Categories : Academic items
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Daiber Collection II, MSS 1–50, has now been made available on “The Daiber Collection Beta Database “
The Daiber Collection Beta Database Project, “Team Daiber,” is pleased to announce that the fourth installment of images and metadata, covering Daiber Collection II, MSS 1–50, has now been made available online. The project aims to develop a renewed database of the Daiber Collection, one of the largest collections of manuscripts in Arabic script in East Asia held by the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo.
For further details, please visit: https://u-parl.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/notice20260902
2. Zahra Institute’s 2026 Fall Speaker Series
Lords of the Mountains: Kurds and Kurdistan in English Writing
Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Time: 12 PM CT / 1 PM ET
Registration link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/D0zY9DldT6eo45TkPns_lw#
3. University of Arizona’s remote Persian language courses, offered online via Zoom. These courses are open to visiting and non-degree seeking students from other universities as well, so they may be a great option for any of your students who still need to fulfill a foreign language requirement, regardless of their home institution.
Course details:
– Elementary Persian (PRS 101/102) – available in-person and online
– Intermediate Persian (PRS 401/402) – available in-person and online
– Advanced Persian (PRS 403/404) and 4th Year Persian (PRS 407/408) – in-person only (500-level graduate sections also available)
Who can enroll:
– University of Arizona Main Campus students (remote students only)
– Visiting and non-degree seeking students from other universities (upon admittance to Main Campus as a non-degree seeking student)
The program offers small class sizes, individual consultation, and instruction from experienced, published faculty, with levels available from beginner through superior proficiency.
For any questions, students can reach out directly to oconklin@arizona.edu.
4. Le CeRMI a le plaisir de vous convier, le jeudi 10 septembre, à la première édition du colloque « PhLIrT : Philologia Linguisticaque Iranica et Turcica » à la Maison de la recherche de l’INaLCO (2 rue de Lille, 75006 Paris, dans l’auditorium Georges Dumézil).
Cette première édition du colloque est organisée, avec le concours du CeRMI et de l’INaLCO. Le colloque aurait vocation à se tenir au mieux tous les deux ans, et à donner lieu à une publication de ses actes dans le courant de l’année suivant sa tenue.
Veuillez trouver le programme ci-joint et sur le site web du CeRMI : https://cermi.cnrs.fr/phlirt-philologia-linguisticaque-iranica-et-turcica/.
L’entrée est libre dans la limite des places disponibles.
Dans le cas où vous souhaiteriez suivre le colloque « PhLIrT : Philologia Linguisticaque Iranica et Turcica » à distance, les informations sur le lien Zoom se trouvent sur cette adresse : https://www.inalco.fr/evenements/phlirt-philologia-linguisticaque-iranica-et-turcica-premiere-edition
Les organisateurs de l’édition 2026
Sébastien Gréal (CeRMI – INaLCO) et Dorian Pastor (Université de Lausanne)
——————————————————–
CeRMI – CNRS UMR 8041
Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien
Campus CNRS Ile-de-France Villejuif
7, rue Guy Môquet – 94800 Villejuif – FRANCE
cermi@cnrs.fr – https://www.cermi.cnrs.fr
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5. Richard M. Eaton Recipient of the 25th Levi Della Vida Award
Richard M. Eaton, a well-known and respected social-cultural historian of Islam and premodern India (1000—1800), has been awarded the 25th Giorgio Levi Della Award in Islamic Studies by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. As part of the award, CNES will host a scholarly conference on a theme selected by Eaton, at which he will deliver a formal lecture. The conference, “Sufis in Premodern Persianate Societies and Politics,” will be held at UCLA on November 5, 2026. UCLA historians and CNES Faculty Affiliates Nile Green and Choon Hwee Koh are organizing the event, with the proceedings to be published as a new volume in the Giorgio Levi Della Vida Series in Islamic Studies. Read more here.
