Shii News – Academic Items
1. ASPIRANTUM – Armenian School of Languages and Cultures is pleased to announce its 2027 Persian Language Summer School in Yerevan, Armenia.
The program runs from June 20 to August 27, 2027, and participants may choose a 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, or 10-week program, depending on their schedule and study goals. Students receive intensive Persian language instruction in small groups, combined with cultural activities and excursions in Armenia.
Applicants can benefit from reduced tuition fees by applying and making payment by the following deadlines:
- First early bird deadline: December 15, 2026
- Second discounted payment deadline: February 15, 2027
- Regular application deadline: May 15, 2027
Full information about the program, dates, tuition fees, and application process is available here:
https://aspirantum.com/courses/persian-language-summer-school
Prospective students can also read testimonials from previous ASPIRANTUM participants here:
https://aspirantum.com/testimonials
To get a sense of the ASPIRANTUM summer school experience, you can also watch this video from our 2026 Summer School:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LddBiw-qss0
2. Undergraduate students who write their papers on Iran-related topics (society, language, literature, and culture) that they can submit their papers for publication to Roshan Institute’s Undergraduate Journal Roshangar. Roshangar is nearly a decade old and is now published fully in digital format.
More importantly, the journal has extended its deadline for accepting submissions to enable students to submit their work after their semester ends. The new deadline is: December 15, 2026
Here is the link to the journal’s site for further information: https://www.roshangarjournal.org/
Best Wishes,
Fatemeh Keshavarz
Fatemeh Keshavarz, Chair & Director
Roshan Institute for Persian Studies
University of Maryland, College Park
3. As a collaboration of Silk Road Academy and Ceylan Ciltevi, the intensive 5-day educational program titled “History and Practice of Islamic Bookbinding”offers participants a rigorous exploration of the craft’s theoretical foundations alongside direct, hands-on experience in classical leatherwork and traditional Islamic gilding styles. Throughout the seminar, each participant will acquire a profound understanding of traditional techniques and their authentic application, culminating in the individual execution and creation of a unique, classically styled notebook from inception to completion.
What You Will Gain:
- Historical Evolution of Islamic and Eastern Bookbinding Structures.
- Traditional Paper Folding, Sewing and Headband Weaving technique.
- Technical skills in shaping, and covering leather of cover.
- Hands-on experience with tooling techniques and traditional Islamic gilding.
- All high-quality tools and premium materials used during the workshop are curated and provided entirely by Ceylan Ciltevi.
- A Certificate of Completion issued by the Lisan-ı Turki Academy.
- All-Inclusive Hospitality: All coffee and lunch provisions and local travel costs for the guided museum/library tours are fully covered.
More information and registration in the contact link
Contact Email
URL
https://www.silkroadacademy.info/event-details/bookbinding
4. Hybrid: Yuka Kadoi (University of Vienna)
“The Fonthill Vase: the Mobility and Materiality of a trans-Eurasian Artefact”
24 November 2026, 13:30 – 15:10 CET (7:30 – 9:10 EST)
Central European University
Vienna Campus (B505)
Quellenstrasse 51
1100 Vienna
This is the fifth in the public lecture series, ‘Transmission and Exchange in Mongol Eurasia’ as part of the training seminars organised in the framework of and with support from the Eurasian Transformations Excellence Cluster.
For further Information: https://events.ceu.edu/2026-11-24/fonthill-vase-mobility-and-materiality-trans-eurasian-artefact
5. Winner Announcement: 2026 BRAIS Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World + 2027 Prize now open for submissions
The British Association for Islamic Studies is delighted to announce that the 2026 BRAIS Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World has been awarded to:
Dr Alaa Murad (PhD awarded by Brandeis University) for her outstanding submission ‘Ottoman Belonging in Novel Form: Jurjī Zaydān’s History of Islam Series (1891–1914)’.
Dr Murad’s thesis was praised in the highest possible terms by our reviewers and our Prize Committee, and we offer our sincere congratulations to her for winning this year’s prize.
Dr Murad has kindly provided an overview of her thesis which you can read here: https://www.brais.ac.uk/prize/brais-prize-2026
We received a very large number of high-quality submissions this year, and the Prize Committee have therefore also awarded an honourable mention to:
Dr Yasmin Ismail (PhD awarded by Freie Universität Berlin) for her submission entitled: ‘The Anglophone Maktab: an ethnographic study of language, religious education and identity in minority Muslim communities’.
