Archive for 2026

Ismailis of China: history, culture and tradition
In China’s Xinjiang region, a small Ismaili community sustains its faith through ritual and story. IIS hosts a lecture on the Ismaili Tajiks of this community. The hybrid event takes place on Wednesday 16 September at the Aga Khan Centre, London, and online. Dr Amier Saidula will explore how rituals, oral traditions and vernacular knowledge sustain religious heritage and identity.
Register to attend

Annual Graduate Conference 2026
IIS will host its Annual Graduate Conference on Monday 28 September at the Aga Khan Centre in London and online. This year’s theme, “Muslim Lives in Transition: Continuity and Change in Contemporary Times”, explores how Muslim lives are shaped by both continuity and change.
Register now

Fatimid Sicily: History, Memory, and Legacy
How is the Islamic past imagined in contemporary Palermo, Sicily?
The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) hosts a two-day conference on Fatimid rule in Sicily. The event runs Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 October at the Aga Khan Centre, London, and online. A parallel exhibition, Islamic Traces, follows Palermo residents of different faiths and none as they search for the city’s Islamic past. Through architecture, landscape, language and the arts, they bring their imagined pasts to life in the present.
Register to attend

New Issue on “Alevi Pasts Contested: Neglected Narratives and New Methodologies” Edited by Markus Dressler & Hege Markussen, European Journal of Turkish Studies, Vol. 42, 2026, 98 Pages
This special issue aims to address persistent gaps in the historical record of Anatolian Alevi communities and to rethink how such gaps can be studied. The contributions engage diverse sources, including archival documents, oral traditions, poetic texts, and ritual practices, highlighting the productive inter-play between written and embodied forms of knowledge. The analyse the cultural memory in Alevi poetry, the ritual production of historical consciousness, and ethnohistorical reconstructions of community formation.
View: https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/10683

1. The Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago invites applications for a tenure-track position, at the rank of Assistant Professor, in the Pre-Modern History of the Islamicate Middle East or Central Asia, with an expected start date of July 1, 2027, or as soon as possible thereafter.  We invite applications from historians whose research focuses on the social, political, economic, or intellectual history of Muslim/Islamic societies within the Late Antique to Early Modern Periods (approx. 600–1700, C.E.).

Applicants must upload the following materials to the University of Chicago’s recruitment website at apply.interfolio.com/190288 by 10:59 PM Central Time/11:59 PM Eastern Time on October 19, 2026.

For more information, see the above interfolio site.

 

 

 

 

2. The Department of History at the University of San Diego invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in South Asian and/or Central Asian History with an emphasis on the premodern period (ca. 500-1500 CE) beginning in Fall 2027.  

https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/70195/university-san-diego-assistant-professor-history

Closing date:

September 15, 2026.

 

 

 

 

 

3. “MERI Forum 2026 – The Region We Share: Advancing Stability, Cooperation and Prosperity”, Middle East Research Forum, Erbil, Kurdish Region of Iraq, 12-13 October 2026

This event will bring together local, national, and international policymakers, academics, opinion lead-ers, civil society activists, journalists, and diplomats. Themes will include evolving global and regional power dynamics, U.S. policy in the Middle East, prospects for peace in the Levant, addressing Iraq’s fragility, reforming key state institutions, institutionalising centre-periphery relations, promoting ethno-religious coexistence, and more.

Information, panels and registration: https://tinyurl.com/2b2uj77v

 

 

 

 

 

4. 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

 

 

 

 

 

5. “20th Annual International Conference on Mediterranean Studies”, Athens Institute, Athens, Greece, 22-26 March 2027

The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars and researchers from various areas of Mediter-ranean Studies, such as history, arts, archaeology, philosophy, culture, sociology, politics, international relations, economics, business, sports, environment, ecology, and other related disciplines. The con-ference is designed to facilitate discussions among academics from Mediterranean countries and those conducting research on Mediterranean-related issues, fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2026. Information: https://www.atiner.gr/mediterranean

 

 

 

6. Conference “Foreign Language: Prospects for Interaction and Communication with Arab and Eastern Cultures”, College of Languages, University of Baghdad, 24-25 March 2027

Themes include the challenges of translation; literary and intellectual translation between Arabic and Eastern languages on one side and Western languages on the other; comparative literature; contem-porary Orientalism and Occidentalism; the image of the Other in translated fiction; cultural identity; and language education and technology.

Deadline for abstracts: 20 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/466hkx52

 

 

 

 

 

7. 12 Doctoral Positions (4 Years) in Research on “Reconciliation and its Equivalents in a Transcultural Comparison”, University of Bonn

The programme seeks to promote early career researchers through specialised training groups. The selected candidates will participate in the group’s research activities while writing their doctoral theses. Qualification: A completed Master’s degree in a relevant Humanistic discipline. – Ability to work as part of a team. – An interdisciplinary mindset. – A C1-level proficiency in English.

Deadline for applications: 17 September 2026. Information: https://www.thoughtfox.xyz/bits/rhenish-friedrich-wilhelm-university-of-bonn-12-doctoral-reconciliation-studies-2026

 

 

 

 

 

8. Articles on “Literature Beyond Borders: Festschrift in Honour of Ferial Ghazoul” for “Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics”, American University in Cairo, 48, 2028

Ferial Ghazoul, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and founder of Alif, is honoured on her retirement with the journal’s forty-eighth issue. The call invites colleagues, students, and collabora-tors to engage with her scholarship on medieval and contemporary Arabic literature, and particularly the Arabian Nights; on translation studies, untranslatability, and comparative method; on the formation of comparative literature as a discipline in Egypt and the Arab world; and on her editorial legacy in shaping Alif and other Arab scholarly journals.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yr68v8vd

 

 

 

 

 

9. Chapters on “The Muslim Brothers through the Eyes of the Others a Century on: A Battle of Perceptions and Narratives in the Middle East and Beyond” for a Volume Edited by Panos Kourgiotis (University of Macedonia), Vernon Press

Scholars from the field of modern and contemporary history, political sciences, international relations and law, religious studies, anthropology, sociolinguistics and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies are invited to contribute using their expertise on how others perceive the Muslim Brotherhood. Chapters are expected to cover a large repertoire of political parties, foreign governments, religious and academic institutions, minority groups, think tanks and international fora across the globe etc.

Deadline for abstracts: 25 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4ss3v2ej

 

 

 

 

 

10. ONLINE New Article: “Technopolitical Energy Governance as Administrative Closure: Digi-talisation and the Depoliticisation of Energy Politics in Iran and Saudi Arabia” by Arash Beidol-lahkhani (University of Manchester/ZMO), 10 July 2026, 16 Pages

The article analyses how digital infrastructures reshape energy policy making and redefine who is en-titled to participate. Focusing on Iran and Saudi Arabia, it traces two converging logics. In Iran, digital systems become most visible during crises such as fuel price reforms and blackouts. In Saudi Arabia, digitalisation is embedded within long-term development planning, where grassroots engagement is selectively structured, narrowing opportunities for meaningful participation in energy policy.

View: https://tinyurl.com/5e35w69j

 

 

 

 

 

11. New Volume: “A History of Middle Eastern Modernism” Edited by Levi Thompson, Cam-bridge University Press, August 2026, 452 Pages

A wide-ranging examination of Middle Eastern modernism across Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and other regional languages from the nineteenth century to the present. The volume connects literary and artistic modernist forms across the Arab world, Ottoman and Turkish contexts, Iran, Central Asia, and India, offering a comparative frame for modernist studies well beyond Euro-American norms – a natural com-panion to current work on the Arabic prose poem, free verse, and the periodical cultures of modernism.

Information: https://tinyurl.com/5n8prn45

 

 

 

 

 

12. New Volume: “Texts as Living Objects: Dhayls and Knowledge Transmission in the Islamic World” Edited by Sacha Alsancakli and Philip Bockholt, Brill, 6 August 2026, 270 Pages

Nine contributions on dhayls, supplements, and textual transmission in the Islamic world, spanning a wide geographical and chronological range and integrating case studies of texts in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Samaritan Hebrew. The volume proposes a renewed definition of the dhayl as a cultural and historical phenomenon. Of direct value to anyone working on Arabic historiography, continuation and compilation, or the material life of texts

Information: https://tinyurl.com/yatvkw87

 

 

 

 

 

13. New Book: “The Islamic World of Education 2027”, Asia Pacific Infoserv Pty Ltd., Sydney, August 2026, 800 Pages

A comprehensive directory and guide to the organizations and institutions throughout the Islamic World of higher education and learning. Facts and figures: • Thousands of universities, colleges, schools of art and music, libraries, learned societies, research institutes, museums and art galleries. • Details on many thousands of staff and officials. • Information on international cultural, scientific and educational organizations. • Completely revised and updated throughout the year.

Information: https://tinyurl.com/3ks8dd78

 

 

 

 

 

14. New Book: “The Ottoman Ulema and the Quest for an Islamic Constitution: Revolution and Revelation”, Yakoob Ahmed, Edinburgh Studies on the Ottoman Empire, July 2026, 304 Pages

The Constitutional Revolution of 1908-1909 is one of the most transformative yet misunderstood mo-ments in late Ottoman history. This book challenges conventional narratives of this period as a secular rupture by the Young Turks from Islamic tradition, instead spotlighting the pivotal role of the Sunni ulema in shaping and sustaining the new constitutional order. This book reframes the late Ottoman constitu-tional experience as a dynamic synthesis of faith, reform and political modernity.

Information: https://tinyurl.com/5abhfxff

 

 

 

 

 

15. New Book: “Conscripting Breadwinner Soldiers in the Late Ottoman Empire: Family, Law and War” by Kate Dannies, Edinburgh Studies on the Ottoman Empire, July 2026, 272 Pages

This book examines the gender and family dimensions of mobilisation for the First World War in the Ottoman Empire, situating the war in a long-nineteenth-century social history of Ottoman military reform for the first time. It focuses on the military legal concept of muinsizlik (sole breadwinning) and how this concept shaped Ottoman military policy – namely, how militarisation and mobilisation were supported by the exploitation of women’s care and social reproductive labour, as well as the extraction of material and physical resources from Ottoman families.

Information: https://tinyurl.com/ysh2svuf

 

 

 

 

 

16. New Book: “The Architecture of Bibliophilia: Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Libraries” by Ya-vuz Sezer, Contributions by Kristel Smentek, Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, Edinburgh Studies on the Ottoman Empire, July 2026, 384 Pages

This book provides a rich account of the social, intellectual and architectural worlds of Istanbul’s library patrons and readers: – First book-length study of the Ottoman library movement. – Anchors the schol-arship on Ottoman cultural and intellectual history in architecture. – Establishes patterns of cross-ref-erences in architecture and decoration. – Discusses the trans-imperial connections of the Ottoman library movement.

Information: https://tinyurl.com/bddnzp9m

 

 

 

 

 

17. The Library of Congress Asian Division, as part of the“Fashion at the Library” series, will be hosting a virtual discussion on August 13^th(3:00PM-4:30PM EST) “From South Asia to the American South: A Discussion about the History and Trade of Seersucker” (Library of Congress). 

Ever wonder how a lightweight fabric from India became the ultimate uniform for Southern summers? To mark one of the final Seersucker Thursdays of 2026, Dr. Giorgio Riello and Dr. Prasannan Parthasarathi will come together for a conversation about the historical trade of the famous cloth, from its place of origin in India, to the American South, where it has become a part of the Southern dress code.

Thursday, August 13, 2026, 3:00PM-4:30PM EST

Register here for the Zoom event: https://tinyurl.com/kn4cbdsc.

For those unable to attend, this talk will be recorded and posted on the Library’s website and Youtube page.

Giorgio Riello is Professor of Early Modern Global History at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy and Professor of Global History and Culture at the University of Warwick, UK (currently on secondment). He has published widely on the material exchange between Europe and Asia in the early modern period. Among his books Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (2013), Luxury: A Rich History (2016), and the forthcoming In Times of Wealth (2027). He co-edited with Prasannan Parthasarathi a book entitled The Spinning World (2009).

Prasannan Parthasarathi is Professor of History at Boston College. He is the author of The Transition to a Colonial Economy: Weavers, Merchants and Kings in South India, 1720-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles (Oxford, 2009), and Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence 1600-1850 (Cambridge, 2011). He is now working on a study of agriculture and the environment in nineteenth-century South India.

Contact Information

Charlotte Giles

South Asia Specialist, Library of Congress

chgi@loc.gov

Tobunken Symposium “International Conference “Sunnis” and “Shiʿis” across History: Confessional Identities, Mutual Perceptions, and Academic (Mis)Conceptions”

1. The non-human mystics of Islam: animals as pious worshippers in early Sufism’

A Salamah-Qudsi

BSOAS, June 2026

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/nonhuman-mystics-of-islam-animals-as-pious-worshippers-in-early-sufism/6977329CE75FCCDA5BC2D5E063CE4DF2?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Article&utm_campaign=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Issues&WT.mc_id=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Issues

 

 

 

 

2. RGQ 2026 (Review of Global Qur’anic Studies of the Year): 2end meeting
Sponsored by  Ind. Int. Quranic Parliament (IQP)

Aug 18-19, 2026
Review of IQSA Vienna 2026 papers With participation of:
Prof. Ghassan El-Masri, Europe
Prof. Abdulla Galadari, Asia
Prof. Roberta Sabbath, America
Prof. Abdelmajid Benhabib، Africa
More info. via:

https://event.fourwaves.com/iqp2026
🔺 Registration:

https://event.fourwaves.com/iqp2026/registration

____
🔸 المجلس الدولي المستقل للقرآن الکریم
🔹Ind. Int. Quranic Parliament (IQP)
http://zabanshenasitarikhi.ir/
ahmadi_mh@ut.ac.ir

 

 

 

 

3. Call for Papers: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Ibrahim Pour-Davoud

TentativeTitle: Studies in Ancient Iranian Culture, Avestan Literature, and National Identity: Essays in Memory of Ibrahim Pour-Davoud.

We are pleased to invite submissions for an upcoming edited volume (Festschrift) dedicated to honoring the monumental legacy of Professor Ibrahim Pour-Davoud (1886–1968)—pioneer of Iranian studies, scholar of the Avesta, and champion of ancient Persian literature and culture.

Pour-Davoud’s groundbreaking translations and commentaries on the Avesta and Old Iranian texts laid the foundation for modern Iranian philology and inspired generations of scholars in the fields of Indo-Iranian linguistics, ancient history, Zoroastrian studies, and Persian literary history.

Suggested Topics & Themes

We welcome original, unpublished research papers from established scholars, early-career researchers, and independent specialists. Contributions may focus on, but are not limited to, the following thematic areas:

• Avestan & Old Iranian Philology: Textual criticism, linguistics, and translations of Old and Middle Iranian languages.
• Zoroastrianism & Ancient Iranian Religions: Rituals, theology, iconography, and historical development of Iranian belief systems.
• Historiography & Memory of Pre-Islamic Iran: The reception of ancient Iranian history and mythology in Persian literature (e.g., the Shahnameh).
• Intellectual Legacy of Ibrahim Pour-Davoud: Re-evaluations of his life, translations, national vision, and impact on modern Iranian cultural identity.
• Iranian Cultural Contacts: Interdisciplinary studies exploring connections between ancient Iran and neighboring civilizations (Mesopotamia, Greece, India, Central Asia).

Submission Guidelines

• Abstract Submission: Please submit an abstract of 300–500 words along with a short bio (max 150 words) by November 15, 2026.
• Acceptance Notification: Authors will be notified by January 10, 2027.
• Full Chapter Submission: Completed manuscripts should be between 6,000–8,000 words (including references and endnotes) and are due by July 25, 2027.
• All submissions must be written in English.

Note to Contributors: All submitted chapters will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process prior to final publication.

For more information, please contact Mr. A, K, Jabbari, Publisher.

mazdapub@aol.com

 

 

 

 

4. The Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World at the University of Edinburgh is seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Associate (0.8 FTE, fixed term for 24 months) to join the internationally funded research project ‘The Global Landscapes of Muslim Lives: Latin American and Caribbean Intersections’, led by Dr Kholoud Al-Ajarma (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Kenneth Chitwood (University of Bayreuth), and funded by the AHRC and DFG.

This is an exciting opportunity to develop and deliver an independent programme of ethnographic and qualitative research on contemporary Muslim communities in Latin America and/or the Caribbean. Working within the Alwaleed Centre, you will undertake original fieldwork, contribute to high-quality publications, collaborate with an international research team, and play a key role in shaping new understandings of Muslim lives, networks and institutions in an under-researched global context.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 26 August at 11:59pm BST. To view the full advert and submit your application CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

5. GLOBAL GULF

Geo-Economic, Geo-Political, and Geo-Technological Transformation

in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar

N Janardhan

Gerlach

Hardcover, 214 pages, ISBN: 9783959941990

https://gerlachpress.com/9783959941990

 

 

 

 

6. Belonging on Both Shores: Mobility, Migration, and the Bordering of the Persian Gulf. Lindsey R. Stephenson (Stanford University Press, 2026). Pp. 218. $70.00 cloth.

 

 

 

 

 

7. CfP: CAA Session: Picturing Entanglements: Transcultural Creatures in Medieval Eurasian Art

The session will be held on location.

From the simurgh perched on Sasanian textiles to dragons coiling through Yuan porcelain, creatures—real and imagined—were among the most mobile and mutable figures of the medieval Eurasian visual world. They migrated across textiles, metalwork, ceramics, paintings, manuscripts, and prints, shedding and acquiring attributes as they crossed linguistic, religious, and political frontiers. A phoenix in East Asia was not quite a simurgh in the Islamic world, yet the two could share a silhouette, or hybridize altogether. Such creatures did not merely illustrate cross-cultural exchange; they were the very vehicles through which artists, patrons, and viewers co-produced meaning, continually transforming and reinvesting these figures with new significance in the process.

This panel convenes scholars working across the art histories of the Eurasian visual world to examine how zoomorphic imagery materialized transcultural entanglement between roughly 500 and 1500 CE. We invite papers that treat creatures as agents rather than ornaments: as carriers of diplomatic meaning, as sites of iconographic negotiation, as problems of translation, and as catalysts for artistic invention. Why did artists adapt foreign beasts to local visual idioms? What was lost, gained, or generated in the passage? How might attention to creaturely imagery help us move beyond diffusionist models toward richer accounts of medieval connectivity? Interdisciplinary approaches, including those drawing on the environmental humanities and material studies, are especially welcome.

The call for papers is open until 31 August.

Please submit your title, abstract, and CV through the CAA website.

Contact Information

Yuxi Pan, SOAS University of London

Contact Email

panyuxi1@gmail.com

URL

https://caa.confex.com/caa/2027/webprogrampreliminary/Session18322.html

Call for Papers | CAA 2027 Session: Picturing Entanglements: Transcultural Creatures in Medieval Eurasian Art

 

 

 

 

8. Fons Vitae: Rumi Series

https://fonsvitae.com/product-category/sufism/jalaluddin-rumi/

 

 

 

 

 

9. Conference – “From the Balkans to Bengal in Baltimore: Engaging Diasporas, Shaping Publics, and Reimagining Islamic Art in American Museums”

 

“How should American museums that present Islamic art engage the diasporic communities that are increasingly recognized as key public constituencies? What strategies might best encourage communities to move from viewing art to responding to it—and in doing so, reshape how it is interpreted in public spaces? Join curators, practitioners, and scholars of Islamic art, art history, and history for this two-day conference, hosted at the University of Maryland and the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore.

To find out more and register, please go to https://arthistory.umd.edu/research-innovation/balkans-bengal-baltimore-engaging-diasporas-shaping-publics-and-reimagining

The schedule is as follows:

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Location: Ulrich Recital Hall, Tawes Hall, University of Maryland

9:30-10:00     Registration

10:00-10:30     Welcome and Introductions

10:30-12:00    Panel #1: Interpreting and Presenting Islamic Art, moderated by Ünver Rustem, Johns Hopkins University

Ekin Akalın, University of Nantes and the Autonomous University of Madrid, The Missing Showcase of Modernity in Islamic Art Galleries and the Ottoman Military Painters (1839-1939)

Elnaz Latifpour, University of Virginia, Rewriting the Label: Interpreting Qashqai and Southern Iranian Weavings in Western Museums

Constance Jame, Musée d’art Roger-Quilliot, Performing the Objects: Beyond Materiality and Art Historical Discourses

