Shii News – Academic Items
1.ARCHNET NEXT is here!
The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) are pleased to invite you to explore the new iteration of Archnet, now available at next.archnet.org. ARCHNET NEXT, aka Archnet 3.0, is the first major revisioning of the site since 2013, and the second major update since Archnet was originally conceived in the late 1990s.
ARCHNET NEXT will be launched on October 12th. Current users of Archnet will be delighted to know that all resources will still be available on ARCHNET NEXT, and access URLs will remain the same. For example, the collection containing issues of Muqarnas. An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World can be previewed on ARCHNET NEXT at https://next.archnet.org/collections/43 from now until October 12; then it will be available at its permanent URL: https://www.archnet.org/collections/43, the same URL used to access the journal currently. The old website will be accessible at https://archive.archnet.org until October 19th.
The fundamental principle that guided this revision can be summarized in two words: accessibility and usability.
Consistent with our mission to make resources available to those without access to large research libraries, ARCHNET NEXT will be more responsive to users in all corners of the world, and on all sorts of devices. A Globally Distributed Content Delivery Network positions content on servers that are closer to Archnet’s end users, allowing for content to reach them without complicated routing across networks of servers. This will improve the experience for users on slower connections, including rural areas and in the developing world.
ARCHNET NEXT is also designed in conformity with W3C accessibility guidelines to allow equitable access for all visitors.
While Archnet will continue to deliver a first-class experience to desktop users, it has been designed to work equally well on tablets and mobile phones. Mobile users can find their way to sites near them by using the “Near Me” to locate nearby sites, both historic and contemporary.
New browsing features will make it easier for all users to get to sites, authorities and collections directly from the home page. Quick filters and a robust search engine allow users to find precisely what they are looking for more quickly and easily.
ARCHNET NEXT was developed in collaboration with Performant Software Solutions LLC, based in Boston, MA and Charlottesville, VA. Specialized in Digital Humanities projects, the firm updated the back end and front end technologies to greatly increase the efficiency with which Archnet can process queries of the Archnet database, now the largest online library focused on the built environment of Muslim societies.
We continue to improve Archnet to better serve our users. Accordingly, we welcome your comments and feedback, which can be sent directly through the Feedback button at the bottom of all pages. Users can use this button to request features or to report bugs.
Archnet is an Open Access, scholarly resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues, particularly as they relate to societies in which Muslims are or have been a significant cultural presence. Our mission is to provide ready access to unique visual and textual material to facilitate teaching, scholarship, and professional work of high quality.
For additional inquiries contact: archnet@mit.edu.
2. The Oxford Interfaith Discussion on Abraham and His Children with the participation of Professor Anna Abulafia and Dr Zeyneb Sayilgan.
Discussion topic: Abraham and His Children
Date: 12th October 2021
Time: 19:30-20:30pm BST | 20:30-21:30pm CEST |11:30am-12:30pm PDT | 14:30-15:30pm EST | 21:30-22:30pm IST
Welcome address: Revd Fr Jan Nowotnik, Direction of Mission and National Ecumenical Officer at the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Chair: Revd Dr John Goldingay, Oxford.
Speakers:
- Professor Anna Sapir Abulafia, Professor of the Study of Abrahamic Religions, University of Oxford. UK
- Dr Zeyneb Sayilgan, Muslim Scholar, the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, Baltimore, MD. USA
Followed by a Q&A session
Here is the registration link:
3. Columbia University – Bulliet Chair of Islamic History– Assistant Professor
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=62053
Review begins Nov. 05, 2021 and will continue until the position is filled.
4. Reflections of Identity on Silk: Towards a Re-Reading of the “Islamic” and the “Secular” in Greek Orthodox Church Fabrics
Wednesday, 13 October 2021, 19:00 (Turkish time, GMT+3)
Lecture by Nikolaos Vryzidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Abstract: Many historical vestments and church fabrics of the Greek Orthodox rite survive today in monastic sacristies and museums. Until now, textile and dress scholars have primarily focused on their ultimate origin, historic evolution, and dogmatic meaning. In my view, these important material remnants inform us on underexplored dynamics in the society that produced them and illuminate the ways in which trends originating from different milieus were appropriated within clerical context. As reflections of cultural, religious, and artistic identity, ecclesial fabrics can offer insights on the Church’s association to religious otherness and profane, or better, court aesthetics. Focusing on liturgical textiles and vestments, the lecture will discuss how the “Islamic” and “secular” elements were negotiated by the Church during Byzantine and Ottoman times. Essentially, our discussion will be centered on the tension between the usefulness and the limitations these taxonomies present when studying premodern church material culture.
This lecture is part of the lecture series “Fabrics of Devotion: Religious Textiles in the Eastern Mediterranean”, convened by Esther Voswinckel Filiz (Orient-Institut Istanbul)
Program: OII-Fabrics-of-Devotion-Program-1.pdf (oiist.org)
Lecture poster: Nikolaos_v2.jpg (802×468) (oiist.org)
Registration Information
The lecture will be held online via Zoom. To attend, prior registration is necessary. Please send an email specifying your name and academic affiliation to events@oiist.net two days before each lecture, i.e., by Monday (11 October 2021). For technical reasons, the number of participants is limited. You will be informed about the organizational and technical procedure a day before the lecture start.
5. Authority Records and Manuscripts in Libraries and Research
27 October 2021: Evening lecture
Columba Stewart, OSB, Professor of Theology at the Saint John’s School of Theology and executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) speaks about:
The Digital Dawn of Comparative Manuscript Studies: How Authority Control Has Become the Critical Link
You will find the invitation to the evening lecture here.
28 and 29 October 2021
The two-day workshop consists of six panels focusing on how libraries and projects of different sizes deal with authority records, the limits and challenges of authority control, opportunities for automation and use and re-use of authority data.
You will find the full programme of the workshop here.
You will find the abstracts of the workshop here.
The workshop will take place online and on-site. Seating is limited. If you wish to attend in person, please contact: orientabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de
The evening lecture will take place online.
Please take note of the current Covid-19 regulations [link: https://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/aktuelles/covid-19-hygienekonzept].
Webex links for online attendance:
Evening Lecture: https://spk-berlin.webex.com/spk-berlin/j.php?MTID=meb226c6af79a7f86993d001caeebb72f
Workshop Day 1: https://spk-berlin.webex.com/spk-berlin/j.php?MTID=meb6b8091cdb6e3c563266ff8b92788c1
Workshop Day 2: https://spk-berlin.webex.com/spk-berlin/j.php?MTID=mb8e7d5d7e8c20130ca07b495f6b88aac
Please take note that all times are CEST.
6. Webinar – Manufacturing the Sacred: Objects of Veneration in the Modern Islamic World – NYU, Silsila: Center for Material Histories – October 15
Hala Auji, American University of Beirut
Elizabeth Rauh, American University in Cairo
Anissa Rahadiningtyas, Cornell University
Alya Karame, American University of Beirut
Nur Sobers-Khan, Aga Khan Documentation Center MIT
Friday, October 15th, 12:00pm ET
[Webinar] Silsila Fall 2021 Lecture Series
In what ways have concepts, methods, and technologies of modernity, since their rise in the late seventeenth century to their present-day manifestations, intersected with the production of sacred art and material culture in Islamic societies? Unlike artworks created prior to the Industrial Revolution, which were typically hand-crafted in medium-specific artist workshops, more recent visual practices in the Islamic world were transformed by and widely dispersed through modern technologies and tools. Among these are lithography, mechanized printing, silkscreen artworks, digital interfaces, and even felt-tip markers. This webinar will critically examine sacred objects across different media and Muslim communities—from the Middle East to Southeast Asia—to explore the changing continuities in popular veneration engendered by modern technologies of the Islamic world.
While discourses on modernity have often been associated with notions of secularism and rupture, the papers will demonstrate how some modern artworks produced in the Islamic world maintain strong connections to ritual, sacrality, divination, and other still-common quotidian practices through these new material and technological matrixes. Qur’an manuscripts written in marker, lithographed cosmological charts, hand-tinted pilgrimage prints, and glass paintings of religious figures demonstrate ongoing ties to ritual and tradition. These artworks, often marginalized in Islamic art history due to their mechanical modes of production, allow for discussions of everyday piety and its modern complexities. Concurrently, such works challenge notions of modernity in Islamic societies that favor post-Enlightenment discourses on rationalism and secularism at the expense of the sacred. In highlighting the continued importance of religious and ritual practice in Islamic artistic productions, this webinar will demonstrate how these objects connect to the realm of the sacred in as much as they also belong to practices and visualizations of modernity.
Full details of the event and a link to register as an attendee can be found at:
Only registered attendees will be able to access this event
7. Prince Baysunghur, Before & After: Timurid Manuscripts in Context: Online Symposium, November 5-6, 2021
The inaugural symposium of the Persian Manuscripts Association, celebrates the 600th anniversary of the first manuscript produced at the royal library-atelier of the Timurid Prince Baysunghur (1399-1433) in Herat. Prince Baysunghur, Before and After: Timurid Manuscripts in Context, is a two-day international symposium, held on 5-6 November 2021, and hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
Baysunghur’s patronage of manuscript production is significant for exhibiting a high artistic refinement in the arts of the book, but the patron was also actively involved in the scholarly aspect of the works to be reproduced. He commanded editions and the preservation of texts in a variety of fields, notably history, ethics and literature.
This symposium brings together scholars and international experts in a number of disciplines to explore the connoisseurship and patronage undertaken by the prince, the aesthetic of his atelier’s output, their antecedents in the Jalayirid period, and the production of literary editions in his library.
The full program for this event can be seen here. Register in advance for this webinar here. After registering, you will receive an email containing information about joining the webinar.
For additional information please contact Shiva Mihan at smihan@ias.edu.
8. Visual Resources of the Middle East
Part of Yale University Open Community Collections
9. Do you know of any collections that are currently at risk and need preserving?
The Endangered Archives Programme is now accepting preliminary applications for the next annual funding round – the deadline for submission of preliminary applications is Monday 15 November 2021 at 12 noon GMT. Full details of the application procedures and documentation are available on the EAP website (https://eap.bl.uk/applicants).
The Programme has funded over 430 projects in 90 countries and has helped preserve manuscripts, rare printed books, newspapers and periodicals, audio and audio-visual materials, photographs and artwork. The programme aims to digitise archives at risk of loss or decay and, where appropriate, to relocate the material to a safe local archival home. The digital copies are deposited with the local archival partners, and are all available for researchers to access freely through the British Library website.
This year, we are accepting applications through our online portal between 1st and 15th November. However, in the meantime, we are providing Word and PDF documents for applicants to perfect their preliminary applications before the online submission.
If you know of an archive in a region of the world were resources are limited, we really hope you will apply. If you have any questions regarding the conditions of award or the application process, consult our website (https://eap.bl.uk) or contact us at endangeredarchives@bl.uk
10. Invisible East announcements
Announcement of our post-doc vacancy for people with skills in classical Persian reading and translation into English, and Digital Humanities. Details can be found on our website here (application deadline: 22 October 2021 at 12 noon UK time).
New Vacancies | Invisible East (ox.ac.uk)
Announcement of our IMaT colloquium on fascinating subject of Letter-writing, every Tuesday, starting from next Tuesday, 12 October (flyer with details for registration and timings attached).
Notice about conference, “From Badakhshan to Zarang” (https://archeorient.mom.fr/formations/seminaires/From-Badakhshan-to-Zarang).
11. The website Open Art Images offers a broad scope of images including many images on Islamic Art. These images can be used freely in presentations but also on websites. OAI is a SEARCH AND VISUALIZATION ENGINE FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGES OF ARTWORKS – from all around the world and from every period in history – that belong to the public domain or to a type of Creative Commons license which allows their reuse. All Images come with detailed information, relevant to the understanding of their historical and cultural context and which informs the user about their current location, source and license.
OAI respects the privacy of its users by adopting completely anonymous tracking technologies.
12. CfP: Stucco Decoration in the Architecture of Iran and Neighbouring Lands: New Research – New Horizons (University of Bamberg, 5-7 May 2022)
Islamic Art and Archaeology Professorship at the University of Bamberg is pleased to announce the forthcoming conference dedicated to innovative research of stucco decoration in Iran and the neighbouring lands. The aim of the international conference is to generate further scholarly interaction and to communicate the latest research finds and innovative methodology for research of stuccos.
The event will take place in a hybrid form at the University of Bamberg, May 5-7, 2022.
We warmly invite you to submit paper abstracts for the participation at the conference by no later than: December 1, 2021
For more information about the conference, the full CfP, about stucco as an object of scientific research and about our research project, please refer to the following link: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/en/islamart/events-and-cooperations/stucco-conference/
13. Assistant Professor of Modern Persian Literature and Culture,
Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia
The deadline for receipt of applications is December 3, 2021. The anticipated start date of employment is July 1, 2022. All application materials should be submitted online at http://asia.ubc.ca/careers.
Inquiries may be sent to asia.jobsearch@ubc.ca
- October 09, 2021
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