Archive for 2026
- August 28, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- August 27, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- August 27, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. New Book:
International Relations of the Middle East: Theories and Case Studies,
30 September 2026, Cambridge University Press.
A sample chapter (Introduction) is available here:
https://www.book2look.com/book/9781009617697
2. IMC 2027 CALL FOR PAPERS
MAKING KNOWLEDGE: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL PRACTICE IN MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC AND JEWISH SOCIETIES
How was knowledge made, shared, and sustained within medieval Islamic and Jewish societies? And how did practices of teaching and learning shape the communities in which they took place?
This panel explores education as a social practice through which relationships, identities, authorities, and communities were formed. We invite papers examining the people, places, practices, and material cultures involved in making knowledge across medieval Islamic and Jewish contexts.
Possible topics might include formal and informal learning; teachers, students, families, and scholarly networks; institutions and spaces of education; oral, textual, and manuscript practices; language and translation; religious and professional formation; gender and access to learning; mobility and the circulation of knowledge; and the ways educational practices created or contested boundaries of belonging.
We particularly welcome papers that foreground lived practices of learning and consider how knowledge both emerged from and helped constitute medieval communities.
*Papers may focus on medieval Islamic history or Jewish history individually; comparative and interdisciplinary approaches are also welcome.
If you are interested in proposing a paper, please submit a title & 250-word abstract with a short biography to mahima.khan@qmul.ac.uk or n.a.reiter@qmul.ac.uk by 14th September 2026. We welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages.
3. THE YAVUZ SEZER MEMORIAL ARTICLE PRIZE ($200
The biennial prize is awarded in memory of Yavuz Sezer (1979-2021) for the article that makes the best contribution to the history of architecture and the urban environment in the Ottoman empire and modern Turkey.
The prize is awarded in even‐numbered years to articles published in the previous two-year period (Jan. 2024-Dec. 2025 for the 2026 prize).
If an author appears as a co-author on a second submission, that is allowable only if the nomination is made by the co-author or a third party (e.g. Can Sinov may not nominate their co-authored paper with Roxelana Osmanova if Sinov has already nominated a solo authored paper, the co-authored paper may still be considered if nominated by Osmanova, or a third party). Eligible submissions include peer-reviewed journal articles and peer-reviewed chapters in edited volumes. Pre-print digital editions of articles published in 2024-2025 which will appear in journal volumes in 2026 or later are eligible, with the proviso that the same article cannot then be submitted for consideration in a subsequent year. Articles which appeared in pre-print in 2024-5 but will be included in a 2026 journal volume may be submitted for consideration in the subsequent cycle, provided the pre-print was not first submitted for a prior award. Submissions must be in English.
Nominations may be made by the author, colleagues, publisher, or friends. Applicants must submit the following in an e-mail:
- The recommender’s name, address, and e‐mail address
- The address, e‐mail address, and phone number of the author
- An electronic copy (as a pdf) of the article
No additional materials will be considered as part of the submission.
Materials (or questions) should be e-mailed to the committee chair, Dr. Mehmet Kentel (k.m.kentel@hum.leidenuniv.nl) with “Yavuz Sezer Article Award” in the subject line of the e-mail message.
DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 15, 2026
Contact Information
Dr. K. Mehmet Kentel
Chair of the Selection Committee
Leiden University
Contact Email
URL:
4. Mazda: Bibliotheca Iranica: Literature Series
Established in 1994, the Bibliotheca Iranica: Literature Series is the first and longest-running book series devoted specifically to the publication and critical study of Persian literature in English. From its inception, the series has sought to introduce the richness, diversity, and enduring literary significance of both classical and contemporary Persian literature to scholars, students, and general readers throughout the English-speaking world.
The series was founded on the conviction that Persian literature is one of the world’s great literary traditions and deserves a much wider international readership. Many important works and aspects of Persian literary culture, however, remain inaccessible to readers who do not read Persian. The series seeks to bridge this gap by publishing significant works in carefully prepared English-language editions while preserving, as fully as possible, their literary qualities, cultural meanings, and historical contexts.
The series encompasses both classical and contemporary Persian literature, reflecting the remarkable continuity and diversity of the Persian literary tradition. Over more than three decades, it has contributed significantly to the international dissemination of Persian literature and to a broader understanding of Iran’s rich literary and cultural heritage.
In keeping with Mazda Publishers’ longstanding philosophy, the books in the series are moderately and affordably priced. We believe that important scholarship and literature should be accessible not only to major research institutions but also to students, individual scholars, libraries, and general readers. The Bibliotheca Iranica: Literature Series therefore remains an important part of Mazda Publishers’ continuing commitment to making the finest scholarship on Persian literature available to readers throughout the world.
For more information, please visit this site:
https://www.mazdapublishers.com/series/bibliotheca-iranica-literature-series
5. Two New Courses on Academic Persian and Modern Literature
Introduction to Academic Persian: How to Read Scholarly Literature in Persian (October 9 – November 27, 2026).
The course is designed to introduce students and researchers to the language, terminology, and conventions of academic Persian. Through readings from scholarly articles, critical editions, and works by prominent Iranian scholars, participants will develop the skills needed to read and engage with Persian-language scholarship more confidently and independently.
Persian through Modern Persian Poetry: From Nima to Forugh Farrokhzad (September 18 – November 6, 2026).
This eight-week course uses modern Persian poetry as a way to develop participants’ Persian speaking, listening, and reading skills. Through close reading and discussion of poems by major poets from Nima Yushij to Forough Farrokhzad, participants will deepen their understanding of both the Persian language and modern Iranian literary and cultural life.