6. The recording for the recent Library of Congress event, “From South Asia to the American South: A Discussion about the History and Trade of Seersucker”, is now available on the Library of Congress website and YouTube page:From South Asia to the American South: A Discussion about the History and Trade of Seersucker. Please feel free to share this link with anyone who might be interested.
Contact Information
Charlotte Giles, PhD
South Asia Specialist, Asian Division
Library of Congress
Contact Email
URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVLbutMA2-o
7. A new anthology ‘Erwerbungen und Provenienzen Islamischer Kunst zwischen 1933 und 1945 (Acquisitions and Provenance of Islamic Art between 1933 and 1945)’ edited by Franziska Bloch and Miriam Kühn brings together 15 essays examining current research into the acquisition and provenance of Islamic art during the Nazi era.
A central focus is the fate of Jewish collectors and their collections, including Felix Ganz, Alfred Cassirer and Dr. Max Ginsberg. Their stories are closely connected to the holdings of the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin and demonstrate how persecution, forced sales, displacement and the dispersal of collections also shaped museum collections.
The volume also examines acquisitions by museums and libraries, including the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and explores approaches to making provenance research visible and accessible through museums.
Provenance research is essential to understanding an object’s biography: who owned it, how it changed hands, and under what circumstances it entered a collection. Where gaps remain, research can nevertheless reveal networks, historical contexts and responsibilities that are crucial to the way museums understand and care for their collections today. By bringing together current research and methodological perspectives, it provides a basis for further investigation into the histories of Islamic art collections in Germany.
The publication is mainly in German. Published by arthistoricum.net in 2026 and is available open access online.
Access the publication: https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1638
Contact Information
Museum für Islamische Kunst (im Pergamonmuseum)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 6
D-10117 Berlin
Contact Email
URL
https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1638
8. Applications are now open for the 2026 Canadian Friends of Sufi Arts, Culture, and Knowledge™ (CFSACK®) Research Awards.
The CFSACK Research Awards support research and scholarly or creative projects that advance the study and understanding of Sufi arts, culture, and knowledge. With the support of the American Friends of Sufi Arts, Culture, and Knowledge (AFSACK), the program is open to eligible applicants affiliated with institutions in both Canada and the United States.
The Research Awards welcome proposals across a broad range of disciplines and areas of practice. Eligible fields include, but are not limited to, art and art history, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, classics, cultural studies, curatorial practice, ethnomusicology, fine arts, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, sociology, and related interdisciplinary fields.
Projects may involve fieldwork, archival or collections-based research, community-engaged research, creative or curatorial work, conference participation or organization, and the development and dissemination of research outputs.
Award Amounts
- Undergraduate and master’s students: up to CAD 2,000
- Doctoral students/candidates and postdoctoral fellows: up to CAD 5,000
Eligibility
Applicants must be one of the following:
- Undergraduate students
- Master’s students
- Doctoral students/candidates
- Postdoctoral fellows
Applicants must be enrolled at or formally affiliated with an eligible Canadian or U.S. post-secondary educational, research, or cultural institution, including a university, college, research institute, museum, or archive.
Citizenship is not an eligibility requirement.
Research Access Opportunity
Award recipients may, upon request and subject to approval, be granted funded research access to the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO™ in Chatou, France. Depending on the nature of the project and availability, this may include consultation with members of the Museum’s curatorial or research teams and access to relevant collections or research resources.
Important Dates
- Applications Open: September 4, 2026
- Application Deadline: October 25, 2026 at 23:59 PDT
- Notification of Results: Mid-December 2026
Full program guidelines, eligibility requirements, FAQs, and the online application portal are available at:
https://www.cfsack.org/research-awards
Contact Information
Nooshin Esmaeili, Chair, CFSACK Research Awards Committee
Shahed Ejadi, Board of Directors, CFSACK
Contact Email
URL
https://www.cfsack.org/research-awards
9. The first lecture in the Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series for the fall 2026 semester will take place on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 12:00 New York / 17:00 London / 19:00 Istanbul.
