Shii News – Academic Items

1. Panel for the Association of Persianate Societies Biennial Conference in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (9-12 August 2027). 

Race-Making in the Premodern Persianate World

While Critical Race Theory has established itself firmly in the methodological toolbox of the study of the modern Persianate world and its diaspora, there is a dearth of studies that employ Premodern Critical Race Studies as developed by Geraldine Heng, Lynn Ramey, Dorothy Kim, Cord Whitaker, and others, in the context of the premodern Persianate world. As opposed to assuming that the Middle Ages are “pre-racial,” these scholars have demonstrated that that race and race-making encompass a broad constellation of social, physical, cultural, and religious categories through which human difference has been hierarchized and essentialized across historical contexts.

This panel seeks to engage with this scholarship in order to employ Premodern Critical Race Studies in the context of pre-1500 CE Persian literary productions. The panelists may address questions such as the relationship between lineage and race-making; the intertwinement of race and religion; the overlap between race and monstrosity as images of alterity; and the ends to which certain figures in premodern Persianate literature and art were racialized.

Since the deadline for panel submissions is approaching fast, please send a message to alexandra.hoffmann@ubc.ca  to express interest by Sept. 4th, with the full paper abstract of 300 words due Sept. 21.

 

 

 

 

 

2. Davidson College – Assistant Professor of History
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/70252/davidson-college-assistant-professor-history

The Department of History at Davidson College invites applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern history, broadly defined to include North Africa, West Asia, and the Islamic World. Deadline: Sept 14, 2026

 

Posted in: Academic items