Best wishes,
Ruben
Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature
Yerevan, Armenia
Website: www.ferdowsi.org
6. AA VS Bahrain: Cinematic Climate Cartographies
Research in various “post-colonial” contexts, a strong relationship continues to emerge between moments of independence and archaeological excavations. In Bahrain and the wider Gulf, these sites serve as evidence of a pre-colonial era of civilization and alternative histories. They also inspire both artists and architects, influencing their practices. This was explored in connection with environmental changes through Qal’at al-Bahrain in Bahrain, as part of the Climate Cartographies (instagram | LinkedIn) program at AA Visiting School, supported by Alriwaq, MSCEB, and the Arab Regional Centre. The program was led by myself in collaboration with filmmaker Mariam Mekiwi and teaching assistant Maryam AlNoaimi.
Selected parts of the public program are now available on Alriwaq’s YouTube Channel, alongside short movies produced by the students. The program’s archaeologists, who are deeply engaged with environmental questions at the site Melanie Moenzer and Dr. Salman Al Muhairi, included architects and landscape designers who created the site-specific museum housing the collection, artists who incorporate archaeology into their practice John A. Davies and Niels Friis, art historians who highlight the connection between art and archaeology Abdullah Al-Mutairi and Melissa Enders-Bhatia, artists that have engaged with archaeological methods Mahmood Baglawa and Nasser Alzayani, and climate considerations at the site and other heritage sites by Tariq Al-Olaimy and Dr. Mounir Bouchenaki.
The films are
History for Sale, by Hassan Al Shatti, Melad Alfulaij, and Binscal Paul
Spoon, by Hasan Albasri, Mohamed Al Khaja, and Sukainah Al Sadah
Water becomes Life, by Iona Stewart, Muneera AlSager, Naser Alzayani, and Sidra Kishwer With sound by Joy Moughanni
Thank you to everyone who supported the program!
Enjoy watching the talks and the student projects on this link.
7. The Ohio State University – Middle East & Islamic Studies Librarian
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/70232/ohio-state-university-middle-east-islamic-studies-librarian
8. New Book: Qur’anic Abrogation After Muhammad The Eternal Flux
J F Toosi
Routledge, 2026
- August 25, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Sensing Islam
Engaging and Contesting the Senses in Muslim Religiosity
S Stjernholm,
Bloomsbury, 2026
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sensing-islam-9781350324176/
2. Mazda:
‘Persian Fiction in Translation Series’
https://www.mazdapublishers.com/series/bibliotheca-iranica-persian-fiction-in-translation
3. Brill: The Ruzbeh Library: Critical Editions of Modern Iranian Fiction
https://brill.com/page/forthcoming_trl
4. Qatar’s Societal Security
Towards the Inclusive National Concept of ‘Baladna’
Identity, Migration and External Threats Since 2017
Cihat Battaloğlu
ISBN: 9783959941976
Published by Gerlach Press
https://gerlachpress.com/index.php?art_no=9783959941976
5. NLM DeBakey Fellowships open
The NLM and Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) announce the 2027 application cycle for the NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine.
The fellowship provides individual awards of up to $10,000 to U.S. citizens and permanent residents to support research in the collection of the NLM.
To receive consideration, eligible applicants must upload all required materials to the FAES application portal by 11:59 pm ET on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
Complete details: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/get-involved/debakey-fellowship.html.
6. 32nd Congress of the German Middle Eastern Studies Association (DAVO), Ludwig-Maximili-ans-University Munich, 10 -12 September 2026
The DAVO Congress is dedicated to advancing academic research and public understanding of North Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia, by examining questions of history, society, politics and econom-ics, culture and religion, language and literature, health, and related fields, while critically engaging with pressing issues within Germany and Europe, including migration, antisemitism, anti-Arab and anti-Mus-lim racism, and societal transformation.
Deadline for registration: 6 September 2026. Information, preliminary program and registration:
7. Journée d’étude ReligiS « Circulation des textes et des dogmes. Europe et Méditerranée, XVIe et XXIe siècle », Aix-en-Provence, 5-6 novembre 2026
Programme : https://tinyurl.com/mprpey9a
8. Workshop “Translation and Multilingualism Across the Premodern Arabo-Islamic World and Europe”, Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain, 3-4 December 2026
The organisers are looking for focused historical case studies that illuminate multilingual exchange, textual circulation, translation practice, and cross-cultural knowledge production. Focusing on scholars, translators, and intermediaries working across languages such as Arabic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Persian, it explores how knowledge was shaped and reshaped as it moved between intellectual and institutional contexts.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4574krfy
9. Appel à communication pour la journée d’études
« “Occidentalisme” : l’Italie dans la littérature arabe du XVIe au XXe
siècle »
Grenoble, Université Grenoble-Alpes, LUHCIE,
Maison des Langues, Salle Jacques Cartier, 8 décembre 2026
Cette journée d’études se propose ainsi d’explorer, dans des corpus littéraires en arabe rédigés entre le XVIe et le XXe siècle, les traces laissées par les contacts historiques et culturels entre l’Italie et le monde arabe, ainsi que les modalités de leur inscription dans les productions littéraires arabes. Elle entend favoriser une réflexion sur les phénomènes de représentation de l’Italie dans l’espace linguis-tique arabe.
