Shii News – Academic Items

1. Before World Literature: The Trickster Tales of al-Ḥarīrī in an Age of
Commentary

M Keegan

Is now available for pre-order. Until the end of December, there
is a 40% discount with the discount code PENN-HOLIDAY25, which means the
hardcover should cost less than $40 in the US with shipping

https://www.pennpress.org/9781512828870/before-world-literature/

 

 

 

 

 

2. Summer 2026 Arabic Language Study with Indiana University

https://languageworkshop.indiana.edu/summer-language-workshop/overview/languages/arabic/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.Summer 2026 Pashto Language Study with Indiana University

https://languageworkshop.indiana.edu/summer-language-workshop/overview/languages/pashto/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Summer 2026 Persian Language Study with Indiana University

https://languageworkshop.indiana.edu/summer-language-workshop/overview/languages/persian/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

5. Global Histories of MENA in the 20th Century – A Primary Source Collection

A new OA primary source collection, “Global Histories of MENA in the 20th Century,” that just went online at Exeter U.’s DAME project at:

https://humanities-collections.exeter.ac.uk/dame/s/en/item-set/15399

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. GLECC2026 Conference – Call for Papers
The second International Conference on Globalisation 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.
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.
Visit https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fglecc.org%2F2025%2F&data=05%7C02%7C%7C3218ca8c4aaf4ba290d508de3d651984%7C2e9f06b016694589878910a06934dc61%7C0%7C0%7C639015701609963702%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=v2Cfai5dguRn6k5II4B1JPLk7cgHejw8PEMfAexWhzU%3D&reserved=0to find out what the 2025 conference was like and the feedback from the participants, as well as the conference proceedings https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fglecc.org%2Fsubmission%2Findex.php%2Fportal%2Fissue%2Farchive&data=05%7C02%7C%7C3218ca8c4aaf4ba290d508de3d651984%7C2e9f06b016694589878910a06934dc61%7C0%7C0%7C639015701609993132%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=VSv1KjYx8FVQHfzp%2FmQxX7Z8U%2FJvVl4Yx3MAohoh7SI%3D&reserved=0
Submission deadline: 30 April 2026

 

 

 

 

 

7. Intimacies of Global Sufism,

Ne’matullahi Shrines and Material Culture Between Iran and India

Peyvand Firouzeh

Indiana, 2025

https://mngbookshop.co.uk/9780253074140/intimacies-of-global-sufism/

 

 

 

 

 

8. Iranian Solar Calendar and Endurance of Nowruz in Persian Time Culture
Abbas Amanat

Asemana, 2025

https://asemanabooks.ca/solar-calendar-and-iranian-identity/

 

 

 

 

 

9. The Piruzai of Afghanistan: A Visual Ethnography
Nancy Lindisfarne-Tapper and Richard Tapper
Read more

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Senior Program Officer, Research & Learning
Scholars at Risk Network
Scholars at Risk is seeking a highly-organized, proactive and detail-oriented researcher/trainer for SAR’s research and learning team. The Senior Program Officer will play a key role in building out a new project focused on responding to recent threats to higher education in the US and abroad. The project will focus on producing reports, models, and guidance address recurring patterns of threats to higher education.

Deadline | 5 January 2026
More information

 

 

 

 

 

11. Assistant Professor in Political Science with emphasis on the Middle East
The American University in Cairo
The Department of Political Science invites applicants for an assistant professor position in Political Science with an emphasis on the Middle East starting Fall 2025. The position is on a 2-year fixed-term contract. Teaching responsibilities include a combination of courses at the BA and MA levels in Political Science, Comparative Politics of the Middle East, Introduction to Political Science, Research Methods, International Politics of the Middle East, and Comparative Theory.

Deadline | 10 January 2026
More information

 

 

 

 

 

12. Research Officer, Middle East Centre
London School of Economics
The Research Officer will work under the direction of the Director of the Middle East Centre at LSE, Dr Katerina Dalacoura. They should have proven expertise in at least one aspect in the study of secularity in the Middle East: government policy, religiosity, foreign policy and foreign relations, and the sociological aspects of secularisation (in relation to state institutions).

Deadline | 14 January 2026
More information

 

 

 

 

 

13. Post-Doc on the U.S. and SWANA Region
American University of Beirut
The purpose of the postdoctoral fellowship is to encourage original research on how U.S. economic and financial policies shape outcomes in the Global South, with a particular focus on their consequences for the Southwest Asia and North Africa region. Eligible candidates should hold a PhD (or be close to completing their PhD at the time of application) in Economics or a closely related field.
Deadline | 15 February 2026
More information

 

 

 

 

 

14. Call for Papers | A Sourcebook: The Global Archives of Mobility and Identity in the Ottoman Twilight

The Sourcebook will make available to readers an exciting and wide-ranging set of primary sources, including family records, diaries, correspondence, official documentation, oral history, and community newsletters, in order to present a global story of Ottoman mobility in unprecedented detail. This call for papers invites expressions of interest from potential contributors to this Sourcebook, who are interested in providing examples of relevant primary sources along with short contextual commentaries.