12:00-1:30    Lunch

1:30-4:00    Panel #2: Curating Islamic Art and Muslim History in American Institutions, moderated by Karin Zitzewitz, University of Maryland, College Park

Nadirah Mansour, Lake Forest College, Building a Collection of Arabic Calligraphy by Living Artists at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Acquisitions, Interpretation and Community Outreach

Rachel Winter, Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, When Paintings Become About Palestine: Samia Halaby in Michigan

Hiba Abid, New York Public Library, Uncovering Islamic Heritages in New York: Fostering Community Connections via Niyū Yūrk and Further Initiatives

Amy Landau, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, Curating the work of an Iranian American artist in “Tehrangeles” 

Ladan Akbarnia, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Silent Revolutions and Small Victories: Reflections on curating Islamic visual culture

Location:  Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, University of Maryland

4:15-4:45    Tour of LANDLINE, curated by Islam & Print, University of Maryland Art Gallery

4:00-5:30    Reception, Atrium

5:30-7:00    Keynote, Stefan Weber, Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin, moderated by Peter Wien, University of Maryland, College Park, Rm. 2203

Friday, September 25, 2026

10:00-10:15    Meet at Walters Art Museum

10:15-12:15    Guided Tours of Islamic Galleries at Walters and Making Space/Islam & Print

12:15-1:30    Lunch at the Helmand, registration required

Location:  Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street Baltimore, MD 21201

1:30-2:30    Special Collections Tour, Pratt Library

2:30-4:30    Panel #3: Engaging Communities, Reimagining Publics, moderated by Harold Morales, Morgan State University

Alison Kysia, Independent Artist, Muslim American Artist in the U.S.: Contemporary perspectives on art, faith, and identity

Melissa Forstrom, Purchase College, SUNY, and Ashley Dimmig, Crossman Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Sharing Authority: Engaging Historic and Contemporary Diasporic Community Members at the Walters Art Museum

Basmah Arshad, University of North Texas, ‘If Not Now, When?’: The Arab American National Museum During the Post-9/11 Era and Afterward

Sarah Slingluff, University of Maryland, College Park, Beyond the Museum Walls: Challenges and Opportunities in Curating Islamic Art for Virtual Audiences

4:30-5:30 Social Gathering at Stem & Vine

 

 

 

10. Conference: God, Human, Machine | 28 – 30 September 2026 | University of Erfurt (Hybrid)

We are pleased to announce our upcoming conference God, Human, Machine: Images and Imaginaries of Religion in the Age of AI at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Addressing a critical but underexplored dimension of the AI–religion nexus, the conference brings together theoretical and empirical perspectives, connecting scholars and practitioners working at the intersections of Religious Studies, Anthropology, Art History, and Science and Technology Studies. The programme features two keynote lectures by Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan) and Gregory Price Grieve (UNC Greensboro), a conversation with religious digital image creators, and seven panels exploring the relationship between human imagination, religious knowledge, and AI systems.

The detailed conference schedule is on our event webpage: https://www.uni-erfurt.de/to/godhumanmachine

Registration via the conference webpage is open until 16 September.

For any queries, please contact Afaf Abdelrazek via aiimagery@uni-erfurt.de

Please join us for this exciting opportunity to engage with cutting-edge research and critical debates about the ways in which AI image systems and human imaginaries of religion shape each other across traditions, cultures, and social contexts.

Best wishes,

Christoph Günther

Programme

Day 1: 28 September 2026

09:30 – 10:00 Opening remarks

10:00 – 12:00 Panel 1: Sensory and Spatial Aspects (Chair: Christoph Günther)

Tino Grisi (Politecnico di Milano): The “How” of the Rite: AI-Generated Polyhedral Synthesis and the New Imagery of Ecclesial Spaces

Nesrine Mansour (University of Colorado Boulder): What the Machine Cannot See: A Manifesto for Sacred Imagination in the Age of AI

Isobel Dickson (Dublin City University): Envisioning Artificial Intelligence: Mysticism, AI Ethics, and the Religious Imaginary of Starmirror

13:30 – 15:30: Panel 2: Revealing the Hidden and Unimaginable (Chair: Afaf Abdelrazek)

Wajeeha Naween (Bahria University Karachi Campus): The Ghost in The Pen: AI, Barakah and the Future of Islamic Calligraphy

Barbara Denuelle (University of Kent): Seeing with the Eye of the Heart: Sufi Epistemology, Visual Imagination, and AI-Generated Images

Fitri Murfianti (Leiden University): Seeing the Unseen: AI Images, Digital Miracles, and the Remaking of Religious Imagination in Indonesia

15:45 – 17:30 Traversing Design, Art and Devotion: A Conversation with Religious Digital Image Content Creators (Roundtable)

17:45 – 19:15: Keynote (Chair: Christoph Günther)

Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan): Pandora’s Black Box: Techno-Orientalist Images of the Prophet Muhammad in the Age of AI

Day 2: 29 September 2026

09:00 – 11:00: Panel 3: The Politics of AI-charged Imaginaries (Chair: Farwa Ejaz)

Efstathios Kessareas (University of Erfurt): Reimagining Hellenic Polytheism through AI: Aesthetics, Ideology, and Power

Rasool Akbari (University of Bonn): Ambivalences of AI-Rendered Iranian Cultural Imaginaries: A Case Study of the Sun and the Lion

