funding will be awarded in Summer 2026:
Summer 2026
Application deadline: 12 July 2026
Results: 24 July 2026
All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV through the application portal by the relevant deadline. Further details, including previous winners, and the application portal can be found at: https://editing.press/bassi
7. CFP: Early Modern Maps and Materialities (RSA Philadelphia March 2027)
We seek proposals for papers for one or more panels about early modern maps and their materialities at the Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Philadelphia, 11-13 Mar 2027.
How does the material character of the map shape its capacity to communicate? How can the interrogation of format, support, media, techniques, modes of storage and display, marks of classification, ownership and origin add meaning and context to the information on its surface? Do different types and characters of materials and formats shape reception of geographical information? What evidence do we have of the value or valence of materials to mapmakers? Particularly in an age of expanding global awareness, how might materials have connected mapping processes to specific sites? How did materiality signify to Indigenous map traditions? In its consideration of these questions, this session will highlight the importance of the form and format of the early modern map as integral components of its interpretation.
Submissions must include:
Paper title (15-word maximum)
Paper abstract (200-word maximum)
CV (.pdf or .doc)
PhD or other terminal degree completion year (past or expected)
Full name, current affiliation, and email address.
Participants must be members of RSA to present at the conference.
Submission deadline: July 15, 2026.
Notification date: August 1, 2026.
Contact Information
Hayley Cotter, UMASS, Amherst, hcotter@umass.edu
Camille Serchuk, Southern CT State University, serchukc1@southernct.edu
8. CFP: ISHMap 2027 Barcelona – Symposium and Workshop: Mapping Outside the Metropole
Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya, Barcelona 24-28 May 2027
We are delighted to welcome proposals to participate in the International Society for the History of the Map (ISHMap) Symposium and Workshop that will take place in Barcelona. The Symposium is organized in collaboration with the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya.
Spain—as an empire, kingdom, and nation—has been known for its diverse regional cultures, politics, and topographies. In hosting this conference in Barcelona, ISHMap builds on this history through the theme of Mapping Outside the Metropole to think about centers of cultural production outside of the imperial capital. We welcome submissions that highlight national, regional, colonial, post-colonial maps and cartography.
The Symposium is open to everyone working in the history of cartography. The Workshop welcomes applications from professionals at the early stages in academic and public careers. To present or attend a workshop, you must be an ISHMap member by the date you register for the symposium and workshop.
Applications will be accepted until 30 September 2026 for individual papers, panels and roundtables or other proposed sessions. The review and acceptance will occur by 14 December 2026. Additional details about the symposium program and associated activities are forthcoming.
A two-day Workshop (24-26 May 2027) for early career professionals (scholars, curators, archivists, and librarians) working in the history of cartography, will precede the Symposium. Hands-on activities led by experts in the field may include sessions focusing on data, machine learning, and historical maps, Cold War mapping, early sea charts, and the materiality and production of the maps.
The Symposium (26-28 May 2027) will include paper and posters on all aspects of the history of maps and mapping. We particularly welcome proposals that address issues related to mapping outside of the metropole and the central sites of colonial and state power as well as proposals that bring comparative or cross-cultural perspectives to the history of maps and mapping.
This will be an in-person conference with all presentations and papers delivered. The keynote address may be available as a hybrid lecture.
EVENT CALENDAR
- 30 September 2026: Application deadline for Symposium and Workshop.
- 14 December 2026: Acceptances delivered.
- 1 March 2026: Registration for participants closes.
- 15 March 2026: Final program available online
- 26 April 2027: Registration for non-participants (attendees) closes.
- 24-26 May 2027: ISHMap Workshop (in person)
- 26-28 May 2027: ISHMap Symposium (in person)
- 29 May 2027: Post-Symposium Trip
Co-Chairs:
- Noelia Ramos Espinosa, Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya
- David Sánchez. Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya
- David Weimer, Newberry Library
Contact Email
URL
https://ishmap.com/ishmap-2027-barcelona/
9. Online: Women, Life, Freedom in the Mirror of Scholarship: Responses from the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Bilingual Lecture Series
A lecture by Pooyan Tamimi Arab (Utrecht University)
Co-organized by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies and the UCLA Iranian Studies
Monday, June 8, 2026
11:00 AM – 12:30 PT
https://forms.international.ucla.edu/cnes/event/17649
10. HYBRID Archaeology Conference “Poles on the Nile”, University of Warsaw, 9-12 June 2026
Information, program and registration: https://tinyurl.com/mr4x9j87
11. ONLINE Webinar “Abd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s Indebtedness to al-Suyūṭī” by Matthew B. Ingalls (AUD), Series “The Heirs of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505 AD)”, OIB/Universities of Bamberg and Göttingen, Beirut, 10 June 2026, 18:00 – 19:30 CET
Though only briefly acquainted, al-Suyūṭī profoundly influenced ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s (d. 1565) intellectual development. This paper explores their biographical and intellectual connections, focusing on al-Suyūṭī’s role in shaping al-Shaʿrānī’s affiliation with the Shādhilī order, his justification for writing a spiritual autobiography, and his integration of Sufism into Islamic legal discourse.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/3snfnyfd
12. HYBRID Book Talk “Cities in Fragments: Modernism, Memory, and the Making of the Contemporary Arab City” by Yasser Elsheshtawy (Arab Gulf States Institute), Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 11 June 2026, 17:00 – 18:30 CET
This talk introduces Elsheshtawy’s book “Arab Modernism(s): Cities, History and Culture”, exploring how architecture and urban transformation shaped – and were shaped by – the social, cultural, and political trajectories of Arab cities. Moving across a range of cities, it examines modernism not merely as an architectural style but as a lived condition marked by aspiration, memory, displacement, and everyday life.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/z73nx7d7
13. ONLINE International Symposium “The Cultural Impact of Janissaries in the Ottoman Periphery”, Forum Tauri, Istanbul, 14 June 2026, 12:00 – 18:00 CET
Focusing on the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Egypt, and North Africa, the symposium invites reflection on how Janissary communities operated within provincial societies. In these regions, Janissaries were not only soldiers; they were urban actors, participants in local economies, members of devotional networks, and agents of institutional transmission. Through ritual practices, brotherhood structures, musical and ceremonial traditions, and social integration, they contributed to the shaping of local cultural land-scapes.
