Shii News – Academic Items
1. Call for Applications for the English-Arabic Summer School in Münster/Germany on:
“South-South at Center Stage: Representations, Relations and Interactions Beyond the West in Arabic Studies”
الجنوب-الجنوب في وسط المسرح: تمثيلات وعلاقات وتفاعلات تتخطّى الغرب في
الدراسات العربية
Summer School: 28-30 August 2023
Deadline for Applications: 20 May 2023
Additional information:
https://agya.info/publications/calls/south-south-at-center-stage-representations-relations-and-interactions-beyond-the-west-in-arabic-studies
http://arabic-philologies.de/en
2. Online: ‘Fayzi’s Planetary Poetics: a Theory of Poetry’
Roshan Institute for Persian Studies @ UMD
this coming Sunday, April 23rd at 2:00 pm ET
for Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djalali speaker Series
A Lecture by Jane Mikkelson
‘Fayzi’s Planetary Poetics: A Theory of Poetry’
3. Les Sassanides en conflit : Géopolitique de l’empire perse tardo-antique
Dirigé par Philip Huyse (EPHE, SHP, UMR CeRMI) et Samra Azarnouche (EPHE, SR, UMR CeRMI), un dossier consacré à l’Iran sassanide vient de paraître dans Antiquité tardive (Revue internationale d’histoire et d’archéologie), n° 30, 2022 https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503603544-1
4. The 2nd lecture in University of Chicago’s Franklin Lewis Lecture Series: Prof. Dick Davis, May 4 at 5:00-7:00 CT
“The Convent and the Cave, or The Getting of Wisdom: Reflections on Nezami’s Khosrow and Shirin”.
Abstract: “The talk will explore aspects of the complexity of Nezami’s Khosrow and Shirin, in terms of its relationship with its sources, the ambiguity of its rhetoric, and the importance given to the role of art in the developments of its plot”.
The event will be held in person in the Social Science Research Building, the Tea Room, and online in the link below. Please register to get the zoom link.
https://uchicagogroup.zoom.us/j/99924872091?pwd=dFNFR2ZmeVl0MEErOWE4Ty9UTTFiQT09
5. AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship – Iconographies of change: currency and medals of Iran’s Pahlavi regime
Start date: 1st October 2023
Application Deadline: 19th May 2023
Interviews will take place in mid-June
The British Museum, and the University of St Andrews are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2023 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme.
This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Dr Tom Hockenhull at the British Museum and Professor Ali Ansari and Dr Siavush Randjbar-Daemi at the University of St Andrews. The student will be expected to spend time at both The British Museum and University of St Andrews, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK. The studentship can be studied either full or part-time.
For more information:
https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/prospective/cdp-studentship/
6. Call for Papers : Mediterranean Review Vol.16, No.1 (extended)
Mediterranean Review, issued by the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Busan
University of Foreign Studies, is calling for papers.
Mediterranean Review (MR) is an official journal of Asian Federation of
Mediterranean Studies Institutes (AFOMEDI), and the Association of History,
Literature, Science and Technology (AHLiST). MR has widened the scope of
Mediterranean Studies by publishing academic articles on the diverse
‘mediterraneans’ distributed all around the world where civilization exchange
occurs including the Baltic Sea, the Yellow Sea, or the Caribbean Sea area.
We welcome the submission of articles that covers all fields of the
Humanities, Social Sciences as well as Science and Technology Studies in
relation to a Mediterranean setting. A special emphasis is on the past and
present modes of interactions and exchange in global mediterraneans.
* Date of Submission : May 7th, 2023 (Sunday)
* Address to submit : imsmr@ims.or.kr / imsmr@bufs.ac.kr (either)
* Date of publication:
No.1) 30th of June
No.2) 31st of December
Before submitting your paper, please refer to our code of research ethics as
well as to the text formatting and citation rules on our website:
http://www.imsmr.or.kr.
– Published Articles :
http://imsmr.cafe24.com/go/bbs/board.php?bo_table=Articles (click to move)
– Submission Guide : http://imsmr.or.kr/go/bbs/content.php?co_id=Guidelines
(click to move)
– Code of Ethics :
http://imsmr.cafe24.com/go/bbs/content.php?co_id=Code_of_Ethics (click to
move)
– Please notice that we only accept manuscripts in the English language.
– All submitted papers will be evaluated under a strict and fair peer review
process.
– Please notice that there is no guarantee for a submitted article to be
published.
7. New Permanent Galleries of Islamic Art – The Walters Art Museum – Opening weekend April 22-23, 2023
It is with great pleasure and pride that I share with you the news of the imminent opening of the new permanent galleries of Islamic art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Reinstalled and reconceptualized in conjunction with the arts of Asia writ large, the new space is titled Across Asia: Arts of Asia and the Islamic World.
For more information on the new installation: https://thewalters.org/exhibitions/asia/
For more information about the opening celebrations and upcoming events: https://thewalters.org/events/?category=celebrations
Many thanks to everyone involved, especially my fellow curators Adriana Proser and Dany Chan, and to everyone who has advised or supported our work on this incredible project.
Ashley Dimmig
8. Yerevan, Armenia – 16-Week Persian Language Semester Program
16-week semester program and internship beginning August 20th, 2023!
For more details:
https://aspirantum.com/courses/study-persian-language-semester-abroad
9. Wisdom of the Prophet Muhammad: A Compendium of Prophetic Hadith
Author: M Muhammadi Rayshahri
Translators: Afzal Sumar and Muhammad Reza Tajri
ICAS Press, 2023
https://islamic-college.ac.uk/shop/wisdom-of-prophet-muhammad-2-volume-edition-1554-pages/
10. Call for Session: May Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies
To encourage the integration of Byzantine studies within the scholarly community and medieval studies in particular, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 9–11, 2024. We invite session proposals on any topic relevant to Byzantine studies.
Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is May 15, 2023.
If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and moderator) up to $800 maximum for scholars traveling from North America and up to $1400 maximum for those traveling from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement. Participants must participant in the conference in-person to receive funding. The Mary Jaharis Center regrets that it cannot reimburse participants who have last-minute cancellations and are unable to attend the conference.
For further details and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/59th-icms.
Please contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.
11. Online Lecture: The Öngüt Connection: Christianity among the Turks of Medieval Eurasia
East of Byzantium is pleased to announce the final lecture in its 2022–2023 lecture series.
Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
The Öngüt Connection: Christianity among the Turks of Medieval Eurasia
Joel Walker | University of Washington, Seattle
Early and influential allies of Chinggis Khan, the Öngüt Turks of Inner Mongolia played a pivotal role in the rise of the Mongol Empire (1206–1368). Their adoption of “Nestorian” Christianity represents the culmination of a broad stream of Turkic Christian tradition in medieval Eurasia. The careers of the ascetic Marqos of Koshang, who became the East-Syrian patriarch Yahballaha III (1281–1317), and the ruler Giwargis, the Mongol-appointed “Prince of Gaotang” (d. 1298 or 1299), help reveal the distinctive contours of the Öngüt Christian tradition.
Joel Walker is the Lawrence J. Roseman Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington, Seattle. Trained as a historian of Late Antiquity, his publications include: The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (2006); “From Nisibis to Xi’an: The Church of the East in Late Antique Eurasia” (2012); and “Luminous Markers: Pearls and Royal Authority in Late Antique Iran and Eurasia” (2018). Current projects include Witness to the Mongols: A Global History Sourcebook (co-authored with Stefan Kamola) and a history of cattle in the Ancient World.
Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/
Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, with any questions.
12. A Connected history of Medieval Mediterranean Diplomacy: The Mamluk Sultanate, Italy and the Crown of Aragon (14th-15th century)
6 full-time (100%) doctoral scholarships in the field of History
The Mediterranean is often seen as a dividing border between two worlds: North and South; Christian and Muslim. This pattern has been mostly influenced and supported by nationalist historiographies, which tended to create borders and accentuate differences between areas that were originally connected. DiplomatiCon-project aims precisely to break free from this one-sided view on the history of the region and to present the first example of History of Diplomacy that truly reflects the late medieval context of interactions and exchanges between the Islamic and Christian worlds. Based on the approaches and methodologies advocated by the New Diplomatic History and Connected History, the project will focus on the three most important actors of the late medieval world — the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo on the Islamic side and the Italian polities as well as the Crown of Aragon on the Christian side— and it will challenge the common narratives of political and cultural antagonism between the two worlds by pointing at the spheres of contact and interaction where an informal type of diplomacy could be performed. This approach will allow to reveal the whole set of actors and agents involved in the diplomatic process, as well as the huge and extended network they built throughout the entire Mediterranean sphere. Finally, it will show how this network facilitated a broad range of cultural transfers among the various participants.
DiplomatiCon is a research project funded by the EOS (Excellence of Science) programme of the F.R.S.-FNRS and the FWO-Flanders. It is a collaboration between UAntwerp (Malika Dekkiche and Iason Jongepier) and ULiège (Frédéric Bauden), with the UniMol, UniBo (Isabella Lazzarini), and the IMF – CSIC (Roser Salicrú I Lluch).
Diplomatic Network
The history of diplomatic contacts of the Italian polities and the Crown of Aragon with the Mamluk sultanate of Cairo has so far concentrated on the history of the trade treaties concluded between the state actors, which are usually presented as competing powers in the Mediterranean basin. Following the trend within the New Diplomatic History, WP2 will switch the focus from these state actors to the various agents working with them in order to rewrite a history of diplomacy on a Mediterranean scale that not only crosses the classical borders set by the various fields of study, but simultaneously highlights the multi-layered structure of diplomacy. Such an approach is facilitated by the DiplomatiCon database that makes available all sources from the various groups studied, and that will allow to identify all agents (Christian and Muslim) who have contributed to the exchanges, all the way from home to destination.
Three relevant cases have been chosen for such analysis. On the one hand, we selected the Venetian case (Profile 1, ULiège/Unibol), and that of the Crown of Aragon (Profile 2, ULiège/Barcelona), both of which represent the continuity in the contacts with the Mamluk Sultanate during the 14th and 15th centuries. On the other hand, another PhD will focus on the broader Italian networks (Profile 3; UA/Unibol).
These extended networks represent a fluid and flexible mosaic of episode and trends and will supposedly best illustrate the evolution of the diplomatic networks over time. The case of the papacy has been excluded from this study as the stakes and modes of interaction were very different in comparison with those of the considered political actors. Diplomatic papal initiatives, however, will be taken into account every time they cross the action of the Italian powers and the Crown of Aragon. Genoa has also been excluded due to their more active role in the Western Mediterranean. Their archives however will be consulted as well, since Genoese agents were also involved in the Eastern trade on the behalf of other actors.
Mapping Diplomacy
The history of diplomacy that involved the Mamluk sultanate, the Italian polities and the Crown of Aragon is one that has so far been written from state actors’ perspective and therefore has been restricted to the contacts and negotiations taking place in Cairo and, to a lesser extent, Alexandria and Damascus. However, these diplomatic processes already started in the Italian and Iberian home basis and developed along the road. Going against the common assumption of a strict religious and political divide between the Muslim and Christian actors, WP3 “Mapping Diplomacy” will study the various diplomatic spaces created along the way that constituted favourable spheres of contacts and interactions and that allowed an informal kind of diplomacy to be performed by the various agents. Using the shared corpus collected in the DiplomatiCon database, this WP will use all the locations mentioned by the various agents highlighted in WP2 and apply Spatial Analysis (using GIS) to them. This will allow us to map and connect all locations and hubs, to find spatial patterns and influence spheres, and to draw a diplomatic geography and space. More importantly, WP3 aims to understand how those spaces were produced and experienced by the Italian (Profile 4, UA/Unibol) and Iberian (Profile 5, UA/Barcelona) agents themselves, which institutions and structures facilitated those productions and how those spaces were perceived and communicated to a broader audience.
Translating Culture
Next to the agents and spaces, WP4 “Translating Culture” will move the focus to the way people actually interacted. The translators and the documentary witnesses of their work will thus be at the centre of the analysis. While they are often mentioned, translators in the medieval period remain quite enigmatic. They are usually known to us through their title of tarjumān or dragoman, but their identities, origins and functions are too often kept silent in official records. Their working methods too still stay rather obscure to us. The Italian and Spanish archives, however, have kept many witnesses of their works, since the Arabic documents are often completed with the translation that was made at the time of the conclusion of the agreement. While some of those documents have been the object of a few studies, scholars have traditionally restricted to issues of language and linguistic features. Even less studied are the so-called brokers, although they have also facilitated contacts beyond the sole practice of language. DiplomatiCon offers a unique opportunity to shed light upon those mysterious figures. (Profile 6, ULiège/Barcelona).
13. YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies invites contributions for its fifth and sixth volumes to be published in December 2023 and December 2024. YILLIK is a peer-reviewed, open access, international academic journal featuring cutting-edge research on Istanbul’s past and present, published by the Istanbul Research Institute in print and online (via DergiPark). YILLIKis indexed by SCOPUSand the MLA International Bibliography.
YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies is accepting submissions of original research articles, opinion pieces and visual essays (Meclis), book and exhibition reviews in Turkish or English, by researchers working on any period of the city through the lens of history, history of art and architecture, archaeology, sociology, anthropology, geography, urban planning, urban studies, and other related disciplines in humanities or social sciences.
Articles submitted for publication in the journal are first evaluated by the Editorial Board. Articles deemed suitable by editors in terms of subject matter and quality will be sent to two anonymous reviewers elected in accordance with their expertise from the Advisory Boardor from the larger field. Reports from the double-blind reviewers are combined with the comments of the editors and sent back to the author. Depending on their quality and relevance, articles may be accepted or rejected, or the author may be asked to revise the work.
The review process is mandatory for research articles, while book and exhibition reviews along with the Meclis pieces only require editorial evaluation. The editors of the YILLIK pledge to complete the submission process as quickly and constructively as possible. Our aim is to limit the duration of the evaluation process, from the submission to the journal to the forwarding of reviewer reports to the author, to six weeks.
The deadline for the submission for the fifth volume, to be published in December 2023, is June 20. Some of the accepted articles with revisions may be published in the sixth volume in December 2024.
Every year, one of the articles written by a student or recent PhD will be awarded the YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies Early Career Article Prize. For details, click here.
Those who wish to submit a book or exhibition review are strongly recommended to ask for the opinion of the Editorial Board in order to avoid duplicate reviews.
YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies conforms to Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition. Before submitting your article, please refer to our submission & publishing style guide.
For the “YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies Publishing Ethics and Peer Review Statement” click here.
Peer-reviewed article submissions must be made through Dergipark.
For other submissions and questions: istanbulstudies@iae.org.tr
14. “IN THE TREASURE ROOM OF THE SAKRA KING: VOTIVE COINAGE FROM GANDHARAN SHRINES”
Waleed Ziad, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Hybrid Talk – Wednesday, April 26th, 6:30pm EDT, New York University, Room 222, 20 Cooper Square, New York, 10003
SilsilaSpring 2023 Program
In a lush valley within the Sakra peak in Gandhara (northwestern Pakistan, towards the Afghanistan border) is a vast limestone cave temple, part of an ancient Hindu sacred complex. From the 4th to 12th centuries, this cluster of shrines produced hundreds of varieties of their own votive coinage – a unique case in Central and South Asia. These were miniscule copper coins, issued for pilgrims, featuring eclectic and original combinations of Greco-Roman, Iranian, Indic, and Islamic iconography. The book on which the talk is based relates the remarkable story of transculturation and artistic innovation during the most neglected yet formative years of the region’s history.
To register to attend, either on Zoom or in person, please use the links provided on the webpage for the event:
Posted in: Academic items- April 22, 2023
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