Kathrin Trattner (University of Zurich): “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” The role of generative AI in the digital martyrdom of Charlie Kirk

11:15 – 12:15 Bias Datasets, Artificial Hate and Racist Intelligence: A Conversation with Ari Temkin, followed by the art installation The Jewish Dataset (2025)

13:15 – 14:15 Guided VR Demonstrations: ThePuja.App, VR Hajj, and VR Karbala

14:15 – 16:15: Panel 4: Interactions with AI-generated Imagery (Chair: Jasmin Eder)

Jan Philipp Hahn (EZW, Berlin): Visualizing Divine Authority: The Persuasive Power of AI-Imagery in Interreligious Online Debates

Feeza Vasudeva, Katja Valaskivi (University of Helsinki): Godbots and Religious Mediation: An Exploratory Study of Religious AI Interaction

Sofia Tsourlaki (SOAS University London): Reclaiming Revelation: Use AI to Visualise Qur’anic Meanings Beyond the Authority of the ʿUlamāʾ

16:30 – 18:00: Keynote (Chair: Fouad Gehad Marei)

Gregory Price Grieve (UNC Greensboro): Cave of Dreams: Designing Ethical AI Worlds for the Study of Religion and Human Responsibility

Day 3: 30 September 2026

09:00 – 11:00: Panel 5: Re-Conceptualising AI & Religious Imagination (Chair: tba)

Thowhidul Islam & Nurul Amin (International Islamic University Chittagong), Iftekharul Islam (University of Dhaka): Between Khayāl and Code: Artificial Intelligence and the Islamic Philosophy of Imagination

Arulchelvan Sriram (Anna University): From Darshan to Dataset: AI-Generated Divine Images & the Transformation of Seeing in Hindu Practice in Tamil Nadu

Kris Ramlan (Goethe University Frankfurt): Artificial Imagination? Ibn ʿArabi’s Ontology of the Imaginal and AI-Generated Presence

11:15 – 13:30: Panel 6: AI Images and Imaginaries of Religious Pasts and Futures (Chair: Christiane Gruber)

Murtala Ibrahim (FU Berlin): Machines of the Final Hour: AI as Eschatological Portent in West African Islam

Katharina Yadav (University of Zurich), Feeza Vasudeva (University of Helsinki): Aesthetics and (Religious) Imagination in Hindu and Christian AI Images

Babak Rahimi (UC San Diego): AI Karbala: Artificial Visuality, Shiʿi Mourning, and Futurity

Christoph Günther (University of Erfurt): “Your first day in jannah” vs. “POV: you wake up in jahannam”: AI Images of Paradise and Hell

15:30 – 17:30: Panel 7: Ethical Entrainment, Moral Cultivation, and Postcolonial Subjectification in the Age of AI (Chair: tba)

Maria Majorie Purino University of San Carlos): Hsing Yun’s Humanistic Buddhism: Cultivating AI & Digital Humanities

Myra Abubakar (National University of Singapore): Selective Legacy 2.0: AI-Generated Imagery and the Algorithmic Curation of Postcolonial Islamic Memory

Mohamad Zreik (Sun Yat-sen University): AI and the Revival of Confucianism: Virtual Teachings and Moral Imagery in Contemporary China

 

 

 

 

11. Ars Orientalis invites submissions of innovative articles on the arts of the broad geographic area of Asia, from the ancient period to the contemporary. We seek original, previously unpublished work that reflects insightful interventions, including but not limited to comparative or interdisciplinary approaches, multimedia content, and digital humanities methods. 

Manuscripts should be 8,000 to 12,000 words (including endnotes).

Ars Orientalis is a digital publication with a print-on-demand option. The digital volume also allows for the incorporation of other media, such as video, sound, and 3D models. Visual material must include permissions for print and online reproduction.

We are currently accepting submissions for volume 58 to be published in December 2028. Articles must be received by September 1, 2026, to be considered.

Submissions should be sent to ArsOrientalis@si.edu.

Guidance, submission, and style guide for articles can be found here https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/submit-research/.

Contact Information

Ars Orientalis

Freer Research Center

National Museum of Asian Art

Contact Email

ArsOrientalis@si.edu

URL

https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/submit-research/

 

 

 

 

 

12. Grabar Travel Grant

Deadline: August 15, 2026

This competition is open to graduate students (doctoral candidates) who have been invited or accepted as participants in a scholarly conference or other professional meeting for the purpose of presenting papers, chairing sessions or moderating discussions.

The maximum amount of the award is $2,500 USD.

Applicants must be HIAA members in good standing at the time of application. Grabar Travel Grants must be used within 12 months of the award date.

Applications must include the following five components and be submitted in a single PDF to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by August 15, 2026:

• Application cover sheet, available here
• A cover letter explaining the applicant’s purpose in participating in the conference, the expected benefits of participation, and an itemized travel budget
• Curriculum vitae
• Letter of acceptance from the conference/session organizer(s)
• Abstract of the paper to be presented

In addition, a letter of recommendation from the applicant’s primary supervisor should be sent directly to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by the deadline.