Information, program and registration: https://tinyurl.com/54pkua37
14. HYBRID Book Talk “Social Anthropology in the Arab World. The Fragmented History of a Contested Discipline” by Daniele Cantini, Berlin Anthropology Seminars, Freie Universität Berlin, 17 June 2026, 16:15 – 18:00 CET
This book examines the history and institutionalisation of anthropology in the Maghreb, the Mashreq and the Gulf, in an open and collaborative manner and from various perspectives. Its primary focus is two-fold: first, to reorient the anthropological focus towards studies conducted in the region, particularly on the conditions conducive to the institutionalisation of anthropological knowledge; second, to shed light on anthropological studies in languages other than English. offering different theoretical and epistemological perspectives.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/fr2xfes9
15. Journée d’étude « Étudier les langues orientales. Sciences et politique », Inalco, Paris, 19 juin 2026, 9h00 – 17h30 CET
Désigner et nommer des langues, les qualifier d’« orientales vivantes », « d’une utilité reconnue pour la politique et le commerce », en faire des objets d’enseignement, en « composer la grammaire » : voilà des gestes simples en apparence, lourds pourtant d’implicites et de conséquences.
Information et programme : https://tinyurl.com/ykn4bc9t
16. 9th International Symposium “Politics and Society in the Islamic World”, University of Lodz, Poland, 21-23 October 2026
We invite case studies from across the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and other global contexts. Contributions may adopt national, regional, comparative, or transnational perspectives and combine insights from multiple disciplines.
Deadline for abstracts: 20 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/phbmrsfb
17. Workshop “Imperial Transformations – Comparative Strategies in Empires of Salvation Religions” (Focus Middle Eastern Salvation Religions), Center for Comparative Empire and Transcultural Studies (RomanIs-lam), University of Hamburg, 11-14 November 2026
The Roman, Islamic, and Spanish empires all seem paradigmatic for our understanding of a transformative imperialism. Their imperial missions were driven by Middle Eastern salvation religions. Subsequent empires and political regimes until today have all drawn, in one way or another, on the common heritage of Roman, Islamic, and Hispanic imperial legacies.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/43tms8mk
18. “International Qard Symposium: Theory, History and Contemporary Applications”, Istanbul University, 14-15 November 2026
Throughout Islamic civilization, the institution of qard has historically served as an important mechanism of mutual assistance, justice, and social welfare. The symposium aims to examine qard from its classical jurisprudential foundations to its contemporary financial applications through a multidimensional perspective. It will discuss historical experiences, modern financial systems, participation banking, civil society practices, digital finance models, and contemporary economic challenges within an interdisciplinary framework.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yc3edrw5
19. Workshop “Identifying as Woman in Transnational Religious Spaces: Contemporary Dynamics of Lived Religion, Femininity, and Womanhood”, Department of the Study of Religion with a Focus on Islam, University of the Bundeswehr, Munich, 18-20 November 2026
Main questions: How are femininity and womanhood negotiated, lived, and embodied in transnational religious spaces. – What does this tell us about current discourses on femininity and womanhood and their intertwining with other global, including colonial and postcolonial, political and social discourses? – What is the lived reality of women in these transnational spaces, and how does it relate to their practice of religions? – How does being in transnational spaces affect women’s lived religion? – Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4mmwffsr
20. Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai Visiting Fellowship (1 Academic Year), Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
We welcome fellowship applications from scholars conducting research on a diverse range of topics: _Muslim Societies Past and Present _Identity and Citizenship: Muslims in Britain and the West _Classical Islamic Sciences _Economic and Human Development and Islamic Finance _Science, Technology, Environment and Muslim Societies
Deadline for applications: 15 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/375mtbwe
21. “Gwenn Okruhlik Dissertation Award” of the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (AGAPS)
We welcome dissertations from across the disciplines and a variety of perspectives. They must primarily focus on the Arabian Peninsula but can be inclusive of the transnational flows of people, material and ideas across the Gulf, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean. PhD dissertations accepted for the degree of PhD between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026 are eligible.
Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2026. Information: https://agaps.org/awards-2026/
22. “Graduate Paper Prize” of the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (AGAPS)
We welcome graduate papers from across disciplines and a with variety of perspectives. They must primarily focus on the Arabian Peninsula but can be inclusive of the transnational flow of people, goods and ideas across the Gulf, Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The research paper must be unpublished and must have been written between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026.
Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2026. Information: https://agaps.org/awards-2026/
23. Summer Course “Reading and Analysing Persian Archival Sources from Afghanistan”, Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, 7-11 September 2026
Participants will work primarily with Persian documents from the 19th and 20th centuries. The summer school will introduce participants to basic archival and palaeographical skills, including reading Nastaʿlīq and Shikasta scripts, identifying document types and seals, and understanding administrative terminology, text structure, and content.
Deadline for applications: 30 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/47md9ur4
24. Chapters on “Alternatives to the Nation-State: Federalism, Autonomy, and Post-Imperial Imaginaries in the Mediterranean Long Nineteenth Century” for Book Edited by Erkjad Kajo & Alexandros S. Balatsoukas
Themes: Imperial decentralization as a design problem (Algerian decentralization debates, khedivial Egypt, the Mount Lebanon mutasarrifiyya as mixed sovereignty). – Constitutional moments and their Mediterranean circulation (Ottoman 1876 and 1908). – Religious internationalisms as political alternatives (pan-Islamism, the Alliance Israélite Universelle). – Mountain and local autonomies (Druze, Maronite, Kabyle) as working models behind larger federalist projects. – Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 July 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4nshrjac
25. ONLINE Article on “Baraka and Thermodynamics: Migrant Work, Lawful Income, and Economic Growth” by Samuli Schielke in “Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology”, 4 May 2026, 14 Pages
Based on fieldwork with Egyptian workers in the Dubai metropolitan area, I seek to understand the tension between a search for moral and economic stability and processes of growth and mobility that destabilise the foundations and shape of a viable life. I argue that there is a productive tension between the idea of non-destructive thriving expressed in the Islamic concept of baraka (divine blessing) and hydrocarbon-based capitalist growth.
