Shii News – Academic Items
1.The Well-Tempered Reader, The Legitimization of Adab in the Arabic Literary Tradition
S Tyeer
UC Press, 2025
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-well-tempered-reader/paper
2. ‘Love, Desire, and Death: Charms from Islamicate Southeast Asia’
Teren Sevea and Faizah Zakaria
Thursday, November 13, at 6:30 PM
The Institute of Fine Arts
1 East 78th Street, New York, NY 10075
and Online
In-Person and Virtual Lecture
Advance registration is required
To register to join us in person or online, please use the link at:
https://ifa.nyu.edu/events/southeast-asia.html
This event, part of the series, South-East Asian Connections: Art, History and Archipelagos, is supported by the Institute’s Gulnar Bosch Fund.
Pondering on themes of love, desire, birth, and death, Faizah Zakaria and Teren Sevea explore a selection of Islamicate materials from Southeast Asian settlements, themselves fertile sites of the intersections of ‘globalized’ and ‘localized’ Islam. Drawing on their research into everyday religious practices, Zakaria and Sevea discuss how these performances negotiate boundaries between multiple religious traditions and shape Islamicate identities in ordinary spaces related to production and reproduction. Their discussion extends to Malay manuscript traditions from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, introducing charms and manuals that systematized knowledge about how bodies were marked in nature, offering signs and resources for human socio-sexual welfare while highlighting communities devoted to bodily pleasures, engagement, and discipline. The presentations consider how such Islamicate materials provide insight into communities conscious of their esoteric practices, communal boundaries, complex religio-sexual rituals and seemingly rigid gendered identities.
3. CFP – Stucco in the Borderlands: Crossroads of Art and Architecture in Eastern Türkiye and Northwest Iran
An International Conference on Islamic Art, Architecture, History, and Archaeology
Keynote Lecture by Professor Robert Hillenbrand
Submission Guidelines
All papers will be presented in either English or Turkish
Please submit an abstract of 250 words, along with a short CV to:
richard.mcclary@york.ac.uk
Deadline for submissions: 30 November 2025
Notification of acceptance: 31 December 2025
Selected papers will be considered for publication in English in an edited volume following the conference. We kindly ask authors to indicate whether the material has been previously published or presented elsewhere, and, if not, to confirm their interest in contributing to the planned publication.
Date: 30–31 March 2026
Venue: Van Museum, Van, Türkiye
From monumental mosque mihrabs and palace walls to domestic interiors and funerary structures, stucco has long served as both surface and structure, decoration and discourse. It offers rich insights into patterns of cultural exchange, technological innovation, and regional identity across the medieval Islamic world.
While stucco has been the subject of considerable research over the last century, many aspects of its regional expression, technical execution, and artistic transmission remain underexplored. This international conference seeks to bring together scholars and specialists in art history, archaeology, architectural conservation, and material studies to examine the forms, functions, and meanings of stucco across time and space.
With a special focus on the frontier regions of eastern Anatolia and northwest Iran, the conference aims to highlight how these areas operated as interconnected cultural zones, transcending modern political boundaries.
Stucco fragments from the ruined congregational mosque of Van, preserved today in the Van Museum, demonstrate both the high level of local craftsmanship and shared visual vocabularies with contemporaneous Iranian sites. In northwest Iran, numerous examples of stucco work survive in situ or through archaeological documentation, from elaborately decorated mihrabs to funerary structures. Together, these materials reveal a dynamic interplay of continuity and innovation during the medieval time.
Key Topics
We invite papers addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
Techniques and technologies of stucco production
Decorative programmes and iconographic themes
Epigraphy and textual elements in stucco
Regional styles and transregional influences
Conservation challenges and museum practices
New archaeological discoveries and documentation
Contact Email
4. We’re pleased to announce the International Intensive Academic Course on Interreligious Dialogue, hosted by Hikmat International Institute.
This unique program brings together distinguished scholars and faith leaders from around the world to explore the foundations, challenges, and opportunities of dialogue between religions — in theory and in practice.
About the Course:
Format: Fully Online (Zoom)
Global Access: Open to participants worldwide
Limited Scholarships
Dates: January 5 – 23, 2026
Featuring: Distinguished professors from top universities
Explore full course details and submit your application (free):
https://hikmat-ins.com/interfaith-dialogue/
Spaces and scholarships are limited. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible to secure your place.
5. Keyan Emami, Music on the Borderland: Remembering and Chronicling the 1979 Revolution’s Shadow on Iranian Music
(Toronto: Asemana Books, 2024),
ISBN 9781738285556.
https://asemanabooks.ca/music-on-the-borderland/
6. Hybrid British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), AGM Lecture Webinar:
‘The Idea of Persia’
With Ramin Jahanbegloo
20 November, 2025, 6.45 pm UK Time
Location:
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH & Online on Zoom
The event will take place in person at the British Academy, London, and online on Zoom. The event is free to attend, but booking is necessary. In person bookings are currently open to members only through this link.
Posted in: Academic items- November 11, 2025
- 0 Comment