Limite des proposition avant le 30 août 2026. Information : https://tinyurl.com/dymcjmnk
10. Conference “Rural Life in Post-Ottoman Lands (1918-1945)”, Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies, University of Cambridge, 8-10 July 2027
This conference considers social, economic and cultural continuities and changes in pastoral and agrar-ian landscapes across the territories in the Balkans and the Middle East that had once formed the Ottoman Empire. Topics might include, for example, the development of infrastructure; the mechanisa-tion of agriculture; healthcare and the spread and control of disease; internal migration and mobility; climate, environment and natural disasters; village literature and education; reforms in landholding, taxation, and legal practice.
Deadline for abstracts: 5 December 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4x2rsmxv
11. Vice President (3 Years) for International Affairs at the German Jordanian University (GJU), Amman
Qualifikation: Berufung als Professor:in im deutschsprachigen Raum. – Erfahrungen in der Leitung ei-ner Hochschule, (Präsidium/Rektorat oder Dekanat). – Sehr gute deutsche und englische Sprach-kenntnisse, von Vorteil sind außerdem Arabischkenntnisse. – Wissenschaftliches Profil mit Bezug zu den Schools der GJU. – Erfahrungen in der Einwerbung von Drittmitteln.
Deadline for applications: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y4zs6wka
12. Postdoctoral Scholar/Lecturer (2 Years), Bita Daryabari Fellow in Persian Language and Li-terature, University California Davis
Qualification: PhD within the humanities or humanistic social sciences field. – Persian serving as a primary research language and the applicant’s scholarship focusing on the Persianate world. – Strong and well-developed research program. – Ability to teach an undergraduate seminar in Persian language and literature.
Deadline for applications: 31 August 2026. Information: https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07717
13. Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) of Comparative Politics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
We particularly welcome applications from scholars whose research and teaching focus on topics related to migration, democracy, or political economy. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in political science or a closely related field or be ABD with a Ph.D. conferred before the start date of the appointment. Effective classroom teaching is essential for this position.
Deadline for applications: 14 September 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/191508
14. Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in History of the Mediterranean World, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
This is a position for recent Ph.D.’s who have not yet served in a tenure-track capacity. We particularly welcome applicants focusing on transregional exchanges or conflicts across Mediterranean spaces, broadly defined. They should specialize in the history of the Mediterranean world, with a chronological focus in either the medieval or early modern period.
Deadline for applications: 21 September 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/191175
15. Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Humanities, Brown University, Providence, RI
Candidates will have an internationally renowned body of scholarship in the study of Islam and its hu-manistic traditions, and an outstanding record of teaching and mentorship of undergraduate and PhD students.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/190884
16. “Farabi International Award on the Iranian and Islamic Studies”, Tehran
We welcome all researchers in the field of Iranian studies and Islamic studies to submit their outstanding research works completed from March 2022 until the end of March 2025. This includes final research reports, research books, doctoral dissertations, Master`s thesis, and research articles on Iranian stud-ies and Islamic studies.
Deadline for submissions: 22 September 2026. Information: https://farabiaward.ir/page/12/Introduction
17. 10 “ACLS Marwan M. and Ute Kraidy Centennial Fellowships in the Study of the Arab World and Latin America”, American Council of Learned Societies
The fellowships are awarded to scholars confronting official constraints on their research and writing owing to the contested nature of their fields. The fellowship is open to scholars at all postdoctoral career stages, working on or off the tenure track, who have earned a PhD in the humanities or interpretive social sciences by the application deadline. Maximum award: $60,000.
Deadline for applications: 17 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4aw8w55d
18. ONLINE Inekas Summer School on “Philosophy beyond Falsafa: Reimagining the Historiography of Islamic Philosophy”, IAIS University of Exeter & Habib University & Hanif Center for Religious Studies, 3-5 September 2026
The summer school explores the diverse forms of philosophical inquiry in the Islamic intellectual tradi-tion. Moving beyond the conventional focus on falsafa, it examines kalām, bayān, uṣūl al-fiqh, adab, and ʿirfān as important sites of philosophical reflection, inviting participants to rethink the boundaries of philosophy and gain a broader understanding of Islamic intellectual history.
Deadline for registration: 2 September 2026. Information, program and registration: https://inekas.org/en/2026ss/
19. Nouvelle livre : “Penser le monde avec Avicenne – Une introduction à sa philosophie” de Meryem Sebti, Les Belles Lettres, 4 septembre 2026, 240 pages
Ce livre offre une initiation aux questions qui constituent le coeur de sa philosophie. Partant de la vie et de la formation d’Avicenne, il expose les fondements métaphysiques de son système, la démonstra-tion de l’existence et de l’unicité de Dieu, la doctrine de l’émanation, la théorie de l’âme et de l’intellect, avant d’aborder la quête avicennienne de la science dans ses dimensions logique, naturelle et médi-cale. Une troisième partie examine la place de l’homme dans le monde : gouvernance divine, liberté humaine, prophétologie, statut du politique.
Information : https://tinyurl.com/m7at7vz2
20. L’Islam des Lumières
Histoire de l’humanisme musulman (VIIe-XXIe siècle)
Olivier Hanne
2026
Préface d’Olivier Roy, professeur à l’Institut universitaire européen de Florence.
Information : https://tinyurl.com/me3b9u8a
21. Nouvelle livre : “Liberté et féminisme dans la pensée arabe des XIXe et XXe siècles – Trans-ferts culturels et migrations sémantiques”, direction Kalthoum Saafi, hémisphères Èditions & maisonneuve & larose, avril 2026, 240 pages
Cet ouvrage collectif réunit des recherches présentées autour de l’émergence de deux notions fonda-mentales : celle de liberté et celle de féminisme, dans l’aire géopolitique arabe entre le début du XIXe siècle et la première moitié du XXe siècle, et leur interaction dans un contexte historique particulier : c’est à cette époque que la notion de liberté s’ouvre à son acception moderne et que s’opère un chan-gement de paradigme dans la pensée arabe, qui conduira à la naissance du « féminisme arabe ».
Information : https://tinyurl.com/2mvpu4d9
- August 22, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- August 20, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – IIS Hybrid Talk: ‘Sonic Relations: Devotion and Community in Turkey’s Eastern borderlands’ – S W Fa
What role does sound play in shaping religious life and belonging?
IIS hosts a book talk with Dr Stefan Williamson Fa on his new book, Sonic Relations. The hybrid event takes place on Tuesday 29 September at the Aga Khan Centre, London, and online. Drawing on research with Twelver Shiʿi communities in Turkey, the talk explores how sound shapes devotion.
Register at:
https://www.iis.ac.uk/events/sonic-relations-book-talk/
- August 19, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Assistant Professor (9 Months) of Modern Middle East History, Texas A&M University, College Station
We seek a scholar whose research complements and enhances existing departmental strengths and broadens our intellectual and methodological diversity. Candidates should demonstrate a record of, or clear potential for, significant scholarly contributions. The position requires a Ph.D. in History, or a related field.
Deadline for applications: 16 October 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/189211
2. Conference “East Asia, South-East Asia, South Asia and West Asia (the Middle East) in Pan-European Thought, ca. 1900-1980”, University of Amsterdam, 14-15 June 2027
The aim of the conference is to broaden the current discussions on the intertwined histories of de-colonization and pan-European thought, moving beyond the focus on the European Communities and Eurafrica. In particular, we wish to examine how a growing desire for autonomy in Asia shaped pan-European thinking and ideas about the European order – including the Nazis “New Order” – between approximately 1900 and 1980.
Deadline for abstracts: 21 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/5axfcbxc
3. New Book: “Shah Waliyullah Dihlavi: Aspirations and Tensions of Islamic Cosmopolitanism” by SherAli Tareen, Oneworld Academic, 6 August 2026, 208 Pages
Shah Waliyullah Dihlavi (1703–1762) was a highly renowned and influential scholar of Islam who produced foundational works on the Qur’an, Islamic law and jurisprudence, Sufism, philosophy, and politics. In this detailed yet accessible study of his life and scholarship, set in the context of India on the eve of British colonisation, SherAli Tareen examines critical facets of Shah Waliyullah’s intellectual career and explores his contested legacy in South Asia and beyond.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/47jv85uj
4. ‘Muslims between Fragility and Hope in an Age of Existential Crisis’- online conference
The conference will take place on 29 September 2026 and is hosted by the MUSER project at the University of Glasgow. Open to all, but advance registration required.
- August 18, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- August 17, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. CfP: seminar for ACLA, this year in Houston, TX, May 20-23, 2027
ACLA seminar, “The Best Companion: The Aesthetics of Book Love in Arabic Literature,” is now available on the ACLA website:
https://www.acla.org/seminar/05c7d866-cd74-46a7-8813-1779a18fd04e
The ACLA deadline for paper proposals is Sept 22, 2026.
2. Call for Contributions: Reframing Regions: Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East/North Africa in Comparative and Connected Perspectives [LASA Congress, Mexico City, Mexico, June 16-20, 2027
This roundtable brings together scholars working on the historical, cultural, and political connections between Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa. Though scholarship on transnational and global Latin America has expanded considerably, exchanges between these regions remain relatively underexamined despite long histories of migration, commerce, diplomacy, religious exchange, political solidarity, and cultural production.
We invite participants to share works in progress, emerging research questions, methodological reflections, and conceptual approaches that illuminate the movements of people, ideas, texts, objects, and artistic practices across Latin America/the Caribbean and the MENA region from the early modern period to the present. We particularly welcome comparative and connected approaches, as well as work that considers these regions through the lenses of decolonial thought, translation, and transregional networks.
Rather than a series of formal paper presentations, the roundtable will center on conversation and collective exchange. Participants will offer brief interventions followed by an extended discussion among roundtable participants and audience members. We hope to foster a collaborative intellectual space in which scholars can share questions, approaches, and works in progress, identify connections across fields and regions, and explore possibilities for developing new research collaborations and conversations.
We welcome proposals from scholars at all career stages and from a range of disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, political science, religious studies, literary and cultural studies, media studies, art history, architecture, and related fields.
Submissions may describe a specific research project, a work in progress, a methodological or conceptual intervention, or a set of questions that would benefit from discussion in a roundtable setting. Submissions in Spanish as well as English will be considered for acceptance. Please reach out to elvira.blanco@columbia.edu by August 25.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- Early modern and colonial encounters
- Migration, diaspora, exile, and transnational communities
- Comparative and connected histories of colonialism, nationalism, and state formation
- Anti-colonial thought, revolutionary movements, and political solidarities
- Literature, film, music, and other forms of cultural production across regions
- Translation, multilingualism, and the circulation of texts and ideas
- Religion, secularism, and identity
- Race, ethnicity, and indigeneity in comparative perspective
- Contemporary geopolitical, economic, and cultural relations between the regions
- Methodological and conceptual approaches to studying Latin America/the Caribbean and MENA in relation
Ali Noori PhD
Lecturer in Religion | Columbia University
Bahari Visiting Fellow (2026-27) in the Persian Arts of the Book | University of Oxford
alinoori@sas.upenn.edu | (404) 545 – 2785 | alinoori.net
3. The LOEWE Centre Dynamics of Religion (DynaRel) at Goethe University Frankfurt invites proposals for its first international annual conference, “Neighboring Textual and Intellectual Traditions: Dialogues, Polemics, and Translations.”