Rachel Winter (MSU Broad Art Museum) and sculptor and installation artist Armita Raafat will present “History in Motion: A Conversation between Armita Raafat and Rachel Winter about Contemporary Art and Islamicate Visual Cultures.”
To attend, please register in advance here:
https://wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/register/LvXw8DkPQxWbxiXkWNK5Rw
Upon registration, you’ll receive the link to access the lecture.
As always, you can find a full schedule of upcoming talks and register for our list-serv on our website at viahss.org. Although not every talk is recorded, we also have recordings of several recent talks available on the VIAHSS Vimeo page at vimeo.com/viahss. Lastly, you can follow us on Instagram at @theviahss to stay up to date on upcoming events!
Contact Information
Drs. Alexander Brey, Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, and Rachel Winter
Contact Email
URL
10. HYBRID Colloque “PhLIrT : Philologia Linguisticaque Iranica et Turcica – Première edition”, inalco, Paris, 10 septembre 2026, 9h00 – 19h00 CET
Information, program et inscription : https://tinyurl.com/2we5r3ae
11. Workshop: “Conceptual History and Translation – Between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin, 10-11 September 2026
This workshop brings together scholars and translators working between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East to examine, through concrete case studies, how key concepts – from critique and secular-ism to ʿasabiyya, boko and civil society – are made and unmade as they cross languages such as Arabic, French, English, German, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Kashmiri, Hausa and Kiswahili.
Information and program: https://tinyurl.com/bdcn4bep
12. Conference “The Concept of Health and the Concept of Illness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”, BaFiD, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen, 23-25 September 2026
Themes: – The Concept of Health in Judaism: Prof. Dr. Catherine Hezser, SOAS University of London. – The Concept of Health in Christianity: Prof. Dr. Isolde Karle, Ruhr-Universität Bochum. – The Concept of Health in Islam: Prof. Dr. Ali Ayten, Marmara Üniversitesi. – The Concept of Illness in Judaism: Prof. Dr. Laura Zoloth, University of Chicago. – The Concept of Illness in Christianity: Prof. Dr. Ashley Moyse, Baylor University (USA). – The Concept of Illness in Islam: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Sayilgan, Georgetown University.
Program and registration: https://tinyurl.com/2kj6emh3
13. HYBRID Lecture Series “Political Order beyond Westphalian Statehood: Perspectives from Asia and Africa”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin, 24 September 2026 – 25 Feb-ruary 2027
Themes: – The Impish Revolutionary: Mischief, Play, and Counter-Sovereignty in Iran. – A Polypoly of Legitimate Violence? Political Orders on the Sahara Frontier. – Ruling Strategies and State-Building after Multi-Actor Civil Wars: Evidence from Syria and Beyond. – Jihadist Debates over Political Identity and Technologies of Government in the Lake Chad Basin. – The Southwest Caucasian Republic (1918-1919) and the Limits of Pseudo-Statehood.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/5dum4pyv
14. International Conference “God, Human, Machine: Images and Imaginaries of Religion in the Age of AI” (Focus Islam Studies), 28-30 September 2026, University of Erfurt, Germany
The conference critically examines how AI technologies are reshaping religious images and imagi-naries, encompassing the symbolic, affective, and sensory dimensions of religious life and practice across traditions, cultures, and social contexts. The conference brings together theoretical and empiri-cal perspectives, connecting scholars and practitioners working at the intersections of Religious Stud-ies, Anthropology, Art History, and Science and Technology Studies.
Deadline for registration: 16 September 2026. Information, program and registration:
15. ONLINE Three-Part Workshop “Studying East of Byzantium XIII: Centers and Hubs”, Hellenic College Holy Cross & Harvard University, 9 October 2026 / 12 February 2027 / 3-4 June 2029
The workshop intends to bring together doctoral students and recent PhDs studying the Christian East to reflect on the usefulness of the role of Centers and Hubs in studying the Christian East, to share methodologies, and to discuss their research with one another and senior specialists in the field.
