Archive for 2026

Call for Papers

‘Shi`i/Sunni Relations in the Persianate World’
The University of Edinburgh
8-10 December, 2026

A research project funded by the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS).

In the wake of the Iranian Revolution and, especially, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, whose toppling of Saddam Hussein resulted in the rise of the dominance of Iraqi politics by Iraqi Shi`i groups, Arab Sunni governments voiced concerns about Shi`i/Iranian expansion across the region. Some of these states, such as Saudi Arabia, were well-known for the active intolerance of their own Shi`i minorities. The supposedly inherent sectarian nature of Islam, a notion further fuelled by such later events as the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’, has been widely echoed in the West.

The present project envisions holding a workshop of 8 to 10 speakers to examine the nature of Shi`i-Sunni relations in the Persianate world, from the early Islamic period to the mid-18th century, to explore the extent to which sectarian hostility was the norm or the exception.

The intent is to discuss all forms of Shi`i/Sunni relations and discourse, the former including the Zaydi, Isma`ili, Twelver Shi`i faiths, in this period. The term ‘Persianate’ encompasses reference to such relations as they could be examined across the region, potentially from the Anatolian plateau and Greater Syria in the West to the Indian Subcontinent, at least, in the East, into the Caucasus and Central Asia to the North, and South at least to the Persian Gulf.

Conference Deadlines:
• Monday, 13 July, 2026: Please RSVP by this date, simply to let us know if you can participate – we are eager to have you attend: anewman@ed.ac.uk
• Monday, 14 September, 2026: Send Abstracts (250–300 words), which should include the title of the proposed paper, a brief introduction to the topic, and a well-developed thesis with objectives and preliminary arguments clearly expressed. Include a biography (up to 100 words).
• Monday, 2 November 2026 Pre-conference draft papers for your talk (approx. 3,000–3,500 words for a 20-25-minute presentation) and PowerPoint slides (if using and ready) to be sent

Practical Details:
The conference will cover meals from dinner on 8 December to lunch on 10 December.
Depending upon final numbers, further, if limited, funding support for travel, accommodation, and other expenses may be available, especially for PhD students, Early Career Researchers (ECRs), and unaffiliated scholars.

Publication Guidelines – Looking Ahead:
Thinking longer term, the following information will be helpful to you:
• Final Paper Submission Deadline: Thursday, 30 July, 2027
• Length: ~7,000–10,000 words (excluding citations)
• Software Format: MS-Word, .docx
• Transliteration and Foreign Languages:
o Transliterate. Do not use Arabic script unless it is necessary for the argument.
o Use ALA-LC Romanization Table for Arabic (which also covers Persian and other Arabic-script characters).
o Use ʿ and ʾ for ʿayn and hamzah
o Passages in foreign languages must also be translated into English.
• Review: All papers will undergo peer review and editorial revision. Please ensure your submissions are review-ready. Papers that do not pass peer review cannot be included in the volume.

Further publishing information will be available closer to the time.

For further information, please contact
a.newman@ed.ac.uk

1. Launching the Journal of Mughal Studies
For more information about the aims and scope, editorial board, policies, and ethics of the journal, please see: <https://escholarship.org/uc/journalofmughalstudies/about>.

We are hoping to launch the first issue of the journal at the end of 2026. If you or someone you know would like to be considered for publication in the first issue, the submission deadline is July 15. For information about the submission guidelines: https://journalpub.escholarship.org/journalofmughalstudies/submissions/

By way of background, the journal has been accepted by eScholarship Publishing, an open access publishing platform subsidized by the University of California, managed by the California Digital Library, and home to around 90 journals. The Journal of Mughal Studies is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal. It is also completely open access.

With best wishes,

Ali Anooshahr and Munis Faruqui with the editorial board

 

 

 

2. ‘Mehmandari: Hosting and Minding Foreign

Visitors in Safavid and Qajar Iran’,

R Matthee

IRAN, 2026

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/05786967.2026.2644770

 

 

 

 

3. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – Tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor in South and/or Southeast Asian Political Thought

https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/70027/nanyang-technological-university-singapore-tenure-track-assistantassociate-professor

 

 

 

 

 

4. AMECYS 2026 Dissertation Award

The Association of Middle East Children and Youth Studies invites nominations for the 2026 AMECYS Dissertation Award

The AMECYS is a 501 (c) (3) private, non-profit, international membership-based association for scholars with an interest in the study of children and youth in the Middle East, North Africa, Gulf and their diasporic communities. Through interdisciplinary programs, publications, and services, AMECYS promotes innovative scholarship, facilitates global academic exchange, and enhances public understanding about and by Middle Eastern, North African and Gulf children and youth in diverse times and places from any disciplinary and methodological approach.

The AMECYS Dissertation Award is a new award to recognize an outstanding dissertation and its contributions to the study of children and youth in the Middle East, North Africa, Gulf and their diasporic communities.  Dissertations defended in 2025 or  2026 will be reviewed. INominations/nominees must include the following materials all collated into a single pdf file:

1. A digital copy of the successfully defended doctoral (PhD) dissertation;
2. Proof that the doctoral dissertation has been successfully passed or deposited (please include author, title of dissertation, unit and university), where the dissertation was successfully defended/deposited, defense date, names of dissertation evaluation committee members).
3. A brief  letter of support sent directly to the chair of the Awards committee from the dissertation advisor (or one of the evaluators) attesting to the dissertation’s significance and contribution to the field of children and youth studies.
4. Nominees must be AMECYS members in good standing, and may be students anywhere around the world. Only self-nominations will be considered.
5. Discipline and methods are open, but the subject matter must deal with the study of children and youth – broadly defined – in the Middle East, North Africa, Gulf and their diasporic communities. Works will be evaluated both for their contribution to the study of children and youth and to the applicant’s field/s.
6. Nominations must be received by August 1, 2026 12:00 PM EST for dissertations to be eligible for the competition and must consist of a digital copy of the dissertation, the author’s name, address, phone number and email, and be sent to the chair of the Awards Committee, Baun@uah.edu

Acknowledgment of receipt will be made via e-mail.

The author of the AMECYS Award will receive $200 and a certificate of award. In the event of co-winners, prize money will be divided evenly among the winners. Honorable mentions also receive a certificate of award. Winners will be announced during the 60th MESA Annual Meeting in Boston, MA and we strongly encourage winners to attend to receive their award in person. The results will also be posted on the AMECYS website and in other publications as deemed appropriate by AMECYS.

In the event of no worthy submissions, AMECYS reserves the right to not hand out any prize.

While we support dissertations written in languages other than English, at this time, we can only review dissertations in English

*** No additional materials are necessary as part of the submission. 

Reviewers 

1. Dylan Baun, Department of History, University of Alabama in Huntsville
2. Rustem Ertug Altinay, Department of Cultural and Environmental Heritage, University of Milan
3. Reda Rafei, Department of History, Texas Tech University

For any questions, can email Dylan.Baun@uah.edu

To learn more about AMECYS, visit www.amecys.org

To become an AMECYS member, visit https://www.amecys.org/membership

 

 

 

 

 

5. Colloque international : Turco-Persianate Popular Romances from Southeast Asia to the Balkans (1-2 juin 2026, Paris)
Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien (CeRMI) du CNRS-Sorbonne Nouvelle-INaLCO-EPHE & 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

kanda@aa.tufs.ac.jp

maria.szuppe@cnrs.fr

 

 

 

 

 

6. Workshop “Comparative Strategies in Empires of Salvation Religions” (Focus Middle Eastern Salvation Religions), Center for Comparative Empire and Transcultural Studies (RomanIslam), University of Hamburg, 11-14 November 2026

The Roman, Islamic, and Spanish empires all seem paradigmatic for our understanding of a transform-ative imperialism. Their imperial missions were driven by Middle Eastern salvation religions. Subse-quent 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

 

 

 

 

 

7. HYBRID Annual Meeting of the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA): “Redefining and Restating Middle East Librarianship in our Current Moment”, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 19-21 November 2026

Proposed themes: • The place of the “human” in the wake of emerging technologies • Advancements in cataloging and resource description for Middle East & North African resources • Austerity and the Mid-dle East librarianship profession in crisis • Collecting diaspora or minority language materials • Ephem-era and “born-digital” collecting • Critical pedagogy in area studies librarianship • Cultural heritage under threat • Digital preservation of at-risk archives.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 July 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/58ne8b4p

 

 

 

 

 

8. Workshop “Layers of Interpretation: The Islamic Commentary Tradition and the Making of Scholarly Authority”, Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, 11-12 December 2026

This workshop foregrounds the relationship between commentaries and scholarly authority in the Is-lamic world and seeks to discuss the following main question: Which roles did commentaries play in processes of negotiation, exercise, and challenge of scholarly authority in the Islamic world?