The conference examines textual and intellectual relationships between Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions from Late Antiquity to the present. It focuses on dialogue, polemics, and translation, asking how religious traditions relate to one another through processes of exchange, reception, appropriation, transformation, and demarcation. The Call for Papers may be of particular interest to scholars working on the medieval Islamic lands and their Jewish and Christian textual and intellectual contexts.
Contributions from both early-career and established scholars are welcome.
Conference: 1–3 February 2027
Venue: Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Conference language: English
Submission deadline: 31 August 2026
Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a brief biographical note of no more than 100 words, to Selma Schwarz at schwarz.s@em.uni-frankfurt.de. Further information is available via the website link.
This announcement is submitted by Anja Glaser on behalf of the DynaRel Communications Team and the conference organisers.
Contact Information
Selma Schwarz
LOEWE Centre Dynamics of Religion (DynaRel), Goethe University Frankfurt
Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a brief biographical note of no more than 100 words, by 31 August 2026.
Contact Email
URL
https://dynamiken-des-religioesen.uni-frankfurt.de/call-for-papers-erste-intern…
4. Call for submissions from Consequence Forum
For the Translations Feature in the spring 2027 issue, we invite previously unpublished translations from Farsi into English that examine the human, cultural, psychological, or historical consequences of war in Iran. We are particularly interested in work that moves beyond the battlefield to explore how violence is remembered, inherited, silenced, resisted, or reimagined, and how conflict reshapes memory, community, identity, and meaning across time.
We welcome:
1- Fiction and creative nonfiction up to 2,000 words
2- Up to five poems or ten pages of poetry
Submissions should include the English translation and the original Farsi text in a single Word document, along with brief author and translator biographies, a short cover letter, and confirmation that permission to translate and publish the work has been secured.
The reading period runs until October 15, 2026. Full submission guidelines are available here.
5. Call for Papers: ACLA Panel on the Question of National Allegory and Forms of Narrativity in the Global South
To propose a paper, please check this link.
The conference will be held in person at the University of Houston, May 20-23, 2027, and online, May 15 & 16, 2027.
If you have any questions about this panel, please reach out to either me (fshams@upenn.edu ) or Mohsen (mohsen.maleki@mail.utoronto.ca ).
Panel Abstract copied below:
“Beyond National Allegory: Forms of Narrativity in the Global South”
The emergence of the modern nation-state and the contested and uneven path of modernization generated a crisis of representation, giving rise to an extraordinary range of forms of narrativity throughout the Global South. Some writers depict this crisis-ridden era through nationalist narratives, while others frame it through allegories of ruin, exile, myth, apocalypse, fragmentation, oil, religion, the collapse of empires, or failed modernization. In his controversial essay “Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism”, Fredric Jameson argues that Third World literature must “necessarily” be national allegory, as in the Third World, the strict divisions between the libidinal-personal and the political-collective have not solidified. Aijaz Ahmad in “Jameson’s Rhetoric of Otherness and the National Allegory” reveals the problematic character of categories such as the Third World and the national allegory as master codes to explain “all” literary production.
Instead of asking whether Global South literature is or is not national allegory, this seminar asks how writers have navigated the shifting landscape of modernization and the turbulent formation and evolution of the nation-state through a diverse repertoire of narrative strategies and symbolic forms. If Jameson’s national allegory pinpoints one recurring strategy, what other allegorical modes arise from the heterogeneous experiences of colonization, partition, occupation, decolonization, oil extraction, ecological disaster, imperial collapse, migration, or religious tensions? As many of these nation-states brought together multiple linguistic, ethnic, and religious communities, what is the political significance of the narrative strategies through which writers have responded to the emergence of the nation-state and nationalism? How do these writers go beyond Jameson’s binary opposition of postmodernism and nationalism as the so-called cultures of the “first” and “third” world? What is the political significance of narrative strategies such as the recurring narrative of modernity as Fall? Going beyond Jameson’s “necessary” nationalist ideology, how do the writers of the Global South respond to what Ahmad calls “the multiplicities of intersecting conflicts based upon class, gender, nation, race, region, and so on,” and what narrative forms do they invent to capture this complex intersection? What other forms of collectivity beyond the category of the nation have these writers imagined? By mediating Jameson’s proposal through Ahmad, this seminar aims to show how “the national allegory” is one among many narrative strategies in the vast repertoire of allegorical responses through which writers have represented promises, contradictions, and failures of the modern nation-state and the modernization process. We welcome papers that examine the literary, cinematic, and artistic representations of modernity, modernization, and the nation-state across the Global South.
6. Hikmat International Institute is pleased to announce its
Each course consists of one live online session per week, providing an opportunity for sustained study, discussion, and direct engagement with the lecturer.
- Exploring and Understanding Islam in the West
Lecturer: Dr Chris Hewer
Schedule: Thursdays | 02:00 P.M UTC
This course explores Islam and the ways in which it has been understood and encountered in Western contexts, offering participants an opportunity to engage with important questions surrounding Islam, Muslim thought, and contemporary Western perspectives.
- Avicenna’s Metaphysics
Lecturer: Dr Jari Kaukua
Schedule: Wednesdays | 01:00 P.M UTC
An in-depth exploration of Avicenna’s metaphysics, covering key themes such as essence and existence, modal logic, the Necessary Existent, God’s knowledge of particulars, future contingency, and freedom of the will. The course brings classical Avicennian thought into conversation with contemporary philosophical questions.
- The Abrahamic Twelvefold: Authority, Anthropology, and Covenant
Lecturer: Dr Kurt Anders Richardson
Schedule: Tuesdays | 04:00 P.M UTC
A cross-tradition exploration of authority, anthropology, and covenant in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Persian intellectual traditions. Drawing on scriptural, theological, philosophical, and mystical sources, the course examines themes including human nature, mortality, covenant, religious authority, and contemporary questions concerning ecology, technology, and human destiny.
Registration Deadline: September 1, 2026
For full course descriptions, schedules, lecturer information, and registration, please visit:
https://hikmat-ins.com/weekly-live-courses/
7. The Mohamed Ali Foundation Fellowship Advisory Panel welcomes applications for the 2027 Mohamed Ali Foundation fellowships, the residencies for which will run from 26 April-25 June 2027.
The Mohamed Ali Foundation is a UK charity whose aims include advancing the education of the public in the history of the Islamic World, of Egypt and of the Mohamed Ali Family in particular, especially the period of reign of Khedive Abbas Hilmi II (1892-1914).
In 2018 the Mohamed Ali Foundation announced the launch of this Fellowship Programme, and which is established to devote scholarly attention to the Abbas Hilmi II Papers held at Durham University and to make the collection’s strengths more widely known to scholars. It is hoped that the fellows’ work will foster deeper understanding of an important period of Egyptian history, and of a transformative era in East -West relations.
The fellowship programme is based at Durham University and managed by an international Advisory Panel comprising academic subject specialists. The programme began in 2019 with the residency of the first fellow Dr Pascale Ghazaleh of the American University in Cairo: her inaugural lecture and the lectures of subsequent fellows are now available online. More fellowships will be awarded over the next years. An Advisory Panel, chaired by Professor Anoush Ehteshami of the Institute for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies will appoint one or two fellows each year.
Fellows will be early career (post-doctoral) or established scholars. The nature of the collection will often require good reading knowledge of Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, French, and English. The online catalogue of the collection indicates the languages of each file of material.
Fellows will research the Abbas Hilmi II Papers, on an agreed topic, and deliver a lecture at Durham University. Each lecture will ultimately form a chapter in a volume of high quality and original research to be edited by Dr Ghazaleh. In the interim the lectures will be published in the university’s Middle East Papers series. The breadth of material in the Abbas Hilmi II Papers will reward an interdisciplinary approach. In order to guide candidate fellows an outline plan of this volume is now provided in the fellowship application documentation. This is not intended to be prescriptive and the Advisory Panel will consider alternative suggestions so long as they are well-grounded in the Abbas Hilmi II Papers and this is evidenced in the application proposal.
The Fellowship, tenable jointly in IMEIS and Grey College, entitles the holder to full access during their residency to departmental and other University facilities such as Computing and Information Services and the University Library. Accommodation is provided at Durham during the Easter term (28 April-27 June 2025), but there is flexibility to arrange residencies in different terms to suit fellows’ availability, and fellows may be permitted to reside in Cairo or Istanbul for the duration of the fellowship and using the digitised collection which is freely accessible online. All fellows will visit Durham, if only briefly, in order to deliver their lecture in June. Lectures and other activities elsewhere during the fellowship will be encouraged.
Fellows who reside at Durham will also be encouraged to take a full part in academic and collegiate life, delivering the already mentioned lecture and perhaps also contributing to seminars.
Fellows will be awarded an honorarium upon completion of their fellowship, and accommodation and all meals will be provided for the duration of the fellowship; a research travel grant is also available to each fellow.
In this, the final year of the fellowship programme, the panel is particularly interested in applicants working on the following topics:
- Infrastructure in its social and political context;
- The use of new technologies in promoting and publicising the Khedive to a wide audience;
- Gender dynamics within the Khedival family and Egyptian society at large during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries;
- The Khedive’s estate and holdings, with a focus on the management of these assets through such mechanisms as waqf;
- The nationalist movement and its relation to the Khedive;
- Political activism, especially by secret organizations using e.g. assassination as a means of protest
Applicants are advised to familiarise themselves with the online catalogue of the Abbas Hilmi II Papers, or the collection itself, and to review the outline plan of the edited volume provided below. More detailed information on the fellowship programme is also provided.
Application Process
The application period for the 2027 fellowship begins in August 2026.
Applicants are required to undertake the following:
- Complete the Application Form
- Send a copy of your Project Proposal (2-3 pages) alongside a copy of your CV (Curriculum Vitae) in support of your application to maf.fellow@durham.ac.uk
*Please note you will be required to complete both stages of this process in order for your application to be considered.
The deadline for 2027 Fellowship programme applications to be received is Tuesday 20 October 2026.
Enquiries can be directed to maf.fellow@durham.ac.uk
8. CFP: Byzantium from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on the Historiography of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Panel at the International Congress on Medieval Studies
Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored Panel
62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
May 13–15, 2027
Organizers: Catherine McNally (MIT) and Andy Chen (Harvard)
This panel will bring into conversation emerging scholars working across Byzantine studies to reevaluate inherited historiographical traditions and to reflect on the epistemological conditions through which Byzantium has historically been construed. Papers will reexamine the twentieth-century historiographical frameworks that have shaped the study of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean, with particular attention to the scholarly marginalization of communities that resist clear confessional, ethnic, or imperial categorization. Long governed by disciplinary models rooted in nationalism, positivism, and colonialism, Byzantine historiography has often privileged imperial centers rooted in doctrinal orthodoxy at the expense of peripheral, typically heterodox communities that complicate fixed notions of empire. However, disciplinary predispositions towards normative accounts which present Byzantium as monolithic become untenable when confronted with the reality of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean’s fractured geopolitical landscape, linguistic hierarchies, and diverse forms of social organization.