Deadline | 16 January 2026
More information

 

 

 

 

 

15. Small Grants Program “Constantine Zurayk: Nation, Identity, and History: Towards New Agendas”

The Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) is pleased to launch the ninth cycle of its Small Grants Program and the second on the theme of “Constantine Zurayk: Nation, Identity, and History: Towards New Agendas.” This grant, with a duration of 5-6 months, supports individual researchers up to three years out of the PhD and PhD students in advanced stages of their studies, in the social sciences and humanities, to conduct a research project on the Arab region on the theme of “Constantine Zurayk: Nation, Identity, and History: Towards New Agendas.”

Deadline | 12 February 2026

More information

 

 

 

 

 

16. Louvre Abu Dhabi Research Fellowship & Grant Programme (2025-2026)

The Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Research Fellowship Programme supports innovative work in art history, archaeology, museum studies, conservation, and heritage science. Launched in 2024, this Fellowship Programme enters its second edition in 2025, consolidating the museum’s role as a global platform for research and knowledge exchange. Fellows conduct research on-site using the museum’s Resource Center, Conservation Center and Scientific Laboratory – the first of its kind in the Gulf for material analysis.

Deadline | 7 February 2026
More information

 

 

 

 

 

17. Call for Papers | ​Specters of the Undercommons

This transdisciplinary conference invites contributions from scholars, practitioners, and artists working in the realms of humanities and beyond. Contributions may explore (among other themes): catastrophe and its racial, material, and ecological entanglements; acts and modes of affective witnessing through grief, celebration, and/or resistance; the metaphysical and cosmological as sites of spatialised anticolonial and antiracist thought; and spectral, fugitive, or insurgent modes of knowledge related to the undercommons that challenge institutional politics.

Deadline | 8 January 2026

More information

 

 

 

 

18. The British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) is currently seeking a part-time Junior Assistant to support its work in promoting scholarship and research excellence on all aspects of Iran and the wider Persianate world.

The role suits a well organised and methodical person, with an interest in the development of processes. The ideal candidate will be able to work both under supervision and semi-independently when required, will be proactive and enthusiastic and ideally interested in the promotion of the Persianate world, its history and culture.

The Junior Assistant will provide support in the following areas: Communication, Outreach, and Administration. It is expected that from time to time the Junior Assistant will be asked to undertake tasks other than those specified above, under the supervision of their line manager.

To be eligible, candidates must already have the right to work in the UK.
Location: London

Salary: £25,000 pro rata, subject to annual review

Contract: Fixed term

Closing date for applications: 05 January 2026, 5PM
Additional information about the role is available here.

To apply, email your CV and covering letter to:
bips@thebritishacademy.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

19. Aria Fani and Adeeba Shahid Talukder’s translation of Bijan Jalali’s poetry (Asemana Books, 2025) has won the MLA–Roth Translation Prize for 2025.

Shape of Extinction
Poems by Bijan Jalali
Translated from the Persian by Adeeba Shahid Talukder and Aria Fani
Preface by Domenico Ingenito
Critical Introduction by Aria Fani
Cover illustration and artwork by Amelia Ossorio

ISBN: 978-1-0690210-8-3
Publication date: May 9, 2025

https://asemanabooks.ca/shape-of-extinction/

 

 

 

 

 

20. First Virtual Research Workshop by the “Middle East Studies Association (MESA)”, 2-4 June 2026

Proposals should relate to MESA’s mission of scholarship and advocacy primarily concerning the region of the Middle East (including Southwest Asia, the Arab world, and North Africa) from the seventh century to today, though not at the exclusion of earlier time periods. Other areas of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas – including diaspora communities – are also included as part of the study of the transnational dimensions of the societies of the Middle East in an interdisciplinary and comparative context.

Deadline for abstracts: 9 January 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/bdfhh2sv

 

 

 

 

 

21. Conference “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Landscapes in Language, Society, and Cognition – Emerging Landscapes: Languages and Landscapes in Conflict”, Prague, Czech Republic, 16-18 September 2026

Landscapes are frontiers. We would like to encourage researchers to explore this frontier, emergent character of landscapes from an interdisciplinary perspective incorporating linguistic and extra-linguistic insights.

Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/v8ruhww4

 

 

 

 

 

22. Research Seminar on “Reproductive Ethics and Kinship in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Practice”, Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, Hamad bin Khalifa University & SOAS, Qatar, 11-13 January 2027

We seek contributions that explore everyday decisions and moral frameworks that shape intimate and family life, including kinship norms, partner selection, fertility choices and reproductive technologies. The papers should highlight how Islamic ethical reasoning both informs and is shaped by lived experiences, social realities and political agendas. To be published at Brill Publishers.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4my48n4n

 

 

 

 

23. 14 Postdoctoral Fellowships (2 years) – Germany

The fellowships are available to researchers from all over the world and from any discipline represented at one of the three universities with a minimum of one year and a maximum of seven years of post-doctoral experience, who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure.