Deadline for abstracts: 5 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4w5m7uf9

 

 

 

 

 

9. International Conference “Refutations, Rivalries and Revenge. Polemics in the Premodern Islamic World (ca. 800-1500)”, Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology, Humboldt-University Berlin, 28-30 January 2027

The interdisciplinary conference is organized by Nadine El-Hussein and Mohammad Gharaibeh. It aims at an in-depth understanding of polemics in their specific premodern configurations, along with the forms, functions, reasons and developments of polemics in the premodern Islamic World.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2026. Information: https://hu.berlin/26412

 

 

 

 

 

10. Full-Time Arabic Lecturer (1-3 Years), Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of Pennsylvania

Applicants should demonstrate a primary focus on language education, and should have received at least a Master’s degree, and preferably a PhD, in Arabic Language, Literature, Linguistics or TAFL. Native or near-native competency in Arabic language, and fluency in English, are required. Preference will be given to applicants who have significant teaching experience at all levels of Arabic language at post-secondary North American institutions.

Deadline for applications until the position is filled. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/186109

 

 

 

 

11. AMEWS 2026 Book Award

The Book Award recognizes and promotes excellence in the field of Middle East gender, women’s and sexuality studies. Books published (copyrighted) in 2025 will be considered for the 2026 award. They have to be non-fiction, scholarly monographs based on original research. The competition is open only to books published in English.

Deadline for applications: 1 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y8t6dpx3

 

 

 

 

 

12. International Summer School on Gulf Studies: “Understanding the Gulf – Politics, Economy, and Society”, Center for Gulf Studies and Global Policy (GSGP), Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul, 21-25 July 2026

Organized in collaboration with the Sharjah International Foundation for the History of Muslim and Arab Sciences and University of Sharjah, this intensive summer school offers participants a unique oppor-tunity to engage critically with the Gulf region through an interdisciplinary and globally informed aca-demic framework.

Deadline for applications: 7 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/5e492cnb

 

 

 

 

 

13. Summer School “Terms and Turns of Empire. Interconnecting Concepts and Methods (Focus Ottoman Empire)”, University of Freiburg, 7-12 September 2026

Organized by the research Graduate School “Empires. Dynamic Change, Temporality and Post-Impe-rial Orders”, this summer school offers an intensive interdisciplinary methodological forum for critical engagement with the relationship between methods and concepts of ‘empire’ across academic fields and historical periods.

Deadline for applications: 31 May 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2zn54a6z

 

 

 

 

14. Inscription à la liste Réseau des chercheur.ses turcophones (RCT)

Ce groupe rassemble des chercheur·ses turcophones en SHS travaillant sur la Turquie et les terrains ex-ottomans, à tous les stades de leur parcours (masterant·es, doctorant·es, postdoctorant·es, cher-cheur·ses titulaires ou indépendant·es). L’objectif est de créer un espace de circulation d’informations et de solidarité académique. La liste sert à partager : appels à communication, offres de postes/finance-ments, publications, événements, ainsi que des conseils méthodologiques et ressources utiles.

Information et inscription : https://tinyurl.com/4vcfass7

 

 

 

15. Chapters on “Hybrid Ways of Knowing in Iran” for Volume Edited by Mahjoob Zweiri, Palgrave Macmillan

The volume asks how new hybrid ways of knowing are taking shape in Iran. It examines how Islamic and decolonial ideas are combined, negotiated, or resisted across academia and intellectual spaces, and how schools of thought, ideologies, and geopolitical contexts shape the knowledge that results. It also considers how AI, digitalisation, migration, and climate change are reshaping knowledge produc-tion, and what all of this means for academic freedom and intellectual autonomy.

Deadline for abstracts: 7 June 2026. Information: https://www.ciwas.net/blog

 

 

 

 

 

16. New Volume “A Region in Transition: Survey of Socio-Economic, Cultural and International Relations Trends in the Gulf Region” Edited by Saban Kardas, Ethics Press, 4 April 2026, 214 Pages

The contributors provide concise interdisciplinary analyses on the transformations reshaping the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states in recent years. Considering the unprecedented socioeconomic and cultural changes, energy transitions, and geopolitical realignments, the book promises to capture major aspects of the domestic and international realities of these nations.

Information: https://tinyurl.com/35954xte

Abstract: My presentation explores the intellectual, social, and political landscape of Sicily under the Arab Fāṭimid rule (909–965) and their Kalbid allies (948–1053). Building on research from my edited volume Muslim Sicily: Encounters and Legacy, it further examines Sicily’s connections with al-Andalus, Qayrawān, and Cairo. The talk highlights the dynamic nature of Christian–Muslim relations within a broader context of interaction among diverse ethnic and religious communities over several centuries. Drawing on recently published Arabic and Coptic texts, it also considers Fāṭimid state policies and Sicily’s role as a key player in the medieval Mediterranean.

Register at:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/TBJgbYt6Rk2rVXgQvpdvvA?lt_utm_source=lt_admin_share_link#/registration

1.HYBRID International Workshop “Mapping Preaching and Preachers in & from the Middle East: Circulation and Transnational Networks” by ANR PredicMO, MMSH Aix-en-Provence, 27-28 mai 2026

The workshop aims to foster a critical dialogue on the dynamics of preaching, enriching our under-standing of religious mobilities and cultural, spiritual and moral geographies. Contributions are focusing on comparative case studies, methodological innovation, and analyses of territorial strategies across Abrahamic religions in the Middle East and North Africa, from the late 19th century to the present.

Information, program and registration: https://predicmo.hypotheses.org/3111

 

 

 

 

 

2. International Workshop “What Makes a Diaspora? Middle Eastern Minorities, the Americas, and Jewish Studies in Conversation”, University of Cologne, 24-25 May 2027

This workshop is designed to bring three fields into conversation: American studies, Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) studies, and Jewish studies. Who mobilizes people, through which institutions and infrastructures, for what purposes, and with what consequences for communal authority, hi-erarchy, solidarity, and division? The workshop seeks to explore how diasporic formations depend on collective consciousness rather than understanding migration primarily as an individual project of au-tonomy and reinvention in lands of migration.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/mrwh2wuc

 

 

 

 

 

3. Post-Doc Position (30 Months) for a Comprehensive Study of Conjunction Astrology in Islam and Byzantium, MOSAIC Project, UCLouvain, Belgium

Qualification: – PhD in Islamic Studies, in Middle Eastern Studies, or related fields. – Excellent com-mand of Classical Arabic and Persian (the knowledge of additional languages such as Greek and/or Turkish is considered an advantage). – Strong background in the history of science. – 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/5f8sha65

 

 

 

 

 

4. Three Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Islamic Ethics, Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha

We are seeking early-career researchers (PhD obtained within the last 5 years) with a strong back-ground in both the theoretical foundations and applied dimensions of Islamic Ethics. Ideal candidates will be output-oriented and possess professional proficiency in either English or Arabic (bilingualism is a significant advantage).

Deadline for applications: 23 July 2026; early submission is strongly encouraged. Information: https://ti-nyurl.com/b9b5wxtx

 

 

 

 

5. Articles for the “TAS Review Journal” of the British Association for Turkish Area Studies (Issue 45, Autumn 2026)

We welcome abstract submissions across a broad range of disciplines: Turkish History & Historiog-raphy. – Turkish Politics & International Relations. – Turkish Culture, Arts & Humanities. – Turkish Lan-guage & Linguistics. – Religion & Philosophy.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 July 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2pmj69wk

Textual Foundations of Fatimid Law

1. Query: Maritime cartography and a late 17th-century French chart of India

At the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam we are researching a French chart of the second half of the seventeenth century. It is part of a collection of 5 charts procured by the Museum in 1949.

While 4 of these maps are nautical charts used by the Dutch East India Company during the 17th century, the fifth one is a French chart outlining the Bay of Bengal, dating around 1650-1700 without details on the cartographer or place of manufacture. You will find the chart, with an image on our collection website:  https://collectie.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl/details/museum/505967

All the maps in the collection bear, in the same hand, in manuscript on the reverse side N (number) Bonté (year)” . To state an example, the French map is signed “N 12 Bonté 1692.  At the moment, it is a mystery to us what or who Bonté could be.

We are also having difficulty finding literature connected to maritime cartography and representation of the Indian Ocean in a French context during the late 17th century.  If someone would have suggestions for further information of literature, this would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Diederick Wildeman

Curator of Navigation, Cartography & Library Collections

Het Scheepvaartmuseum / National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

 

 

 

 

 

2. Society for the History of Discoveries Virtual Lecture Series:

“There is Nothing in the Desert”: Empire, Environmental Perceptions, and the Allure of Emptiness in Modern Desert Exploration

Dr. Andrea Duffy, Associate Professor of History, Colorado State University

June 4, 2026, 2 pm CST. 

Modern imperialism was about more than just resource-rich environments and new spaces for settlement; it also involved the investigation, acquisition, and control of desolate, forbidding places such as deserts, high mountains, oceans, polar regions, and space. These extreme environments involved heightened threats to human visitors and created unique challenges for imperialism. They also defied common assumptions about the drivers and objectives of imperialism. Unlike other landscapes of exploration and empire, extreme environments were generally considered uninhabitable and lacked the appeal of resources. Explorers branded them as useless, dangerous, and empty, even when they were not.

While most extreme environments were considered natural – and in some cases the most pristine examples of nature – imperial agents often viewed desert regions as unnatural and sought not just to contain or tame them, but to restore them to an idealized, fertile past. This paper highlights the unique nature of desert exploration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It affirms that imperial ventures were largely about power and the ideal of control over not just territory or people, but nature itself.

You can RSVP here: https://discoveryhistory.org/event-6689464
A zoom link will be distributed closer to the date!

Contact Information

Cortney Anne Berg

Contact Email

archivist@c-berg.com

URL

https://discoveryhistory.org/event-6689464

 

 

 

 

 

3. Orbs of Blood in 14th-Century Persia

The «Tānksūqnāmah» and Its Theory of the Rotational Motion of Blood

Ben Kavoussi

28 May 2026 – 5 PM (CET)

A 14th-century Persian medical manual on the Medicine of Cathay (Northern China) known as the Tānksūqnāmah-yi Īlkhān dar funūn-i ʿulūm-i Khaṭāʾī (Tānksūqnāmah) explicitly states that blood “makes rounds” within the body, flowing from the liver to the heart, then to the lungs, and returning again to the liver.

Commissioned by the vizier and physician Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī (1247–1318) during Mongol rule in Iran, the manual is an attempt to explain Chinese medicine to a Persian readership, translating a book that summarised Chinese medical knowledge at the time.

Drawing on Chinese cosmology and medicine, as well as the Graeco-Arabic medical tradition, the book ultimately advances its own conception of blood movement, moving beyond simple continuity. This model, which links bodily processes to celestial movements, differs from the philosophical description of pulmonary transit by Ibn al-Nafīs (1213–1288) and the quantitative theory of systemic circulation by William Harvey (1578–1657).

The Tānksūqnāmah is therefore best understood as a product of the distinctive cross-cultural milieu of Mongol-era Iran, exemplifying how scientific ideas can emerge through reinterpretation within zones of cultural and scientific contact rather than through linear transmission within a single lineage.

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. Interdisciplinary hybrid conference at the University of Geneva, May 20–21:

Reframing the Constitutional Revolution: Gender, Law, and the Iranian Press

This interdisciplinary gathering brings together scholars from art, literature, history, and religious studies from Iran, the United States, and beyond.

The conference will explore new perspectives on the Constitutional Revolution through the lenses of gender, law, and media. At a time of renewed global and local challenges, these discussions aim to offer critical insight into the historical and contemporary significance of these issues: https://unige.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UIwLbMwjSeOC6GycTFSvgA

 

 

 

 

5. Hybrid:2026 Sir William Luce Lecture – Wednesday 10 June 2026 – 12.00 – 1.00 (GMT)

You are warmly invited by Durham University’s Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies to attend the 2026 Sir William Luce Annual Lecture scheduled to take place on Wednesday 10 June 2026 from 12.00pm – 1.00pm in Room IM102, Al Qasimi Building, School of Government & International Affairs, Durham University,DH1 3TU.

The 2026 Sir William Luce Fellow, Professor Simon Smith will present a lecture on ‘Recovering lost slave voices: Slavery and Manumission in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula’.  Professor Simon C. Smith is a Professor of International History at the University of Hull.  His research focus is on imperialism, nationalism and decolonization in South-East Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East with a particular focus on the Gulf region.