Applicants from outside the United States are responsible for meeting the requirements and obtaining any visas necessary for visits to or residence and research in the United States. Upon request, HIAA will supply documentation of the grant and/or fellowship award, the dates of the award, and financial support.
For further details and to apply, please visit: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/opportunities/hiaa-prizes/grabar-grants-and-fellowships

 

 

 

 

 

13. The Critical Studies on Terrorism annual conference will take place at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on Tuesday 8 September and Wednesday 9 September 2026.

Venue: G.06, 50 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JU

The Critical Studies on Terrorism annual conference will take place at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on Tuesday 8 September and Wednesday 9 September 2026. Critical Terrorism Studies has witnessed a growing engagement with decolonial and postcolonial perspectives over the past years that have challenged the continued, even if inadvertent, Eurocentrism of the discipline and its dominant approaches. Despite these advances, the field continues to grapple with enduring forms of Eurocentrism in its conceptual frameworks, research agendas, and scholarly conversations. It is therefore time for CTS to consider a more radical re-orientation of the direction it has been taking since its foundation. In light of this, The Critical Studies on Terrorism working group is calling for an initiative that bridges the fields of CTS and Critical Muslims Studies (CMS)

Information and Registration:

https://llc.ed.ac.uk/centre-for-the-study-of-islam-in-the-contemporary-world/conference-re-orienting-critical-terrorism?utm_campaign=3541023_News%20from%20the%20Alwaleed%20Centre%20-%20August%202%2F4&utm_medium=email&utm_source=College%20of%20Arts%2C%20Humanities%20%26%20Social%20Sciences%2C%20The%20University%20of%20Edinburgh&dm_i=2MQP,23W9R,BDTBUF,7SV0F,1,0,0,0

 

 

 

 

 

14. “Multilingual Transmission and Sufi Lexicography: ʿAbdul Razzāq Kāshānī and the Transmission of Ibn ʿArabī”,

in Religions as part of the Special Issue
Multilingualism, Translation, and Religion in the Premodern Islamic World(s):
Texts, Contexts, and Crossroads.

Leila Chamankhah

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/17/7/837

 

 

 

 

 

15. Workshop “Migration and Mobility in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Borderlands (19th – 21st Centuries)”, University of Vienna, 13-14 November 2026

We particularly invite contributions from fields such as history, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, spa-tial and border studies, which address various instances of trans-border mobility, specific borderlands border-zones, transnational diaspora networks, minority histories, memory, and memory production within the context of Ottoman and post-Ottoman space.

Deadline for abstracts: 17 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yjuphfjx

 

 

 

 

 

16. Editor (5 Years) for the Journal “Turkish Studies”, London

This role is a great opportunity for an academic with a strong research background in Turkish Studies and who has the commitment, drive and ability to help further develop this leading academic journal. The role would suit mid-career or senior scholars who are keen to make a significant impact on the scholarly field and are able to dedicate the requisite time and attention to the journal. Applicants should have the capacity to devote approximately 10-12 hours each week to the role.

Deadline for applications: 13 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2anhmd2p

 

 

 

 

 

17. Two Associated Editors (3 Years) for the Journal “Turkish Studies”, London

Qualification: A PhD in a relevant discipline. – Working in a Social Science discipline and active in research pertaining to Türkiye. – Experience with academic publishing. – Excellent skills of written and spoken English, and a commitment to linguistic detail. – The capacity to devote approximately 5-6 hours each week to the role. – Experience with working effectively with independent peer reviewers.

Deadline for applications: 14 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2phw25n7

 

 

 

 

 

18. Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in the Pre-Modern History of the Islamicate Middle East or Central Asia, University of Chicago

Qualification: PhD in a relevant field. – Demonstrated ability to carry out original independent research in the areas of the search, resulting in publications in leading venues. – Excellent command of either Classical Arabic or Persian required. – Research competency in an additional Middle Eastern/Central Asian language (Arabic, Persian, Turkic languages, or other relevant language). – Demonstrated ability or potential for excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching.

Deadline for applications: 19 October 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/190288

 

 

 

 

 

19. Articles for the “Journal of Arabic Linguistics Tradition”, Volume 24

We welcome scholarly articles that contribute to the study and research in the field of Arabic linguistics tradition, encompassing the whole range of phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, lexico-graphic, and other related analyses and specific contributions of linguists since the tradition’s earliest inception (around the 8th Century) until the end of the 15th Century. The journal also welcomes trans-lation articles, especially those accompanied by commentary and/or analysis sections, as well as book reviews.

Deadline for contributions: 15 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ykt7w6a8

 

 

 

 

 

20. Chapters on “Lives Beyond the Archives: Alf Muslimah Research Competition” for an Ency-clopaedia of Leading Muslim Women, Al-Mujadilah Research, Doha

Proposals are invited for research-based entries for “Alf Muslimah”, a forthcoming encyclopaedia doc-umenting the lives, intellectual contributions, and social impact of leading Muslim women across the globe and throughout the ages. The project sets out to recover the stories of exemplars whose achieve-ments and legacies have been overlooked, underrepresented, or preserved only through local commu-nity histories, oral traditions, or regional archives.

Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/b2f46jk2

Outspoken

1. ‘The concept of the creational body in Iranian mythology: transformation and theological reinterpretations in Zoroastrian texts’

M Bayani

BSOAS, July 2026

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/concept-of-the-creational-body-in-iranian-mythology-transformation-and-theological-reinterpretations-in-zoroastrian-texts/210861C54632A5EF8FB9EF6C0F33BBA1?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Article&utm_campaign=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Articles&WT.mc_id=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Articles

 

 

 

 

2. Open Access – Kaplony, Andreas. Pre-Modern Arabic Documents: A Concise Introduction into Reading and Publishing.

Berlin: de Gruyter, open access, 2026 (Studies in the History and Culture
of the Middle East 51) (https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/isbn/9783112248140/html)

 

 

 

 

 

3. CfP: The Composition of the Qur’an: Structure, Style & Meaning

A conference co-organized by the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB)

& the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO: EU funded “Anawati Chair”),

Location: IDEO (Cairo), March 19ᵗʰ‒20ᵗʰ, 2027

Publication: MIDEO 45 (2029)

Conference Theme

Questions concerning the composition of the Qur’an, its structure, style, and organisation, have occupied Muslim scholars for centuries and remain central to contemporary Qur’anic studies. Yet composition is not merely a question of literary form. It also concerns how the Qur’an generates meaning, organises argument, guides interpretation, establishes authority, and shapes relationships between revelation, recitation, and community.

Approaches to these questions have been remarkably diverse. Muslim scholarly traditions developed sophisticated reflections on textual organisation through tafsīr, balāġa, theories of naẓm and munāsabāt, and the sciences of the Qur’an (ʿulūm al-Qurʾān). Contemporary scholarship has expanded these discussions through literary, rhetorical, philological, historical-critical, manuscript, and comparative approaches, while also exploring the Qur’an’s engagement with the wider intellectual and religious cultures of Late Antiquity.

Rather than asking only how the Qur’an is composed, this conference asks what composition accomplishes. How does compositional form shape meaning? How have different scholarly traditions understood these relationships? What new perspectives emerge when literary, philological, historical, theological, and exegetical approaches are brought into conversation?

The conference welcomes contributions that revisit established assumptions, develop new methodological perspectives, or explore how composition functions as a dynamic process of meaning-making within the Qur’an and across its interpretive traditions.

Possible questions include:

• How can textual coherence in the Qur’an be understood?
• What kinds of compositional structures emerge within individual sūras or across the Qur’an as a whole?
• How do repetition, variation, formulaic language, rhythm, and sound contribute to meaning?
• How has the Islamic intellectual tradition theorised textual form, rhetoric, coherence, and style?
• What can philological, manuscript, and codicological evidence contribute to our understanding of the Qur’an’s composition?
• How do different models of the Qur’an’s formation shape literary interpretation?
• What role do self-referentiality, scriptural dialogue, and intertextuality play in the Qur’an’s discourse?
• How do recitational, performative, and liturgical contexts shape perceptions of textual organisation and coherence?

Possible Themes

Theme 1 – Literary Structure, Rhetoric, and Compositional Analysis

This theme welcomes studies exploring rhetorical structure, thematic progression, compositional symmetry, coherence, repetition, narrative organisation, and other formal dimensions of the Qur’anic text. It also encourages critical reflection on the assumptions, possibilities, and limits of different approaches to structural analysis and on the relationship between compositional form and meaning.

Theme 2 ‒ Textual Formation and Historical Context

How do literary readings relate to different accounts of the Qur’an’s formation and transmission? This theme explores the relationship between synchronic and diachronic approaches while encouraging dialogue between literary criticism, philology, manuscript studies, oral performance, historical criticism, and material textuality. We also welcome contributions examining the Qur’an within the broader intellectual and religious cultures of Late Antiquity and considering how these perspectives intersect with literary, philological, theological, and exegetical approaches. Rather than assuming a rigid opposition between these methodologies, the panel seeks to explore the questions that emerge at their points of convergence.

Theme 3 ‒ Self-Referentiality and Interpretation

How have different interpretive communities understood the relationship between the Qur’an’s compositional form and its meaning? This theme explores self-referentiality, internal Qur’anic hermeneutics, scriptural conversation, and the interpretive significance of textual form. It welcomes studies of Muslim exegetical, rhetorical, and theological traditions alongside contemporary literary, philological, historical, and comparative approaches, with particular attention to the conceptual frameworks through which composition, structure, and style have themselves been understood and theorised.

Submission Guidelines

If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send your title and an abstract of 300‒500 words in PDF format to Quran2027-IDEO-OIB@ideo-cairo.org by September 30ᵗʰ, 2026. Please also include a short CV (maximum one page) detailing your institutional affiliation and recent publications. Participants commit to presenting original research and submitting a paper to MIDEO. Notification of acceptance: November 30ᵗʰ, 2026. Submission of full articles for publication: September 30ᵗʰ, 2027.

Publication & Peer Review

Selected papers will be published in the MIDEO 45 (2029). Please note that inclusion in the conference does not guarantee publication. Conversely, researchers who are unable to attend the conference are still encouraged to submit their manuscripts for consideration in this thematic issue. All manuscripts (maximum 60,000 characters including spaces) will undergo a double-blind peer review process according to the journal’s editorial standards (see the guidelines here).

Practical Information

Languages: The primary language of the conference is English.

Travel & Accommodation: Our funding is limited. Please let us know if you require financial assistance regarding your airfare. Accommodation, local transportation and meals will be provided by the conference organizers.