Link: https://tinyurl.com/y2emdud3
26. New Book “Islamist Political Thought in Turkey” by Michelangelo Guida, IB Tauris, 28 May 2026, 248 Pages
This book provides an intellectual history of Islamism in Turkey, tracing the thought of key figures from the late Ottoman Empire to the contemporary period. Covering also the rise of Islamism as a political movement in the late 20th century, it provides important insight into the intellectual background of Islamism in contemporary Turkey.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/537w2vk9
27. New Book: “Libya’s Struggle and Unfinished Transformation: Monarchy, Dictatorship, the Reform Dilemma, and the Betrayal of R2P”by Youssef Mohammad Sawani, Palgrave, 1 July 2026, 356 Pages
This book offers a de-colonial examination of Libya’s political evolution and societal dynamics. Analysing the monarchy, the Gaddafi era, and the NATO intervention, it explores the interplay between internal agency and external influences. The book provides essential insights into Libya’s state-building challenges, the 2011 uprising, and its persistent political fragmentation.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/59zamhem
- June 06, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- June 05, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- June 04, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – ONLINE Contributions to the “Alevi Encyclopedia”
ONLINE Contributions to the “Alevi Encyclopedia”
The Alevi Encyclopedia is a multilingual, open-access academic platform for Alevism and related fields. It welcomes scholarly contributions in Turkish, English, and German. Previously published works such as articles, book chapters, dictionary/encyclopedia entries, thesis excerpts, or journalistic essays may be revised and formatted according to the Alevi Encyclopedia criteria. Ongoing or unpublished research may also be submitted.
Deadline for contributions: 15 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ycyv5ue9
- June 03, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Online: Cluster of Excellence Lecture Event: Imperial Infrastructures of Communication across Eurasia
Convened by
Tijana Krstic (Central European University) and
Nina Mirnig (University of Vienna)
Date and Time
Monday 8th June 2026, 5:00 PM CET // 8:00 AM PST
Venue
Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies,
University of Vienna, Seminar Room 1, Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2, Eingang 2.7, 1090 Vienna
For online participation, please register below:
https://univienna.zoom.us/meeting/register/je5EJPt-TrWu2f1AthAXVg#/registration
17:00
Welcome
Tijana Krstic (Central European University) and Nina Mirnig (University of Vienna)
17:05
Introduction
Sebastian Fink (University of Innsbruck)
17:10
Lecture
Assyrian Imperial Communication: Messengers, Animals, and Royal Roads
Sanae Ito, Associate Professor, Research Center for Cultural Heritage and Texts, Nagoya University
17:40
Panel Discussion
Transregional Perspectives on Imperial Communication
Ancient Iran
Respondent: M. Rahim Shayegan, Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Professor of Iranian, Director of the Pourdavoud Institute & Yarshater Center, Chair of Global Antiquity, UCLA (online)
Ancient India
Respondent: Upinder Singh, Professor of History, Ashoka University (online
Ottoman Empire
Respondent: Tolga Esmer, Professor at the Department of Historical Studies, Central European University
Moderated by Tijana Krstic and Nina Mirnig
2. Stoning as Punishment in Early Islam
Syed Atif Rizwan
OUP, 2026
https://academic.oup.com/book/62316
3. The Cambridge Handbook of Islam and Environmental Law
We are pleased to share the publication of The Cambridge Handbook of Islam and Environmental Law (Cambridge University Press, 2026).
We have a post on Cambridge’s Fifteen Eighty Four blog, What Climate Law Has Been Missing for 1,400 Years, so you can learn more about the project.
TRT World covered the book ahead of COP 31 in Antalya on May 27: link.
On Friday, Mohamed Arafa presented at the Law and Society Association CRN 23 International Law and Politics Multibook Launch in San Francisco.
Please use code TCHIEL26 for 20% off through May 2027 on the publisher’s site. If you can request your library to order a copy, we would appreciate it.
We welcome thoughts and feedback on this project.
Kind regards,
Saba Kareemi, Nadia Ahmad, Erum Sattar, Oluwakemi Ayanleye
3. Elements Series: Life Forms in Premodern Philosophy
Six Lectures on Aristotle’s “De Anima”
organised by
Fabrizio Bigotti
01 July – 6 August
Few texts in history have enjoyed the centrality of Aristotle’s De Anima. The work presupposes and at the same time coordinates the entire structure of Aristotle’s inquiry on the living world and remained vital long after other parts of Aristotle’s natural philosophy ceased to command obedience in the academic world. This vitality was due also to the fact that Aristotle posed a question that few others in history have tried to address: what is life?
His answer stirs a middle ground between vitalism and materialism. Condensed into six lectures, these encounters will explore the nuances and complexities of Aristotle’s theory of the soul. Participants will read selected passages of Aristotle in English. Knowledge of Greek is not mandatory, but it would be an advantage as some technical terms are introduced and explained.
For further details and to register for this event, please click here.
Kindest regards,
Andreas Hylla
Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) – Assistant Coordinator
Domus Comeliana, Via Cardinale Maffi 48, 56126 Pisa, Italy
Tel.: +39.02.006.20.51 – Mobile: +39.333.13.12.203
Email: ah@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org
4. Mathhee, R., ‘Bloody Hands: Shāh Ṣafī Ṣafavī’s Ascent to Power, 1038–44/1629–34’
2026, Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia (JASPA, formerly JAOS), 146:2 , 339-63
https://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos/article/view/3119
5. Call for Workshop Abstracts
Iraq: The State of the Field since 2003
The Center for Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS) at Villanova University invites you to submit abstracts for consideration in a workshop on “Iraq: The State of the Field since 2003” to be held virtually on 12 – 13 February, 2027 organized by Zainab Saleh (Haverford), Sara Farhan (University of Northern British Columbia), and Pelle Valentin Olsen (Lund University).
The American invasion of Iraq in March 2003 constitutes one of the most consequential ruptures in the history of the modern Middle East. Nearly twenty-five years later, the ramifications of the invasion continue to reverberate across the humanities and social sciences. Despite the voluminous literature generated in the wake of the invasion, critical and systematic reflection on intellectual trends, how these trends were formed, the archives and forms of retrieval and collection that enabled them, and who has been authorized to produce knowledge on Iraq remains fragmentary. The Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (JSAMES) invites scholars across the humanities and social sciences to interrogate these foundational questions under a unifying rubric of ‘Iraq: The State of the Field since 2003.’
Structured by an insistence on interdisciplinarity, ‘Iraq: The State of the Field since 2003’ proceeds with the conviction that the Invasion of Iraq marked an epistemological watershed. The invasion and ensuing occupation fundamentally reshaped the conditions of scholarly inquiry: pillaged archives, hollowed out universities, murdered and exiled academics in Iraq and the simultaneous emergence of new repositories, institutions, and conferences in the West. To take stock of scholarship on Iraq since 2003 is therefore an exercise in gauging the barometers of the material and ideological conditions under which that scholarship has been produced. We invite scholars to engage rigorously with this double task while foregrounding the following:
- Knowledge Production, Methodology, and Positionality
What is the location and positionality of knowledge about Iraq? Who gets to produce knowledge about Iraq, under what conditions, for what audiences and in what languages? What theoretical and methodological paradigms have dominated Iraq studies since 2003, and what intellectual possibilities have they foreclosed? The forum invites critical interrogation of the epistemological frameworks governing the field since 2003, meta-scholarly reflections on paradigmatic tendencies and their consequences, and substantive research presentations in areas that remain underrepresented or invisible.
- Public, Collective Memory, and Commemorations
What does it mean to write the history of a society whose relationship to its own past has been consistently contested? What do acts of commemoration mean? And who gets to perform them, and what actors, past and present, do they exclude? The sedimentary layers of competing remembrance that continue to shape how Iraqi communities understand themselves and their obligations to their past are an important interdisciplinary concept. The erection and demolition of monuments, the establishment of museums and memorials, the designation of communal or national days of remembrance, the performance of communal rituals, and the official canonization of martyrs and heroes are acts of political will with a long and contentious history that cannot be reduced to the post-2003 moment.
- Iraqi Archives
The history of Iraq’s archives enacts the colonial logic that Edward Said identified as the aggregation of the right to govern is, therefore, the right to narrate. The use of plundered records reproduces an asymmetry in which the imperial power that precipitated archival destruction simultaneously becomes the privileged custodian and the interpreter of the Iraqi past. The field cannot be adequately assessed without confronting the structural deficiency that has shaped it since at least 2003: the systematic underutilization of archives in Iraq and the corresponding marginalization of scholarship produced by Iraqi scholars working in Iraqi institutions. The forum presses upon contributors the importance of engaging seriously with these materials and the substantial body of scholarship produced by Iraqi academics, many of whom continue to work under severe institutional constraints.
- The Case for Interdisciplinarity
History, anthropology, political science, sociology, literary and cultural studies, law, gender studies, geography, and the environmental humanities each illuminate different facets of a reality that resists disciplinary enclosure. The forum is explicitly interdisciplinary in its ambitions. We invite scholars to bring their distinctive disciplinary competencies into conversation with one another, to reflect on what is gained and what is lost in such crossings, and to model forms of collaborative inquiry that move beyond the additive inclusion of multiple methodologies as we work toward engaged intellectual synthesis.
- Social History
The 2003 U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq profoundly reshaped and reconfigured everyday life. Iraqis not only endured the destruction of infrastructure and the erosion of access to basic needs, but also navigated new realities marked by checkpoints, militarization, displacement, crackdowns on protest movements, and increasing restrictions on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. The institutionalization of a sectarian quota system further transformed social relations, political belonging, and access to resources and opportunities. How did the invasion and occupation reshape gender relations, senses of belonging, public spaces, and everyday life chances? How were class, sect, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality renegotiated in post-2003 Iraq? In what ways have Iraqis resisted, adapted to, or memorialized these transformations over the past twenty-five years?
Submission Guidelines and Key Dates:
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 that 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.
For submissions, please fill out this form.
If you have any inquiries, reach out to the managing editor of JSAMES, Dina Baslan at dina.baslan@villanova.edu with the following subject heading: “CFP Iraq: The State of the Field since 2003”.
The workshop timeline is as follows:
September 1, 2026 Submission of abstracts (~250 words)
Late September 2026 Notification of acceptance
Mid November 2026 Virtual participants’ meeting
January 8, 2027 Submission of paper drafts (~4000 words)
February 12 – 13, 2027 Workshop
May 11, 2027 Submission of final papers for review (4000 words)
Contact Information
Dina Baslan
Contact Email
URL
https://www.villanova.edu/university/liberal-arts-sciences/scholarship/journals…
- June 02, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Zoom:’Revisiting the “ʿAlids”‘ – T Bernheimer (2.6.26, 5pm UK time)
- June 01, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Hybrid Conference: Health and the Environment in the Preindustrial World: Multidisciplinary Approaches
Our upcoming conference “Health and the Environment in the Preindustrial World: Multidisciplinary Approaches” that will take place on 23-24 July 2026 in a Hybrid format, with in-person attendance at Monash University, Caulfield Campus in Victoria, Australia. Registration closes on the 26 June.
This international and interdisciplinary conference brings to a close the activities of the grant team “Pursuing Public Health in the Preindustrial World, 1100-1800.” Beyond the team itself, it involves a dozen scholars working across health history, history of science and technology, religion, archaeology and landscape in areas covering Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and East and Southeast Asia.
Convener
Guy Geltner, Monash University
Keynote Speaker
Pamela H. Smith, Columbia University
For further details of the conference check out our website click here or program click here.
Both remote and in-person attendance is free. To register, please click the following link (note: if you responded to the pre-registration form, you do need to fill out this registration form to confirm your attendance): https://forms.gle/osAuopLawo9a3e5U6
For any questions, please direct them towards Lucy Moloney (lucy.moloney1@monash.edu)
2. Prochaine séance du séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien”, jeudi 4 juin 2026, 17h, à l’INALCO
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 prochain, 4 juin 2026, 17h-19h, en salle 4.06 à l’INaLCO(65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 4eétage).
Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir Mme Ekaterina Nechaeva, Professeure à l’Université de Lille, historienne de l’Antiquité tardive, spécialiste en particulier des relations entre Rome et la Perse sassanide, pour une conférence intitulée :Le destin des captifs d’Amida au début du VIe siècle.
Résumé :
Amida, l’une des principales villes de Mésopotamie romaine, se trouve au cœur de la guerre entre Kavadh et Anastase (502-506). Le siège de la ville par les troupes iraniennes, long de plusieurs mois, compte parmi les épisodes les plus dramatiques du conflit et s’achève par sa prise en janvier 503, dans des circonstances que les sources expliquent de manière divergente, entre défaillance, négligence et récits de trahison. La chute de la ville s’accompagne d’une capture massive de la population, touchant à la fois des groupes urbains, des communautés religieuses, ainsi que des figures de rang plus élevé.
À partir d’un dossier de sources, en particulier grecques et syriaques, cette conférence se propose d’examiner les circonstances de ces captures, puis le devenir des captifs tel qu’il peut être reconstitué : leur sélection et leur dispersion, le maintien d’une partie d’entre eux sous occupation perse, la libération alléguée de certains, ainsi que la captivité prolongée d’autres après la reprise de la ville par les Romains. Une attention particulière sera portée à leurs trajectoires individuelles – qu’il s’agisse de captifs de haut rang ou de figures plus ordinaires – afin de restituer, au plus près des sources, la diversité de ces parcours.
Orientations bibliographiques :
– Azarnouche, S., Petitjean, M. « Sasanian Warriors in Context: Historical and Religious Commentary on a Middle Persian Chapter on Artēštārān (Dēnkard VIII.26) », HiMA : revue internationale d’histoire militaire ancienne, 2022, p. 331–384.
– Berriah, M., Petitjean, M. « La théorie militaire sassanide : regards croisés », Antiquité Tardive 30, 2023, p. 181–199.
– Debié, M. « Du grec en syriaque », Byzantinische Zeitschrift 96 (2), 2003, p. 601–622.
– Greatrex, G. Rome and Persia at War, 502–532. Leeds, 1998.
– Greatrex, G. « Procopius and Pseudo-Zachariah on the siege of Amida and its aftermath (502–506) », in Börm, H. (éd.), Commutatio et Contentio: Studies in the Late Roman, Sasanian and Early Islamic Near East. Düsseldorf : Wellem Verlag, 2010, p. 227–251.
– Lenski, N. « Two sieges of Amida (AD 359 and 502–503) », in Lewin, A., Pellegrini, P. (éd.), The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest. Oxford : Archaeopress, 2007, p. 219–236.
– Petersen, L. I. R. Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States (400–800 AD): Byzantium, the West and Islam. Leiden – Boston : Brill, 2013.
– Shahbazi, A. Sh., Kettenhofen, E., Perry, J. R. « Deportations », Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1994. URL : https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/deportations (consulté le 22/01/2026).
Vous retrouverez 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 cette dernière séance de l’année, qui se déroulera comme toujours 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
3. Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Colloque international
Turco-Persianate Popular Romances from Southeast Asia to the Balkans:
Composition, Transmission, and Reception of Historical-Legendary Epics over the Longue Durée in a Multilingual Space
les 1-2 juin 2026, Paris
- Lundi/Monday, 01/06/2026, 9:00–17:45
Auditorium Georges Dumézil, Maison de la Recherche de l’INaLCO (2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris) - Mardi/Tuesday, 02/06/2026, 9:30–12:00
Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne Nouvelle(4 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris)
Le colloque explore les modes d’expression des communautés du monde musulman oriental à travers la composition, la transmission et la réception de récits populaires centrés autour de protagonistes héroïques, notamment les figures des débuts de l’Islam, ainsi que la culture matérielle associée à leur vénération. Il fait suite au colloque Amir Hamza and Beyond: Historical Narratives and Romances across the Muslim World qui s’est tenu en septembre 2023 à l’Institut de recherche sur les langues et cultures d’Asie et d’Afrique (ILCAA) de la Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
- Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles.
- Information, programme détaillé et abstracts : https://cermi.cnrs.fr/turco-persianate-popular-romances-from-southeast-asia-to-the-balkans/
Ce colloque a été organisé avec le soutien de:
-NIHU Global Mediterranean at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA)
-Kyoto University
-Centre de recherche sur le monde iranien (CeRMI, UMR8041 du CNRS)
-Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INaLCO)
-Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
-Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan (DAFA)
-Fondation Max van Berchem
-Institut d’études de l’islam et des sociétés musulmanes (IISMM)
-Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
- Organisation scientifique:
- Sacha Alsancakli, The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research and Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University
- Yui Kanda, ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
- Maria Szuppe, CNRS, CeRMI UMR8041
Contact:
alsancakli.sacha.6s@kyoto-u.ac.jp
4. Séminaire « L’Afghanistan à travers les âges » – séance de mercredi 3 juin 18h-19h30N
Nous avons le plaisir de vous convier à la séance du séminaire « L’Afghanistan à travers les âges », qui se tiendra mercredi 3 juin 2026, 18h-19h30, entièrement en distanciel. Voici le lien de connexion: https://zoom.us/j/96136711428?pwd=jqZ3lotYx6re8bpoU4uAYPl9GRM1CF.1
Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir M Muhammad Ali Dinakhel, Cermi, pour une conférence intitulée : Pashto Across Borders: Language Planning and Identity in Afghanistan and Pakistan (20th–21st Centuries).
Résumé:
This lecture explores the trajectory of Pashto language planning and identity across Afghanistan and Pakistan from the late 19th century to the present. Situated within the broader framework of language planing policy (status, corpus, and acquisition planning), it examines how the Durand Line (1893) shaped linguistic development, publication practices, and orthographic unity. In Pakistan, Pashto’s role evolved through constitutional debates, literary movements such as the Khudai Khidmatgar and Pukhtun Resala(1928), and institutional initiatives including the Pashto Academy at the University of Peshawar, alongside recent policy directives mandating Pashto in schools. In Afghanistan, shifting regimes from Amir Sher Ali Khan to the Taliban era demonstrate varying approaches to Pashto’s status, from nation-building projects and compulsory policies under Zahir Shah to bilingual compromises and constitutional recognitions in 1964, 1976, 1987, and 2004. Through a comparative lens, the lecture highlights the tensions between politics, identity, and pedagogy in shaping Pashto’s development, illustrating how one language has been molded by two states, two policies, and multiple narratives.
Orientations bibliographiques:
Ahady, Anwar-ul-Haq (1995) The Decline of Pashtuns in Afghanistan. Asian Survey 35/7.
Dinakhel, M.A. (2012) Pashto as Official Language in the Swat State Pashto. Bilingual Quarterly Research Journal, Pashto Academy 40-41/642s, pp. 23-35.
Dinakhel, M.A. (2018) Analysis of Conflict Between Pashto and Dari Languages of Afghanistan. Central Asia Biannual Research Journal 83, pp. 79-99.
Dinakhel, M.A. (2019) A Study of Pashto Folklore: Its Aspects and Nation-building in Pakistan. PAKISTAN 55, pp. 61-76.
Dinakhel, M.A. (2021) An Introduction of Pashto Manuscripts in the State Library Berlin, Central Asia Biannual Research Journal88, pp. 57-72.
Dinakhel, M.A. (2023) An Overview of The Development of Novel in Afghanistan (1913-1940). PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology 20/1, pp. 422-432.