The papers may come from relevant disciplines in Byzantine, Islamic, and eastern Mediterranean studies such as, but not limited to, history, art and architectural history, and comparative literature, with a preference for those incorporating innovative technological applications and/or integrating understudied archives into their approach.
Abstracts of 300 words are due September 15, 2026, and must be submitted using the conference portal (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8539 ). The session will take place in-person.
Please submit any questions to Catherine McNally at csmcn@mit.edu.
Questions that papers might address could include (but are not limited to):
How did particular political, economic, and social conditions in the twentieth century predispose scholars towards certain perspectives and conclusions in Byzantine studies? What methodological prejudices can the reevaluation of historiographical commonplaces reveal and resolve?
Funding
The Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse session participants up to $800 maximum for scholars based in North America and up to $1400 maximum for those traveling from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement.
Contact Information
Panel Organizers: Catherine McNally (csmcn@mit.edu ) and Andy Chen (achen1@g.harvard.edu )
Contact Email
9. The Great Lakes Adiban Society (GLAS) invites submissions for its tenth annual workshop, scheduled to take place in Kalamazoo, MI, on October 3-4, 2026. We welcome works in progress that would benefit from extensive discussion and feedback, and especially encourage graduate students to participate.
The Society aims to provide a regional forum for scholars of Islamicate adab to meet and share their work, particularly on the medieval and early modern periods. We leave our parameters of language and genre intentionally open in order to invite as wide a collaboration as can be useful, but as a group we are generally interested in the literary production of the broad complex of premodern Muslim societies across the Eastern Hemisphere. This includes the major Islamicate languages of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, as well as many others (Armenian, Kurdish, Georgian, Hebrew, Spanish, etc.) that participate in similar literary conventions.
Those who wish to participate can apply by filling out our online application before August 30, 2026.
Please note that each accepted participant will be given 45 minutes to present and discuss their work; because of this, we have limited space and may have to turn down some submissions if we receive too many. In such an event, preference will generally be given to graduate students, junior scholars based in the Great Lakes region, and works in progress. This year we have funds to cover the usual meals—Friday dinner through Sunday lunch—plus accommodation for two nights at a local hotel.
All applicants can expect to hear back from us by early September when the schedule is finalized.
10. We are pleased to announce that Digital Collections, the online collections platform of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (State Museums of Berlin), is now available with a brand-new interface and new features.
The Museum for Islamic Art’s collection can be explored directly through Digital Collections, with dedicated filters that allow you to discover objects from our collection.
More than 12,500 objects from the Museum for Islamic Art are currently available online, with detailed information about each object. The collection is continuously expanded and updated by our team.
The platform includes a download feature, making it easier to access available images with the Creative Commons License.
You can access Digital Collections directly, or reach the collection through the Research module of the Online Portal Islamic·Art, which also offers stories, insights, and background information about objects from the Museum for Islamic Art.
Contact Information
Museum für Islamische Kunst (im Pergamonmuseum)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 6
D-10117 Berlin
Contact Email
URL
https://search.smb.museum/en?sammlungen=Museum+f%C3%BCr+Islamische+Kunst
11. The journal Arts (ISSN 2076-0752, IF 0.5) is currently running a Special Issue entitled “Islamic Art Past and Present in Aesthetic-Critical Perspective”. Dr. Valerie Gonzalez is serving as Guest Editor for this issue.
Please visit the Special Issue website at:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/arts/special_issues/464A809POE
The submission deadline is 28 February 2027. You may send your manuscript now or up until the deadline, as papers will be published on an ongoing basis if accepted for publication following peer review. Submitted manuscripts should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to the Editorial Office
in advance (arts@mdpi.com).
Arts is an open-access journal publishing peer-reviewed papers under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). This allows all published papers to be freely and permanently available online. Open access increases the visibility and discoverability of your research, and is supported by authors, institutions, and funding organizations from around the world.
Contact Information
Valerie Gonzalez
Contact Email
Valerie.gonzalez152@goglemail.com
URL
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/arts/special_issues/464A809POE
12. Call for Papers
Environments of Healing: Art, Nature, and Medicine in Medieval Communities, East and West
International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK
5–8 July, 2027
This panel will explore the relationships between art, medicine, and nature in western and eastern communities across the Middle Ages. Medieval art historians have studied medical images for as long as the discipline has existed, but scholarship has often treated medical art as merely representing natural and cosmological phenomena. Moving beyond iconography, this panel invites papers that consider how images and objects actively mediated bodies, environments, and medical practices
The connection between medieval healers and nature was complex; nature inflicted illnesses but also provided cures. Visual art played a central role in communicating and negotiating this fraught relationship. Art was used to teach and record medical knowledge, but art objects were also employed as apotropaic, protective, and powerfully curative in themselves.
Potential themes include, but are not limited to:
- Cosmological medical diagrams
- Illustrated herbal manuscripts
- Apotropaic and curative amulets, stones, and scrolls
- Natural materials and motifs in hospitals and pharmacies
- Animals and insects in medical manuscripts
- Depictions of healers, patients, and remedies
Submissions are due on Friday, September 11, 2026, to zka5@case.edu and ceh160@case.edu. Please ensure your submission includes:
- Your name
- Your current affiliation
- Paper title
- Abstract (max 250 words)
- An updated CV
Decisions will be announced by Monday, September 28. If accepted, this session will take place in person at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds, 2027.
Questions and concerns can be directed to the co-coordinators:
Zoe Appleby, zka5@case.edu, Doctoral Candidate, CWRU
Claudia Haines, ceh160@case.edu, Doctoral Candidate, CWRU
13. ONLINE Lecture “The Suppressed Mother: Sarah and Khadījah in Muslim and Jewish Tra-ditions”, by Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, Islamic Studies and Islamic Theology, University of Helsinki, 17 September 2026, 17:00 – 19:00 CET
This talk will examine the construction of two prominent matriarchal figures: Sarah and Khadījah. Through examining the construction of each character through reception history, from Late Antiquity to modern times, this talk will demonstrate the systematic suppression of feminine authority across literary, religious, and scholarly traditions, with special emphasis on modern and academic writings.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/4ea2x7es
14. Panel on “Byzantium from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on the Historiography of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean” at the “62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies”, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 13-15 May 2027
This panel will reevaluate inherited historiographical traditions and reflect on the epistemological conditions through which Byzantium has historically been construed. Papers will reexamine the twentieth-century historiographical frameworks that have shaped the study of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean, with particular attention to the scholarly marginalization of communities that resist clear confessional, ethnic, or imperial categorization.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/9vpkhpxa
15. Conference “Literatures of the Global South: Space, Place, Environment” (Focus Middle East), University of Toronto, 2-4 June 2027
Space: How complicated minor spaces – such as the home, field, or street index – material ties across regions? – Place: How does a shared experience of neocolonialism shape literary produc-tions across the Middle East and Latin America? – Environment: How do characters perceive envi-ronmental collapse, and how might the latter inspire new forms of thinking the self and its belonging to a greater collectivity?
Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yvb7hx49
16. Associate Professor or Professor in the History of Political Thought and Institutions (Focus MENA), Stanford University, California
We invite applications from scholars working in any time period and region, and encourage candidates whose work brings non-Western, transnational, comparative, or global perspectives.
Qualification: – Ph.D. in History or a closely related field. – Outstanding record of research and publication. – A demonstrated commitment to excellent teaching and mentoring. – Capacity to sus-tain a world-class research program.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3vbv2zy3
17. General Membership (7 Months) at the School for Historical Studies (Focus Islamic World), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
Accepted Members receive access to the extensive resources of the Institute, including offices, access to libraries, subsidized restaurant and housing facilities, and some administrative services. Applicants must have a substantial record of publication and a Ph.D. awarded no later than 31 July 2026. Scholars are not required to hold a current institutional affiliation. Qualified candidates of any nationality are invited to apply.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3zxzu8sd
18. Mellon Fellowship (1 Academic Year) for Assistant Professors at the School for Historical Studies (Focus Islamic World), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
The accepted fellow receives access to the extensive resources of the Institute, including offices, access to libraries, subsidized restaurant and housing facilities, and some administrative services.
Qualification: – Received Ph.D. between 1 January 2020 and 31 July 2026. – Currently Assistant Professors at a college or university in the U.S. or Canada. – Able to return to the current institution after the fellowship.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3zxzu8sd
19. Three Postdoctoral Fellowships (1-2 Years) at the School for Historical Studies (Focus Islamic World), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
The accepted fellow receives access to the extensive resources of the Institute, including offices, access to libraries, subsidized restaurant and housing facilities, and some administrative services.
Qualification: – Received Ph.D. between 1 July 2024 and 31 August 2026. – One opening for a scholar in the field of Medieval Studies. – Two openings for scholars in the field of Europe & the World post 1800. – At least one writing sample published in a peer-reviewed source.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3zxzu8sd
20. Doha Residence Program in Advanced Arabic & Social Studies Spring 2027, Language Center at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI), 10 January – 29 April 2027
This immersive, semester-long program offers a unique opportunity for international non-native and heritage Arabic-speaking graduate students to deepen their linguistic, cultural, and academic profi-ciency while engaging in a vibrant intellectual exchange. The program is delivered entirely in Arabic, ensuring maximum language exposure and practice.
Deadline for applications: 1 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ujusn7w8
21.Articles for “The Journal of World Religions and Interfaith Harmony (JWRIH)” (Focus Islam)
JWRIH welcomes original research papers on a wide range of religious, philosophical, and theolog-ical topics: – Interfaith Harmony & Dialogue (Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc.). – Comparative Reli-gion & World Religions. – Philosophy of Religion & Theological Studies. – Ilm ul-Kalam (Islamic Systematic Theology). – Orientalism & Occidentalism. – Religious Ethics, Morality, and Contemporary Society. – Sociology and Anthropology of Religion. – Historical Perspectives on Religious Co-existence.
Deadline for contributions: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3dra7b7u
22.Articles for the “Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (ZDMG)”, Sec-tion Islamic Studies
The ZDMG invites the submission of original and innovative contributions to the field of Islamic Studies. We particularly welcome articles with a historical orientation grounded in philological anal-ysis. Contributions should focus on pre-modern Muslim societies (up to approximately 1800 CE) and address topics such as history, religion, culture, law, literature, or social structures.
Deadline for contributions: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y8rxpjj8
- August 15, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment