Archive for 2026
Shii News – Open Access: ‘Security and Space: Salafism, Shi‘ism and the State in Morocco’ – G R Eyre
- March 11, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Online Persian Spring School – From Beginner to Advanced
The Ghand-e Parsi 2026 Spring Schoolis a seasonal program designed to offer learners from all backgrounds a rich, structured, and immersive experience of the Persian language and Persianate culture. With carefully designed courses at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels, the Spring School provides a comprehensive learning pathway—from building foundational communication skills to engaging deeply with historical, literary, artistic, and mystical Persian texts.
In addition to the core language levels, the program includes a diverse selection of cross-level courses that open interdisciplinary perspectives, such as Digital Humanities, Persian through Arabic, and Persian Poetry, taught by distinguished instructors. The Spring School brings together language learning, cultural exploration, and scholarly expertise in a unique and intellectually enriching environment.
All course sessions are fully recorded, allowing participants to review materials and watch sessions outside of live class hours.
Below you will find the list of courses offered this spring:
Elementary Courses
- Elementary Persian (Mohammad H. Naraghi)
Intermediate Courses
- Intermediate Persian
- Intermediate Persian through Short Stories
- Intermediate Persian through News Websites in Simple Persian
Advanced Courses
- Persian Literature as World Literature: An Introduction to Persian Poetry in English Translation
- Advanced Persian through Mystical and Sufi Texts
- Advanced Persian through Persian Codicology Texts
- Advanced Persian through Safavid Texts
- Advanced Persian through South Asian Persian Texts
- Advanced Persian through History of Art Texts
- Advanced Persian through Travelogues
- Advanced Persian through Central Asian texts
- Advanced Persian through Ethnographic Texts
Cross-Level Courses
- How to Read Persian Poetry: From the Shahnameh to Hafez and Jahan Malek Khatun
- Persian Language and Culture through Iranian Cinema
- Bridging Arabic & Persian: Learn Faster, Remember Better
- Digital Humanities and Persianate Studies Bootcamp
- Persian for Everyday Conversation
- Persian for Heritage Speakers
We warmly invite you to join us for this Spring School and take part in a meaningful journey into the Persian language and culture. Whether you are continuing your studies or joining Ghand-e Parsi for the first time, we hope this program will be both inspiring and rewarding.
🔗 Learn more about all courses:
https://www.ghandeparsi.com/springschool
🔗 Testimonials:
https://www.ghandeparsi.com/testimonials
📝 Register here:
https://forms.gle/4Qj9cc4jeUDCKJtv8
- March 10, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.The Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Washington calls for submissions for the third cycle of the Mo Habib Translation Prize in Persian Literature.
Please find the details here.
Closing date: 1 Sept., 2026
Our inaugural winner was a translation by Dr. Michelle Quay of Reza Ghassemi’s Woodwind Harmony in the Nighttime, which is forthcoming by Deep Vellum in two weeks!
2. With the generous support of Farman-Farmaian Family, the IISH launches a new fellowship programme named the Prince Dr Sabbar Farman-Farmaian Fellowships for scholars who wish to use its collections for the study of social and economic history of 18-20 century of Iran, whether from a regional, national, or comparative and transnational perspective.
Fellowships are awarded for six months (1 October 2026 – 31 March 2027). This is a call for applications for fellowships for the year 2026/2027.
Deadline for applications is 15 May 2026.
Fellows receive a monthly stipend up to € 1,500, depending on the difference in average costs of living between Amsterdam and the country of origin. The fellowship also includes an economy return flight to the Netherlands, visa support, as well as arrangements for accommodation. Cost of health insurance in Amsterdam will be reimbursed.
Minimum requirements/selection criteria:
– An MA degree or higher,
– An updated CV, including home address
– A Research proposal in not more than 500 words
– Academic level English
The fellow’s research plan should fit the Institute’s focus on social history.
Fellows are expected:
– To write a report on their research activities at the end of the fellowship period,
– To be present at the institute customarily,
– To take part in the activities of the Institute’s Research Department,
– To interact with other fellows and the IISH’s research staff in the English language,
– To give at least one public lecture.
– To let us know if they need a Schengen visa
Selection will be made based on the quality and novelty of the proposed research project, its affinity to social history research conducted at the International Institute of Social History, and the applicant’s qualifications.
Outcome:
Fellows are expected to present the results of their work both orally to the other members of the Research Department, and in writing with a paper of min. 5000 and max. 8000 words (including notes). It is envisaged that the PDF version of the paper will be published as an occasional paper on the website of the IISH.
Applications:
Applications should be submitted before 1 May 2026 to jacqueline.rutte@bb.huc.knaw.nl
General information about the IISH can be obtained via www.iisg.amsterdam
More information about the fellowship can be obtained from Professor Touraj Atabaki,
e-mail: tat@iisg.nl
3. Zahra Institute
We are pleased to invite you to our upcoming online Spring Speaker Series. Our next event will take place on March 11, featuring Omar Sheikhmousspeaking on “Future Pathways for Kurdish Politics: Autonomy, Sovereignty and the Middle East Order.”
For more information about Zahra Institute’s upcoming programs, please see the attached event and program flyers and visit our website: https://www.zahrainstitute.org/. We appreciate your help in sharing these events within your networks.
March Events
“Future Pathways for Kurdish Politics: Autonomy, Sovereignty, and the Middle East Order”
Omar Sheikhmous, Independent Scholar and Researcher
Wednesday, March 11 — 12 PM Central / 1 PM Eastern
Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/MXE-g4HdRVamNMy5yhtYRQ#
“The Limits of Modern Islamic Political Thought: The Radical Ideas of Hoca Mehmed Sadik Efendi”
Alp Eren Topal, Assistant Professor, Ibn Haldun University
Wednesday, March 25 — 12 PM Central / 1 PM Eastern
Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/So7mauctQcKRv1krOeNwEg#
4. The American Research Institute in Turkey announces fellowships for research in Turkey. Awards are offered for research in ancient, medieval, or modern times, in any field of the humanities and social sciences. Tenures range from one to three months.
Applications due April 1, 2026
Contact Information
Nancy Leinwand, American Research Institute in Turkey
Contact Email
URL
https://aritweb.org/fellowships/arit-research-fellowships/
5. AN EPIC OF MARTYRS: Revolutionary Images & Muslim Mythologies in 1960s Iraq
Elizabeth Rauh (American University in Cairo)
Thursday, March 12 @ 10:00am | 110 Warren 312
Rutgers University-Newark
In the immediate aftermath of the 1963 Iraqi Ba’ath Party-led coup d’état of the Republic of Iraq and assassination of its democratically elected Prime Minister, Abd al-Karim Qasim, several prominent artists began producing new artworks and public art exhibitions. Iraqi artists drew upon transnational anticolonial symbols and common motifs of the heroic worker, farmer, and revolutionary to visualize collective solidarity and resistance against the new regime. Yet these new artistic activities also began incorporating representations and materials drawn specifically from Islamic religious traditions. The activation of historically religious content into contemporary artworks reveals how anti-authoritarian political resistance increasingly comingled with new heroic mythologies in the 1960s Islamic World.
Contact Information
Alex Dika Seggerman
Contact Email
URL
https://sites.rutgers.edu/islam-humanities/event/an-epic-of-martyrs-revolutiona…
6. The second International Conference on Globalisation/Deglobalisation in Languages, Education, Culture and Communication (GLECC2026) is going to be held 28-30 July 2026, Manchester, UK.
The past two decades have witnessed remarkable advancements in the studies into Education, Second and Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting, Cultural Studies, and Communication. This growth, evident in both the number of active researchers and the volume of scholarly throughput and outcomes, can be largely attributed to the forces of globalisation. Consequently, adopting the globalisation perspective is timely and provides a natural framework for connecting these diverse yet interlinked disciplines.
This conference aims to bring together researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers from the realms of education, foreign and second languages, cultural studies, translation, interpreting, and communication to disseminate research outcomes, share insights, discuss findings, exchange visions, and identify challenges and trends in an interactive and immersive multidisciplinary environment.
Keynote speech: “Translation, Chinese Texts, and World Literature” by Professor Yifeng Sun, University of Macau, China.
The conference is co-organised by AT Publishing in association with its journals namely, Research in Education Curriculum and Pedagogy: Global Perspectives (RECAP) [ISSN: 2977-1633]; New Perspectives on Languages (NPL) [ISSN: 3033-490X]; The International Journal of Chinese and English Translation & Interpreting (IJCETI) [ISSN: 2753-6149]; and Recent Advances in Humanities Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) [ISSN: 2978-1345]. There is a “conference first” policy in place. Selected papers will be invited to further develop into full journal articles free of APCs.
Conference proceedings will be published open access with an ISBN.
Submission deadline: 30 April 2026
Click here to find out what the 2025 conference was like and hear feedback from the participants.
The conference proceedings can also be viewed here.
The Area Studies Network list is run by the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, www.llas.ac.uk. LLAS is now a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy, www.heacademy.ac.uk
7. Séminaire “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges” – 5e séance mercredi 11 mars 18h-19h30Nnous avons le plaisir de vous convier à la troisième séance du séminaire “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges”, qui se tiendra mercredi 11 mars 2025, 18h-19h30, en salle 3.01 à l’INaLCO(65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 3eétage).
Malheureusement la séance avec Alka Patel ne pourra pas avoir lieu et sera remplacée par la présentation des derniers ouvrages sur l’Afghanistan:
- Azad, with P. Firoozbakhsh,The Warehouse of Bamiyan: Economic Life in Medieval Afghanistan, Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2026, 368 pp.
Résumé : Bamiyan, in present-day Afghanistan, is famous for its giant Buddhas, but what was life like for its rural inhabitants 500 years after the Muslim conquest? The Warehouse of Bamiyan uncovers the untold history of the region’s warehouse, revealing the lives of farmers, landholders, the taxes they paid, and their role in the economy. Based on newly discovered documents studied since the late 2010s, Arezou Azad details the reconstruction of the archive and the scholarly methods used behind the scenes to read medieval documents ‘against the grain.’ The book offers a fresh perspective on the medieval eastern Islamicate lands through the lens of medieval Bamiyan, highlighting the significance of agricultural societies and shedding light on the diverse roles of rural communities often overlooked in royal narratives.
- Firoozbakhsh, P. et A. Azad,The Rise and Fall of the Barmakids: Stories from a Forgotten Persian Manuscript, Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2026, 344 pp.
Résumé : This volume offers the first annotated English translation of Ḍiyāʾal-Dīn Baranī’s The Accounts of the Barmakids, based on a little-known manuscript housed in the Bodleian Library, MS Ouseley 217. The Barmakids, originally from the Balkh region in modern-day Afghanistan, were a prominent family of converts to Islam who rose to great power in the 8th century, under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. Their influence reached its height under the Abbasid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd, who eventually brought about their downfall. The Barmakids have intrigued both medieval and modern scholars, with their legacy preserved in regional lore and Western popular culture, the latter particularly through the One Thousand and One Nights. While early Arabic sources provide factual accounts of the family, Baranī’s Persian story cycle, written in the 14th-century, paints a more vivid picture. Contained within this work are 70 tales, including stories of generosity, wise leadership, romance and skulduggery.
- De Chiara et H. Kabir, Dictionnaire pratique pashto-français, Paris : L’Asiathèque, 2026, 512 pp.
Résumé : Le pashto est une langue parlée par près de 60 millions de personnes dans une région s’étendant de l’est de l’Afghanistan à l’ouest du Pakistan, ainsi que dans une très large diaspora à travers le monde. En Afghanistan, c’est la langue officielle avec le dari (persan afghan) depuis 1937, tandis qu’au Pakistan, c’est la langue régionale des provinces de Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (l’ancienne North-West Frontier Province) et du Baloutchistan. Aujourd’hui, nous disposons de nombreux dictionnaires monolingues et bilingues dans le domaine de la lexicographie internationale, certains même de grande dimension, tels que l’Afgansko-russkij slovar’ (pushtu) d’Aslanov (1966, 60 000 mots), le Pashto-Pashto Descriptive Dictionary (1979, 50 000 mots), le Daryāb Dictionary de Qalandar Momand (1994, 70 000 mots), le Dictionnaire général pashto-français de Wardag Akbar (2015, 40 000 mots), ou le Pashto Academy Dictionary (Pashto to Pashto) de Khayal Buxāri (2018, 85 000 mots). Toutefois, la spécificité du présent dictionnaire est celle de considérer avant tout le lexique effectivement utilisé par les locuteurs, environ 15 000 mots, qui comprennent également des dérivés et des locutions polyrhématiques.
Vous trouverez l’intégralité du programme 2025-2026 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges” en ligne sur le site du CeRMI: L’Afghanistan à travers les âges – Centre de recherche sur le monde iranien
Vous trouverez également ici le lien de connexion: https://zoom.us/j/96136711428?pwd=jqZ3lotYx6re8bpoU4uAYPl9GRM1CF.1
8. 09/03/2026, 15.00 CET, Dr. Noemie Lucas (University of Edinburgh) and Dr. Dalia Hussein (University of Edinburgh): People and Taxes: The Functioning of the Fiscal Cycle in Abbasid Egypt
This session is part of the project seminar series “Science, Society and Environmental Change in the First Millennium CE”. It analyzes the functioning of the fiscal cycle in Abbasid Egypt, exploring the relationship between people and taxes.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/4zmeaebr
9. HYBRID Seminar: “Emotions in Early Islam: Method, Text, and the Formation of Sufism” by Riccardo Paredi, Hagop Kevorkian Center, New York University, 10 March 2026, 22:30 CET
While central to religious life, emotions remain under-theorized in Islamic Studies. After reconsidering the category of “emotion” in relation to premodern Islamic sources, Paredi assesses the possibilities and limits of a philological approach to key affective clusters such as sadness, longing, love, envy, and anger. Drawing on early renunciant and Sufi texts. He analyzes how these emotions shaped religious experience and intersected with core Sufi concepts such as manners (ādāb), ethics (akhlāq), and spiritual conditions (aḥwāl).
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/yfcp83fb
10. “32nd Congress of the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO)”, University of Munich, 10-12 September 2026
Deadline for abstracts: 22 March 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/bdepfthb
11. Fellowships (1-3 Months) for Research in Turkey, American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), Istanbul and Ankara
Awards are offered for research in ancient, medieval, or modern times, in any field of the humanities and social sciences. Stipends will range from $2,500 – $5,000. ARIT offers research and study facilities as well as connections with colleagues, institutions, and authorities through its branch cen-ters.
Deadline for applications: 1 April 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/34y7cbrb
12. Summer Abroad Program: ‘’Art Treasures of Anatolia from Byzantine to Seljuk”, Depart-ment of Art History, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konja, 13-27 July 2026
This unique cultural program aims to explore medieval Anatolian art and architecture through on-site study in Konya, with particular emphasis on the region’s Byzantine and Seljuk heritage. The course combines lectures with field trips to major monuments, archaeological sites, and museums, enabling participants to study art and architecture within their historical context.
Deadline for application: 2 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ycys49zs
13. New Book: Challenging the Caliphate
Wahhabism and Mahdism in the Late Ottoman Empire
How did steam transportation and print culture reshape the Ottoman Empire’s centre-periphery relations in the nineteenth century? Challenging the Caliphate offers a fresh perspective on modernization in the Muslim world, exploring how these developments in infrastructure, technology, and communications impacted ideas of the Caliphate, Wahhabism, and Mahdism. Through rich archival re-search and micro-historical examples, Koçyiğit demonstrates how new technologies influenced po-litical authority, religious movements, and the spread of ideas.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/35caxksw
14. Neues Buch: “Zwischen Wort und Sinn: Az-Zamaḫšarī (gest. 538/1144) und die Kunst der Koranexegese” von Dina El Omari, Bibliotheca Academica – Orientalistik, Bd. 39), Ergon, 2026, 150 Seiten
Dieses Buch bietet einen fundierten Zugang zu einem der einflussreichsten Werke der islamischen Koranexegese. Ausgehend von einer biographischen und intellektuellen Verortung des Gelehrten beleuchtet das Buch die theologischen Grundlagen seines Denkens, seine methodische Vielfalt sowie die Besonderheiten seiner exegetischen Argumentation. Das Buch zeigt dabei, warum sein philologisch-rationaler Ansatz auch für eine zeitgemäße Koraninterpretation inte-ressant ist.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/4m4ynw47
- March 07, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – DEADLINE EXTENDED: 2026 Shiʿi Studies Symposium: CfP: Ritual in Shiʿi Islam
The University of Chicago Shiʿi Studies Symposium Call for Papers: Ritual in Shiʿi Islam
Abstract Submission Deadline EXTENDED: March 8, 2026
Response Date: March 15, 2026
Symposium Date: May 15-16, 2026
The Shi‘i Studies Group at the University of Chicago is excited to announce an open Call for Papers for our Symposium to be held May 15-16 2026, under the theme of “Ritual in Shiʿi Islam.”
About the Symposium: The University of Chicago Shiʿi Studies Symposium is an endeavor of the Shiʿi Studies Group, established in 2010, to provide an interdisciplinary, non-area-specific forum for the discussion of research on Shiʿism by faculty and graduate students at the University and beyond. The annual symposium aims to strengthen the field of Shiʿi Studies by bringing together a group of both senior and early-career scholars to present research and to cultivate an environment for intellectual discussion and collaboration. At each symposium, we aim to address a focused set of questions with cross-cutting relevance to scholars working on various periods and from various disciplinary perspectives.
Call for Papers: We are now accepting abstracts from graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and independent scholars. We welcome papers employing a wide range of interdisciplinary and methodological approaches, spanning the earliest periods of Shiʿism up through the contemporary moment. Previous symposia have considered walāya and devotion to the family of the Prophet, the formation of centers of learning, Shiʿism and governance, and the dynamics of sectarianism. Building on these conversations, this year’s gathering turns to the practices through which institutional, communal, and theological commitments are formalized, enacted, and often contested.
Subject areas may address, but are not limited to:
The calcification and re-invigoration of Islamic law
The integration of the occult, talismans, and magic into devotional life
The development of shrine spaces to accommodate and shape visitors’ ritual practices
The regulation of grief, piety, and embodied discipline
Ritual failure, excess, and contestation in Shiʿi practice
Keynote Speaker: Rob Gleave is Professor of Arabic Studies in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. His research focuses on Islamic legal theory and practice, particularly legal hermeneutics, and the history of Shi’ite legal thought and institutions. He has directed a number of international research projects over the past 20 years exploring these issues. His current research projects include The Foundations of Modern Shi’ism: The End of Akhbarism and the Beginnings of Usulism” as the British Academy/Wolfson Professor (2023-2027) and SDIL: Schooling and Deschooling Islamic Law: Histories of the Madhhabs (2024-2026).
Featured Speakers: Scott Lucas is and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Arizona. His research explores the creative process by which Sunni and Zaydi scholars composed works in the genres of law, hadith, and Qur’anic commentary during the classical period of Islamic civilization. He recently published Selections from the Comprehensive Exposition of the Interpretation of the Verses of the Qur’an. He currently is working on multiple book and article projects related to Zaydi law and theology in Yemen.
Aun Hasan Ali is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His research focuses on the intellectual history of Twelver Shi’ism, particularly law and legal theory. His first book, The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi’i Islamic Tradition, builds upon recent scholarship in the fields of Religious Studies and Anthropology to argue that Twelver Shi’ism is better understood as a discursive tradition.
Submissions: Presenters will be asked to deliver papers of approximately 20 minutes, followed by moderated discussion between panelists and the audience. Abstracts of around 300 words along with a CV should be submitted by March 8, 2026. Send abstracts to uchicagoshiistudies@gmail.com, with the subject line: “2026 UChicago Shiʿi Studies Symposium Application.”
Please circulate widely! For questions and concerns, including accessibility and funding, please write to uchicagoshiistudies@gmail.com. Additional information and updates will be published on our [voices.uchicago.edu/shiistudies]website.
- March 04, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Assistant Teaching Professor, Persian Studies Program at Georgetown University
The Persian Studies Program at Georgetown University invites applications for a three-year, full-time, non-tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Teaching Professor to begin August 2026.
https://apply.interfolio.com/182312
2. Le CeRMI a le plaisir de vous convier à la prochaine séance du séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien”, qui se tiendra le jeudi 12 mars 2026, 17h-19h, en salle 3.03 à l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 5eétage).
Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir M. Thibaut d’Hubert, chercheur associé (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) à l’Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie à la Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität de Munich, pour une conférence intitulée: Poétique du feu et de la lumière à la cour d’un roi soleil.
Résumé :
Fayḍī Fayyāḍī (1547-1595), poète lauréat (malik al-shuʿarā) de l’empereur moghol Akbar (r. 1556-1605) est une des figures de transition du début de la période postclassique dans l’histoire de la poésie persane et un poète canonique dans la tradition indo-persane. L’écho de sa poésie en Inde moghole, dans les sultanats du Deccan, en Iran safavide et, de manière tout à fait remarquable, dans le domaine ottoman s’explique en partie par les fonctions artistiques, administratives et diplomatiques que Fayḍī occupait à la cour moghole. Mais, au-delà de ces raisons pragmatiques et circonstancielles, c’est bien la nature de son style et l’intervention que constituait son œuvre au sein de la tradition poétique persane qui expliquent la réception de son œuvre. Dans cette communication je souhaite revenir sur la fonction de Fayḍī comme chantre de la mystique solaire du dīn-i ilāhī à la cour d’Akbar, mais aussi et surtout je propose d’étudier la dimension proprement poétique de l’imagerie que ce discours théologique et politique lui permit d’exploiter. Le risque de la perception de l’œuvre de Fayḍī comme simple instrument de propagande est de la réduire à sa dimension rhétorique et ainsi d’ignorer l’énergie poétique qui s’en dégage et qui, davantage que le discours politique ou religieux, capta l’attention de générations de poètes et de lecteurs.
Orientations bibliographiques :
– Desai, Z. A. “Life and Works of Faiḍí.” Indo-Iranica 16, no. 3 (1963): 1–35.
– Fayḍī, Abū al-Fayḍ ibn Mubārak. Dīwān-i Fayḍī (954-1004): buzurgtarīn shāʿir-i sada-yi dahum-i sarzamīn-i Hind. Edited by E. Ḍ. Arshad and Ḥusayn Āhī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Furūghī, 1362Sh.
– Fayḍī, Abū al-Fayzḍ ibn Mubārak Fayḍī Fayyāḍī. Inshā-yi Fayḍī. Edited by I.D. Arshad. Vol. 129. Fārsī kā kilāsīkī adab. Lahore: Majlis-i Taraqqī-yi Adab, 1973.
– Grobbel, Gerald. Der Dichter Faiḍī und die Religion Akbars. Berlin: Schwarz, 2001.
– Resalatpanahi, Mohammad Mostafa, and Seyed Mohammad Rastgo. “Reviewing, Analyzing, and Criticizing the Printed Version of Faizi Fayyazi’s Poetical Works.” Textual Criticism of Persian Literature 10, no. 1 (2018): 64–79.
Vous retrouverez l’intégralité du programme 2025-2026 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien” en ligne sur le site du CeRMI: https://cermi.cnrs.fr/seminaires-de-recherche/societes-politiques-et-cultures-du-monde-iranien-2025-2026/
Dans l’attente du plaisir de vous retrouver à l’occasion de ces séances, qui se déroulent en présentiel sur le site de l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII).
Bien cordialement,
Les organisateurs –
Simon Berger et Justine Landau
Contact: justine.landau@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr
3. UCLA: Women, Art, Freedom: Artists and Street Politics in Iran
Pamela Karimi
Cornell University
Persian Lecture
Monday, March 16, 2026 at 2:00 pm Pacific Time
Online via Zoom
Registration Required:
https://ucla.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mvqHL0u4QFGuYqFdFbiikg
- March 03, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Arab Media and Society: Issue 39 & New Call for Papers
https://mailchi.mp/1186645f16d7/now-available-issue-39-new-call-for-papers?e=f1106c9666
2. April 2026 ONLINE WORKSHOP Collectively Situated Knowledge: A Decolonial Research Method for Constructing Collective Auto-Narratives and Positionalities
upcoming opportunities to engage in collective, decolonial, and non-capitalist research practice offered by El Cambalache’s Department of Decolonial Economics.
This workshop is an invitation to unlearn extractive research, re-center care and reciprocity, and create knowledge collectively.
Dates: April 13th – May 5th, 2026
Time: All sessions are Mondays and Tuesdays:
- 8hrs to 10hrs, Mexico City Time,
- 15hrs to 17hrs, UK British Summer Time
- 16hrs-18hrs Central European Time,
- 20:30hrs-22:30hrs India Standard Time
Where? Online (Global Participation)
Language: ENGLISH
Apply Now! Limited spaces available
About the workshop:
This workshop explores collective auto-narrative, situated knowledges, and relational research methods.
Participants will co-create tools to reimagine research as care, relationship, and collective praxis.
This workshop addresses research methods for the creation of scholar/activist knowledge with indigenous, rural and organized urban communities that seek to create decolonial research methodologies. Through participatory practices of knowledge exchange:
(1) we will explore different auto-narrative types, review sample texts followed by writing practice
(2) we will then work to incorporate collective forms of knowledge creation
drawing on the decision-making structures of community assemblies
present in many rural and indigenous communities around the world,
(3) we will explore collective auto-narrative as a research method.
In this process we will dismantle the construction and practice of situating knowledge in order to create collective positionalities that reflect the construction of the self within the collective contexts that we inhabit. By exploring collective forms of agency in knowledge creation, we will delve into the multiplicitous protaganisms that conglomerate in creating praxis and have the potential to resist epistemicide.
This workshop will cover:
– Different auto-narrative types with a specific focus on autoethnography
– Methods and analyses for creating decolonial economic projects.
– Understanding ourselves as situated knowers and how to position ourselves collectively.
– Unlearning colonial paradigms of research and knowledge production.
– Rethinking value, exchange, and labor in research.
– El Cambalache as an example of an anti-capitalist and non-hierarchical research
For more information including a full description and how to apply click here to download a pdf: https://cambalache.noblogs.org/files/2026/02/collective-methods-online-2026.pdf
3. CfP: The International Symposium on Piri Reis and Maritime History – November 2024, Istanbul
In commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Kitāb-ı Bahriye, the International Piri Reis and Maritime History Symposium will be held at Piri Reis University from November 18 to 21, 2026.
The symposium aims to address the life and works of Piri Reis within their historical context through a multilayered perspective. The symposium will address, through an interdisciplinary approach, topics such as the reflections of Mediterranean-centered maritime experience in the Kitāb-ı Bahriye, Ottoman cartography, the circulation of knowledge during the Age of Geographical Discoveries, maritime strategies in the Mediterranean, and global maritime activities in the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.
In this respect, the symposium seeks to explore the Ottoman maritime heritage within the framework of Piri Reis and the Kitāb-ı Bahriye, and to reassess the stages of development and transformation that maritime practices have undergone from the past to the present within an international academic setting.
For the symposium program, application requirements, and current announcements, please visit the symposium website: https://denizciliktarihi.pirireis.edu.tr/en/
Contact Information
Contact Persons:
Nilay Bahadır
nbahadir@pirireis.edu.tr
Orkun Burak Tafralı
obtafrali@pirireis.edu.tr
Contact Email
URL
https://denizciliktarihi.pirireis.edu.tr/en/
4. New Release: Maria-Vittoria Fontana (ed), Hodeida the Coastal Tehama (Yemen), published by Istituto per l’Oriente C.A. Nallino (Rome, 2025), 3 vols.
These three volumes are devoted to the Yemeni city of Hodeida, the main subject of two targeted survey campaigns
carried out in 1997 and 1999 by the Mission of the (then) Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli (IUO Mission to
Hodeida) under the direction of Maria-Vittoria Fontana; it also covered two other port cities on the Yemeni Tehama
Coast, namely Mocha and Loheia.
Dedicated to the memory of Eugenio Galdieri, this three-volume book discusses these three coastal spaces in
Yemen, though the city of Hodeida takes the lion’s share in the discussion. It contains 43 chapters, which are the
result of a collaborative work of seventeen specialists.
Volume 1:
Foreword by Claudio Lo Jacono,
Note on transliteration,
Maps,
Tribute to Eugenio Galdieri,
Preface and Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
Chapters 1-12 (Hodeida: its geo-morphological context, its history from antiquity to the present, its trade and
inhabitants, its urban planning, its city walls and gates, the city plan of its intra-mœnia city)
Volume 2:
Chapters 13-23 (Hodeida, the intra-mœnia city: the catalogue of the 151 historical buildings and their inscriptions
dating from the late 18th century to the 20th century, the catalogue of the wooden artefacts and the stuccowork,
brickwork, and stained glass of the catalogued buildings, the catalogue of the mosques, the so-called samsara, the
public weigh station, the construction techniques and materials; Hodeida, the extra-mœnia city: the sample buildings
and their inscriptions, their wooden artefacts, stuccowork, brickwork, and stained glass)
Volume 3:
Chapters 24-43 (Hodeida, the extra-mœnia city: the sample mosques, the governors' residences, the cisterns and
forts; Hodeida: the intra- and extra-mœnia cities: insights, comments and comparisons, including two chapters on
the Red Sea Style, the port and shipping lines; Mocha and Loheia: their historical buildings and their inscriptions),
Bibliographical references,
Index of names and places
5. The Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections is pleased to announce the third online calligraphy workshop with international artist and designer Hatem Arafa, taking place 28 Feb – 17 March 2026.
Hatem Arafa is an international designer and calligrapher trained at the Traditional Islamic Arts Faculty at FSMV University in Istanbul. His notable projects include the logo and interior calligraphy artworks for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage (2023), commemorative coins for Djibouti (2023) and Qatar’s World Cup (2022), and interior calligraphy for the Cary Mosque, USA (2022).
- Duration: 3 weeks, with two 2-hour lessons per week (total of 6 lessons)
- Each 2-hour session will be held Saturdays & Tuesdays 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm EST / 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm UK
- Format: Live online on Zoom
- Focus: Teaching Diwani calligraphy, starting from individual letters to forming words and sentences
- Places are limited
Contact Information
Dr. Glaire Anderson
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art, University of Edinburgh
Founding Director, DLIVCC
Contact Email
URL
https://www.digitallabivcc.com/calligraphy
6. Astrology and History in Early Islam
Aligning Heaven and Earth
EUP, 2026
Antoine Borrut
7. Cultural Brokerage in Premodern Islamic Societies
Edited by Uriel Simonsohn, Luke Yarbrough
EUP, 2026
8. Open Access – Afghanistan
8.2 (Oct, 2025)
9. Artificial Intelligence in EFL and Academic Writing: Pedagogical, Ethical, and Critical Perspectives from Global Higher Education
We have the pleasure to share with you our full issue on “ Artificial Intelligence in EFL and Academic Writing: Pedagogical, Ethical, and Critical Perspectives from Global Higher Education.”
For the full issue, click here
For the individual paper, click here
Call for papers for the 12th Special Issue on Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), July 2026
Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) welcomes the submission of papers for the July 11th special issue on Computer-Assisted Language Learning (July 2026). The issue publication date is July 2026. The deadline for manuscript submission is April 15, 2026. We ask you kindly to submit your paper according to the Manuscript Guidelines for AWEJ at our website www.awej.orgor go to this particular link http://awej.org/index.php/ps
Please send your paper and a brief bio (four lines for each author) by e-mail to: editor@awej.org
For more details, please click here
Kind Regards,
Editor: Arab World English Journal
https://awej.org/
10. Keynote Speakers Announced for 2026 BRISMES Annual Conference
We are delighted to announce that Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Dr Munira Khayyat will be joining us as keynote speakers at this year’s annual conference. Conference registration for presenting delegates is now open and registration for non-presenting delegates will open in April. We recommend booking your accommodation early if you are planning to attend the conference and have put together a list of accommodation options near SOAS University of London to help with this. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch by emailing conference@brismes.org.
11. Watch Recording of BRISMES Webinar “What’s in an Archive?”
We are pleased to share a recording of the BRISMES webinar “What’s in an Archive? The Colonial and Anticolonial Afterlives of MENA Archives” which was hosted by our Outreach & Pedagogy Committee on 27 January 2026.
12. BRISMES – Deadline Approaching for 2026 Early Career Development Scholarship
If you are an early career scholar who would benefit from funding to help support activities geared towards strengthening your academic profile and CV, then please consider submitting an application for the 2026 BRISMES Early Career Development Scholarship. Two awards of £3,000 each are available.
More information about eligibility criteria and how to apply is available on the BRISMES website. The deadline for submissions is 20 March 2026.
https://www.brismes.ac.uk/awards/ecds
13. Lecturer (Modern Middle East after 1800)
University of York
The Department of History is seeking to appoint a Lecturer in the History of the Modern Middle East (after 1800), possessing knowledge of Middle Eastern sources, peoples, communities, and languages. The post is offered on an open contract from September 2026.
Deadline | 19 March 2026
More information
14. Call for Applications | The Gibb Memorial Trust Scholarships
Funding
The Gibb Memorial Trust is offering three annual scholarships to students undertaking doctoral research at a British university in the field of the Trust’s activities. The scholarships support doctoral research in any area of Middle Eastern Studies (7th century to 1918) or in Classical Persian Studies.
Deadline | 30 March 2026
More information
15. Call for Papers | The 2026 International Conference of the Syrian Academics and Researchers’ Network in the UK (SARN UK)
Conference, University of Cambridge, 17-18 September 2026
The Syrian Academics and Researchers’ Network in the UK (SARN UK) is pleased to announce the Call for Papers for its 2026 international conference, co-hosted with the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies (MAC) at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. This year’s theme, “Syria in Transition: Knowledge, Memory, and the Everyday Aftermath,” invites Syrian and Syria-focused scholars to reflect on the evolving role of academic, cultural, and intellectual work in shaping Syria’s futures.
Deadline | 15 May 2026
More information
16. Forced Migration, Masculinities, and Vulnerabilities in the Mediterranean
Book launch (hybrid) | LSE | 10 March
Join the LSE Department of Social Policy for the launch of Forced Migration, Masculinities, and Vulnerabilities in the Mediterranean, a new book examining forced migrant men’s vulnerabilities along the Central Mediterranean Route (CMR), which connects sub-Saharan Africa to Sicily via Libya.
More information
17. Iran, “Reverse savages, victims, saviours” politics, and the human rights moral maze
Online seminar | BISA | 12 March
In this seminar, Shadi Mokhtari will present select themes from her current book project examining the human rights politics surrounding Iran’s 2022 ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement. This event is convened by the Critical Alternatives for World Politics Working Group.
More information
18. UCLA – God’s Law, Man’s Rule: Debating Women’s Right to Health from Sacred Texts to the Taliban
MESA Global Academy
A lecture by Lutforahman Saeed (Visiting Scholar and Islamic Law Lecturer, Birgham Young University Law School, Provo)
Monday, March 2, 2026
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM PST
Online
https://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/event/17566
19. “14th Western Ottomanists` Workshop (WOW)”, Portland State University, Oregon, 15-16 May 2026
The workshop invites proposals on topics related to Ottoman history, culture, literature, art history, religion, and all other relevant fields.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 March 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4dzw5w9t
20. ONLINE Seminar: “Along the Borders of the Film Archive: Views of the Ottoman Empire” by Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi (Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam), REDMIX Seminar Series, 31 March 2026, 17:00 CET
Information and registration: https://redmix.eu/news-and-events/
21. 4th Annual Conference of the Research Group Empires on “Responding to Empire (Fo-cus MENA Region)”, University of Freiburg, Germany, 11-13 November 2026
We aim to explore a wide spectrum of responses to empires, moving from the binary of supporters and opposers, through shifting allegiances and unresolved positions, to more nuanced and often contradictory stances. Hence, considering both material practices and epistemological positions, the goal of this conference is to create a multifaceted picture of how these responses shaped the empire through time.
Deadline for abstracts: 13 March 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yb985ekf
22. “Intensive Summer Program for Ottoman Turkish”, Research Center for Anatolian Civ-ilizations (ANAMED), Koç University, Istanbul, 29 June – 31 July 2026
The program aims to develop students’ reading and comprehension skills and earn them exper-tise in a variety of Ottoman Turkish sources, including archival documents, manuscripts, and ep-igraphic material. The program is designed to accommodate participants with varying levels of Ottoman Turkish literacy. Persian, Arabic, and modern Turkish classes complement Ottoman Turkish classes. The languages of the program are Turkish and English.
Deadline for applications: 21 March 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yck8pykc
23. École d’été en islamologie IFI-Idéo « Sciences islamiques en dialogue : tradition azhar-ienne et islamologie critique », Le Caire, 13-26 juillet 2026
Condition pour candidater : être francophone (une connaissance en français niveau B1 est souhaitable), être inscrit en thèse de doctorat en islamologie ou dans une discipline affiliée, justi-fier d’un niveau linguistique en arabe équivalent à B1.
Les candidatures doivent être adressées avant le 1er avril 2026.
Information : https://tinyurl.com/2p9kfvs5
24. Mystique et solidarité dans le monde iranien
de Sylvie le Pelletier-Beaufond
Cerf, 2026.
Au coeur des cités iraniennes médiévales s’est développée une chevalerie sans équivalent ail-leurs dans le monde. Ni militaire ni aristocratique, mais urbaine, fraternelle et spirituelle, elle unissait artisans, commerçants et maîtres de métiers autour d’un idéal exigeant de noblesse intérieure. Bonté, générosité, pardon et solidarité n’y relevaient pas du discours moral, mais d’une manière concrète de vivre et d’agir au sein de la cité.
Information : https://tinyurl.com/5fj8eejb
- February 28, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – CfP: The Thought, Life, and Teachings of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (Leiden, 2-3 December, 2026)
Abstract Deadline: 15 April 2026
- February 27, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- February 26, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.“The Mythmaking of Silk Roads: Reinventing Eurasian Heritage
- in Japan, 1880-1980”.
The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, and Cluster of Excellence “EurAsia Transformations” (Austrian Academy of Sciences and University of Vienna), are pleased to co-host the Tobunken Seminar: “The Mythmaking of Silk Roads: Reinventing Eurasian Heritage in Japan, 1880-1980”.
As the opening event of the four-day programme “EurAsia-Tokyo Academy”, this seminar aims at investigating, by focusing on Japan as a case study, how the knowledge of Eurasian
heritage acquired during the late nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries have influenced the way in which many people worldwide came to understand the visual, material and textual legacies of the trans-Eurasian trade network called “Silk Roads”.
Date and Time: Tuesday, 17 March 2026, 16:30 (JST)
Venue: Room 302, 3rd floor, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia,
University of Tokyo and online via Zoom
Language: English
Pre-registration is required for both in-person and online
participation. Please complete the registration form at
< https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforms.gle%2FUHwpGULSFWwpbops8&data=05%7C02%7C%7Ccc8948528d2548e7e42908de724aacab%7C2e9f06b016694589878910a06934dc61%7C0%7C0%7C639073862217779188%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=aBfvpCs7hph6Tor4qRZ88iKJTd%2B9ntUJeRRysxxgyvA%3D&reserved=0>
by Tuesday 10 March, 24:00 (JST).