Deadline for abstracts: 13 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3pbrvdww
16. International Conference “Villes du Levant: Mémoire, Identité et Avenir Urbain”, Levantine Heritage Foundation & Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 29 October 2026
Themes: – Cities defining the Levant: Beirut, Saida, Tyre, Haifa, Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, Alex-andria etc. Separate entities and rivals or a cultural collective? – Cosmopolitan cities: the nature and evolution of Levantine urban identity. – Memory, destruction and the politics of reconstruction in the Levant. – Reflections of the Levant in literature and film. – The future of Levantine cities and communi-ties: resilience and renewal. – The history of foreign communities in Lebanon and beyond. – Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2zuvpsca
17. “60th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA)”, Boston, 21-24 No-vember 2026
We will have several special events reflecting on the past and looking ahead. These include a special session, “Former MESA Presidents Reflect on Major Events in the Last 30 Years”, about some of the challenges various presidents faced and how MESA responded. Another special session, “MESA at 60: The Past, Present, and Future of Middle East Studies”, considers the evolution of the field and where we might go from here. A roundtable, “Teaching MES in Different Generations:Culture Wars, Geopoli-tics, Retaliation, and the Teacher”, discusses 60 years of undergraduate teaching in Middle East stud-ies.
Preliminary program: https://tinyurl.com/va6bjvtx
18. ONLINE “Ninth Annual Graduate Student Book Review Colloquium on Islamic and Middle
Eastern Studies”, AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies, George Mason University, 3 December 2026
The Colloquium invites advanced graduate students and advanced undergraduate students in the so-cial sciences and humanities to submit reviews on noteworthy books published since 1 January 2025 in the field of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. At the Colloquium, the accepted students will have the opportunity to present their book reviews in pre-organized panels lasting 20 minutes.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/bdhua4t3
19. Conference “On the Orientalists’ Divan: Questions of Reflexivity from the 18th to the 21st Cen-turies”, Inalco, Paris,15-16 March 2027
The academic aim of this conference is to highlight the explicit and conscious relationship between the scholar and their subject of study, and to capture the reflexivity of Orientalists – that ‘close, intimate and entirely personal bond they maintain with their work’. Researchers are invited to catch Orientalists in the act of explaining, as historians, the link between the history we have made and the history that has made us.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3u2jeyd5
20. Candidatures pour des bourses de recherche en islamologie, Master 2 (1 à 3 mois), Doc-torant/es/Jeunes docteur/es (6 mois), L’Institut de recherche sur le Maghreb contemporain (I-REMC), Tunis
L’octroi d’une bourse de mobilité devra permettre aux masterant/es, doctorant/es ou jeune docteur/es d’accomplir un travail de terrain de recherche en islamologie en étant accueilli/es dans une ou deux UMIFRE. La discipline « islamologie » est entendue au sens large et pourra intégrer les axes suivants. – Histoire de l’Islam. – Étude et analyse critique du corpus des textes religieux, théologiques, juridiques, doctrinaux et philosophiques de la période de l’Islam Classique. – Etude en sciences sociales des groupes musulmans. – Etc.
Limite : 15 octobre 2026. Information : https://tinyurl.com/y7vvh3h2
21. Summer School “Fatih Sultan Mehmed: 1420-1500”, Arkhé Campus in Şirince, İzmir, 5-12 September 2026
The summer school will examine the period through political thought, law, historiography, intellectual history, philosophy, and court culture. Particular attention will be given to Mehmed’s relationship with the Roman and Byzantine imperial past, the reorganization of the Ottoman court and state, the trans-formation of Istanbul into an imperial center, and the relationship between political authority and schol-arly life. The language of instruction is Turkish.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/y7vvh3h2
22. New Book: “An Ottoman Perception of Greek History: Mahmut Efendi’s History of Athens”, Translated by Thomas Sinclair, Edited by Thomas Sinclair & Gülçin Tunalı, Edinburgh University Press, August 2026, 584 Pages
This edition comprises a transliteration, translation and commentary of a history of Athens written from the 1710s to the 1740s by Mahmut Efendi, a locally born Ottoman court official. The text describes the city’s early history, the reforms of Solon, the battles of Marathon and Salamis, Socrates’ teaching, Al-exander the Great’s involvement with the city and exploits in Asia, and the city’s conversion to Christi-anity. It also outlines the involvement of Venice in the city’s fortunes starting in the 13th century and complains of the second Venetian occupation (1686-87) of the Peloponnese and Athens.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/ykf6pjhh
23. New Book: “Curating Islamic Art in European Museums: Postcolonial Perspectives and Mus-eological Transformations” by Constance Jame, Routledge, 16 June 2026, 278 Pages
Since the early 2000s many museums around the world have been either re-organising or creating ex nihilo galleries dedicated to Islamic art. This movement has often been attributed by the press and scholars as a response to international geopolitical events. Challenging this prevailing narrative, in this book Jame examines these developments as part of a longue durée process rooted in evolving art historical perspectives and institutional efforts to de-Europeanise their approaches. Thus, she explores how Islamic art was presented and interpreted within Western European museums in the 2010s.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/29d3m8tc
24. New Book: “Kurdish Women’s Transnational Resistance: Revolutionary Politics in Everyday
Life” by Nisa Goksel, University of Washington Press, June 2026, 302 Pages
Goksel draws on years of multisited ethnography and archival research to illuminate the lives of ex-guerrillas, local activists, politicians, activist mothers, and migrant women who have carried the struggle across borders, advocating for the democratic and gendered transformation of Kurdistan and the wider Middle East. The book shows how they have created alternative political subjectivities, new political spaces, and novel gendered strategies at the precarious intersection of local and transnational politics.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/6cubfnkz
25. New Book: “A Trade in Dreams: A Century of Egyptian Print Advertising” by Bahia Shehab, AUC Press, 26 May 2026, 252 Pages
Drawing on over 350 images of magazine and newspaper ads, Bahia Shehab reveals how consumer culture intertwined with political, social, and economic change during the period between 1880 and 1980 in Egypt. She shows how the Egyptian market navigated the influx of European and American luxury goods, from fine fabrics and jewelry to agricultural machinery, and how these items became symbols of aspiration and, at times, ignited a wave of national resistance.
Information: https://aucpress.com/9781649033024/
26. New Book: “Social Movements and Democratization in North Africa, 1912-2024” by Moha Ennaj, Palgrave Macmillan, 2026, 338 Pages
This transdisciplinary book examines social movements in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It focuses on nationalist, democratic, women’s, Islamist, Berber (Amazigh), and youth movements since 1912 through the post-Arab Spring era. The book takes current debates on the topic to a more inclusive level, involving linkages among policy, cultural identity, democratic culture, and social justice. It analyzes the role of social movements in driving social change, democratization, development, and social cohesion.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/nxwj8ja5
- September 05, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- September 03, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Panel for the Association of Persianate Societies Biennial Conference in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (9-12 August 2027).
Race-Making in the Premodern Persianate World
While Critical Race Theory has established itself firmly in the methodological toolbox of the study of the modern Persianate world and its diaspora, there is a dearth of studies that employ Premodern Critical Race Studies as developed by Geraldine Heng, Lynn Ramey, Dorothy Kim, Cord Whitaker, and others, in the context of the premodern Persianate world. As opposed to assuming that the Middle Ages are “pre-racial,” these scholars have demonstrated that that race and race-making encompass a broad constellation of social, physical, cultural, and religious categories through which human difference has been hierarchized and essentialized across historical contexts.
This panel seeks to engage with this scholarship in order to employ Premodern Critical Race Studies in the context of pre-1500 CE Persian literary productions. The panelists may address questions such as the relationship between lineage and race-making; the intertwinement of race and religion; the overlap between race and monstrosity as images of alterity; and the ends to which certain figures in premodern Persianate literature and art were racialized.
Since the deadline for panel submissions is approaching fast, please send a message to alexandra.hoffmann@ubc.ca to express interest by Sept. 4th, with the full paper abstract of 300 words due Sept. 21.
2. Davidson College – Assistant Professor of History
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/70252/davidson-college-assistant-professor-history
The Department of History at Davidson College invites applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern history, broadly defined to include North Africa, West Asia, and the Islamic World. Deadline: Sept 14, 2026
- September 01, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
A decade after Nicole Seymour’s chapter “Trans Ecology and the Transgender Road Narrative” in The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism, following Susan Stryker’s foreword to the 2020 book Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature, and after TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly’s November 2024 issue on trans* ecologies, which built on the Queer and Trans* Ecologies (QTE) Interdisciplinary Initiative symposium that drew more than six hundred participants, transecology as a field needs a comprehensive reference handbook. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Transecology will be the first such volume: covering 38 topics, organized across four sections moving outward in scale from the molecular body to the deep-time planet. See the full list of topics with descriptions at the end of this CFP.
Gender-variant nature imagery in medieval material invites direct comparison with the distinct literary and philosophical traditions of the medieval Islamic Middle East. Monstrosity reclaimed as an affirmative rather than stigmatizing category has direct application to the rich tradition of hybrid and composite creatures in medieval Islamic manuscript illustration and cosmography.
All 38 topics with descriptions are listed at the end of the above url.
Trans embodiment reorganizes our sense of time and scale — through hormonal transition time, community time, and geological time — and this clustering is reflected in the Handbook itself. To preview the Handbook’s overarching structure, a short Foundations section comes first, gathering topics that examine transecology’s own genealogy and disciplinary boundaries. Chapters in this section stand outside any single scale — they are about the field’s history and self-definition, not about a body, a community, or a planet. The three-part structure of the rest of the Handbook then begins. Part I opens at the molecular and individual scale: chemistry, sensation, the single body. Part III closes at the planetary and deep-time scale: the atmosphere, the ocean, the epoch. Part II is the connective tissue between them: community, region, law, and culture, the scale at which intimate experience becomes shared knowledge and shared knowledge becomes political. By spanning scales ranging from the body to the planet, with the mediating communal scale between these extremes, the Handbook emphasizes that transecology’s center of gravity is not the isolated body or the abstract planet, but the connecting community.
The senior editor of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Transecology, Douglas Vakoch, has edited over two dozen books, including Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature (2020), Transgender India: Understanding Third Gender Identities and Experiences (2022), and The Routledge Handbook of Trans Literature (with Sabine Sharp, 2024). Vakoch also serves as the general editor of four book series in environmental studies and transgender studies for Bloomsbury Academic: Ecocritical Theory and Practice, Environment and Society, Critical Plant Studies, and the recently launched Trans Studies.
Submitting Your Proposal and Timetable
Interested authors should submit a 300-word abstract, a 200-word biography, 5 key scholarly references, and a sample of a previously published chapter or article to https://bit.ly/Handbook_of_Transecology no later than November 15, 2026. Proposals submitted by email will not be accepted. Abstracts, biographies, and scholarly references should be combined into a single Word document, and previously published chapters or articles should be submitted as PDFs. Both Word files and PDFs should contain the author’s name in the file names. Please include your email address in your Word document so we can contact you with our decision about your proposal.
Your abstract should clearly state which of the Handbook’s 38 topics is most relevant to your chapter, listing both topic number and name (see full list below).
All chapters must have specifically transgender and ecological dimensions, and not merely a more broadly queer focus.
In addition to the Handbook, we will also be creating standalone books on topics for which we receive an especially strong response of outstanding proposals. Your proposal will automatically be considered for both the Handbook and standalone volumes.
You are welcome to submit more than one abstract. If you decide to submit multiple abstracts for different chapters, please add a note at the top of each abstract to indicate whether you wish to be considered for writing only a single chapter, or whether you wish to be considered for writing more than one chapter.
The most competitive proposals will detail the author’s argument. It is not enough to describe what you plan to do in your chapter. You should summarize what you will conclude.
Authors will be notified whether their proposals are accepted by December 15, 2026. Partial first drafts are due by March 1, 2027; solid first drafts of full chapters are due by May 1, 2027; and final versions that cross-reference other chapters extensively are due July 15, 2027. All authors must have completed a PhD. In your 200-word biography, please note the year and university where you earned your doctorate. Only previously unpublished works will be considered.
2. CFP/ Global Theory: Premodern, Otherwise
This project begins with one question. What would a global, nonmodern/premodern theory survey look like, if it did not assume that premodern thinking about literature, word, voice, text, sound, and language would necessarily end up pointing toward or arriving at something like the modern Euro-American/North Atlantic theory canon? Greek, Latin, and medieval European texts regularly populate anthologies of premodern literary theory and form the core of most premodern theory survey courses. But how would centering Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, sub-Saharan African, Pacific, and Indigenous American concepts transform our notions around premodern theorization of literature and culture?
To parse these larger questions in more precise ways.
- What is ‘literature’? How have various premodern thinkers understood or sought to describe demarcations between everyday communication and the literary (be it performative, oral, or written)? Or are such demarcations not present in some traditions? Is literature something that only human animals do or is literature embedded in a more diverse cosmology or ecology, resonant with communicative practices of other ontologies? Where does literature ‘sit’ in relation to other disciplines or art forms (is it ‘next to’ rhetoric, dance, law, or music, for instance)?
- How do we engage with ‘literature’? How have various thinkers understood the relations between language, writing, reading, voicing, singing, composing, etc? What metaphors do they employ (for instance, likening reading to visionary flight, to bees gathering honey, or to cooking) and what are the implications of those metaphorical conceptions? What senses and/or forms of bodily comportment does reading entail, or does the body not matter to reading?
- What does engagement with ‘the literary’ do? What powers or effects have various classical thinkers from a range of world traditions ascribed to engagement with the literary? Does such engagement, for instance, heal, purify, corrupt, ensnare, or transform? Does it shape the cosmos? What ramifications are there to these different understandings of engagement with the literary?
Selected participants will receive a $500 USD honorarium to deliver a 30-minute presentation, followed by a 30-minute directed conversation conducted via Zoom. I will use these conversations (either live or pre-recorded) to teach a pilot version of a graduate seminar on global premodern theory in January-May 2027. Ultimately, the goal is to produce a publicly available set of materials for teaching and engaging with literary and cultural theory from a fuller range of the premodern world. (I am in active conversation with the editorial team at postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies where several publications resulting from this collaborative venture have already been published.)
To apply, send the following documents to Charlotte Eubanks at cde13@psu.edu by October 15, 2026.
- A keyword of conceptual interest and elasticity with a 500-word paragraph about it. (Examples might include: darśan (Sanskrit), wen (Sinitic), alef (Arabic), and so forth.)
- The name of one primary text which illuminates or meditates on/around that word, along with bibliographic information for an original language version of that text and for an English translation of that text.
- A short biosketch (200 words).
- Your CV.
Please note: to receive the honorarium, participants need to have clearance to receive pay for work done in the US. Junior scholars, advanced graduate students, and international scholars are heartily encouraged to apply.
Charlotte Eubanks (cde13@psu.edu)
Sparks Professor of Comparative Literature, Japanese, and Asian Studies
Penn State University
3. The Library of Congress Asian Division is now accepting applications for the Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship for the 2027 fellowship cycle. Please note that this is opening earlier than recent years, and it will close at
All important information, including information on eligibility and instructions for the online application, at this link: https://www.loc.gov/research-centers/asian/about-this-research-center/fellowship-information/.
- Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents
- H-1B visa holders are not eligible
- All other visa types will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by emailing visas@loc.gov
For information about visa eligibility, please contact visas@loc.gov.
Please pass along to those who might be interested and feel welcome to reach out to us with questions at ask.loc.gov/asia.
