Categories : Academic items

1.Mediterranean Seminar Winter 2025 Workshop: “The Multilingual Mediterranean”, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 28 February – 1 March 2025

The theme encompasses such topics as language contact zones, multilingual art forms and media, and the relationships between language and identity. We invite contributions from scholars working on several geographical contexts and historical periods in the Mediterranean world – including the interplay and inter- section of visual, musical, and material “languages” in the Mediterranean world.

Deadline for applications: 15 October 2024. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/cfp-the-multilingual-mediterranean-mediterranean-seminar-winter-2025-workshop-28-february-1-march-urbana-champaign?e=82aeb6c61d

 

 

2. National Museum of African Art – Contract Provenance Researcher
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67354

 

 

3. Conference – ‘Objects of Law in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds’, University of Bern, August 29-30

The international conference “Objects of Law in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds” proposes to reflect on the artistic practices that shaped the materiality, iconography, and texts of legal objects in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. What forms did these objects take? How did they confer authenticity and legal authority? What education and knowledge are evident in the objects? The conference seeks an interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars from art history, legal history, history, archaeology, and related disciplines who engage with legal objects.

Organized by Corinne Mühlemann (University of Bern) and Fatima Quraishi (University of California, Riverside).

Location: Institute of Art HIstory, University of Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012 Bern, Room 120, First Floor

For registration, please contact: janina.ammon@unibe.ch
The conference will be held in person.

PROGRAM

THURSDAY | August 29th, 2024
9:00-9:30 ARRIVAL | COFFEE

9:30-10.15 Introduction by Fatima Quraishi and Corinne Mühlemann

10:30-12:00
PANEL 1 | FORMATIONS OF AUTHORITY
Moderated by Omar Anchassi, University of Bern, SNSF Project “Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies”

Zahir Bhalloo (University of Hamburg)
Social and Spatial Dynamics of Bukharan Fatwas as Written Artefacts

Stella Wisgrill (University of Cambridge)
Testing Virtue, Forging Nobility: Emperor Frederick III’s 1462 Augmentation of Arms for the Margravate of Moravia and the Performance of Legal Authority

12:00-13:30 LUNCH

13:30-15:00
PANEL 2 | CIRCULATION AND FORMATION OF LEGAL KNOWLEDGE
Moderated by Irina Dudar, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

Phillipa Byrne (Trinity College, Dublin)
The Materiality of Medieval Judicial Ordines

Niko Munz (Oxford University)
Bildnisrecht: Legal Aspects of Early Portraiture

15:00-15:30 COFFEE

15:30-17:30
PANEL 3 | MULTIPLE MATERIALITIES
Moderated by Corinne Mühlemann, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

Subah Dayal (New York University)
From Golkonda to Siam: Secret Letters, Envelopes, and Governing Freight Trade in the Mughal Port-city

Masha Goldin (University of Basel)
Weapon of Justice? Medieval Swords as Objects and Images

Nino Zchomeldise (John Hopkins University)
Aesthetics of Illusion and Authenticity in Ottonian Legal Documents

19:00 DINNER

FRIDAY | August 30th, 2024
8:30-10:30
PANEL 5 | LEGAL PERFORMANCE
Moderated by Fatima Quraishi, University of California, Riverside

Shounak Ghosh (Vanderbilt University)
Epistolary Texts as Legal Objects: Querying the Mughal Farmān in Diplomatic Contexts

Daniela Maldonado Castaneda (Queen’s University, Canada)
Between Sacred and Script: Examining Legal Objects in Promises, Vows, and Oaths as Defined by Alfonso X in The Seven-Partidas

Jordan Skinner (Princeton University)
The Medieval Curfew Bell: Sonority and the Voice of Law

10:30-11:00 COFFEE

11:00-12:30
PANEL 5 | LONGUE-DURÉE STUDIES
Moderation TBA

Krisztina Ilko (Queens College / University of Cambridge)
The Chess-Knight Seal

Heba Mostafa (University of Toronto)
“God Protect us from One Finger under Twenty!” The Abbasid Nilometer Column as a Legal Object

12:30-14:00 LUNCH

14:00-15:30
PANEL 6 | EVERYDAY LAW
Moderated by Moïra Dato, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

Gül Kale (Carleton University, Toronto)
The Material and Social Implications of Measuring Tools in Ottoman Legal History

Lorenzo Paveggio (University of Padua)
What Does a Bribe Look Like? Carolingian munera in Literary Texts

15:30-16:00 COFFEE

16:00-17:30
PANEL 7 | OBJECTS IN COURT
Moderated by Carlos Rojas Cocoma, Institute of Art History, University of Bern

Nathalie Miraval (Yale University)
The Sacred Suspended: Martha, Law, and Image in the Early Modern Spanish Atlantic

Linda Mueller (Bibliotheca Hertziana Rome/Harvard University)
Drawings, Courtroom Practices, and Juridical Decision-Making at the Edges of the Spanish Empire

17:30-18:00 CLOSING REMARKS

Contact Email

janina.ammon@unibe.ch

 

4. CFP – ‘Making the Subject of Portraiture in a Trans-Asian Context ca. 1000-Present Day’, SOAS London, December 5-6, 2024

Dates

Call for Papers Deadline: 29 July 2024

Conference: 5-6 December 2024

 Portraits have commonly been understood as naturalistic likenesses of human beings, centred on the face. The work of scholars such as Jean Borgatti, Richard Brilliant (1990) and Joanna Woodall (1997) opened the field in conceptualising portraiture as a truly multi-local genre, foregrounding relational and performative processes. Following their research, this symposium defines portraiture as a process where subjectivities are constructed as a result of the collaboration between artists, patrons, subjects, and viewers living in a specific time and space, This call for papers therefore is addressed to scholars of art, cultural, visual and material culture but also anthropology and literature at any career level who explore how notions of subjectivity are constructed in text and images created roughly between the fifteen century and the present day in Asia and its diasporas. The symposium organisers will consider papers analysing literary and pictorial processes of embodiment through the production of objects and artefacts such as paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, ceramics, jewellery, and currency; and of designed spaces including gardens and architecture.

Portraits have long been studied as documents or biographies of a person that once existed. Without denying the capacity of a portrait to index a living person, the symposium wishes to address the varied performative elements that portraits display in the Asian context. These performances reveal the enactment of class, gender and race of specific societies and cultures of Asia and its diasporas. The performative function of portraiture in Asia, we argue, reveals important cultural, social, religious, and philosophical ideas to understand the region.

The symposium focuses on the portraiture of Asia with two specific purposes in mind. First, to decentre studies of Asian portraiture from Eurocentric conceptions of subjecthood and thus to expand the field of portraiture studies; second, to foreground the connections, transfers and tensions articulated by portraiture within the trans-Asian context. The focus on Asia should not be read as exclusionary, but rather as the intent to initiate a dialogue with existing research on the portraiture of other regions such as Africa and Europe. Thirty-five years after Borgatti, Brilliant and Woodall’s contributions to the field of portraiture studies, the symposium ‘Making the Subject of Portraiture in a Trans-Asian Context ca. 1000-Present Day’ proposes to take stock of a changing field by contributing the scholarship of art, cultural and literary historians, anthropologists and specialists in gender and critical race theory whose research interests focus on the embodiment of selfhood in portraiture from Asia. We therefore invite papers which develop our core concern with ‘Making the Subject’ and with the performative dimensions of portraiture in Asia.

Suggested topics (but not limited to):

• Dimensions of reality in portraiture
• Issues of re-/presentation
• Issues of materiality, style and making
• Portraiture and authority: imperial, monastic, patriarchal or cultural
• Cults of personality
• Portraiture and changing notions of beauty
• Religious and philosophical dimensions of portraiture, including rituals and ceremonies
• Issues of display and viewing – notions of theatricality and performance
• Gendered dimensions of portraiture, including theorisations of gender performance
• Self-portraiture of female and male artists
• Race and ethnicity in portraiture
• Portraiture as currency and commodities
• Fashion and material culture in embodied images
• Non-anthropomorphic portraiture, such as sacred geographies, depictions of nature,
  non-human subjects, and gardens
• Cross cultural exchange – i.e. portraits of Asians by non-Asians and vice versa, and similarly     within the Asian region.

Please send a 300-word abstract plus a short bio (150 words max) for 20-minute presentations to the organisers: Mariana Zegianini – mz15@soas.ac.uk and Conan Cheong – 656531@soas.ac.uk, by Monday 29 July 2024.

Limited funds are available to sponsor train and bus journeys within the UK and they will be allocated on a first come first serve basis after the CfP deadline. A selection of the conference papers will be included in a proposal for a peer-reviewed edited volume. Further details will be announced at the conference.

1. PhD position vacancies at Leiden University

Two PhD positions for ‘Entangled Universals of Transnational Islamic Charity’, funded by an ERC Consolidator grant. One PhD position is for research in India, and the other for research in Tanzania. The candidates will be based at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology at Leiden University.

The deadline for applications is 10 September.

Full information at:

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/vacatures/2024/q3/15023-phd-position-in-social-anthropology

 

2. University of Maryland – College Park – Postdoctoral Positions in Islamic/ate Art and in Multiple Fields (Two Positions)
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67338

 

3. Library of Congress – Paid Research Fellowships at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67174

 

4. Fellowship for translators of Persian literature

https://melc.washington.edu/news/2024/07/16/alta-offer-translator-persian-literature-prestigious-fellowship

Applications will be open September 1 – November 30, 2024 and the program will begin in February 2025. Please look out for the call for applications on ALTA’s website and its social media accounts

https://www.literarytranslators.org

 

 

5. Residence Program in Advanced Arabic & Social Studies

Spring Semester 2025

A number of merit-based tuition waiver and housing support

The Language Center at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) is pleased to announce its Spring semester 2025 Residence Program in Advanced Arabic Language and Social Studies.

The Program is a unique forum for academic and cultural exchange between the DI’s predominantly native Arabic- speaking graduate students and faculty (from across the Arab world) and their international non-native or heritage peers.

The Residence Program is offered for one semester on site in Doha. It meets the language, culture, and academic needs of advanced non-native and heritage graduate students who wish to strengthen their language and cultural skills, as well as prepare for specific challenges related to their academic areas of expertise. The Program is delivered entirely in Arabic and consists of a twin advanced language-training and academic components.

The language-training component prepares students to function professionally in Arabic and offers dedicated courses in language, translation, and content-based instruction. The program adapts to the academic needs of students as a base for linguistic and cultural acquisition, emphasizes productive and presentation skills, and develops higher levels of proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and translation.

The academic component gives fellows the opportunity to take advantage of the wide array of unique graduate-level courses the DI distinguished faculty teach in Arabic through its academic units: The School of Social Sciences and Humanities and the School of Public Administration and Development Economics. For more detailed information about the DI, please go to:

https://www.dohainstitute.edu.qa/EN/Pages/default.aspx

The Residence Program is an important part of the DI’s mission to establish, maintain, and nurture intellectual links and two-way dialogues between its students, faculty, and the international learning and research community.

The DI aims to create an enduring legacy of intellectual innovation and education within the Arab world and beyond. It assumes and promotes the Arabic language as a tool of scientific inquiry, an official language in public discourse, and a primary language for teaching and research.

To Apply to the Doha Residence Program, click on the link below:

https://dilc.wufoo.com/forms/mkvqolg1id49pf/ 

Semester Program Features:

• 6 credits of Intensive Arabic,
• A language partner,
• Option to audit graduate academic courses taught in Arabic if eligible,
• Option to have an academic partner,
• Access to the DI and Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies rich conferences, symposia, and guest lectures.

Admission Requirements:

• Advanced level in Arabic,
• Tuition fees: 9,000 QAR (approximately 2,250€ or 2,465$),
• Housing: 11,000 per semester (approximately 2,650€ or 3,000$).

Program Dates:

• Application Deadline: September 1st, 2024
• Start of Classes: January 12, 2025
• End of Program: May 1st, 2025

* Midterm Break: 23-27 February, 2025

**Eid El-Fitr holidays: 31 March – 03 April, 2025

 

6. Lecturer in Middle East Politics and International relations.

Fixed term position in Exeter, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies from 1st October 2024 until 31 March 2026

https://jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecruitment/wrd/run/etrec179gf.open?WVID=171839ediw&LANG=USA&VACANCY_ID=086218kPMh

Apply by 8.8.24

 

7. DFDS 4th Int. Con. (DFDS 2024) on: Islamic historical theology (IHT) as a link between local(Muslim) and orientalists
♻️ with the participation of:
– DFDS Discussion Forum on Scriptures
– IQP Independent Int. Parliament of the Holy Qur’an
Simultaneously with:
1. QSCT(Int. Scientific-Cultural Quranic Tourism) 2end Course
2. Unveiling of the Con. Book
⬅️ The Con. themes:
conceptual and theoretical framework of IHT,
Exegetical basics of IHT,
Historical foundations of IHT,
Local (Muslim) basics and Methodology of IHT,
Oriental basics and Methodology of IHT.
⏰ – Nov. 5-6, 2024
– In person and virtual
– University of Tehran, Tehran, I.R. Iran,
• Abstracts Deadline: Sep.5, 2024
• Announcement of accepted articles: Sep.23, 2024
• Full articles Deadline : Oct.21, 2024
Submit articles:
info@zabanshenasitarikhi.ir
Conference website address:
www.zabanshenasitarikhi.ir
Independent International Council for the Holy Quran
Ind. Int. Quranic Parliament (IQP)
https://chat.whatsapp.com/IvyUpqDXcKWAtIz2yxLwu6

 

8. HYBRID Interdisciplinary Workshop on “Islamophobia Beyond Borders”, University of Aberdeen, 22-24 July 2024

The workshop, organised by Professor Nadia Kiwan (University of Aberdeen) and Dr Jim Wolfreys (Kings College London) explores Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism across France, England and Scotland.

Information, programme, abstracts of papers and registration: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/sll/news/23340/

 

9. German-Japanese Bilateral Conference: “Textual Transmission in the Islamic Manuscript Age:

On the Variance, Reception, and Usage of Arabic and Persian Works from the Middle East to the Indian Subcontinent”, University of Münster, 5-7 September 2024

The case studies to be discussed include texts from various regions of the Near and Middle East, the majority of which were written or handed down between c. 1300 and 1800, highlighting the roles of authors, copyists, and recipients in adapting texts to new contexts and needs. Key questions include: What content changes occurred and why? Who were the involved actors? How was knowledge transmitted through collected manuscripts, abridged versions, or additions? Etc.

Information and programme:

https://www.uni-muenster.de/ArabistikIslam/translapt/events/textual_transmission.html

 

10. HYBRID “10th International Congress on Turkology”, Research Institute of Turkology, Istanbul University, 12-13 November 2024

The primary objective of the congress is to evaluate the scholarly and institutional trajectory of Turkology studies while reflecting on the past century of the institution.

Deadline for abstracts: 31 July 2024.

Information: https://turkiyat.istanbul.edu.tr/en/content/turkology-congress/about-congress

1.International Conference on “Philosophy, the Political, and Politics of Translation in the Modern Islamic World”, Scholarly Network Philosophy in the Modern Islamic World (DFG), Berlin, 10-13 March 2025

We are looking for proposed contributions on philosophy, translation, and the political, especially with regard to particular concepts in translation, translation as a historical phenomenon, translations and teaching, and philosophical reflections on the practice of translation. Researchers in early phases of their academic career and/or from the MENA region are especially encouraged to apply.

Deadline for proposals: 25 August 2024.

Information: https://philosophy-in-the-modern-islamic-world.net/intern-conf-philosophy-political-politics-call

 

2. 59th International Conference of the ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies on “Orientalism and the Levant during the Second Half of the Second Millenium (1500-2000)”, University of Oxford, 6-8 July 2026

The Levant includes Iraq and Iran and the entire coastlands from Asia Minor to Egypt. All papers given at the conference will be considered for publication in a future edition of the ARAM Periodical, subject to editorial review.

If you wish to participate in the conference, please contact aram@ames.ox.ac.uk

 

3. 60th International Conference of the ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies on “Educational Western Missions in the Levant 1300-1918 AD/CE”, University of Oxford, 8-10 July 2027

The Levant includes Iraq and Iran and the entire coastlands from Asia Minor to Egypt. All papers given at the conference will be considered for publication in a future edition of the ARAM Periodical, subject to editorial review.

If you wish to participate in the conference, please contact aram@ames.ox.ac.uk

 

4. Articles for Journal “Forum Islamic-Theological Studies”

Papers in English and German are invited in the following areas: – Qur’anic Studies and Qur’anic Exegesis (tafsīr) – Hadith Studies – Sufism – Islamic Legal Theory and Hermeneutics (fiqh) – Islamic Ethics – Islamic Philosophy – Systematic-Discursive Theology (kalām) – Islamic Religious Education – Sociology of Religion on Muslims in Europe or the West – Contributions on current discourses on Islam and Muslims in Europe –Islam and Pluralism, Islam in Europe – etc.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 October 2024. Information: https://ojs.nomos-journals.de/index.php/fits/CfP

 

5. Article pour Revue Annales Islamologiques 61, 2027 « Aspects pluriels de l’écriture de soi dans l’adab prémoderne (IIIe/IXe-XIIe/XVIIIe siècles) »

Les articles figurant dans ce volume concerneront des textes d’adab au sens large de ce terme (incluant aussi bien les textes historiographiques que littéraires), qui comportent une composante autobiographique et/ou qui relèvent de l’ego-document et qui ont été produits en langue arabe dans l’aire culturelle arabo-musulmane entre le IIIe/IXe et le XIIe/XVIIIe siècles, quelle que soit leur nature générique.

Les propositions doivent être envoyées avant le 30 septembre 2024.

Information : https://iismm.hypotheses.org/104325

 

6. New Journal: “Rivista di Studi storici del Mediterraneo” – International Review of Mediterranean Historical Studies

This journal promotes a global perspective on the historical dynamics of the Mediterranean, transcending geographical boundaries. Contributions are invited about topics that transcend any conventional periodization in order to investigate the complex network of relations and influences relating to different Mediterranean contexts and foster historical knowledge of the Mediterranean.

Information: https://rivistastoricadelmediterraneo.it/en/the-mediterranean-world/#more-117

 

7. Ibn Arabi’s Religious Pluralism: Levels of Inclusivity

F Abdel-hadi

Routledge, 2025

https://www.routledge.com/Ibn-Arabis-Religious-Pluralism-Levels-of-Inclusivity/Abdel-hadi/p/book/9781032776408

 

 

8. IHF Academic Committee Announcement

The second cycle of the Iran Heritage Foundation’s 2024 grant programme, with the deadline of August 31^st, 2024 is now open for receipt of application.

With the overall aim of fostering knowledge and appreciation of Iran’s rich cultural heritage research grants in various academic disciplines are awarded.  The particular emphasis (in alphabetical order) is on archaeology, arts, history, linguistics, and literature, though applications from other disciplines will also be considered.

Projects to be supported may include the most various academic initiatives, from fieldwork to workshops to building databases and digitising images, and will – as previously – privilege new research such as editions and translations of key texts.  In order to support multiple initiatives grants of up-to a maximum of £3,000 will be considered.

In this second cycle, the Committee will also award two book prizes; one in memory of Iradj Bagherzade, the late founder of I.B. Tauris Publishing (now a subsidiary of Bloomsbury Publishing), as an enabling prize to defray some of the costs of a book still to be published; and the other for an already published book making a significant contribution to the world of Iranian studies.

The application process and conditions for the grants as well as book prizes can be viewed on our website.

To apply please click  here.

For Terms and Conditions please click here

 

9. 2025 Mohamed Ali Foundation fellowship programme: call for applications

This residential fellowship (Apr-June 2025) carries a grant, accommodation and meals, and is a valuable research and publication opportunity for early career (post-doctoral) or established scholars working on the modern history of Egypt and the wider region: more details are provided in the online notice.

The application deadline is Tuesday 1 October 2024.

Past fellows’ papers are available online:https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/school-government-international-affairs/research/fellowships/the-mohamed-ali-foundation-fellowship-programme/visiting-fellows-and-mohamed-ali-foundation-fellowship-papers/

Further information at:

https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/school-government-international-affairs/research/fellowships/the-mohamed-ali-foundation-fellowship-programme/

 

 

10. Call for Chapter Abstracts:

Two Handbook Projects on Iranian and Iranian Diaspora Studies

Overview of the Project

Bloomsbury Academic has approved a proposal for two handbook projects: The I.B. Tauris Handbook of State and Society in Modern Iran, and, The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iran and Iranians in the Modern World.

State and Society in Modern Iran will highlight current and critical approaches to a classic subject in the field: the modern emergence of Iran as a nation-state since ca. 1800.  Iranians in the Modern World will highlight scholarly trends that situate Iran in modern regional and global contexts and explore the transnational experiences of diverse groups with heritage ties to Iran.

The development timeline aims for the publication of both books by the winter of 2026 so they can join the catalog of I.B. Tauris Handbooks.

Authors of approved abstracts will be entitled to a copy of the book upon completion and have opportunities to participate in workshopping events with fellow authors and editors via Zoom.  For fullest consideration, please send your abstracts to Camron Michael Amin at camamin@umich.edu by September 7th, 2024 (sooner is always better).  Reach out any time if you have questions about this opportunity.  I will note that the publications will be peer-reviewed.  Chapters can be either traditional research presenting new findings or different forms of engaged scholarship (review essay, annotated translations of texts, annotated field notes or essays on research methodology).  The essential criteria is for contributions to serve as both a guide to the state of the field and as a platform for further inquiry.

Chapter abstracts should be no more than 1000 words and clearly indicate which book and section the contribution is intended for.  Each book has two sections (described in more detail below), and we anticipate approving 10 chapters for each section.