You can attend the lecture online on the day at 12.00pm on Wednesday 10 June 2026 using the following link – Sir William Luce Annual Lecture 

If you plan to attend the lecture in person can you please RSVP to luce.fund@durham.ac.uk by Monday 1 June 2026.

 

 

 

 

 

6. Call for Papers: Entangled Histories Seminar Series 2026–2027

Following the success of the current edition, the Entangled Histories Seminar Series invites abstracts for its 2026–2027 cycle:

“Borders and Sustainability: Human and Natural Resources across Time and Space.”

This edition explores sustainability not as an exclusively environmental concern but as a multifaceted concept that intersects with borders across diverse cultural, material, and ecological contexts.

The series adopts a diachronic and interdisciplinary perspective, spanning from prehistory to the contemporary world.

Sustainability and Borders: A Broad Perspective. We seek to investigate sustainability in its multiple dimensions:

• Material sustainability:recycling of resources (manuscripts, architectural structures, waste, and landscapes).
• Ecological sustainability:relationships between humans, animals, and environments; balance between preservation and exploitation.
• Social, linguistic, and cultural sustainability:transmission of knowledge, endangered languages, healing practices, migration, and community resilience.
• Symbolic sustainability:representations of ecological limits, hybrid beings, and cultural imaginaries of nature and borders.

Conceptual Framework At the heart of the series lies the concept of borders, understood as dynamic thresholds that shape access to resources and regulate interactions. Borders are not only physical or political: they can be ecological, cultural, social, linguistic, political and material. While we encourage long-term temporalities and global spatial entanglements, we also offer the elements (earth, water, air, fire, ether, wood, etc.) as a possible heuristic framework to explore these dimensions across different historical strata.

Topics of Interest: We encourage contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to:

• Archaeology and Prehistory: Resource use, landscapes, indigenous practices, and environmental interactions over time.
• Medieval Studies, Philology, and Manuscript Cultures: Material sustainability of manuscripts, palimpsests, intellectual ecologies, literatures and languages, and the transmission of knowledge.
• Art History and Visual Culture: Representations of nature, landscapes, borders, and material practices across different periods.
• Anthropology and Folklore: Vernacular ecological knowledge, oral traditions, liminal beings, and environmental imaginaries.
• History of Science and Medicine: Healing practices, scientific knowledge, and environmental understanding across cultures.
• Environmental Humanities and Ecology: Human–non-human relations, ecosystems, climate, and resilience.
• History of Economy, Trade, and Food Systems: Circulation of resources, subsistence, scarcity, and sustainability practices.
• Architecture and Infrastructure Studies: Built environments, water and soil management, roads, and material borders.
• Geography, Cartography, and Media Studies: Spatial representation, mapping, and communication of environmental knowledge across borders.

🌟 High-Impact Publication Opportunity: A selection of the most significant contributions will be published in a dedicated edited volume or a special issue with a leading international publisher (past collaborations and ongoing projects include prestigious venues such as Brill, De Gruyter, and Routledge). This ensures that the research presented reaches a global audience of specialists.

Submission Guidelines

• Format:Online seminar (approximately 30-minute talk + discussion).
• Schedule:October 2026 – Summer 2027.
• Required:Title, Abstract (250–300 words), Short Bio (100–150 words), Affiliation, email address, and preferred months of availability.
• Deadline:31 August 2026.
• Send to:seminars@outlook.com.

Contact Information

Organized by:

• Maria Pia Ester Cristaldi(Üsküdar University)
• Elisa Ramazzina(University of Insubria)

Under the patronage of: The Faculty of Communication and the Master’s Programme in Media and Cultural Studies at Üsküdar University.

