Shii News – Academic Items
1.Séminaire « Altérités religieuses en questions : chrétienté(s) et islam(s) : du moyen âge jusqu’à l’époque coloniale », l’Université de Nantes, 20 février 2020
2. International Conference: “Hermeneutics of Quranic Norm Change“, University of Erlangen, 15-16 April 2020
See program at https://www.dirs.phil.fau.de/files/2020/01/Korankonferenz_4S_web.pdf. For registration contact Hadil Lababidi (hadil.lababidi@fau.de).
3. International Doctoral Conference in Religious Studies: “Resistance to Order and Authority in Religion“, Central European University, Budapest, 25-27 June 2020
The conference invites contributions studying the conceptualization, management and instrumentalization of religious ideas and beliefs with regard to past and contemporary resistance movements.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 March 2020.
Information: https://religion.ceu.edu/crs-elte-masaryk-phd-conference-25-27-june-2020
4. Joint Chair in Area Studies (Middle East Studies), University of Exeter and Tsinghua University
The holder of the post will be based at the University of Exeter but will spend one semester of every year at Tsinghua University. The position is primarily research-focused. Qualifications: the successful candidate should have a research profile concentrated in the anthropology, history, social sciences or cultures of the Middle East with a particular preference for expertise in Palestine Studies, Gulf Studies, or the Politics and International Relations of the Middle East.
Deadline for applications: 27 February 2020. Information: https://jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=860223RifK&WVID=3817591jNg&LANG=USA
5. Book Award Competition 2020, the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS)
Nominations are accepted for any book published in 2019 on women, gender, sexuality and feminism in the Middle East, North Africa, and among diasporic communities from the MENA.
Submission deadline: 15 May 2020. Information: https://amews.org/amews-book-award/
6. Graduate Student Workshop: “Networking and Mentoring Workshop in the Humanities and Social Sciences for at-Risk Ph.D. Students”, University of Leipzig, 14-15 May 2020
We invite current and prospective Ph.D. students who have experienced difficulties in pursuing or continuing their dissertations due to political reasons and who have therefore left their country of origin, or are considering doing so. A group of senior academics will offer participants an opportunity to think about future academic possibilities. Travel and accommodation expenses for invited participants will be covered.
Deadline for applications: 29 February 2020. Information: https://www.uni-leipzig.de/veranstaltungsdetail/artikel/networking-and-mentoring-workshop-in-the-humanities-and-social-sciences-for-at-risk-ph-d-students/
7. Graduate Workshop on Diversity in the Medieval Middle East, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK: 18-22 May 2020)
This workshop invites early graduate students to discuss the place of medieval diversity in the region and consider topics which cross the communal and linguistic boundaries imposed on premodern history by graduate-level specialization in single medieval languages or subfields.
Deadline for application: 15 February 2020. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/call-for-participation-graduate-workshop-on-diversity-in-the-medieval-middle-east-stillwater-ok-18-22-may?e=82aeb6c61d
8. Intensive Seminar: “Venice, Cyprus and Trade with the Mamlukes“, Nicosia, 29 June – 1 July 2020
This course will survey a wide range of Venetian sources related to maritime trade in the Mamluk sultanate and to the role of Cyprus in this regard. It will be conducted by Professor Benjamin Arbel of Tel Aviv University.
Deadline for applications: 15 March 2020. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/seminar-venice-cyprus-and-trade-with-the-mamlukes-nicosia-29-june-1-july?e=82aeb6c61d
9. Culture Made in Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula as a new major player on the Arab cultural scene
International Conference
CEFAS / Sorbonne Abu Dhabi / New York University Abu Dhabi
Conveners : Laure Assaf, Clio Chaveneau, Frédéric Lagrange October 31st – November 1st, 2020
Since the turn of the 21st century, the Arabian Peninsula has been both a major producer of cultural goods and a hub of cultural presentation, exchange and commerce. From book fairs to highly coveted literary and translation prizes, from upscale art galleries to ground-breaking museums, from literature to music and poetry, from “starchitecture” to the preservation of traditional material and intangible heritage, culture has become an asset and a stake in the growing influence of the Arabian Peninsula in the Arabic speaking world. State-sponsored as well as private sector and individually driven endeavors have moved the Arabian Peninsula from the margins of contemporary Arabic culture towards the center, where it competes for prestige and soft power with the traditional beacons of urban cultural hegemony, such as Egypt and the Levant. With the help of considerable capital and heavy investment in education and multimedia platforms, cultural productions are not only showcased for local consumption but also exported throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Works of literary fiction, poetry, theater, music, cinema, television programs and fine arts, from high-end productions to commercial pop culture, thus shape a Khaleeji identity in contemporary Arabic culture. This conference aims to stimulate discussion of the Arabian Peninsula as a new contender on the regional cultural scene, from state-led cultural policies to the development of a Khaleeji “pop culture”, understood both as commercial entertainment and as the grassroots cultural forms produced by local youth and by diverse migrant communities. Papers are welcome on all aspects of cultural production and policy in the Arabian Peninsula. Topics may fall under (but are not limited to) one of the following axes:• Cultural policies between nation-branding, regional ambitions, and global pursuits:As countries of the Arabian Peninsula seek to forge a cultural identity that will put them on the global map, papers might examine how they navigate the interplay between local concerns for the preservation of the region’s oral history and craftsmanship, and globalized standards of cultural legitimacy such as universal museums, arthouse cinemas, and iconoclastic artworks. How do they reconcile modes of cultural production and exhibition formed elsewhere with local cultural practices?Contributors might also address the regional and international ambitions of these policies. How are these cultural policies received by competing centers of Arab culture? How is the shaping of a cultural identity informed by economic, diplomatic, and political dynamics?• Production, reception and meanings of an Arabian “pop” culture:Are we witnessing the birth of a new “pop culture” in the Arabian Peninsula? As cultural productions made in Arabia take the front stage, contributors are invited to explore the relation between the fields of entertainment, mass consumption, and the media, in a region where the latter is often state-owned. Is pop culture merely a mass product channeling commercial strategies and dominant representations, or does it have the potential to challenge cultural hegemony? In short, is there a possibility for a “counterculture” in the Arabian Peninsula?Papers might also examine the relationship between contemporary pop culture and traditional local “popular cultures” in the folkloric sense. What does the multiplication of TV shows, artworks, or clothing that repackage the national lore in a parodic and desirable version tell us of the relationship between pop and popular culture, and between local youths and national or regional identity? • Social, ethnic, and gender identities of cultural producers and consumers in the Arabian Peninsula:As this regions’ states are some of the most diverse in the world, papers may look at the respective roles of nationals and immigrants in the cultural industry. Papers will pay a specific attention to the way social, gender, and ethnic perspectives inform the production and reception of cultural goods. Who produces and consumes the contemporary culture of the Arabian Peninsula? How do these productions address the Khaleeji self and its various others?Papers may also question the potential of these cultural productions to forge various communities along ethnic of generational lines. As these productions circulate along migration routes and through diverse media, can they become shared references across the Arabic-speaking world and in neighboring countries whose immigrants form the bulk of foreign residents? Does the inherently referential nature of culture contribute to form a common identity among generations who share a same set of cultural codes? At a time when cultural actors and goods in the Arabian Peninsula are leaving the margin to become mainstream cultural elements of the 21st century, this conference seeks to gather scholars, cultural entrepreneurs, and practitioners, to analyze cultural policy and the emergence of new cultural productions in the region.
Proposals should be between 250 and 350 words and sent to : Laure Assaf (lsa6@nyu.edu), Clio Chaveneau (clio.chaveneau@psuad.ac.ae), Frédéric Lagrange (frederic.lagrange@psuad.ac.ae)
The deadline for proposals is April 15, 2020.
10. Bugis flower power: a compendium of floral designs
The collection of Bugis and Makassar manuscripts in the British Library, which has now been fully digitised, covers a wide range of genres from court diaries to literature, treatises on a range of sciences, and religious works on Islamic law and Sufism. Most of the manuscripts are sober textual documents, carefully and neatly written in Bugis/Makassar (lontaraq) or Arabic script, but – save for one compendium of poems – with few formal decorative elements. On the other hand, many manuscripts also contain notes, calligraphic pen trials and doodles, which often include sketches, primarily of a floral nature. This text-light but picture-heavy blog post has brought together all the floral drawings discovered in these manuscripts from south Sulawesi, presented here as a sourcebook for Bugis floral designs in the late 18th century. In each case, the manuscript shelfmarks are hyperlinked to the full digitised manuscript page, so that the sketches can be seen in context.
Posted in: Academic items- February 11, 2020
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