Shii News – Academic Items
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 13th(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
Posted in: Academic items- August 11, 2026
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