Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE Webinar “Gendered Perspectives on Culture? Creativity, Art, and Culture in the Arab Countries of the Gulf” by Alia Al-Senussi, Brown University, Providence, RI, 10 February 2023, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Recent spasms of activism and massive governmental reform has brought great change to the GCC countries in the creative sectors in terms of trying to breach the gap of representation, recognition, and value, as well as in terms of openness, conversations, and communications. How have these changes impacted the cultural ecosystem and specifically the art world?
Information and registration: https://watson.brown.edu/cmes/events/2023/webinar-alia-al-senussi-gendered-perspectives-culture
2. ONLINE Seminar Series “Medieval Archaeology in Egypt”, Centre for Islamic Archaeology, IAIS, University of Exeter, 15 February and 1 March 2023, 16:00 – 17:00 GMT
15 Feb.: “Sherds and the City: Pottery Production, Society and the Changing Urban Fabric of Fustat” by Alison L. Gascoigne (Prof. of Archaeology, University of Southampton);
1 Mar.: “The Excavation of Sheikh Al-Arab Hammam in Upper Egypt” by Ahmed Al-Shoky (Prof. of Islamic Archaeology, Ain Shams University).
Information and registration: https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqcuugrTMiG9GV_fp2YxZfQWvNsMjKbHQj
3. ONLINE Lecture “The Politics of the Poor in Egypt – Analytical Reflections and Empirical Findings” by Cilja Harders (ZMO), Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 27 February 2023, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm CET
This event is part of the lecture series “The Historicity of Democracy Seminar” which is organized within the framework of the HISDEMAB international and collaborative research programme of the Leibniz-Association (ZMO-ZZF-IEG) in collaboration with IFPO and Manouba University.
Information and registration:
Information and registration: https://www.zmo.de/en/events/the-politics-of-the-poor-in-egypt
4. Panel on “The Limits of Toleration: Ethno-Religious Integration in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean” during the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, San Francisco, 4-7 January 2024
Papers are sought that explore the limits of “tolerance” within and along ethno-religiously diverse societies with an aim to considering what the limits of this so-called toleration were. Under what circumstances were integration, cultural exchange, or social or economic alliances with out-groups seen as non-threatening and beneficial, and under what circumstances were they seen as threatening or undesirable? “Pre-Modern” runs from 500 to 1650 CE.
Deadline for abstracts: 12 February 2023. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/cfp-the-limits-of-toleration-ethno-religious-integration-in-the-pre-modern-mediterranean-4-7-january-san-francisco-aha?e=82aeb6c61d
5. Arcapita Visiting Professor of Modern Arab Studies, Middle East Institute, Columbia University
This is for a one-semester position for the fall 2023 or spring 2024 semester. The position may be filled at the rank of Visiting Assistant Professor, Visiting Associate Professor, or Visiting Professor. We are interested in candidates whose field of research and teaching is in history, culture, or social sciences of the modern Arab world. Experience teaching at a university in the Middle East highly preferred.
Deadline for applications: 30 April 2023. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/120234
6. Sabbatical Fellowship 2023-24 at the Institute for Middle East Studies, George Washington University, Washington, DC
We encourage applications from scholars working on topics such as environment and sustainability; urban studies; migration/displacement; critical security studies; agriculture and food security; race and spatial justice and other topics aligned with the broad field of critical geography.
Deadline for applications: 15 February 2023. Information: https://imes.elliott.gwu.edu/news/knowing-the-world-sabbatical-fellowship-call-for-applications/
7. ONLINE “Working Group on Race & Gender in the Global Middle Ages”, Emory University and the Medieval Academy of America, 17 February 2023 and once per Month, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST
The aim is to bring together scholars from various disciplines (history, art history, and literary studies) who work on Europe and the Mediterranean, the Islamic world, Africa, and Asia to discuss works-in- progress that deal with race and gender from 500 CE to 1600 CE. The working group is open to all medievalists, including graduate students.
Information and registration: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/participate-working-group-on-race-gender-in-the-global-middle-ages-medieval-academy-of-america?e=82aeb6c61d
8. Cours “Introduction à la Codicologie Arabe”, EPHE, PSL, Paris, 6-10 March 2023
Le cours comporte des séances pratiques pour travailler directement avec des manuscrits originaux.
Inscrire avant 15 février 2023. Information : https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/attend-introduction-a-la-codicologie-arabe-paris-6-10-march?e=82aeb6c61d
9. Ottoman Summer School, Istanbul Bilgy University, 3 July – 10 August 2023
The intensive program is designed to improve students’ reading and comprehension skills in Ottoman sources. The Ottoman language courses are complemented by Arabic, Persian and Modern Turkish classes, which are to be taken in line with students’ needs. In addition to in-class activities, a number of excursions aim to introduce the students to the collections of the Ottoman State Archives and the major manuscript libraries in Istanbul.
Deadline for applications: 15 March 2023. Information: https://ottoman.bilgi.edu.tr/
10. 2nd Beirut Summer Institute for Critical Development Studies: “The Sectarian Question”, American University of Beirut, 17-22 July 2023
The workshop is for early career scholars working on issues related to the “Sectarian Question.” Eligible candidates must be in the last year of their PhD or within the first 5 years post PhD. Submissions are open to early career scholars from sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, geography, development studies, etc., whose work is focused on the study of the sectarian question.
Deadline for abstracts: 25 March 2023. Information: https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2023/02/03/cfp-the-sectarian-question-beirut-july-17-22-2023
11. Contributions with Focus on the Middle East for the Journal “Protest” (Brill)
“Protest” invites submissions that engage with the most recent theoretical, methodological, and empirical advances in the study of protest. It serves as a forum for capturing the expanding global phenomenon of protest. To this end, “Protest” invites contributors to interpret the evolving nature of power and power dynamics and relations across various terrains of protest.
Information: https://brill.com/view/journals/prot/prot-overview.xml?language=en
12. MESA CFP – Blurring Disciplinary Boundaries: Law and Literature in Middle East, 1200–1600
It has long been a scholarly truism that premodern scholars were adept intellectuals, polymaths trained in and conversant with many scholarly disciplines. This idea exists, in part, because of the range of books that scholars wrote and they variety of topics that they addressed. At the same time, this phenomenon has also been seen through the so-called “adabization” or “literarization” of intellectual production, in which writing generally takes on a kind of conspicuous literary character with particular attention to style. This panel seeks to interrogate these ideas in more detail by looking at the resonances, intersections, and echoes that the literary had on legal writing and that which the legal had on literary writing. How did adabization happen; can we detect a reverse phenomenon? We welcome papers that: compare one author writing in different disciplines; track one idea or concept as it travels across time, space, and scholarly disciplines; a synchronic analysis of one idea or concept in one region, or other studies that take seriously the processes and impacts of this intellectual process.
Please send an abstract (max 400 words) and a 50-word bio to sabaelia@grinnell.edu by February 12, 2023.
13. Invitation to attend the 2023 Consortium of Middle East National Resource Centers Virtual Language Pedagogy Workshop
You are cordially invited to attend the 2023 Consortium of Middle East National Resource Centers Virtual Language Pedagogy Workshop, titled “Resilient Middle East Language Programs; Globally Competitive Graduates”.
This year’s workshop is organized by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and is co-sponsored by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona, and the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Michigan.
The 2023 ME NRC workshop will take place on Zoom on Thursday, March 2, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM CST, and on Friday, March 3, 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM CST.
Registration is free and the workshop is open to all interested foreign/second language educators in North America and abroad.
Day 1 Full Program and Zoom Registration Link:
Day 1 Keynote Address Details (and Zoom Registration Link):
Day 2 Full Program and Zoom Registration Link:
We look forward to seeing you there!
The 2023 ME NRC Workshop Organizing Committee:
- Riyad Alhomsi (University of Texas at Austin)
- Olla Al-Shalchi (University of Texas at Austin)
- Mira Angrist (Boston University)
- Jeannette Okur (University of Texas at Austin)
- Babak Tabarraee (University of Texas at Austin)
14. CAll FOR PAPERS – The Journal of Gulf Studies
This journal will be the first to create a solid academic platform for research on the Gulf region (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman) and its neighbouring countries, such as Yemen, Iraq and Iran. The journal will address four key areas of research on the region: History of the Gulf, Culture and Society, Politics and Security and Energy and Economics, in addition to the role of mass media in these four strands. Journal of Gulf Studies will set itself apart from mainstream academic approaches towards the Gulf region, which traditionally narrows the research by categorizing it into the outdated notion of oil revenues and the rentier state. This journal will yield a different approach by presenting contemporary interdisciplinary topics such as but not limited to the interaction between the Gulf States and society, the question of national identity, political reforms, globalization and foreign policy.
The first issue comesout by _April 202__4_, as the journal will be producing two volumes per year, in April and the second in November.
To submit your paper please visit this link: https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-gulf-studies <https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-gulf-studies>
Best Regards
Prof Mahjoob Zweiri
Professor in Gulf Studies & Iran
Director, Gulf Studies Center
College of Arts and Sciences
Qatar University
15. Mo Habib Translation Prize in Persian Literature
Please submit the following materials in a single PDF file by March 1, 2023:
- A one-page cover letter that describes the work to be translated, and speaks to its larger import
- An up-to-date CV (no more than 3 pages)
- A bilingual sample of the proposed translation (no more than 20 pages, double spaced, in both languages)
- Proof of copyrights (if applicable)
All further info at:
16. To attend in Cairo: Two Lectures by Christiane Gruber
The Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo is looking forward to welcoming our Bayard Dodge Distinguished Visiting Professor for this year, Professor Christiane Gruber, in late February.
As part of this program, Professor Gruber will be delivering two public lectures. Professor Gruber is one of the leading scholars in Islamic Art today. Her scholarship and publications are among the most cutting edge in the field. For our graduate students, this will be an important opportunity to be exposed to and benefit from new topics and research methodologies, even if they are not part of your specializations. It is also an opportunity to get advice on other matters closer to your research topics and future plans. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend the following events:
Public Lecture 1 (Open to the General Public and AUC Campus Community):
Title: “In Defense and Devotion: Affective Practices in Early Modern Islamic Manuscript Paintings ” (in English)
Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Time: 1:00 p.m. Cairo Local Time
Place: Waleed P071, HUSS Building, AUC New Cairo campus
Abstract: While a number of studies have tackled the question of iconoclasm in Islam, extant paintings reveal that the practice of viewing and responding to images in Muslim lands are much more varied than previously thought. Pre-modern pictorial evidence instead suggests that there existed a range of motivations behind viewers’ engagement with and manipulation of pictorial images. Such interactions highlight the complex confluences between emotive and visual expressions during both the inception and afterlife of a painted image. From inserted iconographic motifs to the performance of symbolic destruction in premodern Islamic manuscript paintings, it becomes clear that affective engagements that eventually resulted in pigment damage could act as pictorially articulated responses in both defense of and devotion to figural representations. As a result, altered images invite us to radically rethink received scholarly paradigms so that evidence that is most frequently interpreted as a form of Islamic iconoclasm may, at least in some cases, provide clues to Islamic iconophilic practices instead.
Public Lecture 2 (Open to the General Public and AUC Campus Community):
Title: “Hima in the House: Avian Architecture across the Islamic World” (in English)
Date: Saturday, February 25, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m. Cairo Local Time
Place: Oriental Hall, AUC Tahrir Square Campus
Simultaneous Translation to Arabic will be provided.
Abstract: Through its recent ecological turn, the scholarly study of “Islamic” architecture has expanded to take into greater account both the animal and vegetal worlds. As nature’s most accomplished architects, birds have long contributed to the biomorphic landscape and built environment of the greater Middle East. Stretching from Morocco to India, houses made for birds, and made by birds, attest to the thriving of avian architecture across the centuries. Bird houses, whether impromptu or purpose-built, provide a type of sanctuary and refuge—or hima as conceptualized within Islamic philosophical and ecological traditions—dedicated to protecting avifauna and their related regions, the latter used as agricultural lands for human sustenance and/or as biodiversity reserves for non-human survival. Fluttering from nest and nook to tower and palace, this talk examines various types of bird houses, their architectonic language and creative forms, their intersections with vulnerable places and peoples, and their bio-material contributions to an integrated creaturely world.
17. CFP: ‘Positionality in the Study of Islamic Theology’
September 2023
Berlin Institute for Islamic Theoology
The scope of the workshop encompasses reflection upon the positionality of the researcher in their specific field of study, the place of researchers within the wider fields of Islamic theology and Islamic studies, as well as the wider discourse on disciplinary boundaries between Islamic theology and other fields of research and study. It is not only limited to Islamic studies, but includes history, literature, anthropology, etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 February 2023. Information:
https://www.islamische-theologie.hu-berlin.de/de/downloads/cfp_-workshop-positionality_hu-berlin.pdf
18. The Iranian Diaspora in Global Perspective Conference
UCLA
Feb 16-17, 2023
https://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/event/15895
Posted in: Academic items
- February 07, 2023
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