Looking forward to seeing your chapter abstracts!  If you want to chat informally, please reach out to me at camamin@umich.edu to schedule a Zoom (or, better yet, let’s connect at the AIS Conference in Mexico City).

Camron Michael Amin

Professor of Middle East and Iranian Diaspora Studies

Coordinator of Middle East Studies, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Research Director for the Inclusive History Project-Dearborn

Contributing Editor-in-Chief

More Detail on the Handbooks

Book I: I.B. Tauris Handbook of State and Society in Modern Iran

Section 1.  Society, State and the Spaces in Between

Scholars have long described the gradual but inexorable rise of a modern state in Iran since 1800 with ever-increasing powers over individuals and groups. More recently  there has also been a growth in scholarship about the role of  non-state institutions, market forces and informal networks that coexist with and complicate the power of the state.

Potential subjects for this section include but are not limited to:  Iran’s press and mediascape, Iran’s shifting demographics, Iran’s banking system, Iran’s labor movement(s), digital resistance and authoritarianism, Iran’s technocracy, evolving state and dissident ideologies, education and society, the military and society, Iran’s parliaments, municipality-level politics, Iran’s constitutions and legal reform/practice, and how different segments of society have experienced the state.

Section 2:  Social Complexity Inside a Changing Iran

With the initial expansion of the state in the 19th century came simultaneous efforts to regulate it and to make it more responsive to society’s priorities.  The  emergence of Iran’s modern legal system as a site of social-political contestation provides a way to understand and historicize the practical implications of competing political ideologies and social movements in Iran.

Potential subjects for this section include but are not limited to: Intersectionality and Women.Life.Liberty, Iranians and courts, LGBTQ+, consumer culture, changes in urban and rural life, mobility, non-profit and private institutions, censorship and the arts, the domestic economy (energy and non-energy sectors), popular religion and religious diversity in Iran.

Book II: The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iran and Iranians in the Modern World

Section 1:  Iran as a Regional and Global Actor

For all the nuance scholars have added to the narrative of the expansion of the power of the Iranian nation-state, one feature of Iran’s modern experience is its official integration into regional and global diplomatic and economic frameworks.  This section explores both state and non-state influences on Iran’s image and impact on the world stage.

Potential subjects for this section include but are not limited to: The GCC and Iran, Iran and BRICS, Iran and OPEC, Iran and UN, Iran’s soft power initiatives, Iran’s foreign policy establishment, Iran’s proxies and clients, state and dissident efforts to influence global opinion, Iran and tourism, Iran as refuge for and exporter of asylum seekers, “Iran” as a brand in the global culture, and Iran’s influence on transnational shi’ism.

Section 2:  Iranian Expatriate Communities and Diasporas

There’s no understanding Iran’s modern experience without considering its transnational aspects.  Decades before the revolution of 1979 generated a growing global Iranian diaspora, Iranian expatriate communities were influencing politics and culture in Iran itself and formed an essential dimension of Iran’s participation in global and regional trade. The exact number of Iranians in diaspora is unknown.  However, it is estimated that since the 1979 Iranian revolution between 5 to 8 million Iranians have left Iran legally and illegally.  Given the relatively large number of Iranians in diaspora, the research on Iranian diaspora has predominantly been US-centered and scholars have paid less attention to Iranian immigrants in other regions.

Potential subjects for this section include but are not limited to: Iranian communities in the Middle East, The Iranian diasporas in the Americas, The literary cultures of the diaspora , second-generation Iranians in diaspora, Iranian women in diaspora , comparative transnational family dynamics, the influence of expatriate Iranian communities on domestic Iranian politics and culture, recreating Iran in the diaspora, pluralism in the Iranian diaspora, and interactions between Iranian and other global diasporas.

 

 

11. UCLA Pourdavoud Institute:

Achaemenid Workshop 2 Day 1 Videos Available!

We are pleased to share with you the recorded lectures from the first day of the Second Achaemenid Workshop, The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East, hosted at the University of Innsbruck and co-sponsored by the Pourdavoud Institute in Obergurgl, Austria on July 3–7, 2023.

The first workshop, hosted at UCLA in Spring 2023, introduced a new series of symposia, dubbed Achaemenid Workshops (AchWorks), which, building on the strength of Achaemenid studies in the past decades, seek to revisit and reassess the state of Achaemenid scholarship over the coming years with a dozen workshops hosted at leading institutions of ancient studies around the globe. Coordinated by the Pourdavoud Institute in conjunction with AchWorks’ Organizing Board, the workshops aspire to become an intellectual hub for Achaemenid studies, while also affording an institutional framework to foster future generations of scholars working on the Achaemenid world.

On July 3-7, 2023, the second Achaemenid Workshop titled “The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East (7th – 2nd c. BC),” took place in the alpine settlement of Obergurgl, Austria. In addition to being part of AchWorks, the conference was embedded in the context of the Austrian Academy of Science commission “Transformation Processes and Empire in the Ancient Worlds of Afro-Eurasia.” The talks and program focused on the emergence, fall, and transformation processes of the Achaemenid empire (6th–4th century BCE), contextualized by preceding developments in the period of the Neo-Assyrian empire under the Sargonids (7th century BCE) and by an outlook on the early Seleucid period (3rd–2nd century BCE).

The Third Achaemenid Workshop will be hosted by Columbia University in New York and co-sponsored by the Pourdavoud Institute and Yarshater Center at UCLA on February 21–22, 2025. The Institute shall record this workshop, with lecture videos to be include in our Online Video Library.

For all videos, see:

https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/videos/

 

12. CALL FOR PAPERS

Iranian Masculinities Across Time: Historical Perspectives

University of California, Santa Barbara

This projected volume explores the diverse experiences, performances, and discourses involving men and masculinities in Iranian society and culture over a broad span of time, from antiquity to the present day. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Mapping historical and/or modern masculinities and institutions and various definitions of masculinities.
• Outsiders’ perceptions, stereotypes, and experiences of Iranian masculinity from the ancient Greeks to the modern period.
• How media ideals and ideologies of masculinity have changed through the 19th-21st centuries.
• Hegemonic and non-hegemonic masculinities; marginalized masculinities, outcast/pariah/abject masculinities; resistant masculinities; ethnic / non-urban / regional/ racialized/class-based masculinities.
• Masculinity and religion; religious and divine masculinities.
• Patriarchy and law.
• Man-making practices, places, and things; passages into manhood; masculine life stages: boyhood, manhood, fatherhood, etc. and life roles (work, volunteerism, parenthood, and more)
• Masculinity and the body; the manly/masculine body; masculinity and sports; masculinity and disability, sexual dysfunction, bodily non-normativity, and/or physical impairment
• Masculinity, same sex desire, and sexual orientation
• Challenges of studying Iranian men and masculinities
• Masculinities in sociopolitical movements
• Masculinities in the arts (including graphic arts, cartoons, cinema), architecture, material culture.
• Masculinities and musical performances
• Masculinities in children’s literature
• The effects of patriarchy on men and boys; the roles of men and boys in bringing about gender equality
• The unmanly; masculinity and women / the feminine
• Masculinity, violence, and emotions
• Male Advocates of Women’s Rights and Gender Equity in Modern Iranian history.
• newly emergent forms of masculinities for a more democratic Iranian society

Proposals/abstracts from all disciplines and all fields are welcomed. They may focus on Iran, the Iranian plateau and neighboring regions, or the Iranian diaspora, and may examine any period from the second millennium BCE up to the present.

Please send your proposal/abstract of no more than 300 words by September 15, 2024 to both Janet Afary (jafary@ucsb.edu) and John W. I. Lee (jwilee@history.ucsb.edu). Individuals whose proposals/abstracts are accepted will be invited to submit a paper (20-25 pages). Deadline for receipt of the paper will be in April 2025. A conference celebrating the authors and exploring the key themes of the projected volume will be held at UCSB in 2025-2026.

1.Waqfs in Colonial Bengal: History, Administration, Reformation

Mahboob Alam

Radiance, 2024

https://www.bagchee.com/books/BB138386/waqfs-in-colonial-bengal-history-administration-reformation

 

 

2. Liminal Minorities

Religious Difference and Mass Violence in Muslim Societies

G M Tezcür

Cornell, 2024

https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/9781501774683/liminal-minorities/

 

3. History of the Ganja Khanate

E Babayev, W Floor (transla)

Mage, 2024

https://magepublishers.com/history-of-the-ganja-khanate/

 

 

4.  Iranian Art from the Sasanians to the Islamic Republic: Essays in Honour of Linda Komaroff, edited by Sheila S. Blair, Jonathan M. Bloom, and Sandra S. Williams

Edinburgh University Press, 2024.

The volume is available for preorder here: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-iranian-art-from-the-sasanians-to-the-islamic-republic.html.

Please feel free to use the discount code NEW30 for 30% off the list price.

 

5. Faculty Position in Islamic Ethics (Open Rank), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Doha, Qatar

Qualification: Ph.D. degree in Islamic studies for conducting research and teaching in Islamic ethics. – Proficiency in both Arabic and English. – 5-10 years of relevant work experience commensurate with the rank applied for (assistant, associate, or full professor) at an accredited international university. – Proven record of research and publications as a leading author, demonstrating competence and adequacy relative to peers active in the same field at major research universities.

Applications immediately until the position is filled. Information:

https://www.cilecenter.org/public-outreach/announcements/faculty-position-islamic-ethics-open-rank

 

6. Assistant Professor for Modern Arabic Literature & Culture, University of Michigan

The successful candidate will teach a range of courses in modern Arabic literature (from the Nahda to the present), from introductory undergraduate lecture courses through graduate seminars; supervise doctoral dissertations; and participate actively in the programs of the department as well as in area studies initiatives within a larger university community that encourages interdisciplinary efforts.

Deadline for applications: 1 November 2024.

Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/148670

 

7. “2024 Suad Joseph Student Paper Award” of the “Association of Middle East Anthropology (AMEA)”

Eligibility: A graduate student at any stage in an MA or PhD program. Paper components: 15-35 pages long.

– Anthropological focus. – Regional focus on the Middle East and/or North Africa and/or diasporic communities. – Excellent standards of writing, argumentation, evidence, and ethnographic representation. – Significant contribution to knowledge production.

Deadline for paper: 1 September 2024.

Information: https://mideastanthro.com/suad-joseph-student-paper-award-2/

 

8. Articles on “Infidels, Enemies or Humanists? The European-Italian “Renaissance” and the Fictional Imaginary of the Muslim-Ottoman Turk” for a Special Issue of the Journal “Religions”

This issue focuses on the inter-connection between the Ottoman world and the Western Europe in the Quattrocento and Cinquecento; in specific, the idea is to work on the reciprocal imaginary that the Ottoman sultanate and the European-Italian potentates reciprocally played in this specific age. The argument is open to a multi-disciplinary approach able to consider the historical, religious, political, artistic, and literary approaches as international relations topics.

Deadline for manuscripts: 30 September 2024.

Information: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/Z3H162B632

1.New series from Brill

Islamic Sources / Maṣādir Islāmiyya

مصادر إسلامية

We’re happy to launch a new book series: Islamic Sources / Maṣādir Islāmiyya (ISMI). This series will publish text editions of primary sources of the Arab-Islamic heritage, covering all periods and regions of the Islamic world. The series is open to works from all disciplines. All works will be preceded by a solid scholarly introduction in Arabic, English, French, German or Spanish. Authors are encouraged to submit editions of previously unpublished manuscripts, or new critical editions, annotations, and commentaries that provide significant new scholarly insights. If you are interested in submitting proposals for this series, please contact Abdurraouf Oueslati.

More info here.

 

2. Ethics in the Qurʾān and the TafsīrTradition
From the Polynoiaof Scripture to the Homonoia of Exegesis
Tareq Hesham Moqbel

Brill 2024

 

3. “6th Congress of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies”, University of Strasbourg, 25-27 June 2025

The panels may cover one or more fields of the humanities and social sciences (anthropology, archaeology and art history, law, economics, geography, history, Islamic Studies and religious sciences, linguistics, literature, philosophy, sociology, political science), from a global or regional perspective, in connection with the study of the Middle East and/or the Maghreb, the Muslim worlds in the broad sense, or Islam in the world.

Deadline for proposing panels: 15 September 2024.

Information: http://majlis-remomm.fr/wp-conten

 

4. Postdoc in Religious Studies: “Muslim Piety and Aesthetic Expressions” (2 Years), University of Copenhagen

We are looking for a post-doc researcher to study the emerging scenes for Islamic art in Scandinavia. It will identify how and where interaction takes place when artistic practices intersect with Muslim piety. The artistic practices can be visual arts, music, literature or performance and the scene can be performance stages, art galleries or literary forums as well as social media and websites. The project is not geographically limited to Denmark.

Deadline for applications: 11 August 2024.

Information: https://jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabelige-stillinger/?show=161941

 

5. Professor/Lecturer for Islamic Legal and Ethical Tradition, Sultan Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Centre of Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Qualification: PhD in Islamic Studies or a closely related field (with a specialization in Islam, Technology, and Science) from an internationally recognized university. – Outstanding record of research productivity through research grants and publications, and teaching excellence in the above fields. – Experience in designing demand-driven programs for government and/or private sectors and conducting lectures for professional development programs in relevant areas of leadership.

Deadline for applications: 5 August 2024.

Information: https://ubd.edu.bn/job/academic-positions-at-sultan-omar-ali-saifuddien-centre-for-islami-studies-soascis/

 

6. “Mediterranean Seminar Prize for the Best Source Edition, Book Translation, or Essay Collection, 2025”

The Prize is open to books published from 2022 to 2024 inclusive. The committee is most interested in collections of essay that break new ground conceptually or methodologically, are comparative and/or interdisciplinary, that emphasize the intercultural/interregional/inter-religious contact, that are “of” rather than merely “in” the Mediterranean, and that are both internally coherent and comprehensive.

Deadline for applications: 31 December 2024.

Information: https://mediterraneanseminar.squarespace.com/book-prize-2025

 

7. SOAS Centre for Iranian Studies

Webinar | Beyond the screen: Critical thinking in creative film production

Beyond the screen: Critical thinking in creative film production

6.00pm, Thursday 11 July 2024

Join us for a talk by Dr. Hamideh Javadi on critical thinking in creative screen production, featuring her short films “Halftone” and “Wordfall.” Explore the intersection of critical theory and visual storytelling.
Dr. Hamideh Javadi holds a PhD in Cinematic Arts from Ulster University. Blending documentary, animation, and experimental film techniques, her work not only tells compelling stories but also galvanizes viewers to engage with pressing global issues. Hamideh has produced award-winning works that challenge conventional narratives.
Her short animation ‘Halftone’ and her recent work ‘Wordfall’ exemplify her approach to critical screen production research emphasizing the transformative potential of critical screen production.

Register at:

https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/beyond-screen-critical-thinking-creative-film-production

 

 

 

8. Soka University of America – Tenure-Track Faculty Position Assistant Professor of Middle East and North African (MENA) Studies
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67324

Closing date: 30.9.24

 

9. Ibn Rushd lecture 2024: Muslim Women in Britain: Muslim Institute

London,15 July 2024 6pm UK time

Professor Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor and her new book (edited with

Jamie Gilham)  Muslim Women in Britain, 1850-1950: 100 years of Hidden History  – https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/muslim-women-in-britain-1850-1950/

Information about the lecture and link to RSVP is available here – https://musliminstitute.org/events/monday-15-july-ninth-annual-ibn-rushd-lecture-2024-history-muslim-women-britain-professor

 

10. UCLA: Latino and Islamic Cultural Connections

An Evening of Exploration: Latino and Islamic Cultural Connections

Co-sponsored Event

Thursday, July 25, 2024

6:00 – 8:00 PM PST

The Fowler Museum

Details and registration:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-of-exploration-latino-and-islamic-cultural-connections-tickets-915636843447?aff=oddtdtcreator

—

1.CfP: Muslim Chaplaincy. Practice, Research and Recognition

 June 24th-26th 2025, Fribourg Switzerland

The Swiss Centre for Islam and Society and the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK

Submission deadline: 1.10.2024

https://www.unifr.ch/szig/fr/recherche/colloques/muslim-chaplaincy.html

 

2. The Islamic College:

Monthly Talk: The Greatest Islamic Philosopher You’ve Never Heard Of: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī

A Talk by Professor Peter Adamson

Thursday 25 July 2024
6.00 P.M. – 7.30 P.M. (LONDON TIME)
on Zoom
Meeting ID: 827 8165 9584 Passcode: 499950

https://islamic-college.ac.uk/event-registration/

 

3. Arab World English Journal for Translation and Literary Studies welcomes the submission of papers for the August Issue 2024.  The submission deadline has been extended until July 15, 2024. The issue publication date is AugustIssue 2024. For more details, click here.
Please send your submission as an attachment to TLS@awej.org

We have the pleasure of sending the full issue of AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Volume 8 Number 2. May 2024

For individual papers, click here.

 

4. CfP: Hybrid Exploratory Workshop: Diaspora as a (Re)Source – Interactions and Interdependencies between Arab Diaspora Communities in Latin America and their Communities/Countries of Origin

Convenors:                 Katrin Köster, Roberto Cruz Romero

Keynote Speaker:      Prof. Dr. Lily Pearl Ballofet (UC Santa Cruz)

Date:                           01.+02. November 2024

Format:                       Hybrid

Location:                     Research Centre Global Dynamics, Leipzig University (and Zoom)

Context

Latin American countries and especially the Arab diaspora communities in these countries are an important political, socioeconomic, and cultural resource for Arab communities in the Levant and the wider Middle East. In recent months, the world has been reminded of this by the numerous Latin American expressions of solidarity with Gaza. Similarly, during the past few years, Arab diaspora communities have rallied to support Syrian refugees and economically drained Lebanese communities. These acts of solidarity are not singular in nature, but are part and parcel of long-lasting and deep-rooted ties between Middle Eastern and Latin American communities.

The ties between these two world regions go back to the late nineteenth century, the era of worldwide labor migration to the Americas. Impoverished Arabs, predominantly Christians but also Druze, Alawis, and Sunni Muslims from the Levant, migrated to the Americas, especially drawn to Latin America. During the 1920s and 1930s, they were joined by a second wave of migrants dominated by intellectuals fleeing from oppression and censorship. Today, particularly Argentina and Brazil, as well as some smaller Latin American countries, are home to huge Levantine Arab communities who have great influence on political, socioeconomic, and cultural developments in both their “new” and “old” home countries.

The ways diaspora communities have influenced and continue to influence their Arab communities or countries of origin are varied and manifold. For instance, politicians try to rally diaspora communities to affect election outcomes at home or international politics pertaining to developments in the Middle East, while Arab intellectuals in the diaspora frequently make decisive contributions to discourses in the region. The economic solidarity of diaspora communities has often played a significant role in softening the hardship of economic crises for specific communities and villages, and mahǧar (diaspora) literature and diaspora film productions have profoundly influenced the Arab cultural scene. Furthermore, sociocultural practices like St. Mary’s shrines, Salsa music, and first and foremost Mate tea consumption enjoy immense popularity in Arab countries, especially the Levant.

Existing Research

The past few decades have seen increased scholarly interest in Middle Eastern migration studies in general and Arab diaspora communities in Latin America in particular. This interest was primarily kindled and stoked by the works by Akram Khater, Reem Bailony, Lily Pearly Ballofet, Roberto Khatlab, Stacy D. Fahrenthold, and John Tofik Karam as well as the Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies, which is edited by Fahrenthold and Khater and published by the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies. Additionally, individual studies, for example by Ottmar Ette and Frederike Pannewick, have highlighted literary entanglements between the Americas and the Middle East. Most of the existing studies, however, pertain to one of these three areas of research: connections between diaspora communities and their home countries during the first decades of the migration movement (i.e., the late nineteenth and early twentieth century up the 1940s), the significance of diaspora literature for Arab language literature, and diaspora communities within the context of their “new” home countries. Significantly less has been published on the interactions and interdependencies between Arab diaspora communities in Latin America and their communities/countries of origin during later decades of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century.

Workshop Design

This workshop sets out to explore these interactions and interdependencies on the personal, political, social, economic, and cultural level, with a focus on the time period from the 1940s to the 2020s. We are especially interested in investigating how these various kinds of entanglements have been influencing and shaping Middle Eastern communities and countries and how diaspora communities function as a catalyst or as (re)sources for political, socioeconomic, and cultural transformations in the Arab world.

Possible research topics and questions include but are not limited to:

Latin American Arab diasporas as a resource in times of political and economic crises,

Latin American Arab diasporas as advocates of Arab interests within interational politics,

Economic entanglements and trade connections between Latin America and the Middle East,

Intellectual and cultural transfers between Latin America and the Middle East,

Cold War solidarities and Peronism’s influence on Nasserism

In the course of the workshop, we would also like to discuss the specifics of research on Arab diasporas in Latin America and their entanglements with their respective communities and countries of origin. In how far does this research relate to diaspora studies in general and in how far can it open up new avenues of investigation and/or contribute to existing research on a theoretical and methodological level?

This workshop is designed as an exploratory workshop and intends to bring together scholars who want to further research on Latin American–Middle Eastern entanglements. The workshop is also designed as a first step in a longer process and therefore primarily serves to set the stage for future empirical and theoretical research by shaping the research parameters and developing methodological approaches appropriate for investigating Latin American–Middle Eastern entanglements.

Application and Funding

If you are interested in participating in our workshop, please send a short abstract (250–350 words) and a short biography (max. 100 words) to Katrin.koester@uni-leipzig.de  by 1 August 2024. Early career scholars are especially invited to apply.

Participants are expected to attend the entire workshop (either online or in person) and give a 20-minute presentation on a research topic related to the themes of the workshop. Presentations in English, Arabic, and Spanish are welcome, but we kindly ask you to provide an English abstract.

Limited funding is available for this workshop. We will organize accommodation at a nearby hotel for the participants for the duration of the workshop and will cover transportation costs as far as possible.

Please indicate in your application whether you want to participate online or in person and, in the latter case, from where you will be travelling to Leipzig. This will not have any effect on the selection process but will facilitate the workshop logistics.

Schedule and Further Plans

01.08.2024                   Deadline for applications

07.08.2024                   Notification of accepted applicants

11.10.2024                   Deadline for extended abstracts

01.+02.11.2024            Workshop

01.08.2025                   Deadline for finalized papers

10–12.09.2025            Second Meeting in the form of a panel at the 8th European Congress on Universal and Global History in Växjö, Sweden (attendance is self-funded by participants, online attendance is possible)

2026                            Publication of a special issue

 

5. Meşher’s “Istanbul as Far as the Eye Can See: Views across Five Centuries” exhibition has been extended until 29 September 2024 due to popular demand!

About Meşher

Initiated by the Vehbi Koç Foundation (VKV), Meşher advocates the creation of new dialogues across time and cultures, not only through its exhibitions ranging from historical research to contemporary art but also its comprehensive array of parallel activities such as publications, workshops, and conferences. With its overall interdisciplinary approach, Meşher, which takes its name from the Ottoman Turkish word meaning exhibition space, has been active since September 2019. Meşher presents exhibitions on a wide range of subjects, across a time span ranging from the Middle Ages to the present. With its versatile program, research-based academic aspect, and publications, Meşher continues to acts as a reference point for Istanbul’s arts and culture scene.

Located on İstiklal Street, Meşher welcomes visitors with free access to exhibitions, events, and guided tours. It is open six days a week, being closed on Mondays.

Meşher, Istanbul’s leading interdisciplinary exhibition space, hosts Istanbul as Far as the Eye Can See: Views across Five Centuries, curated by Şeyda Çetin and Ebru Esra Satıcı that opened on 20 September 2023. Based on a selection of more than 100 rare works from the Ömer Koç Collection, the exhibition spans 500 years, from the 15thcentury – when Istanbul became Ottoman Empire’s capital – to the first quarter of the 20th century. Paintings and engravings showing wide-angle views, together with rare books, albums, panoramic photographs, and even souvenirs of Istanbul, offer visitors a richly varied visual record of the city.

The many producers of these works are also very diverse, including a ship captain, travellers, soldiers, ambassadors, writers, photographers, architects, and city planners; many of them are Westerners with agendas ranging from political to military to aesthetic, and the medium they used varied. Their work reveals both diplomatic relations and the city’s multi-cultural structure and social life; they also trace the major changes that have taken place in the city over time. Quotations from written sources accompany the visual representations, creating a dialogue between Western perspectives and 19th- and early 20th-century Ottoman/Turkish literature. Rather than being yet another ode to the city, the exhibition encourages reflection on the diversity of its narratives and the differences in its many depictions.

Istanbul as seen through Western eyes

Henry Aston Barker’s panorama of Istanbul, which he made from the top of the Galata Tower in 1800; an engraving after Philipp Franz von Gudenus’s drawing from the roof of the Swedish Embassy in 1741, sketched when he was stationed in Istanbul; and Joseph Schranz’s panorama from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara: these are only some of the images now showcased at Meşher. The works of James Robertson, known to have taken the earliest 360-degree panoramic photographs of Istanbul, are also on display, including his panorama taken from the Bayezid Tower in May 1854 and presented in an album that bears the artist’s signature.

The panoramic views that enable us to see Istanbul from end to end and top to bottom in Istanbul as Far as the Eye Can See contain many interesting details as well. Shopkeepers in local dress, women making excursions in ox-drawn carriages, Europeans distinguishable by their hats, children, and four-legged friends of the city complete Istanbul’s historical silhouette.

The oldest work is from 1493

Curators Şeyda Çetin and Ebru Esra Satıcı shared the following about the exhibition spread across Meşher’s three floors: “We aimed to include works depicting as many vistas as possible, from different points of view and of different neighbourhoods across the city. We display over 100 works across three floors of Meşher, the oldest being the Liber chronicarum (1493) by Hartmann Schedel; among the most recent is an album (1922–1924) of original designs and drawings by Alexandre V. Pankoff. The themes and stories that come to the fore are not separated by sharp boundaries; on the contrary, they nourish and complement each other. We believe that revealing the relationships between the works, rather than classifying them according to period or medium, will contribute to our understanding of this multi-layered city.”

Meşher’s director Nilüfer H. Konuk stated that the exhibition team seeks to reach a wide audience. Konuk added, “Some of these exhibits are the earliest printed edition of a work or the sole surviving copy, while others are pioneering examples of their period. Some are being exhibited in Istanbul for the first time. We are delighted to bring these rare works from Ömer Koç’s precious collection to a wide audience at Meşher.”

Istanbul as Far as the Eye Can See will be open until 29 September 2024. The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of events, including workshops for adults and children organised by the curators and the Meşher team. The full up-to-date event programme can be accessed on the Meşher website and through its social media accounts.

Exhibition catalogue

Published both in English and Turkish, the exhibition catalogue draws attention to the diversity of Istanbul’s representations with contributions from experts in the field. Catalogue entries are written by Sven Becker, Briony Llewellyn, Bahattin Öztuncay, and Claude Piening. Beginning with a preface by Ömer M. Koç, the book contains an introduction to the exhibition by the curators Şeyda Çetin and Ebru Esra Satıcı, as well as an essay by Prof. Zeynep Çelik entitled “We, the city of Istanbul, we are beautiful.”

Contact Email

info@mesher.org

URL

https://www.mesher.org/en/

 

6. The Art of the Saljuqs in Iran and Anatolia

Robert Hillenbrand

First soft cover edition published in 1994

Mazda, 2024 with new, expanded introduction

http://www.mazdapublishers.com/book/art-of-the-saljuqs-in-iran-and-anatolia

 

7. Employment opportunity | Associate Director of the Center for Middle East Studies (CMES) at Brown University

Full information at:

https://brown.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff-careers-brown/job/Associate-Director_REQ196303

 

8. Research Associate (3 Years), Chair for the History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Your tasks: Research in the field of Ottoman history with a special focus on Southeast Europe and/or the Mediterranean regions and teaching. Your profile: Completed master’s degree in history and good knowledge of at least one Southeast European language.

Deadline for applications: 15 July 2024.

Information:

https://jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/c6f3d953370e1d75fa69f4f97d02ed8b798ed1950?ref=homepage

1.International Conference “Environmental History Challenging the Mediterranean(16th to 21^st Centuries)”, University Côte d’Azur, 27-28 March 2025

The aim of this conference is therefore to take a fresh look at the Mediterranean through the lens of environmental history. How does this field of history enable us to reconsider the spectrum of Mediterranean studies, from economic and maritime history to political history, via cultural and social history? How do Mediterranean societies adapt to external models? How are practices specific to certain Mediterranean regions integrated into other areas.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 September 2024.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20037157/cfp-environmental-history-challenging-mediterranean-16th-21st

 

2. The Edward Zakarian Awardof the Austrian Academy of Sciences recognizes outstanding doctoral dissertations in the fields of Armenology and Iranian Studies written and completed at a university in Europe.
Amount of the award: 4,000 euros

Dissertations may be submitted from all fields of Armenology and Iranian Studies, i.e., from areas of the humanities and cultural studies as well as political science, law, and sociology.

Applications are invited from highly qualified scholars who have completed their doctoral studies no more than 2 years prior to the submission date and have done so in a member state of the European Union or at a university in Armenia, the United Kingdom, Iran, Switzerland, or Turkey.

Deadline for applications: 15 July 2024

Information about the award and the application documents can be found here.

 

3. CFP – “Textile Ecologies”, Online Workshop – February 2025

Among the artifacts crafted by humankind, textiles have always held a uniquely interdependent relationship with the environment. Textiles derive from vegetal (hemp, raffia, ramie, cotton, or bark cloth), animal (wool, silk) and even mineral origins (as in the case of asbestos fibers). The production of textiles has depended upon access to and the processing of raw materials, while cloth manufacturing has reshaped entire landscapes from the transplantation of mulberry trees for sericulture to the mounds of murex shells discarded after the extraction of Tyrian purple dye. Textile patterns abound with imagery of flora and fauna, while fabrics have come to shape myths and metaphors of the natural world. Textiles have connected distant regions, but they have also been responsible for and complicit in the enslavement of human beings and the exploitation of agricultural, artisanal, and industrial labor. Textile production has led to the despoliation of landscapes and water resources, often in unequal ways that resulted from colonialism and environmental racism. Despite the recent concern with historical legacies of environmental harm, the field of ecological humanities has mostly neglected the textile realm. For this online workshop, we welcome contributions that consider the relationship between textiles and the environment from any time period and geographic region and seek scholars, artists, and cultural practitioners who grapple with the aesthetic dimensions, ecological conditions, and the past, present, and potential futures of cloth.

After a session on “Textile Ecologies” that we organized for the College Art Association (CAA) conference in 2019, we are now inviting proposals for an online workshop that is scheduled to take place February 5-7, 2025. We welcome submissions from artists, practitioners, conservators, art historians, historians of science, anthropologists, and scholars throughout the humanities and social sciences, as well as those analyzing textiles and ecology within the natural sciences. Please send a brief bio and an abstract of maximum 350 words for 20 min presentations by July 15, 2024 to Sylvia Houghteling and Vera-Simone Schulz at textile.ecologies@gmail.com

 

 

4. Baylor University – 2 Lecturers in History
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67315

The positions will begin in August 2025.

Complete applications must be submitted by 11pm Central Daylight Time on October 1, 2024.

 

1.Hajar Hussaini Wins Mo Habib Translation Prize in Persian Poetry

https://melc.washington.edu/news/2024/06/25/hajar-hussaini-wins-mo-habib-translation-prize-persian-poetry

 

2. Open Access: ‘The Legacies of Afghanistan’s Urban Cosmopolitanism: Sikhs, Muslims and Markets in London’

M Marsden

Afghanistan, 7.1, 2024

See the full issue here.

 

3. Journal of Cultural Analytics

Mohamed, Eid. “The Potential and Limits of Arabic Digital Humanities.” Journal of Cultural Analytics, vol. 9, no. 3, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.22148/001c.116818.

 

4. ASPS/JPS Graduate Student Prize

The Association for the Study of Persianate Societies announces the inauguration of a biennial Graduate Student Prize in order to encourage and reward scholarship about the broader Persianate world by promising graduate student members of ASPS. Interested applicants are invited to submit original and unpublished work to the Journal of Persianate Studies by 09 September 2024.

Based on creativity of topic and source materials, originality of analysis, and overall scholastic contributions, an ASPS prize committee will select a winner, who will be announced at the upcoming ASPS virtual graduate student conference (23 October 2024). The winning paper will be published in the Journal of Persianate Studies after any revision that may be required by the editorial office. In addition, the winner will be invited to present their paper at our biennial conference to be held in Tashkent in August 2025 and will receive funding from ASPS for some of the cost of attending that conference. Runners-up may also be considered for publication in JPS.

The Journal of Persianate Studies is a peer-reviewed publication of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies. The journal publishes articles on the culture and civilization of the geographical area where Persian has historically been the dominant language or a major cultural force, encompassing Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, as well as the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, and parts of the former Ottoman Empire.

Eligibility: graduate students who, at time of submission, are members of ASPS and have not received their doctorate at the time of submission, and have also submitted an abstract to the 2024 ASPS online graduate conference.

Application procedure: Paper submissions must fall within the purview of JPS and must be original and previously unpublished; they must also follow all regular JPS style and citation guidelines, found online at: https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/Author_Instructions/JPS.pdf. Prize applicants should submit their papers online through Editorial Manager (https://www.editorialmanager.com/JPSBRILL), selecting ‘Graduate Student Prize’ as the article type. By submitting a paper, applicants acknowledge intent to participate in the ASPS/JPS Graduate Student Prize and waive the right to withdraw their paper from publication, if selected.

 

5. Sugar and the Indian Ocean World

Trade and Consumption in the Eighteenth-Century Persian Gulf

N Daito

Bloomsbury, 2024

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sugar-and-the-indian-ocean-world-9781350399211/?utm_source=Bloomsbury+Academic+%26+Professional&utm_campaign=420da6bf7c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_02_20_02_45_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-ed0b2832dd-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=420da6bf7c&mc_eid=cf8726f727

 

 

6. BRISMES Student Prize

From Monday 1 July, we will be inviting submissions for the 2024 BRISMES Conference Student Paper Prize. Established in 2021, this prize aims to support BRISMES student members in the development of peer-reviewed work. If you registered as a student and are presenting a paper at the conference, please do consider submitting your paper and if you are chairing or attending a panel with student presenters, please encourage them to apply for this prize!
The prize winner will receive £300 and will be mentored through a review process at the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (BJMES) by a senior member of the BRISMES academic community. Such a mentor will be identified on the basis of the disciplinary field and topic of the awarded conference paper. In addition, the desk review process will be skipped and the journal will commit to sending the paper directly to external reviewers for the final decision about publication. The deadline for submissions will be 5pm on Monday, 22 July 2024.

https://www.brismes.ac.uk/awards/brismes-conference-student-paper-prize

 

7. The second and third issues of Volume 51 of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (BJMES) are now available online on the Taylor & Francis website.

Volume 51, Issue 2 is a special issue on Propagandas, cultural production, and negotiating ideology in Iran (Guest editors: Goulia Ghardashkhani, Olmo Gölz and Kevin L. Schwartz).

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cbjm20/51/2

 

8. Departmental Lecturer in Islamic Art and Architecture
University of Oxford
The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies aims to appoint a Departmental Lecturer (DL) in Islamic Art and Architecture, for twelve months to cover the teaching and certain other duties of a permanent post-holder during a period of research leave. (You must be able to start by 1st January 2025) This position is a great opportunity for a suitably qualified scholar to develop their career through  research, teaching and collaborative work in Islamic Art and Architecture at Oxford.
Deadline | 10 July 2024
More information

 

9. Lecturer (Teaching) in Political Theory
SOAS University of London
The Department of Politics and International Studies is pleased to invite applications for a Lectureship (Teaching) focused on Political Theory for the academic year 2024-2025 (0.5FTE). The Department is known for its combination of both academic and professional training in politics and international relations with a focus on the politics and international relations of the Global South (Asia, Africa, and the Middle East).
Deadline | 15 July 2024
More information

 

10. Learn Kurdish for free with the Institute for Middle East Studies at GW

The Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University invites you to participate in our Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in Sorani Kurdish. This free beginner online course, led by Dr. Benjamin Priest, is designed to build fundamental conversational skills, and provide an introduction to the Kurdish writing system, culture and history. Starting in August 2024, classes will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

More information

 

11. Reinterpreting History and Memory: Contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Conference | British Academy | 12-13 October 2024

This British Academy international conference will explore how history and memory is reflected through contemporary art in the MENA region, and art’s association with broader social and intellectual practices.

More information

 

12. Hudood: Rethinking Boundaries
Symposium | SOAS Middle East Institute | 12 July 2024

Hudood: Rethinking Boundaries introduces contemporary art from the Barjeel Art Foundation, with a focus on the overarching theme of ‘boundaries’ as both a subject and a tool for meaningfully accessing a diverse array of art from the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region.

More information

 

13. Foreign Policy Working Group (FPWG) Third Annual Conference
Conference | BISA FPWG | Gulf Research Centre Cambridge | 8 July 2024

The Foreign Policy Working Group’s mini-conference is titled ‘Critical Reflections on Contemporary Foreign Policy Analysis’ and is hosted by the Gulf Research Centre Cambridge. The conference is coordinated and led by FPWG’s co-convenors, Dr Marianna Charountaki (University of Lincoln) and Dr Sharad Joshi (Middlebury Institution of International Studies).

More information

 

14. “Sex in Translation” International Conference, 4th-5th July 2024, QMUL

The programme for an international conference on “Sex in Translation” on 4th-5th July 2024, hosted by Queen Mary University of London and supported by the BCLA, is available on the conference page here,* where those interested in attending can also register.

The conference is free, but exclusively in-person, and only registered attendees will be admitted onto campus.

*If the link doesn’t work, please copy and paste the following: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sex-in-translation-tickets-925804314627?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

 

 

15. Hajj Across Empires: Pilgrimage and Political Culture after the Mughals, 1739–1857

R Choudhury

Cambridge, 2024

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hajj-across-empires/8D3901BC94DD6D26BB34B7DFC8E5FDF0

 

 

16. Hybrid event: July 9-10 – International Workshop “Judaeo-Iranian Intellectual Landscapes and Beyond”

International Workshop “Judaeo-Iranian Intellectual Landscapes and Beyond: Cultural History of Jewish Communities Across the Centuries”.

The Workshop will take place on July 9-10, 2024, at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, both in person and via Zoom.

To join, please register for either in person or online attendance via the link in the attached announcement or here: https://iias.huji.ac.il/RG_Conference_Jud%C3%A6o-Iranian_Registration

Tuesday, July 9

10:30 | Gathering
10:45 | Greetings
Prof. Yitzhak Hen, Director, IIAS
Dr. Julia Rubanovich (Hebrew University and IIAS) Prof. Ludwig Paul (University of Hamburg and IIAS)

Session I | 11:00-12:30

Chair: Dennis Halft (University of Trier and IIAS) Shai Secunda (Bard College)

One Who Sold his Slave to a Frahang (b. Gittin 44a) Simcha Gross (University of Pennsylvania and IIAS)

Shapur’s Serpent: The Shifting Cultural Contexts of a Rabbinic Tale

Session II | 13:45 – 16:00

Chair: Donna Shalev (Hebrew University) Ali B. Langroudi (University of Trier)

Judæo-Persian Torah Scribes: An Introduction

*Zoom

Dennis Halft (University of Trier and IIAS)
Persian Bible Translations Leaving the “Literary Ghetto” (W. Fischel) of Judæo-Persian

Jason Sion Mokhtarian (Cornell University) *Zoom
Judæo-Persian Translations of the Bible in the Vecchietti Collection at the Bibliothèque nationale de France

Wednesday, July 10

Session III | 9:30 – 11:00

Chair: Simcha Gross (University of Pennsylvania and IIAS) Avigail Manekin-Bamberger (Hebrew University)

Demons and Jewish Society in Sasanian Babylonia

Yakir Paz (Hebrew University) and Ofir Haim (Mandel Scholion Research Center, Hebrew University)

The Reception of Midrashic Literature among Iranian Jews in the First Centuries of Islam

Coffee

Session IV | 11:15 – 12:45

Chair: Vera B. Moreen (Independent Scholar and IIAS)

Julia Rubanovich (Hebrew University and IIAS)
The Tale of Rebecca and the Servant of Abraham in Shāhīn’s Epic Rendition of the Book of Genesis

Ludwig Paul (University of Hamburg and IIAS)
Understanding the Sefer ha-Melitza, a Hebrew-Persian Dictionary of the 14th Century, in its Various Contexts

Lunch

Session V | 14:00 – 16:15

Chair: Ofir Haim (Mandel Scholion Research Center, Hebrew University) David Gilinsky (University of Hamburg) *Zoom

Manuscripts of Shāhīn’s Mūsā-nāma and their Reception

Oded Zinger (Hebrew University)
Schmoozing Outside of Court? Informal Relations between Jews and Qadis in Medieval Egypt

Vera B. Moreen (Independent Scholar and IIAS)
The Muslim and Sufi Vocabulary of Darvīsh-i Sabzavārī (16th century)

Coffee

Session VI | 16:30 – 18:00

Chair: David Yeroushalmi (Tel Aviv University)

Ariane Sadjed (Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences) The Everyday Lives of Judæo-Persian: Locality and Interconnection between Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia

Shir Kochavi (Bar-Ilan University) Collecting Memories of North African Jewish Life

Concluding Remarks

 

17. Conference “First European Round Table on Modern Persian Literature”, Iranian Studies, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 4-7 July 2024

The First European Round Table on Modern Persian Literature is jointly organised by the Iranian Studies Department in Bamberg and CERMOM/INALCO in Paris. This is also the 2024 Mid-Term Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europaea. We aim to address the study and reception of modern and contemporary Persian literature across all genres from a European perspective.

Information and program: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/iranistik/aktuelles/artikel/first-european-round-table-of-modern-persian-literature/

1.International Conference “Law, Empire, and Gender in Muslim Societies”, University of Amsterdam, 19-20 December 2024

Academics who work in the field of legal history, gender history and/or social history (or a combination of these) are invited to share their research on the laws that were introduced in the Muslim territories during (French, Dutch, British, Russian, …) colonial rule that touch upon gender. Proposals may concern various periods and topics, ranging from property law and land tenure to criminal law and family law.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 July 2024. Information: https://ash.uva.nl/content/news/2024/06/call-for-papers-international-conference-on-law-empire-and-gender-in-muslim-societies.html?origin=KOq8zc9JRa%2BM7NabIsyXHg

 

2. Workshop “Knowledge in the Islamic Court: Evidence, Proof, Procedure Symposium”,

Netherlands Institute Morocco (NIMAR), Rabat, 14-15 May 2025

Themes: How do qadis evaluate various evidentiary forms, and to what extent does this relate to discursive Islamic legal traditions? How are evidentiary forms produced and made probative before the qadi? What is the role of sensory perception? Etc. – Co-organizers: Dr. Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif (University of Bergen) and Dr. Ari Schriber (Utrecht University).

Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2024.

Information: https://forms.gle/jk6unUFnTtEeVCNn8

 

3. Assistant Professor of Modern (post-1750) Social and/or Political History of the Middle East and North Africa, Indiana University, Bloomington

Postdoctoral candidates must be able to train graduate students and advanced undergraduates in the critical use of Arabic-language historical and cultural sources, including but not limited to oral histories, archival sources, and material culture; as well as in Arabic-language historiography. Additional professional competence in one or more modern Middle Eastern languages other than Arabic is also highly desirable, but not required.

Deadline for applications: 30 September 2024.

Information: https://indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/24648

 

4. 2025 Sir William Luce fellowship: call for applications

This residential fellowship (Apr-June 2025) carries a grant, accommodation and meals, and is a valuable research and publication opportunity for post-doctoral scholars, diplomats, politicians, or business executives, working on regional issues that particularly affect the Sudans, Gulf States, Yemen or Iran: more details are provided in the notice. The application deadline is Tuesday 1 October 2024.

For more information:

https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/school-government-international-affairs/research/fellowships/william-luce-fellowship/

The Sir William Luce Papers series can be found at:

(https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/school-government-international-affairs/research/fellowships/william-luce-fellowship/visiting-fellows-and-sir-william-luce-papers/)

 

5. Summer 2024 funding: Laura Bassi Scholarship

The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. The scholarships are open to every discipline and the next round of funding will be awarded in Summer 2024:

Summer 2024
Application deadline: 24 July 2024
Results: 10 August 2024

All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV through the application portal by the relevant deadline. Further details, including previous winners, and the application portal can be found at: https://editing.press/bassi

 

6. Scholarship to learn Persian in Yerevan with ASPIRANTUM – Winter school 2024

Deadline: August 5, 2024

For more details, please visit: https://aspirantum.com/scholarships/scholarships-for-persian-language-courses-from-armacad

You can see the profiles of our previous scholarship recipients here: https://www.instagram.com/aspirantumcom/

Students pursuing Undergraduate (BA), graduate (MA), and postgraduate (Ph.D.) programs, as well as researchers in Iranian Studies and related fields who are enrolled in universities or academic institutions in the countries specified below, can apply for the ARMACAD scholarship. The ideal candidates will be 19 – 39 years old by the program’s start.
This scholarship is only available to citizens of the following countries.
Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America.

For more details, please visit: https://aspirantum.com/scholarships/scholarships-for-persian-language-courses-from-armacad

 

7. The Khalili Collection ‘The Tale and the Image’ in three volumes

Volume One. History and epic paintings from Iran and Turkey (2022) and The Tale and the Image Volume Two. Illustrated manuscripts and album paintings from Iran and Turkey (2024).

Volume One. History and epic paintings from Iran and Turkey

Eleanor Sims with contributions by Manijeh Bayani and Tim Stanley

This volume is devoted to the Collection’s illustrated manuscripts and detached folios with historical and heroic epic subjects. Produced in Iran, India and Turkey, they date from the early 14th to the 20th centuries; many are of major artistic importance. A number of folios in the Collection come from manuscripts of Firdawsi’s Shāhnāmah. Among them are a single folio from the Ilkhanid ‘Great Mongol’ Shāhnāmah and 10 from the Shāhnāmah executed for Shah Tahmasp. Complete illustrated manuscripts of Firdawsi’s epic include a splendid copy, with 62 paintings, dated AH 1011 (AD 1602). The Collection also has illustrated folios from several dispersed but significant works of universal and dynastic history, including two from the earliest surviving illustrated copy of the Ẓafarnāmah of Sharaf al-Din Yazdi. One especially important painting is a later 15th-century vision of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions in the company of Moses and the Virgin and Child. The entries on 93 manuscripts and detached folios are accompanied by essays, including one reconstructing the Safavid Tārīkh-i Jahān-gushā-yi Khāqān-i Ṣāḥib-Qirān and its illustrations; on early copies of the Shāhnāmah; on Shāhnāmahs illustrated by Mu‛in Musavvir; and on two complete copies once in the Mughal royal library.

422 pages; fully illustrated in colour; section on inscriptions with translations; hardback with dust jacket (slipcased); 36 x 26cm; 2022; ISBN 978-1-874780-80-9

Volume Two. Illustrated manuscripts and album paintings from Iran and Turkey

Volume Two. Part One

J.M. Rogers with contributions by Manijeh Bayani and Emily Shovelton

Volume Two. Part Two

J.M. Rogers with contributions by Manijeh Bayan, Emily Shovelton, Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam and Tim Stanley

This volume, which is in two parts, is mainly devoted to the Collection’s illustrated manuscripts and detached folios with painted illustrations – primarily romantic poetry and anthologies – and single page compositions – mostly portraiture and genre painting – from Iran and Turkey, dating from the 14th to the mid-19th centuries. Many items are of major artistic importance.

Illustrated Persian manuscripts include several copies of the Khamsah of Nizami and a Divan of Hafiz dated AH 975 (AD 1567–8) with superbly illuminated margins and two exquisite paintings, one by Muhammadi and the other by ‘Abdallah al-Mudhahhib al-Shirazi.

The large group of detached folios from Iran includes several of the late 15th century in the style of Muhammad Siyah Qalam (otherwise best represented in albums in the Topkapı Palace Library). Particularly strong in drawings from 17th-century Isfahan, it includes works by its most famous painters, Riza-yi ‘Abbasi, Muhammad Qasim, Mu’in Musavvir, and the eclectic artists Muhammad Zaman, ‘Ali Quli Jubbah-dar and Shaykh ‘Abbasi.

Ottoman paintings include two folios from the Siyer-i Nebi (‘Life of the Prophet’) made for Sultan Murad III, and an exquisite 16th-century drawing of a dragon in foliage in the style of Süleyman the Magnificent’s court painter, Shah Quli.

Set two parts; 583 pages plus bibliography and index (the set); fully illustrated in colour, section on documentary inscriptions with translations; hardback with dust jackets (slipcased); 36 × 26 cm; ISBN: 978-1-874780-81-6

Available to purchase here:

https://www.khalilipublications.com/product/the-tale-and-the-image-volume-one-history-and-epic-paintings-from-iran-and-turkey/

https://www.khalilipublications.com/product/the-tale-and-the-image-volume-two-illustrated-manuscripts-and-album-paintings-from-iran-and-turkey/

For more information on Khalili Publications:

https://www.khalilicollections.org/publications/

 

8. Omar T. Nasr and Tim Corbett, PaRDeS: Diversifying Modern Austrian History: Exploring Parallels and Intersections between Jewish and Muslim Histories in Austria, in: Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies in Germany 29  (2023): 137-148

Open access here:

https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/62207

 

9. Iran through maps 20. The Lar Valley (Central Alborz)

Les nomades de la vallée du Lâr (Alborz central)
The Nomads of Lâr (Central Alborz)
عشایر کوچ نشین لار (البرز مرکزی)

 Depuis les Seljoukides jusqu’en 1978, la vallée du Lâr, fut la capitale (d’été) de l’Iran.
From the Saljuks until 1357, the Lâr valley was the (summer) capital of Iran.
از سلجوقیان تا سال ١٣٥٧ دره لار پایتخت (تابستانی) ایران بود.

Source et analyse en Français : Bernard Hourcade. La vallée du Lâr (Alborz central), capitale de la Perse/ Iran (1046-1978). CNRS, CeRMI, 2019. (Power point, d’une conférence) https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04605445

 Source and summary in English : Bernard Hourcade. The Lâr valley (central Alborz), capital of Persia/Iran (1046-1978). CNRS, CeRMI, 2019. (Pdf of the Power Point of a lecture) La vallée du Lâr (Alborz central), capitale de la Perse/ Iran (1046-1979)
منبع :  دره لار (البرز مرکزی)، پایتخت ایران (١٣٥٧ ٤٢٥.( CNRS،  CerMI2019

.(پاور پوینت، یک سخنرانی(.

https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04605445

IRANCARTO.CNRS.FR      CARTORIENT.CNRS.FR
CeRMI Centre de Recherche sur le Monde iranien. https://cermi.cnrs.fr

1.Exhibition – Beyond Words: Calligraphy from the World of Islam, The David Collection, Copenhagen, Denmark

Explore the history of calligraphy and calligraphy as an artform in the exhibition Beyond Words: Calligraphy from the World of Islam at The David Collection in Copenhagen, Denmark. The title is meant literally because the words and the beautiful letters may assume several different meanings. 

Calligraphy means the art of writing beautifully. Over time, writing has been developed and refined to a point where it has become an art form in its own right. Calligraphy is frequently used in almost every kind of media within the Islamic world – and hence has become a unique testimony to Islamic culture. The most skilled calligraphers have gone on to become famous artists, and several have formed schools within their respective fields.

After the rise of Islam in the seventh century and its initial spread, the Arabic script took on a very special significance becoming a unifying factor – an identity marker – across geography and ethnicity. The use of imagery of living beings was not practiced in religious contexts – even in early Islam – and therefore beautifully conducted handwriting took on a notable role in Islamic culture.

In the Islamic world, inscriptions appear in far more contexts than in most other cultures. We see calligraphy on everything from parchment and paper to everyday objects and buildings. The calligraphic quotations also range from poetic extracts written by famous poets to passages honouring the rulers or owners of the commissioned works as well as texts about the artists themselves. Very often, however, we find Koranic quotations. The Koran is written in Arabic, and therefore the writing alone – when beautifully performed – is considered a tribute to God.

The exhibition presents 128 individual works, all of which exemplify the importance and role of calligraphy. The audience is introduced to different types of writing and the different usages from official documents to metal work, ceramics, textiles and architecture.

The exhibition design was created in collaboration with the design studio Mentze Ottenstein.

Alongside the exhibition, a publication, sharing the same title as the exhibition, will be published and available in both Danish and English at the museum shop.

Beyond Words: Calligraphy from the World of Islam is open to the public from 24 May until the 26 January 2025.

Here you can find one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the Western world, a fine selection of European eighteenth-century art and a small but exquisite representation of modern painting and sculpture.

For more information: www.davidmus.dk

 

 

2. The New York Public Library is pleased to announce its first Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Fellowship to support advanced research on Library’s holdings of materials from the Arab world, Africa, Turkey, Iran, South Asia, Central Asia, and their diasporas in the United States.

Fellowships are open to Ph.D. candidates, post-doctoral scholars, and independent researchers with projects that would significantly benefit from research drawing on collections accessible at The New York Public Library. Projects requiring access to original materials including manuscripts, archives, books, photographs, prints, maps, newspapers, and journals will be given preference, but all worthy projects will be considered. Applicants studying the humanities as well as those working in the visual, auditory/performing, and literary arts are welcome to apply.

The Fellowship Program will support one fellow annually for three months with a stipend of $25,000. The annual fellow will have full access to the Library’s collections and staff, as well as a dedicated place to work in the Vartan Gregorian Center for Research in the Humanities at NYPL’s flagship building in Midtown Manhattan.
The Library will also explore how to support international scholars with visa requirements.

Deadline for application is August 5, 2024 and recipients will be announced in November, 2024.
To apply, please complete the electronic form in the NYPL Fellowship Portal and upload an updated C.V., a project proposal of no more than five pages, and two professional letters of recommendation.

For assistance with the application process, email fellowships@nypl.org. Library staff cannot provide feedback on individual applications or project proposals (see below). Applicants are encouraged to contact the Curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Dr. Hiba Abid (hibaabid@nypl.org) with any questions regarding collections or additional holdings.

Read the full announcement on The New York Public Library’s website.

Key Dates:
Applications open: May 20, 2024
Application deadline: August 5, 2024
Recommendation letters due: August 12, 2024
Applicant notification: November 2024
Award period: January 2, 2025 – June 30, 2025
Project Proposal:
Successful project proposals will include a thorough explanation of how in-person access to collections accessible at The New York Public Library is essential to the progress and completion of the research project. Proposals should also include:
Abstract of the project’s major themes, questions, and arguments
Significance of the project
Specific Library collections and holdings to be consulted during the fellowship
Project plan, including a timeline of your work with the Library’s collections during the fellowship term and a description of the proposed methodological approach
Expected project outcomes
Suggested topic for public presentation
Desired dates of residence
Contact Information

Hiba Abid | The New York Public Library
Curator for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
The New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
476 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
Tel: (212) 930-9297 / Email: hibaabid@nypl.org

NYPL Fellowships | The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
476 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
Email: fellowships@nypl.org

Contact Email

hibaabid@nypl.org

URL

https://www.nypl.org/fellowships/middle-eastern-islamic-studies#:~:text=The%20N…

 

3. CFP – Call for Submissions for Pedagogy Files in Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā

Is there a primary source from the medieval Middle East that you particularly enjoy teaching? If so, we encourage you to submit a “pedagogy file” to Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā. Our new pedagogy section, launched in 2023 with a file entitled “Textiles across Medieval Eurasia,” is focused on primary sources—images, objects, buildings, poems, inscriptions, or prose passages—contextualized for the undergraduate classroom. Submissions should briefly introduce the primary source, provide basic background and explanatory notes in the form of bullet points, and suggest discussion questions or overall takeaways. Images and short bibliographies are encouraged. Submissions should be between 1000 and 4000 words and will be subject to editorial, but not peer, review. For the 2024 issue, pedagogy files should be received by September 1.

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā is the only open-access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the medieval Middle East, expansively defined to include all geographies with prominent Muslim political, religious, or social presences between the rough parameters of 500-1500 CE. The open-access publication of al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā is made possible by Middle East Medievalists (MEM), an international, non-profit association of scholars. To support the journal, please consider joining MEM or renewing your MEMbership today!

 

4. Publication – Collecting Asian Art: Cultural Politics and Transregional Networks in Twentieth-Century Central Europe

Edited by Markéta Hánová, Yuka Kadoi, and Simone Wille

Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2024

272 pp., 31 pls.,

ISBN: 978 94 6270 378 0

(Europe) https://lup.be/book/collecting-asian-art/

(US) https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9789462703780/collecting-asian-art/

Open Access ebook available for downloading:

https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/87367

 

5. The Islamic College’s Monthly Talk: What’s “Islamic” about Islamic Art?

A Talk by Professor Stephennie Mulder

Thursday 27 June 2024
6.00 P.M. – 7.30 P.M. (LONDON TIME)
on Zoom
Meeting ID: 942 5652 0577 Passcode: 328975

https://islamic-college.ac.uk/event-registration/

 

6. Hybrid talk: “Time for Atoms”

5 pm (London time), Wednesday 26 June as a session of the Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series organised by the Institute of Ismaili Studies.

By Dr David Bennett, with Professor Peter Adamson as discussant.

To join please register for either online or in person attendance at https://www.iis.ac.uk/events/time-for-atoms/

In turbulent times, 9th-century practitioners of kalām devised a cosmology of jawāhir (discrete, primary entities) and accidents (natural properties) that accounted for all of God’s creation.  Influences from all directions infused this physical theory with a syncretic, ever-shifting vibe; for generations, the struggle to articulate the workings of the natural world evolved. A cosmology suited to explain divine creation thrashed against conceptions of psychology and time, however; what worked in an immovable field of concrete particulars still had to account for the vagaries of experience and spiritual imperatives.

In this discussion, we will examine three key problems that illustrate kalām reckoning with developments in theories of time and causality:

• volition and the temporal process of thought;
• the so-called “ceasing instant” problem (when did “now” end?);
• and the notorious Muʿtazilite theory of secondary causality (the efficacy of intermediate, generated states).

By focusing on the adaptation of the jawāhir model to these challenges, we can better appreciate the viability of kalām and demonstrate the genius of early Islamic thought.

 

7. ONLINE Webinar: ‘The New Persian Romance in a Global Middle Ages’

with Cameron Cross

British Institute of Persian Studies, 17 July 2024, 5PM (UK time).

On Zoom.
In the early tenth century CE, a remarkable literary event took place, in which well-known stories of lovers were recast by court-affiliated poets as independent versified works in the emergent New Persian language.

With a focus on the remarkable story of Vis & Ramin, this talk seeks to situate that event in the broader context of the entangled literary histories of southwestern Afro-Eurasia from late antiquity to the medieval period, showing how the Persian corpus plays a crucial role in the history of romance writing at large.

Register here.

 

 

 

8. The Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Boğaziçi University invites applications for a full-time position at the rank of Assistant Professor in modern Turkish literature.

The application deadline is 1 August 2024.

Full-time Assistant Professor position in modern Turkish literature/Yeni Türk edebiyatı

alanında Dr. Öğretim Üyesi Pozisyonu

The Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey

invites applications for a full-time position at the rank of Assistant Professor in modern

Turkish literature. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in modern Turkish literature or a related field

with a focus on modern Turkish literature and contemporary literary theory. Applicants should

possess native or near-native proficiency in Turkish and English. They will demonstrate

evidence of advanced teaching and research at an international level and an ability to teach

courses on modern Turkish literature (poetry, fiction, and theatre), comparative literature,

and literary theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, applicants

should have the necessary skills to supervise M.A. and Ph.D. theses and lead national and

international research projects. The department’s teaching load for Assistant Professors is

generally two to three undergraduate and/or graduate courses per semester. Promising

young scholars who have recently completed or are about to finish their doctoral degrees are

especially encouraged to apply. Successful applicants will be required to teach in both

English and Turkish.

Applicants should upload their CV, at least one article published in an AHCI, SSCI, or

SCOPUS-indexed journal and a book chapter in a volume published by an internationally

acclaimed publisher, a sample syllabus, and a statement of research interests to

https://academicjobapplications.bogazici.edu.tr/. Three letters of recommendation should

also be sent to halim@bogazici.edu .tr directly by the referees. The application deadline is 1

August 2024.

Research interests:

modern Turkish literature, comparative literature, literary theory

Department of Turkish Language and Literature: https://turkishliterature.bogazici.edu.tr/en

Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey: https://bogazici.edu.tr/en-US/Index

Adayların yeni Türk edebiyatı, karşılaştırmalı edebiyat veya benzeri bir alanda doktora

derecesine sahip olmaları, doktora ve araştırma alanlarının odağında yeni Türk edebiyatı ve

çağdaş edebiyat kuramlarının yer alması gerekmektedir. Başvuracak adayların Türkçe ve

İngilizce olarak ders vermeleri, eğitim ve öğretim deneyimine sahip olmaları, öğretim ve

araştırma faaliyetlerinde ileri düzeyde ve uluslararası çalışmalar yapmış olduklarını

kanıtlamaları beklenmektedir. Adayların ayrıca yeni Türk edebiyatı (şiir, kurmaca, tiyatro),

karşılaştırmalı edebiyat ve edebiyat kuramları alanlarında lisans ve lisansüstü ders

verebilecek, yüksek lisans ve doktora tezi danışmanlığı yapabilecek, ulusal ve uluslararası

araştırma projeleri yürütebilecek yetkinlikte olmaları gerekir. Bölümümüzde doktor öğretim

üyelerinin bir eğitim-öğretim yılında dönem başına genellikle iki-üç lisans ve/veya lisansüstü

ders yükü vardır. Doktorasını yeni bitirmiş veya bitirmek üzere olan genç akademisyen

adaylarının başvurusu özellikle teşvik edilmektedir.

Adayların özgeçmişleri, en az bir AHCI/SSCI/SCOPUS’ta taranan uluslararası dergilerde

yayımlanmış özgün makale ve saygın uluslararası yayınevleri tarafından yayımlanan kitap

bölümü, bir ders izlencesi (syllabus) örneği, araştırma ve eğitim alanlarındaki hedeflerini

içeren bir amaç sunum mektubu ile https://academicjobapplications.bogazici.edu.tr/ adresine

başvurmaları gerekmektedir. Üç adet referans mektubunun referansı yazan kişiler tarafından

halim@bogazici.edu.tr gönderilmesi beklenmektedir. Başvuru için son tarih 1 August

2024’tür.

Araştırma alanları: yeni Türk edebiyatı, karşılaştırmalı edebiyat, edebiyat kuramları

Boğaziçi Üniversitesi: https://www.bogazici.edu.tr/

Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü: https://turkishliterature.bogazici.edu.tr/tr

 

9. Open Access – ‘Archiving Resistance: A Conversation with Omar Sheikhmous’

F Ghaderi,

Kurdish Studies Journal

Brill, 2024

Kurdish scholars have lamented the loss of a sizeable portion of Kurdish manuscripts and documents, particularly in the twentieth century. Stories of loss and destruction of Kurdish collections and archives are prevalent in Kurdish historiographical and biographical accounts, as well as in literature. Besides tragic accounts of loss, however, there are untold stories of determination to uncover, collect, and preserve Kurdish records. Over recent decades, significant archival initiatives have been founded in Kurdistan and in the diaspora, promising a new era of Kurdish knowledge production, and driving new ways of thinking about Kurds and Kurdistan. Archives, fonds, and collections are found in Kurdistan and the diaspora and testify to the vision and dedication of unsung guardians of a nation’s heritage and memory. One of the most significant Kurdish private archives in Europe is the Omar Sheikhmous Archive hosted at the University of Exeter (EUL MS 403), which records his lifetime’s involvement in Kurdish political and academic activities. This conversation covers his involvement with and contributions to Kurdish political and academic activities, his archive, challenges of archiving resistance movements, and the intersection of activism and archival practice.

https://brill.com/view/journals/ksj/2/1/article-p91_5.xml

 

10. Researcher for the “Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch Project”, Remote Anywhere in the USA

The Research Associate is a critical position focused on tracking and analyzing the networks, activities, and financing of radical Islamist organizations and individuals. Qualification: Knowledge of open-source research tools and techniques; experience parsing and analyzing large datasets; some knowledge of Python or JavaScript; proficiency in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, or Urdu; Legal work experience, including familiarity with drafting FOIA requests.

Deadline for applications: 1 July 2024. Information:

https://us12.campaign-archive.com/?e=1a855d214f&u=b7aa7eddb0f2bb74bfa4f6cb5&id=f8f165497b