A Zoom link will be sent to all
registrants by the end of the following day.
Co-organised by: Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of
Tokyo, and Cluster of Excellence “EurAsia Transformations” (Austrian
Academy of Sciences and University of Vienna)
Contact: Kazuo Morimoto (morikazu@ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp )
Programme
16:00-16:30 Arrival
16:30-16:45 Welcome: Kazuo Morimoto (The University of Tokyo)
Introduction: Yuka Kadoi (University of Vienna)
16:45-17:15 Shamim Homayun (The University of Tokyo)
Placing Afghanistan on the Silk Road: Japanese Encounters with the
Bamiyan Buddhas, 1926–1969
17:15-17:45 Francesca Fiaschetti (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Mapping the Steppe: Twentieth-Century Japanese Scholarship on Mongols
and Inner Asia
17:45-18:00 Discussion
2. In the Rose Garden: Poetic Reponses to Sa’di. Art of the Islamic Worlds at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.(Deadline: March 1)
Public program at MFAH: March 26, 2026.
Art of the Islamic Worlds invites creative writers to respond to the Gulistan (Rose Garden), the major work of the preeminent 13th century Persian poet, Shaykh Sa’di. A series of amusing, witty, and wise tales interweaving prose and poetry offer reflections on topics such as ‘Love and Youth,’ ‘The Customs of Kings,’ and ‘The Advantages of Silence.’ The work speaks to 21st-century concerns about ethics and justice, as it did to 19th-century poets including Emerson and Thoreau. A 19th-century illustrated manuscript of the Gulistan replete with lively paintings from the Indian kingdom of Alwar is on view in the Hossein Afshar Galleries for Art of the Islamic Worlds. Selected writers will read their works in the Art of the Islamic Worlds Galleries at the MFAH.
For details and submission information, please visit: https://www.mfah.org/art/in-the-rose-garden-poetic-reponses-to-sadi. Contact: ahosain@mfah.org.
3. Open Access Publication – Ars Orientalis 55
The National Museum of Asian Art is pleased to announce the launch of Ars Orientalis (AO) volume 55, co-published with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
AO is a journal of the latest research in art of the Middle East and Asia, a collection of scholarship that crosses academic disciplines and covers a range of time periods, materials, and regions. After decades of guest-edited thematic volumes, since AO 54, the publishers have returned to a model of open submission, inviting articles related to the arts of Asia without restriction.
In addition to a range of articles on the arts of Asia, AO 55 introduces “New Directions,” an occasional feature comprising a longer, non-peer reviewed article on current scholarship and/or the state of the field. The inaugural “New Direction” piece, written by Gülru Necipoğlu, is based on her 2023 Freer Medal presentation at the National Museum of Asian Art. It offers a fresh perspective on a highly innovative pictorial language that developed in Iran and Iraq at the turn of the fourteenth century and stands out for its adoption of both Chinese and European aesthetics. “Conversations from the Field” is a timely mediation on the role and function of physical and digital replicas of works of art. One essay examines the role of plaster casts of Ancient Near Eastern art and the use of digital apps to strengthen the experience of these works at the Museum of Ancient Near East, Harvard University. A second essay discusses replicas of the rarely seen treasures of the Shōsōin Temple in Nara, Japan. Expanding on the theme of replicas, the “Digital Initiatives” explores the benefits and limitations of interactive digital models for objects of religious art.
The volume is available Open Access: https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/browse-volumes/ars-orientalis-issue-55/. The physical volume is also available for pre-order here https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/order-ars-orientalis/
Table of Contents
- Introduction. Massumeh Farhad and Sana Mirza
- The Ernst Herzfeld Papers at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution: Identifying the Palmyrene Squeezes. Eleonora Cussini
- Nebuchadnezzar’s Draw: Revisiting Philips van Winghe’s Sketches of the Azuchi Screens in Lorenzo Pignoria’s Le imagini de gli dei de gli antichi. Mark K. Erdmann
- The Courtesan’s “Role Portrait”: Brothel Performances and the Qiu Ying Models in Late Ming Suzhou.Peng Xu
- 名妓的“角色肖像”：晚明苏州青楼表演与仇英范式. Peng Xu (徐芃)
- The Matter of Sculpture: Isamu Noguchi and Early India. Kalyani Madhura Ramachandran
New Directions
- The Jalayirid Contribution: A Topkapi Palace Album with Images in the Persianate, Chinese, and European Manners (Ca. 1350–1500). Gülru Necipoğlu
Conversations from the Field
- Reviving Neo-Assyrian Casts: Adam Aja in Conversation with Antonietta Catanzariti. Antonietta Catanzariti with Adam Aja
- What is a Replica: Reflections from Shōsōin THE SHOW: Bryan Lowe and Akiko Walley in conversation with Kit Brooks. Kit Brooks with Bryan Lowe and Akiko Walley
Digital Initiatives
- New Perspectives on Religious Art Through the Digital Twin: Two Stelae of Pārvatī from East India.Gerald Kozicz and Di Luo
4. The Islamic College – Short Course: Recitation of the Qur’an
Course name:Recitation of the Qur’an
Type:In-house short course
Instructor: Mrs Alsalemi
Intended for: Men and women over 18 years
Course Structure:
- Part 1: Tajweed One — 6 sessions
- Part 2: Tajweed Two — 6 sessions
- Total: 12 sessions
Course fees:
- £100 for 6 sessions
- £200 for 12 sessions
Schedule:
5 June – 28 August
Every Friday morning, 10:30am – 12:30pm
More information: E-mail admissions@islamic-college.ac.uk or
phone +44 (0) 208 451 9993
Register at:
https://islamic-college.ac.uk/registration-recitation-of-the-quran/
5. Hybrid: UCLA
Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series
Ancient Iran and Central Asia
Interactions and Shifting Identities
Professor Frantz Grenet (Collège de France)
A Series of Four Lectures in March 2026 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time
Royce Hall 314 and via Zoom
Lectures
Wednesday, March 4, 4:00 pm PST
“A World between Worlds: Geography, History, and
Identity of the Early Kušāns
(First Century CE)”
Friday, March 6, 4:00 pm PST
“Kušān Rulers: In Search of an Imperial Narrative
(Second to Fourth Centuries CE)”
Monday, March 9, 4:00 pm PDT
“Eastern Iranian Contributions to the Construction of the Šāhnāme: Kušāno-Sasanians, Sīstānīs, and Sogdians
(Fourth to Eighth Centuries CE)”
Wednesday, March 11, 4:00 pm PDT
“Philhellenism among the Hunnic Elites
(Fifth to Eighth Centuries CE)”
A public reception will follow the final lecture.