Dinakhel, M.A. (2023) An Analysis of the Themes of Identity and Sense of Belonging in the Pashto Literary Works of Afghan Refugees from 1979 to 1989. Khair Ul Ummah 3/1, pp.1-19.
Dinakhel, M.A. (2023) Linguistic, Literary and Cultural Impact of Afghan Refugees on Pashto language, literature and culture in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan 8/2, pp. 14-34.
Dinakhel, M.A. (2023) Reflection of Pak-Afghan Border in Pashto Literature, Its Impacts on Pashto Language and Linguistic Research. Khair Ul Ummah 2/2, pp.53-59.
Dvgryankov, N.A., Pashto Dialects and the Literary Language in Afghanistan, XXVI International Congress of Orientalists, Papers presented by the USSR Delegation.
Henderson, M.M.T. (1983) Four varieties of Pashto. Journal of the American Oriental Society 103/3.
Mackenzie, D.N. (1959) A Standard Pashto, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 22/1-3.
Morgenstierne, G. (1925) Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Oslo.
Morgenstierne, G. (1932) Report on a Linguistic Mission to North-western India. Oslo.
Schiffman, H.F. (2012) Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors. Leiden-Boston.
Shinwari, M.M. (1968) Da Afghanistan Milli Jaba aw Adab [National Language and Literature of Afghanistan], Pashto Tolana.
Bien cordialement,
Arezou Azad et Matteo De Chiara
——————————————————–
CeRMI – CNRS UMR 8041
Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien
Campus CNRS Ile-de-France Villejuif
7, rue Guy Môquet – 94800 Villejuif – FRANCE
cermi@cnrs.fr – https://www.cermi.cnrs.fr
5. Conference “Mecmuas in the Ottoman World: Interdisciplinary Approaches and Current Research”, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna, 4-6 June 2026
The conference is dedicated to the study of manuscript miscellanies (mecmuas) as a key yet insufficiently theorised format of knowledge organisation across the Ottoman world and Eurasia. By examining mecmuas as dynamic sites of intellectual, religious, and practical exchange, the conference foregrounds their significance for understanding processes of communication and transformation across regions and periods.
Information, program and registration: https://mecmuaconference.univie.ac.at/
6. ONLINE Meeting of the “Forum for the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) in Arabic Scripts”, Harvard University and University of Strasbourg, 25 June 2026, 17:00 – 18:00 CET
The Forum seeks to establish a collaborative space for: • Centralizing researchers working on TEI in Arabic-script materials (Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Urdu, and related corpora). • Sharing existing resources for encoding and editing practices. • Discussing various workflows and pipelines, as well as possibilities for automation of annotation, data extraction, and visualizations, including the use of large language models (LLMs) and other computational methods. • Identifying opportunities for shared infrastructures and future collaborations.
Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/5eyvsxtc. Meeting ID: 934 9867 7303.
Passcode: 391302. Information: Adam Mestyan (mestyan@fas.harvard.edu)
7. Workshop “Identifying as Woman in Transnational Religious Spaces: Contemporary Dynamics of Lived Religion, Femininity, and Womanhood“, Department of the Study of Religion with a Focus on Islam, University of the Bundeswehr Munich, 18-20 November 2026
We want to draw attention to the interrelation between women’s everyday religious practices and transnational dynamics that come with performative discourses of femininity and womanhood. We speak of femininity and womanhood as social and cultural discourses of material, aesthetic, and performative social and cultural impact and frameworks that may shape both the spaces we study and our own analytical gaze.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4mmwffsr
8. Workshop for Edited Volume: “A Seat at the Table: Making Space for the Middle East and North Africa in Global Food Studies”, Center for Middle East Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI, 20 November 2026
All submissions should aim to demonstrate, on the one hand, the theoretical and empirical im-portance of MENA to global food studies, and, on the other, how the lens of food and foodways can help us rethink key themes and metanarratives in Middle East studies. The workshop seeks to feature diverse methodological perspectives, including those originating in less-represented disciplines such as art history, architecture and musicology.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4a6jd6kw
9. “7e congrès des études sur le Moyen-Orient et les mondes musulmans”, Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry, 14-18 juin 2027
Les propositions peuvent relever d’un ou plusieurs domaines des sciences humaines et sociales (anthropologie, archéologie et histoire de l’art, droit, économie, géographie, histoire, islamologie et sciences religieuses, linguistique, littérature, philosophie, sociologie, science politique…), dans une perspective globale ou régionale. Les langues dans lesquelles le programme du congrès est présenté sont le français et l’anglais.
Proposition au plus tard le 30 juin 2026. Information : http://majlis-remomm.fr/74126
10. World Congress of the Society for Global Nineteenth Century Studies: “Global Imagi-naries, Maritime Power, and Intercontinental Circulations: The Ambivalent Legacies of the Long Nineteenth Century”, Valparaíso, Chile, 20-23 July 2027
Themes: • Visions of international order and global geopolitics in nineteenth-century thought. • Imaginations of post-imperial possibilities for the organization of power and society. • The devel-opment of maritime power in its military, institutional, technological, and commercial dimensions. • The creation of intercontinental and transnational networks of circulation of knowledge, ideas, goods, and practices, and their impact on power structures.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 July 2026. Information: https://www.global19c.com/congress2027
11. Post-Doc Position (30 Months) for the Critical Edition with Annotated English Translation of Musky Aromas, MOSAIC Project, UCLouvain, Belgium
Qualification: – PhD in Islamic Studies, in Middle Eastern Studies, or related fields. – Excellent command of Classical Arabic (the knowledge of additional languages such as Persian and Turkish is considered an advantage). – Academic writing and presentation skills in English (the working language of the project). – Ability to work both individually and as part of a team.
Deadline for applications: 10 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2axtd8uf
12. Academic Career Development Fellow (3 Years) in the Global Politics/International Relations of the MENA, University of Cambridge
Candidates should have a proven academic profile in global politics and international relations in the Middle East and North Africa or South Asia. They will have a PhD in a relevant field already and be able to demonstrate an outstanding research record for their career stage.
Deadline for applications: 4 June 2026. Information: https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/55579/
13. New Book: “The Birth of British Islam – Multiculturalism and the Localisation of Muslim Debates” by Masooda Bano, Edinburgh University Press, May 2026, 304 Pages
This book is based on in-depth ethnographic studies within British Muslim communities, including mosques and dar ul ulooms, to provide real-life insights. It documents young British imams and second- and third-generation Muslims actively working to align Islamic teachings with British val-ues. It highlig hts the crucial role of Muslim women as mothers, educators, and preachers in shaping debates about future of British Muslim communities. And it demonstrates how religious teachings can prevent youth radicalization.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/yfk3sd98
14. New Book: “Christians in Middle Eastern History: Strangers No More”, Edited by John-Paul Ghobrial, Michael A. Reynolds, Christian C. Sahner, Jack Tannous, Edinburgh University Press, May 2026, 336 Pages
This volume offers a series of case studies by leading scholars that offer different answers to the question of what histories of the region might look like if this demographic situation were taken seriously. Critiquing dominant narratives that conflate the history of the Middle East and the history of Islam, they show how integrating Christian actors, experiences and sources can enrich our understanding of the region.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/yuk3645k
15. New Book: “Sovereignty in Iran – Challenges to Eurocentrism from Ancient Iran to the Islamic Republic” by Shabnam J. Holliday, Edinburgh University Press, May 2026, 376 Pages
This book contains the first comprehensive exploration of sovereignty that considers many as-pects of Iran. It explores sovereignty from ancient Iran to the Islamic Republic including the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. It also provides an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary ap-proach that moves beyond periodised understandings of history contributes to better understand-ing Eurocentrism.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/yvsbhrbr
16. New Book: “Islamic Apocalypticism in the Twentieth Century and Beyond: Society, Pol-itics and Technology in a Century of Change” by Waleed Rikab, Edinburgh University Press, May 2026, 272 Pages
This book contains an unprecedented and comprehensive discussion of Islamic apocalyptic and messianic thought in the 20th-century Middle East. Bringing to light numerous unstudied Arabic texts and considering previously undiscussed debates, this book corrects misconceptions about Islamic apocalypticism and enables a better understanding of the variety of thought that appears in apocalyptic materials published throughout the Arab World.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/bdha4zzt
- May 30, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- May 28, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – CfP: ‘The Institutional Embedding of Shiʿi Imams’ (Leiden, 13-15 January, 2027)
Call for Papers: The Institutional Embedding of Shiʿi Imams: Kinship, Caliphs, Courts and Companions (700-900)
University of Leiden, 13th-15th January 2027.
This conference (organized by the ERC project Embodied Imamate) seeks to illuminate the embedding of imams (and uncanonised candidates for imamate) as actors within their social, institutional and historical context before the canonization of an unbroken line of Twelve imams (260/874).
It will consist of a conference with traditional presentations, combined with a more workshop-style discussion of sources and approaches aimed at generating solid conversations about the state of the field.
The Imami imams are familiar as scholars and sources of knowledge, but they were, crucially, also elite members of the Islamic empire and as such occupied a pre-eminent place within society, serving as landowners, powerbrokers and community leaders. They also married into the other major families including the dynastic families of the Umayyad and Abbasids. Many of their followers occupied eminent positions within the polities of their day, while several imams (Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, in primis) serve as transmitters of religious knowledge for non-Shiʿi communities. They were, thus, embedded within early Islamic society and played a role in its formation.
A core assumption of this conference will be that the institutions of the Imami Shiʿi imamate came into being in historical time at some point after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, but that it is not clear exactly when or how this occurred: key questions, then, will be to interrogate potential methodologies for tracing different aspects of when and how a distinctive Imami imamate emerged. The conference will not accept papers that are purely doctrinal or intellectual history, without a large component of social or institutional contextualisation.
The organisers welcome papers addressing the following themes (amongst others) for the period 700-900 CE:
Imami vs Caliphal authority: in what sense were the imams, imams?
The household of the imam
Access to the imams
Socio-political studies of the lives of individual imams
The development or role of the “Shi’i” community in specific regions/cities (e.g., Qom, Kufa, Medina, Baghdad)
Inheritance and bequesting practices
Instruments of succession – waṣiyya, naṣṣ vs bayʿa
Estates and property
Kinship ties between the imams and other Arabian elites
The role of companions of imams in the caliphal court
Networks of companions (geographical and social)
Imams at the caliphal court (politics, imprisonment etc.)
Methodologies and sources for writing Shiʿi social and institutional history
Comparisons between the social and institutional positioning, and followers of different candidates and conceptions of imamate: such as Zayd b. ʿAlī, ʿAbd Allāh al-Afṭaḥ, Abū Ḥanīfa, or the caliph al-Manṣūr
Failed imams
Alqāb as indicators of claims to authority
Inscriptions and papyri as sources for the early Shiʿa
Presentations will last 45 minutes. The organisers are open for presenters to choose how they wish to use their time, whether as a traditional presentation (30 minutes talk + 15 minutes Q&A), by pre-circulating primary sources you wish to discuss or other suitable arrangements. The organisers intend to publish contributions from the conference as either an edited volume/special issue and will be in touch with further details and timeline once the speakers have been determined.
Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the organisers.
Please send abstracts to e.p.hayes@hum.leidenuniv.nl and l.f.pecorini.goodall@hum.leidenuniv.nl. Abstracts of no more than 300 words. Deadline: Monday, 20th of June, 2026
- May 28, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Call for contributions:
Workshop: The Theft of Art? Art Theories in Light of Global Art History
(University of Strasbourg, 8 January 2027)
Building on Jack Goody’s (2007) highly influential thesis of The Theft of History, this workshop aims to address an “institution” that this critique of the Eurocentric historiographical model imposed on “the rest of the world” left largely unaddressed: the institution of art. By asking why art has escaped this ambitious and coherent theory in terms of its self-reflexivity and decentring, the workshop intends to put forward the hypothesis of a theft of art in the sense of a process of conceptual capture through which the authoritative, hegemonic, European theorising and historicising doxa has normalised its own, situated, artistic experience while obscuring its minority, or “provincial”, status, thus “stealing” the plurality of artistic concepts, terminologies, languages, and narratives produced by other cultures. Despite its heuristic value, Goody’s theft thesis, along with his work on the image—particularly his theory of the cognitive contradiction caused by representation (Goody, 1997; Chevalier & Mayor, 2009)—paradoxically appears to be a case in point of the cognitive contradictions embedded in discourses on art that purport to be self-reflexive and decentred, yet which perpetuate Eurocentric, asymmetrical and hierarchical frames of reference and teleological narratives. This workshop proposes to scrutinise this paradox.