Contact Email

entangledhistories.seminars@outlook.com

URL

https://sites.google.com/view/entangledhistories/home

 

 

 

 

 

7. ‘The Bisotun–Madharan route: the reconstruction of a lost communication route in the southern part of the Bisotun–Sahneh plain’

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/bisotunmadharan-route-the-reconstruction-of-a-lost-communication-route-in-the-southern-part-of-the-bisotunsahneh-plain/7AE5F7CF800F9AE907D637369585C621?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Article&utm_campaign=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Articles&WT.mc_id=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Articles

 

 

 

 

 

8. Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics

Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory

Liverpool U Press, 2024

H Rashwan, R Ruth Gould, N Askari, eds.,

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9780197267790

Ismaili Imamat and the Making of an Ethical World

Faith and Development in the Time of Aga Khan IV

Georgetown University, April 10, 2027

Call for Papers

This conference seeks papers on the thought, guidance, and institutional legacy of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV(1936–2025). As the forty-ninth hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, Aga Khan IV shaped the religious, ethical, and institutional life of his followers. His leadership also extended into philosophical and ethical discourse, architecture and the built environment, and major initiatives in education, health, cultural preservation, and social development. Yet sustained scholarly engagement with these interconnected dimensions of his Imamat remains limited and dispersed.

This conference brings together scholars and graduate students whose work examines how Aga Khan IV’s Imamat took form across intimate, spatial, institutional, and global registers. We ask how his ethical vision is made present through everyday devotional life, institutional practice, and the built environment. We approach his legacy through scholarly analysis of the social worlds his work helped shape: how his vision has been lived, built, operationalized, interpreted, and remembered across different communities, institutions, and publics.

We invite papers that engage one or more of the following themes. Papers may consider the work of Aga Khan IV in time (synchronically) or through time (diachronically) as a particular manifestation of Shi’i Muslim ethics:

History, Imamat, and Muslim Ethics: How might we understand the ethical and philosophical vision articulated across Aga Khan IV’s speeches, writings, interviews, and institutional discourse? How might we historicize this vision across the changing contexts of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries? How have his ideas shaped conversations on pluralism, citizenship, educational, health, development, gender, and cultural heritage? How might these materials be read to illuminate broader questions concerning faith, ethics, governance, and Muslim life?
Devotion and Intimacy: How do Nizari Ismaili Muslims relate to the Imam, specifically Aga Khan IV? How do prayer, accounts of barakah and protection, devotional poetry, sacred objects, photographs, memorabilia, and domestic or communal spaces mediate relations between followers and the Imam? How do these devotional forms differ across regional contexts? Theological approaches are especially welcome in this section.
Culture, Arts, and Built Environment: How do cultural forms and practices—including architecture, visual and performing arts, and public spaces such as Ismaili Centers, jamatkhanas, museums, parks, and delegation buildings—materialize Aga Khan IV’s religious, ethical, and aesthetic vision? In what ways do aesthetics shape belonging and moral formation? How are spirituality, environment, beauty, and public culture brought into relation in different regional and political settings?
Development Institutions and Governance: How have the development institutions and initiatives associated with Aga Khan IV translated ethical vision into social, cultural, and political practice? How have people experienced these development projects? How might scholars critically assess the intersections of religious ethics, development practice, and global policy frameworks?

We welcome submissions from scholars and graduate students in anthropology, religious studies, history, architecture, development studies, political theory, sociology, and related fields.

A select group of undergraduate students will also be invited to present.

The conference is designed to support the development of publishable scholarly essays and to build a conversation around Aga Khan IV’s Imamat. Participants will be asked to circulate draft papers in advance of the conference. Papers will receive feedback from convenors. Select papers will be considered for a planned edited volume.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit the following:

Name, affiliation, and position
Paper title
An abstract of 500 words that clearly identifies the paper’s central argument, methods, and contribution to the conference’s themes
A brief biography of 150 words
A statement that the paper is not under consideration for publication elsewhere

Deadline for abstract submission: August 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance: August 31, 2026
Draft papers: December 13, 2026
Draft papers may range from 2,000–9,000 words. The wide word count range is intended to accommodate papers at different stages of development.
First round of feedback: February 4, 2027
Conference: April 10, 2027 at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Revised papers due for inclusion in edited volume: July 2027

Language: English
Submit to: Dr. Khoja-Moolji at sk2285@georgetown.edu
Subject line: Imamat Conference

The conference will cover airfare and two nights of hotel accommodations for participants traveling from North America and Europe. Scholars from other regions are warmly encouraged to apply and will be invited to participate virtually.

Convenors

Dr. Shenila Khoja-Moolji
Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Endowed Chair of Muslim Societies
School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University

Dr. Hussein Rashid
Co-Director
Religion and Public Life
Union Theological Seminary

Sponsors

Organized by Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, with co-sponsorship from the Global Human Development Program; African Studies Program; the Global Cities Initiative; Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies; and the World Faiths Development Dialogue.