Register at:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZe_cBLuKnqqj9EeyA6_ztn0RkV6UCmch3IQU004bGv8ml3A/viewform
6. Harvard University – NELC – Lecturer in Armenian Studies
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/69814/harvard-university-nelc-lecturer-armenian-studies
Closing date: 21 March, 2026
7. Call for Workshop Abstracts
Friendship: Intimacy, solidarity, and political transformations in South Asia and the Middle East
The Center for Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS) at Villanova University invites you to submit abstracts for consideration in a workshop on Friendship: Intimacy, solidarity, and political transformations in South Asia and the Middle East to be held at Villanova on 13-14 November organized by Anusha Hariharan (Villanova) and Aslı Zengin (Rutgers). The accepted papers will be considered for a forum in the Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (JSAMES).
The age-old Aristotelian axiom that ‘friendship forms the basis of political life’ (Ward 1997) has always found purchase in studies of politics across the humanities and social sciences. However, the elevation of friendship as the ideal relationship that provides the moral foundation for democracy became expedient around the mid-20th Century. The end of World War II, and administrative decolonization across Asia and Africa not only illuminated social inequalities, but also gave birth to new nation-states. While the ‘citizen’ was the desired base unit of political life, the ‘friend’ was touted as the relationship category that spoke most to ethical life (Foucault 1997; Derrida 2005; Gandhi 2006; Roach 2012; Nixon 2015). The relational category was – and still is – seen to espouse the central ethics and values of liberalism: equality, fraternity and fellowship. Such essential values, newly minted nation-states believed, would enable fledgling democracies, like themselves, to flourish (Ambedkar [1957] 2011).
Concerns problematizing friendship have become even more pertinent and expedient in the twenty-first century, where it starts to form the critical basis for political life under fascist regimes that erode the human spirit and the moral fabric of communities globally (Whitaker 2011; Nagar et al 2016; Chowdhury and Philipose 2016; Forster and White 2025). Centering these concerns, this workshop brings together scholars of South Asia and the Middle East where major political upheaval has unfolded in the last quarter of a century. Ranging across the humanities disciplines of History, Anthropology, Human Geography, Global/Area Studies, Gender and Queer Studies, participants are asked to center the study of friendship in the context of political activism, community-building and world-making. The symposium participants will be invited to engage with the following questions:
- How do friendship relations form the ethical basis for political solidarity and human flourishing in the twenty-first century?
- What are the different aspects of emotional, ethical and political labor required by activists and community organizers to maintain friendship and solidarity in the longue durée, and work towards social and political transformation in local and global contexts?
The idioms of friendship across South Asia and the Middle East are also inscribed within the particular cultural histories and social dynamics in these regions (Ali and Flatt 2017). In both regions, friendship by default summons the category of the political, as friendship is the relational form that implies liberal choice is forged outside of the normative expectations of kinship and caste/clan. Further, scholars have demonstrated how friendship represents a form of social resistance to both normative society’s boundaries and the state’s repression of intimacy across ethnic, denominational, religious or caste-based differences (Tambar 2019, Hariharan 2025, Zengin 2026, Kanagasabai and Phadke 2023). Friendship communities, in that sense, offer us a glimpse of prefigurative politics, where activists enact the egalitarian and democratic societies that pepper their future political imaginaries.
This workshop will pay attention to these extant cultural idioms and genealogies of friendship, and in doing so, will further Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s (2010) invitation to: “create knowledge that is location-specific rather than location-bound”. Mapping friendship relations specific to the macro-region of South Asia and the Middle East offers us new avenues to theorize protest cultures and the everyday life of revolution through the lens of intimacy in a part of the world where communities have not only survived the political upheavals they have witnessed in the twenty-first century, but are thriving and flourishing owing to collective human creativity.
All accepted papers will be considered for publication in a forum of the Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (JSAMES), a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the CAIS and published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The JSAMES is interested in interdisciplinary scholarship that explores the unique political, social, and economic formations and their historical antecedents that contribute to region-making in our contemporary age. The JSAMES is edited by Samer Abboud (Villanova University). Further journal information, including a list of editorial board members, can be found here.
Please direct any questions to JSAMES’ Managing Editor, Dina Baslan (dina.baslan@villanova.edu). For submissions, fill out this form.
The workshop timeline is as follows:
April 3 Submission of abstracts (~250 words)
Late April Notification of acceptance
Early September Virtual participants meetings
October 5 Submission of paper drafts (~4000 words)
November 13-14 Workshop
January 15 Submission of final papers for review (4000 words)
Contact Email
URL
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdElZvt7yWa9otyW4XpLp-28DXRM_cZ5gZs0x2…
8. Hybrid: The University of Edinburgh – Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
The 2026 Montgomery Watt Lecture will take place on Monday 2nd of March at 5pm in Lecture Theatre A (40 George square).
Prof. Emily Selove from the University of Exeter will present on:
Medieval Arabic Magic between Historical Cartoons and Philological Inquiry
Abstract
This lecture explores key themes in the study of Medieval Islamic occult texts, focusing especially on jinn and other unseen entities invoked in Arabic grimoires such as Sirāj al-Dīn al-Sakkākī’s (d. 1229) Kitāb al-Shāmil wa-baḥr al-kāmil. We will examine the methods by which sorcerers, philosophers, and other thinkers of the age studied the nature of these beings and the best way to interact with (or avoid) them. We will also explore the relationship of illusion and trickery to magic and the esoteric in this historical context. Each topic is illustrated with a historical cartoon from Popeye and Curly: 120 Days in Medieval Baghdad. Thus we will walk the line between seriousness and play (jidd wa hazl) in approaching the study of Medieval Arabic literature in general, and the Islamic Occult in particular.
If you would like to join us in person please register here: https://wm-watt-lecture-selove.eventbrite.co.uk
If you would like to join us online, please email marie.legendre@ed.ac.uk for the zoom link.
See also: https://llc.ed.ac.uk/islamic-middle-eastern/events/watt-lecture
- February 24, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Online: ‘Shia Rituals, Student Activism, and Public Space in Italy’ ( M Mirshahvalad, 4.3.26, 18.00 CET)
ONLINE Webinar “From Hidden Rooms to City Streets: Shia Rituals, Student Activism, and Public Space in Italy” by Minoo Mirshahvalad (University of Copenhagen), NYU-Roma Tre Permanent Global Seminar, 4 March 2026, 18:00 CET
This paper examines how Shia Muslims – particularly Iranian students – navigated and reshaped Italian urban spaces between the early 2010s and 2018. It explores how a marginal religious minority negotiates its right to urban presence through evolving practices of visibility, how students act as cultural mediators, and how Italian urban spaces both limit conventional forms of public religiosity, but also open space for creative and locally adapted modes of ritual expression.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/4hc974ka
- February 23, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment