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Shii News – Academic Items

1. An Arabic-English Lexicon of the CoronaVirus Outbreak containing commonly-used CoronaVirus terms and extensive vocabulary lists related to:

– Health & Sickness

– Plagues & Pandemics

– Medical Prevention

– Medical Symptoms

 

This lexicon was compiled and written in a joint collaboration between

  • Dr. Mariam Aboelez, Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, Birkbeck, University of London
  • Mr. Mourad Diouri, Teaching Fellow & Course Organiser (PG Arabic) at IMES (Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies), U. of Edinburgh

 

If you wish to contribute to this lexicon, we would love to hear from you.

 

https://bit.ly/2UJ5zGF

 

 

 

 

2. CfP: International Relations in a Multi-Polar Middle East

SEPAD E-Workshop 29th June-1st July 2020

This online conference seeks to explore international relations in today’s Middle East, a region that has become increasingly multi-polar. In the years after the Arab Uprisings, the fragmentation of political projects and opening up of schisms between rulers and ruled – resulting in protest, resistance and conflict – has expanded the  arenas competed over by regional powers, global actors and non-state players. The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has found traction across the region but the aspirations of Riyadh and Tehran have become contested by other regional actors including Turkey, Egypt and Israel, while smaller players like the UAE and Qatar have also increased their regional activism. The United States, once seemingly intent on a hegemonic ‘Pax Americana’ has stepped back, leaving its rivals and allies, Russia, China and the EU, among others, with both concerns and opportunities. Meanwhile some non-state players, like Islamists, nationalists and separatists have taken advance and/or entrenched their positions, while transnational identities, ideologies, economic trends and threats continue to influence local and international politics. Added to this the local and global ramifications of the Covid-19 Pandemic look set to further impact the region’s international dynamics moving forward.

We welcome papers addressing any area of international relations relating to this broad topic. Abstracts should be no more than 200 words and submitted by 11th May 2020. Papers will be presented in online panels for 15 minutes per presenter, followed by a Q and A with registered participants. In an effort to address concerns about online events, we encourage all presenters to use powerpoint presentations.

 

Please submit abstracts to Eyad Al Refai at E.AlRefai@Lancaster.ac.uk .

 

 

 

3. Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP)

MERIP have lifted their paywall until the end of May to allow access for people displaced by COVID-19.  Their archive contains invaluable analysis of the systems, structures and conditions that will shape how COVID-19 impacts the Middle East.  As students, scholars, activists and concerned citizens find themselves displaced from their institutions and facing frightening economic uncertainty, MERIP want to ensure that anyone can access this content regardless of circumstance.

https://merip.org/covid-19-update/

 

 

 

4. The National Archive: free access to digital records  

The National Archives are making digital records available on their website free of charge for as long as our Kew site is closed to visitors.
Registered users will be able to order and download up to ten items at a time, to a maximum of 50 items over 30 days.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/digital-downloads/

 

 

 

5. Arabic Collections Online

Arabic Collections Online (ACO) is a publicly available digital library of public domain Arabic language content. ACO currently provides digital access to 13,224 volumes across 7,842 subjects drawn from rich Arabic collections of distinguished research libraries.

http://dlib.nyu.edu/aco/about/

 

 

 

6. Two short pieces on Muslim views on pandemics and contagion now on Harvard’s IslamicLaw blog:

 

https://islamiclaw.blog/2020/04/28/against-flattening-the-curve-of-diversity-of-approaches-to-muslim-understandings-of-contagion-in-a-time-of-pandemic-part-one/

 

https://islamiclaw.blog/2020/04/29/against-flattening-the-curve-of-diversity-of-approaches-to-muslim-understandings-of-contagion-in-a-time-of-pandemic-part-two/

 

See also, on the same blog, Ari Schriber on a 19th century Moroccan historian’s take on a 17th century Moroccan Sultan who advised his son to flee the plague:

 

https://islamiclaw.blog/2020/04/22/a-precedent-for-the-unprecedented-historical-reflections-on-plague-quarantine-and-islamic-law-in-morocco/

 

 

 

7. Digitized Ottoman manuscripts from the İstanbul Araştırması Enstitütüsü = Istanbul Research Institute

https://katalog.iae.org.tr/yordambt/yordam.php?aAltTur=293

 

 

 

8. The editors of Manuscript Studies: A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries are pleased to make the following announcements:

  • The Spring 2020 issue is out! Abstracts are available here: https://mss.pennpress.org/about/current-issue-abstracts/.
  • We are seeking peer-reviewed article submissions for the Spring 2021 issue and beyond. Articles for possible publication in the Spring 2021 should be submitted no later than June 1, 2020.
  • Non-peer review Annotations can be submitted up to September 1, 2020 for the Fall 2020 issue. Annotations submitted after that date are eligible for publication in Spring 2021 and beyond.
  • Thanks to a generous agreement with the University of Pennsylvania Press, all Articles and Annotations in Manuscript Studies are made available for open access after one year from the date of publication. Articles and Annotations from Vol. 4:1 (Spring 2019) are now available for downloading on Penn’s Scholarly Commons repository. To access the pdfs, go to: http://repository.upenn.edu/mss_sims/

**Please note: In response to the Covid-19 situation, Penn Press is providing FREE access to its journals until June 30, 2020. Here is the link to Manuscript Studies: https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/698.

Manuscript Studies brings together scholarship from around the world and across disciplines related to the study of pre-modern manuscript books and documents. This peer-reviewed journal is open to contributions that rely on both traditional methodologies of manuscript study and those that explore the potential of new ones. We publish articles that engage in a larger conversation on manuscript culture and its continued relevance in today’s world and highlight the value of manuscript evidence in understanding our shared cultural and intellectual heritage. Studies that incorporate digital methodologies to further understanding of the physical and conceptual structures of the manuscript book are encouraged. A separate section, entitled Annotations, features research in progress and digital project reports.

For more information about submitting and to subscribe, go to http://mss.pennpress.org. For direct inquiries, please contact the editors at sims-mss@pobox.upenn.edu .

 

 

 

9. The University of Cambridge has started “The History of Now,” a series of podcasts mostly devoted to epidemics and pandemics: https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/podcasts/covid-19-podcasts.

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