Many congratulations to Dr Ismail who received outstanding feedback from our expert reviewers.
BRAIS Prize 2027 Now Open for Submission!
We are excited to announce that the 2027 BRAIS Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World is now open for submissions. The submission deadline is 5pm GMT Friday 29 January 2026. Full details about the submission process, including all rules and regulations, can be found here: https://www.brais.ac.uk/prize/brais-prize-2027
This international prize is awarded annually to one outstanding doctoral thesis. English-language submissions on any aspect of the academic study of Islam and the Muslim world, past and present, including Muslim-minority societies are accepted.
BRAIS would like to offer its heartfelt thanks to everyone who gave so generously of their time to the BRAIS Prize this year, including the many reviewers across the world who read the manuscripts and our Prize Committee who had the very difficult task of selecting our winner. Particular thanks to the BRAIS Prize Chair, Dr Saeko Yazaki, and Prize Coordinator, Uzair Ibrahim, for their tireless work in overseeing the process from start to finish.
Congratulations again to Dr Murad and Dr Ismail, and very best wishes from us all at BRAIS,
The British Association for Islamic Studies
The Alwaleed Centre
University of Edinburgh
16 George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LD
6. Entangled Histories Seminar Series (2026–2027)
Borders and Sustainability: Human and Natural Resources Across Time and Space
About the Seminar Series & Scientific Mission
Entangled Histories: Borders and Cultural Encounters Across Time and Space is an international, interdisciplinary online seminar series that explores borders not merely as fixed lines of separation, but as dynamic spaces of interaction, negotiation, and cultural creativity. Spanning from prehistory, through the ancient and medieval worlds, to the modern and the contemporary eras, the series brings together perspectives from history, literature, religious studies, linguistics, media studies, anthropology, and cultural studies to examine how borders shape—and are shaped by—human experience.
Building on its inaugural edition on “Borders and Cultural Encounters”(2025–2026), the 2026–2027 academic year adopts the special focus “Borders and Sustainability: Human and Natural Resources Across Time and Space”. This cycle expands the academic conversation to the environmental, ecological, material, social, and more-than-human dimensions of bordering practices. The series approaches borders not solely as sites of exclusion or division, but as zones of contact and dynamic thresholds that regulate the relationship between humans and resources across history.
Rather than viewing borders as peripheral phenomena, the series highlights how historical forms of bordering continue to inform modern cultural, political, and intellectual frameworks. In an era marked by renewed debates on migration, nationalism, environmental crises, and global interconnectedness, the concept of borders offers a crucial lens to connect long-term historical processes with urgent contemporary questions.
Practical Information, Registration & Official Links
- Schedule:Seminars take place every Thursday at 6:00 PM CET / CEST (Central European Time).
- Unsure about your local time? Check this time zone converter⏰
- Platform:Online
- Registration Box Office (Ticket Tailor):
👉 https://www.tickettailor.com/events/entangledhistoriesseminarseries(Admission is free, but registration is mandatory to receive access credentials)
- Website & Archive:
🌐 https://sites.google.com/view/entangledhistories/home?authuser=0
Complete Programme (2026–2027)
October 2026
- 22 October 2026:Joseph Adamczyk (Lifetime Learning Centre, Seattle, WA, USA) — How Canada did not become the 19th State: America’s Northern Borderlands before and during the War of 1812
- 29 October 2026:Agostino Zito (University of Messina, Italy) — Invisible Borders in the Institutional Architecture of the Maltese Archipelago under the Sicilian Shadow
November 2026
- 5 November 2026:Scott Doebler (University of Wyoming, Laramie, USA) — The Young Forest: Arboreal Buffer Zones, Indigenous Resilience, and Multispecies Communities in the Eighteenth-Century Maya-Caribbean Borderlands
- 12 November 2026:Lorenzo Lozzi Gallo (Pegaso University, Naples, Italy) — Sustainability and Post-Natal Abortion in Medieval Iceland
- 19 November 2026:Afkir Nawar (Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fez) — Thresholds of Scarcity and Sanctity: Vernacular Ecological Knowledge, Liminal Figures, and Resource Governance in Tamazight Oral Folktales
- 26 November 2026:Sritama Maiti & Jenia Mukherjee (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India) — ‘Speaking with Nature’: Medicinal Legacies and Sustainable Futures at the Calcutta Botanic Garden
December 2026
- 3 December 2026:Maria Isabel Lemos (IELT – Universidade Nova de Lisboa) — Ecologies of Colonial Labour: Drought, Mobility, and Cacao Production between Cape Verde and São Tomé
- 10 December 2026:Shu Wan (University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA) — Exclaiming “Long Live Chairman Mao!”: Propagating Acupuncture-Treating-Deafness in Socialist China
- 17 December 2026:Nikolai Belov (HSE University Moscow) — Shared Shrines, Hardening Borders: Greek-Latin Confessional Boundaries in the Kingdom of Jerusalem
18 December 2026 – 6 January 2027: Winter Break
January 2027
- 7 January 2027:Lois Stanford (New Mexico State University, USA) — Sustainability in El Rancho: Losing a Cuisine in the US-Mexico Borderlands
- 14 January 2027:Danila Kashkin (University of Geneva) — A Border Drawn by Drift: How Unsustainable Navigation Made Ogasawara Japanese
- 21 January 2027:Nikoleta Zampaki (University of Information Technology and Management – UITM, Poland) — Crossing Lines, Sustaining Worlds: Romani Ecologies Between Border, Literature and Performance in Greece
- 28 January 2027:Charlene Vella (University of Malta) — Crossing the Threshold: Processional Banners, Material Survival and the Borders of the Image in Renaissance Sicily
February 2027
- 4 February 2027:Chet Van Duzer (University of Rochester / University of Western Australia) — Beyond the Edge: Negotiating Extreme Geography in Medieval and Early Modern Maps
- 11 February 2027:Nicholas R. Miller (East Tennessee State University, USA) — Where Borders Break: Rivers and the Making of Multispecies Worlds
- 18 February 2027:Sabine Moedersheim (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) — “Verbrennt de Bode, wo du ‘Heimet’ nennsch”: Poetry of the Transborder Anti-Nuclear Resistance in the Early German / French / Swiss Environmental Movements
- 25 February 2027:Lucia Groe (University of Calabria, Italy) — Beyond Greenwashing: Advancing Sustainability through “Mitakuyeability”, Environmental Memory, and Native Linguistic Ontologies
March 2027
- 4 March 2027:Sreekishen Nair (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA) — Sharing the Painted Landscape: Ritual Almanacks and Civic Stewardship in Late Postclassic Mexico
- 11 March 2027:Munia Hweidi (Sophia University, Tokyo) — Building the Dam, Drowning the Village: Submerged Borders and Cultural Sustainability in Ishimure Michiko’s “Lake of Heaven”
- 18 March 2027:Ayushi Dhawan (Azim Premji University, Bhopal, India) — Waste, Value, and Environmental Risk at the Alang Shipbreaking Yards
- 23 March 2027:Aisling Reid & Valentina Surace (Queen’s University Belfast; University of Messina) — A LAND THAT IS NO LAND: Medieval Whale-Islands and Insular Geophilosophy
April 2027
- 1 April 2027:Aleksandra Jakubczak (Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, Technische Universität Berlin) — “We All Have to Eat Kosher”: Ritual Slaughter, Urban Provisioning, and Antisemitism in Interwar Poland
- 8 April 2027:Tobias Schank (Saarland University, Germany) — Unwriting the Ocean: Seascape Epistemology and the American Imaginary
- 15 April 2027:Iqbal Akhtar (Florida International University, USA) — Palimpsests of Pluralism: Material Sustainability in Jain, Jewish, and Muslim Manuscript Cultures of Sindh and Gujarat
- 22 April 2027:Dalal Kassab-Kodissieh (AHTTEP ENSA Paris-La Villette) — Entangled Frontiers and Resource Conflicts: Land, Water, and Offshore Energy in the Lebanon-Israel-Palestine Borderland (Antiquity-Present)
- 29 April 2027:Marusca Francini (University of Pavia, Italy) — Heaven and Earth: A Gothic ‘Heaven Above’? Gothic Ufarhiminakunds and its West and North Germanic Cognates
May 2027
- 6 May 2027:Tatiana Sitchinava (Ilia State University, Georgia) — Therapeutic Borderlands: Mineral Waters, Imperial Balneology, and the Sustainable Body in Georgia, c. 1870-1930
- 13 May 2027:Lydia Letsch (Austrian Institute for International Affairs – OIIP) — Caring under Precarious Conditions: Human-Environment Relations and Border Life in the Oasis of Figuig
- 20 May 2027:Elisa Ramazzina (Queen’s University Belfast) — Flickering Lights, Fire in the Sky: Apocalyptic Imaginaries, Borders, and Sustainability in Early Medieval Literature