Deadline for applications: 9 January 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3j7bh626

 

 

 

 

 

24. Managing Director of the Economic Research Forum (ERF), Cairo

Qualifications: A PhD degree in economics, or a related discipline. – A minimum of 15 years of experience in leadership positions. – Demonstrated excellence across a spectrum of areas, including: Intellectual Leadership. – Management & Financial Leadership. – Funding Mobilization. – Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to manage a network that represents the full diversity of the MENA region.

Deadline for applications: 31 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/a8usr6mt

 

 

 

 

25. Research & Teaching Fellow (1 Year) for the Hoover History Lab (Focus GCC), Stanford University

We prioritize research on war and diplomatic history, economic and financial history, political and institutional history, and science and technology history from the 18th century to the present. We are open to any specific topic and to all regions of the world. Candidates must have a Ph.D. or its equivalent by the time they start.

Deadline for applications: 2 January 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/9ymrrm5d

 

 

 

 

 

26. Visiting Assistant Professor of Global Studies (2 Years), Focus on Race and Global Inequality, Colby College, Waterville, Maine

We seek an innovative inter- or transdisciplinary scholar and teacher, either trained in an interdisciplinary program or with a strong and demonstrated commitment to inter- or transdisciplinary methodologies in their research and pedagogy. Areas of focus within race and global inequality could include indigeneity, sovereignty, borders, environ-ment and climate change, human rights, health and medicine, among other areas of specialization.

Deadline for applications: 5 January 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/178425

 

 

 

 

27. “Mobility Grant for Doctoral Students 2026-2027 (9 Months)”, IFEA Institut français d’études ana-toliennes, Istanbul

Applicants must hold a Master’s degree in research and be enrolled in a doctoral program at a French university at the time of taking up the position (no nationality requirement). The grant is contingent upon residency in Turkey for the duration of the period. Subject Fields: Archaeology, Ethnic History, Humanities, Social Sciences, Urban History.

Deadline for applications: 5 January 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/mrsehtsz

 

 

 

 

 

28. Interdisciplinary Summer Academy: “Reading the City: Epigraphy and Space in Istanbul in Ancient, Byzantine, and Ottoman Times”, Orient-Institut Istanbul, 21-27 September 2026

Through seminars and field excursions, participants will engage directly with epigraphic monuments – from palatial gates to Bosporus shorelines – while discussing their spatial, performative, and material dimensions. The Academy encourages interdisciplinary dialogue bridging philology, history, and art history in a collaborative and inspiring environment.

Deadline for applications: 3 January 2026. Information: https://oiist.org/call-for-applications-reading-the-city/

 

 

 

 

 

29. Contribute: Innovation During The Later Crusades: War & Society 

Innovation During The Later Crusades: War & Society
edited by Martin Neuding Skoog and Stefan Stantchev

Topics: Aspects of “the military revolution” in the context of the later crusades. – Changes in weapons technology and their impact on warfare. – Changes in styles of fortifications and siege warfare in late medieval frontier societies. – Innovation and change within military organizations, tactics and logistics. – Studies of innovation and change within target polities such as the Seljuk Turks, the Mamluks, the Ottomans and others.

Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/bdhpwbcm

 

 

 

30. Chapters for Volume “Arab Sociologies in Post-Uprising Transformations”,

Questions: 1. How did sociology in the past 15 years contribute to processes of variation of discourses and practices, which may lead to a variety of alternative paths? – 2. How did sociology contribute to selection of particular discourses? – 3. Did sociology contribute to retention of specific resonant discourses, a process in which discourses and practices are included in individual and collective routines and identities?

Deadline for abstracts: 10 January 2026. Information: Contact Sari Hanafi sh41@aub.edu.lb

 

 

 

 

 

31. Call for Articles on “Political and Socio-Economic Transformations in MENA” for the “Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (JSAMES)”, AUC

Under this general theme, we welcome contributions that focus on political processes and institutions, patterns of conflict and cooperation (both within and across countries and non-state actors), economic transformations, the political economy of inequality, environmentalism, and securitization and change in the region, as well as other related topics.

Deadline for abstracts: 6 January 2026. Information and contact: dina.baslan@villanova.edu

 

 

 

 

32. CfP

If your research touches on authoritarian diffusion, surveillance, policing, regime learning, counter-revolution, digital repression, or international linkages between democracies and autocracies – Fabrizio Leonardo Cuccu and Paola Rivetti at Dublin City University would love to hear from you!

Deadline for abstracts: 10 January 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4z73fyvr

 

Posted in: Academic items