Despite significant efforts toward decentering, particularly through translation (e.g. Art in Translation), and circulation and “fragment” studies (e.g. Cooke, 2022; Kaufmann et al. 2015; Saint-Raymond, 2022), Eurocentric paradigms continue to shape both art theories and art history, including world art history (Summers, 2003) or global art history (Elkins, 2007). Art theories that incorporate discourses based on non-European artistic and visual experiences remain extremely rare (e.g. D’Souza and Casid, 2014). For example, Emmanuel Alloa’s (2010–2017) anthology of thirty texts by philosophers, theorists, and art historians unfortunately features only three contributors from non-Western fields, none of whom are art historians. In his hypothesis of four forms of “worlding” (mondiation) and ontological inferences, Philippe Descola (2021) groups the entire world into three categories (animism, totemism, analogism), assigning “modern” Europe a category of its own (naturalism). He also approaches world cultures holistically while viewing Europe from an evolutionary perspective (moving from analogism to naturalism). In this view, Europe appears not only as the only region in the world with a history, but also as the culmination of history. Although Descola denies having such an intention, he shows “a respect tinged with humility” only towards Western art historians, but makes no room for discourses on naturalism, realism, or comparable concepts developed within other cultures, which challenge his categories (e.g. Weiss, 2020). As for world or global art history, it is still typically written from the West. It is even common for specialists in Western art to be entrusted with the task of representing the discourses on art (in translation) and mediating the arts of non-Western cultures (e.g. Belting 2012; Elkins 2015), while specialists in non-Western arts and non-Western voices all too often remain in the “margins” (e.g. Gupta & Ray 2007; Juneja 2023), without this peripheral position being sufficiently recognised as a potential source of critical renewal. This creates a situation of cognitive dissonance. Although art theory and history increasingly claim global scope, their conceptual apparatuses and modes of knowledge production remain deeply grounded in Western frameworks that merely reinforce the “Great Divide” (Latour, 1983) and its hierarchies, between European, especially “modern”, and non-European and “pre-modern” or “traditional” artistic productions. This is particularly due to the scarcity of effective collaboration between specialists trained in different theoretical and historiographical traditions.
This workshop seeks to scrutinize this dissonance with a view to contributing to moving beyond it. Adopting the alter-globalist approach to art history initiated by Piotr Piotrowski (2015), it proposes to continue to explore its two main axes of research: on the one hand, “dissection” of Eurocentrism and Occidentalism and both their “repressive practices” and denial mechanisms in art theories and art history; on the other hand, “resistance to centralistic and exclusive art-historical activities” through “inter-epistemological dialogue” from a horizontal and comparative perspective. The workshop format aims to encourage in-depth discussion at the intersection of art theory and global art history, drawing on multi-situated research across a variety of geographical areas, historical periods, textual and visual sources, and artistic and sensory experiences. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
- The manifestations of Eurocentrism and the Great Divide in theories of art and the image; the forms of epistemic violence embedded in these theories and in global art history; art history as an imperial resemanticization of non-Western art.
- The impact of normative and Eurocentric theoretical frameworks and narratives on the interpretation of artistic practices and regimes of the image that fall outside these frameworks.
- The relevance and limitations of major Western theories of art and the image (e.g. philosophy of art, Kunstwissenschaften, Bildwissenschaften, Visual Studies, Gaze studies, as well as anthropological theories with a universalist aim (e.g. Goody, 1997; Belting, 2004; Descola, 2021)), for the analysis of non-Western arts and images.
- Alternative conceptions of art and the image that challenge binary oppositions (e.g. iconic/aniconic, realism/imagination, exteriority/interiority) by shifting the focus to other culturally and historically situated spectra, following the models of Jean-Pierre Vernant’s research on figurative representation in ancient Greece (Vernant, 1990), Jean-Claude Schmitt’s work on medieval European images (Schmitt, 2023), as well as research in ethno-aesthetics and multimodal ethnography (Collins et al., 2020).
- Comparative approaches to discourses on art and the image situated within diverse geographical, historical, cultural and artistic contexts.
Organisation and contact details:
Nourane Ben Azzouna, Associate professor, UMR 7044 Archéologie et histoire ancienne : Méditerranée – Europe, University of Strasbourg, Fellow, University of Strasbourg Institute of Advanced Studies, benazzouna@unistra.fr
Scientific committee:
Nadia Ali, Associate researcher, Institut de Recherches et d’Études sur les Mondes Arabes et Musulmans, Aix-Marseille Université
Monica Juneja, Professor, Center for Transcultural Studies, University of Heidelberg
Julie Ramos, Professor, UMR 3400 ARCHE Art, civilisation et histoire de l’Europe – University of Strasbourg
2. KNOW workshop: Polymathy and Problem-Solving in the History of Islamic Knowledge; 2-4 June 2026
I’m pleased to announce the upcoming workshop Polymathy and Problem-Solving in the History of Islamic Knowledge, which will take place at Ghent University on 2–4 June 2026. This is an in-person event and registration is required. The full programme is available on the KNOW project website: https://erc-know.ugent.be/en
The workshop brings together researchers working on the history of Islamic knowledge, with a particular focus on how Muslim scholars engaged with concrete intellectual problems across disciplinary boundaries. Rather than approaching disciplines as fixed and isolated domains, the workshop explores the dynamic ways in which scholarly practices, methods, and concepts travelled across different fields of knowledge. Through a series of pre-circulated papers and discussion-based sessions, participants will reflect on polymathy, problem-solving, and the practical organisation of knowledge in Islamic intellectual history.
The workshop is organised within the framework of the ERC project KNOW: Polymathy and Interdisciplinarity in Premodern Islamic Epistemic Cultures (1200–1800 CE) at Ghent University.
If you wish to stay informed about forthcoming events and publications, please consider joining our mailing list (via the link above).
With best wishes,
Islam Dayeh
3. UCLA
Woman Life Freedom in the Mirror of Scholarship: Responses from the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Pooyan Tamimi Arab
Utrecht University
English Lecture
Monday, June 8, 2026 at 11:00 am Pacific Time
Online via Zoom
Registration Required:
https://ucla.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_y6a-WJxYTX-wwqBuhAYndg
4. Online – Ferdowsi Summer School of Modern Persian
July 20 – August 7, 2026
https://ferdowsi.org/ferdowsi-online-summer-school-of-persian/
- May 26, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
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