- 27 May 2027:Jennifer A. Miller (Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, USA) — The Unsustainable Borders of Nuclear Power in German Memory
June 2027
- 3 June 2027:Anju Nofarof Hasudungan, R. Tuty Nur Mutia, & Zeffry Alkatiri (Universitas Indonesia) — Akit Indigenous Knowledge as Social-Ecological Infrastructure: Mangrove Conservation for Resilient Border Islands between Indonesia and Malaysia
- 10 June 2027:Betsey Price (Glendon College, York University, Toronto) — The Mansions of the Visigoths: Self-Sustainability Through Boundaries
- 17 June 2027:Eduardo de Melo Salgueiro (Federal University of Southern and Southeastern Pará, Brazil) — Jaborandi Exploitation, Unfree Labour, and Contested Sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon
- 24 June 2027:Hristo Hristozov (University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria) — Criss-Crossing Ecological Borders: Pastoral Mobility and the Socio-Natural Transformation of the Ottoman Balkans, 15th-17th Centuries
Contact Information
Organised by:
Dr Elisa Ramazzina (Queen’s University Belfast / University of Insubria) & Dr Ester Cristaldi (Üsküdar University)
Institutional Patronage & Academic Sponsors
The 2026–2027 edition of the Entangled Histories Seminar Series is hosted under the formal patronage and international sponsorship of leading research centres and academic institutions:
- Institutional Patronage:
- Faculty of Communication, Üsküdar University (Istanbul, Turkey)
- Master’s Programme in Media and Cultural Studies, Üsküdar University (Istanbul, Turkey)
- International Co-Sponsors:
- Human Communication Application and Research Centre (ILIMER), Üsküdar University
- Centre for Languages and Multicultural Communication (CLMC), Woxsen University (India)
- UniGR-Center for Border Studies(University of the Greater Region: Saarland, Liège, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Trier, Kaiserslautern-Landau)
- Contact Emails:
- ramazzina [@] uninsubria.it
- cristaldi [@] uskudar.edu.tr
Contact Email
entangledhistories.seminars@outlook.com
URL
https://sites.google.com/view/entangledhistories/home?authuser=0
7. islam.museumis a free, open-access digital museum of Islamic history, built Arabic-first with full English and Urdu editions, and available to researchers, teachers and students at https://islam.museum — no account or fee is required.
The museum organises fourteen centuries of Islamic history as a sourced knowledge graph: over 54,000 entries — people, places, events, objects, texts and ideas — presented across some 108,000 pages and 300 curated pathways. Every record is tied to cited sources, so readers can check the evidence behind any claim, and corrections are welcomed. Teaching resources include a children’s wing and a teacher’s kit.
New this month is the Education Explorer, which maps complete school curricula to the museum’s records: beginning with Ontario, Canada, it covers 65 courses across Grades 1–12, with 360 lessons that show the official expectations they serve — in the authority’s own codes — and weave the museum’s sourced connections into each lesson. The method used to build it is published openly, so further curricula and jurisdictions can follow the same path.
For reuse, the underlying dataset is released under CC0 with a public API, so scholars, librarians and developers can download it, run it locally, or build on it freely. The dataset is archived on Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23692511), and Library and Archives Canada has accepted the site into its preservation scope.
Corrections and suggestions: discover@islam.museum
Founder: Ahmed Abdel Aal, Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
Contact Email
URL
8. We are pleased to share news of four recent publications from Asemana Books, featuring works of contemporary Persian fiction and memoir. These titles reflect our ongoing commitment to publishing diverse literary voices, particularly those exploring memory, migration, identity, and the social and political experiences of Iranian communities.
- We Were Almost Happy (تقریباً خوشحال بودیم)
Mohammad-Ali Talebi | Short Stories | Persian
ISBN: 9781997503538
The first short-story collection by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Mohammad-Ali Talebi, whose films have received international recognition at major festivals. Drawing on personal memories, these interconnected stories trace a boy’s journey from childhood to early adulthood in Iran before and after the 1979 Revolution, exploring poverty, family, repression, and the search for identity.
Book Details | Amazon | Lulu
- Every Day Is Saturday (هر روز شنبه است)
Ahmad Derakhshan | Novel | Persian
ISBN: 9781997503705
A novel exploring love, memory, political violence, and displacement through a fragmented narrative in which past and present continually intersect. Ahmad Derakhshan is an established Iranian fiction writer whose previous works include several novels and short-story collections published in Iran and abroad.
Book Details | Amazon | About the Author
- That Woman (آن زن)
Mahsa Nikan | Short Stories | Persian
ISBN: 9781997503484
Inspired by lived experiences, this collection follows a Kurdish immigrant woman in Norway as she navigates love, exile, trauma, and loss through fragmented narratives addressed to an Afghan lover. Mahsa Nikan, originally from Iranian Kurdistan, moved to Norway in 2013 through PEN Norway and the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). This is her first book.
- Look at Me: Memoirs of a Baloch Woman (مرا ببین)
Shahin Borhanzehi | Memoir | English
ISBN: 9781997503552
A personal account of growing up as a Baloch woman in Iran, confronting patriarchal restrictions, and ultimately rebuilding a life in the United Kingdom. Shahin Borhanzehi is a UK-based writer and anthropologist with a PhD in Anthropology. Her memoir explores resilience, migration, women’s experiences, and self-determination.
Book Details | Amazon | Lulu
9. Hybrid: Outsiders, Converts, and Intermediaries between Europe and the Islamicate Mediterranean, 1500–1800
Dec 7, 2026, 10 am – 5.pm
IASH University of Edinburgh
10. Hybrid: After the Singularity: Benevolent Superintelligence, Domination and Islamic Theology
Alwaleed Centre: University of Edinburgh
Monday 16 November, 1:15pm, 50 George Square Room G01 (and online)
What might it mean to live under an entirely benevolent superintelligence with godlike powers? This seminar explores the theological and philosophical questions raised by AI, drawing parallels between traditional Muslim visions of the apocalypse and contemporary anxieties about “the Singularity”. Moving beyond fears of hostile AI, it asks what achieving a benevolent Singularity would mean for humanity and considers how Islamic theology might illuminate these questions. A hybrid seminar by Alwaleed Visiting Fellow Syed Farooq Mohyud Din (Rice University) chaired by Dr Shoaib Malik (University of Edinburgh). For further information and registration CLICK HERE.
11. As the Ferdowsi School is preparing for the new year, some of the upcoming courses for 2027 are being offered for the first time. The Introduction to Chaghatay(taught by Iskandar Ding) and Advanced Urdu Poetry(taught by Kristof Szitar) courses might be particularly interesting to those of you want to explore a different dimension of the Persianate. As for the Complete Beginner Classical Persian course, you might want to share it with friends who have not yet tasted the intoxicating wine of Khayyam’s rubāʿiyyāt.
In any case, I would deeply appreciate your kind support in spreading the news.
- Introduction to Pahlavi: Winter School of Zoroastrian Middle Persian(January 4–21, 2027, 3 weeks)
An intensive introduction to Zoroastrian Middle Persian (Pahlavi), covering grammar, Inscriptional and Book Pahlavi scripts, and the reading of important Middle Persian texts, including Sasanian inscriptions, the Kārnāmag ī Ardaxšēr ī Pābagān, and the Bundahišn. - Thus Spoke Ferdowsi: A Complete Beginner’s Introduction to Classical Persian(January 27–March 24, 2027, 9 weeks)
A comprehensive beginner’s introduction to Classical Persian, combining grammar, morphology, phonetics, and stylistics with practical readings of authentic literary texts, including Balʿamī’s translation of al-Ṭabarī, Ṭarsūsī’s Dārābnāma, Khayyām’s quatrains, and Saʿdī’s Gulistān. - The Language of Navāyī and Babūr: A Beginner’s Introduction to Chaghatay Turkī(January 12 – March 2, 2027, 8 Weeks)
Instructor: Iskandar Ding
A beginner-level introduction to Chaghatay grammar and classical Turkic literature from Central Asia. The course combines grammatical instruction with close readings of poetry and prose by major authors, including Aḥmad Yasavī, ʿAlī Šēr Navāʾī, Bābur, and Bābā Raḥīm Mašrab.
- Introduction to Classical Urdu Poetry: From the Deccan to Delhi and Beyond (17th–20th Centuries)(January 4 – February 22, 2027, 8 Weeks)
Instructor: Kristof Szitar
An introduction to the historical development of classical Urdu poetry through close readings of eight major poets, from Muḥammad Qulī Quṭb Shāh to Akbar Allahābādī. The course explores Urdu poetic language, literary conventions, Persianate influences, and the historical and cultural contexts of Urdu literature.
- The Shahname: The Story of Rustam and Isfandyār(January 8–February 26, 2027, 8 weeks)
A close reading of one of the most dramatic episodes of the Shahname, the tragic encounter between Rustam and Isfandyār. Readings in original Early Classical Persian, accompanied by detailed philological, grammatical, literary, mythological, and etymological commentary. - Introduction to Academic Persian: How to Read Scholarly Literature in Persian(January 28–March 18, 2027 · 8 weeks)
An introduction to the language and terminology of Persian academic publications, particularly in history, philology, and literary studies. Participants will work with scholarly articles, introductions to critical editions, and the writings of prominent Iranian scholars.
12. HYBRID Seminar: “Navigating the Levant: Italian Diplomacies between the Mamluks and the Ottomans”, Milà i Fontanals Institution for Research in Humanities (IMFCSIC), University of Bar-celona, 18 November 2026, 11h30 CET
Lecture 1: Evelina del Mercato (Universiteit Antwerpen): “Italian Princely Diplomacies in the Eastern Mediterranean: Mantua and Ferrara between Ottoman and Mamluk Sultanates (15th – early 16th Cen-tury)”. – Lecture 2: Michele Argentini (Université de Liège): “Layered Customs, Documentary Practices, and the Stratification of Writing between Venice and the Mamluks.”
Registration: https://tinyurl.com/36amj6ns
13. ONLINE Lecture: “Inheritors of Christ: Christian Pilgrimage in Early Islamic Palestine, c. 750 – c. 1099″ by Daniel Reynolds, University of Birmingham, 18 November 2026, 13:00 – 14:30 CET
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/44f4pbu9
14. ONLINE 55th Annual Conference of the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS): “Islam, Ethics and Environment”, Fordham University,19 November 2026, 16:00 – 23:00 CET
Papers: – From Commodity to Sacred Trust: Using Islamic Ethics and Modern Tech for Water Conser-vation. – Beyond Water Rights: Reconsidering Islamic Environmental Ethics through Andalusian Mālikī Fatwās. – Environmental Peace: Localized Responses to Cross-Border Environmental Risk in Jordan-Palestine. – Can Territory Govern: Al-Māwardī’s Vision of the Role of Land in Negotiating Sociopolitical Relations. – Eco-Justice, Gendered Governance, and the Destruction of Pre-Modern Waqf Land-scapes: Spatial Transformations in Historic Ibb, Yemen. – Etc.
Information, programme and registration: https://tinyurl.com/2bx2k44p
15. HYBRID Lecture: “From Piccadilly to Pera: Worlding Modernities, Masculinities and the Dandy between London and Istanbul” by Dr Peter Cherry (BIAA), Royal Asiatic Society, London, 10 December 2026, 19:45 – 20:45 CET
The dandy, or züppe in a Turkish context, is a key figure for negotiating and satirising scripts of modern masculinity in British and Ottoman/Turkish literature. The züppe is commonly read as reflecting anxie-ties about Westernisation and European influence. The speaker is placing the züppe in dialogue with the British dandy. He asks how literary dandies across different contexts constructed, performed and unsettled scripts of modern masculinity, rethinking the dandy through a comparative, transnational lens.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/29vatcfj
16. International Conference: “Reclaiming Identity and Memory: Creative Resistance, Indigene-ity, and Cultural Production in the Middle East and Beyond”, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 15-17 October 2027
Themes: – Creative resistance, cultural production, and material heritage. – Indigeneity, collective memory, and cultural preservation. – Migration, displacement, refugee experiences, and diaspora. – Gender, inequality, health, and community wellbeing. – Oral histories, archives, and community-en-gaged knowledge production. – Literature, media, visual arts, and performance. – AI, digital technolo-gies, empire, and resistance. – Law, justice, and human rights.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 February 2027. Information: https://tinyurl.com/482jzmvm
17. Asien-Orient-Institut, Abteilung Islamwissenschaft
Wissenschaftliche Assistenz Islamwissenschaft (mit der Möglichkeit zur Promotion) 80 %
Stellenantritt 1. August 2027, befristet
Qualifikation: Abgeschlossenes Studium der Islamwissenschaft oder eines eng verwandten Fachs (MA bzw. Master-Abschluss bevorstehend) mit einem Schwerpunkt arabische Welt, sehr gute Arabisch-kenntnisse. Kenntnisse in einer weiteren Arbeitssprache der SWANA-Region sind willkommen. Die Lehre erfolgt auf Deutsch oder Englisch. Die Verwaltungssprache der Universität Zürich ist jedoch Deutsch. Lehr- und Administrationserfahrung im universitären Kontext sind erwünscht.
Deadline for applications: 2026 (sic) Information: https://tinyurl.com/bddyn4f9
18. Post-Doctoral Position (1 Year+) in History of Arabic Mathematics and Manuscript Studies, Farouk Jabre Center for Arabic & Islamic Science and Philosophy, American University of Beirut
We invite contributions on knowledge transmission in mathematical sciences as a network phenome-non. Applications should include a project on a corpus of manuscripts or a well-defined body of par-atextual data (marginalia, audition certificates, ownership statements …) that can be encoded into structured datasets suitable for network analysis. It should address a historical question that the net-work dimension of the data can help answer.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/vkrmuh4u
19. Summer School: “Reading Persian Documents”, University of Münster, Germany, 5-9 July 2027
The summer school is organised by Philip Bockholt (TRANSLAPT, University of Münster) and Stanisław Adam Jaśkowski (University of Warsaw). The event will provide one week of intensive instruction on a wide range of handwritten source materials in Persian from the early modern through the modern pe-riod. The programme will move through a range of documents, including royal correspondence, mun-shaʾāt, seals, tughras, chronology, and siyāq materials.. For each day, the instruction will include intro-ductory lectures, intensive hands-on practice sessions with reading exercises, and homework.
Deadline for applications: 31 December 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/57hk6y9z
20. Chapters on “Turkish-Indian Encounters: Travel, Literature and Cultural Mediation, 1700-2000” for Volume Edited by Esra Büyükbahçeci & Tomasz Ewertowskiin in “Anthem Studies in Encounters between Peripheral Regions”
Bringing together literary studies, history, translation studies and related fields, this volume asks how people in these regions came to know and represent one another through the circulation of people, texts and ideas. The volume seeks to expand accounts of transregional exchange beyond narratives centered on Western Europe. We welcome contributions on travel narratives, mutual representations, literary exchanges, newspapers and periodicals, and the work of translators, scholars, writers and dip-lomats as cultural mediators.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2027. Information: https://tinyurl.com/39djexue
21. New Volume: “Climate Changes, Plagues, and Wars: The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century in the Afro-Eurasian Context” (Focus Middle East), Edited by Nicola Di Cosmo & Yoichi Isahaya, Edinburgh University Press, November 2026, 266 Pages
The Crisis of the 14th Century has been regarded as a turning-point in world history, but it has typically only been approached from a European perspective. This volume expands that view by focusing on Asia and the Middle East (Afro-Eurasia) and by including environmental approaches. It therefore posi-tions this period of history within three interrelated contexts – climate change, political upheaval outside Europe and a transcontinental pandemic – making historical connections typically not considered in studies of the Crisis.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/38e9pnn8
22. New Volume: “The Quest for Democracy in Saudi Arabia”, Edited by Hashem Alrefai &Abdullah Alaoudh, Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 22 October 2026, 157 Pages
This volume: – Provides the first cohesive volume on Saudi Arabia’s democratic movements and polit-ical transformation. – Unites top scholars to analyze state repression, mobilization, and international influence in Saudi politics. – Integrates political, economic, and social perspectives into one accessible and powerful narrative.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/3fd675sd
23. New Book: “A Concise Glossary of Negev Bedouin Arabic” by Alexander Borg & Sasson Bar-Zvi & Gideon M. Kressel, Max Schloessinger Memorial Foundation, 10 November 2026, 536 Pages
Information: https://tinyurl.com/47nmkvs2
Posted in: Academic items
- November 14, 2026
- 0 Comment