Contact Information
Charlotte Giles
South Asia Specialist, Asian Division
Library of Congress
Contact Email
URL
https://www.loc.gov/research-centers/asian/about-this-research-center/fellowshi…
4. ONLINE Annual Conference of the Institute for Law and Society in Afghanistan (ILSAF): “Cli-mate Change, Resilience, Law, and Policy Cooperation in Fragile States: The Case of Afghani-stan“, Paderborn Institute of Islamic Theology, 4-5 September 2026
The contributions will explore the intersection of climate change with law, governance, human rights, economic development, gender, migration, natural resource management, and regional cooperation.
Information, programme and registration: https://tinyurl.com/4nrf2upd
5. Workshop: “(Re)Crafting Knowledge After the Ottomans: Remembering and Forgetting Scientific Legacies in the Post-Imperial Era”, University of Geneva, 11-12 September 2026
Organized by Caroline Montebello and Aline Schlaepfer, this workshop will address the question of transition between the late and post-Ottoman periods from the perspectives of former provinces of the Empire, and with a particular focus on scientific and scholarly cultures. What has become of scientific authorities and Ottoman scholarly cultures in post-Ottoman contexts? How did scientists from various disciplines (history, geography, medicine, anthropology, legal studies, or others) reevaluate their own canons, methodologies, and analytical frameworks? Etc.
Information and programme: https://tinyurl.com/5at8xu2e
6. 2nd Annual Meeting of the “Belgian Association for the Study of Islam, Culture and Society (BASICS)”, Ghent University, 25 September 2026
The annual meeting of the Belgian Association for the Study of Islam, Culture and Society (BASICS) provides an interdisciplinary platform for discussing the latest evolutions in research in Belgium about Islam, the Middle East and the connected regions ad well as the challenges facing this field of research.
Deadline for registration: 20 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/44knay8n
7. HYBRID Conference “Leaves in the Wind: Fragmentology of Persianate Manuscripts”, Persian Manuscripts Association & Royal Asiatic Society, London, 5-6 December 2026
This conference proposes to explore the reconstruction – material, intellectual, and digital – of dis-persed manuscripts and fragments, in all traditions of the vast geographical region of Greater Iran and eastern Islamic lands, including (but not limited to) Persian, Arabic, Armenian, as well as Avestan and Middle Persian (Pahlavi) codices within Zoroastrian traditions.
Deadline for abstracts: 4 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/msprm9m7
8. Conference “Arabic Publishing Beyond the Arabic-Speaking Areas: Field Reconfigurations, Crisis, and the Politics of Circulation”, MMSH, Aix-en-Provence, 18-19 March 2027
The conference seeks to combine macro-level analysis of the Arabic publishing field with micro-level attention to actors, practices, and material gestures through which books are produced, circulated, and valued. It invites inquiry into the social trajectories of publishers, editors, translators, designers, booksellers, librarians, rights managers, festival organizers, and other cultural intermediaries; their pro-fessional training, cultural capital, networks, and forms of socialization into the craft of publishing; and their relations to writers, critics, funders, book fairs, libraries, and platforms.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 November 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yp38m766
9. International Workshop “The “Oriental” Book Trade in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twen-tieth Centuries“, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), University of Hamburg, 29-30 April 2027
The expansion of Oriental Studies beyond the Middle East, together with the spread of the printing press within the region, created a growing demand for manuscripts and printed books in Arabic, Per-sian, Ottoman Turkish, and related languages across North Africa, West Asia, Europe, the United States, and Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries This workshop invites case studies of book publishers, traders, and intermediaries, examining their networks, business practices, and/or contributions to the transregional circulation of knowledge.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/8saz2zne
10. Associate Professor (Permanent) in Middle Eastern Politics, Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oslo, Norway
Qualification: PhD with a specialisation in politics in the Middle East, whether from a humanities or social sciences background. – A demonstrated ability to use oral and written sources in Arabic, Turk-ish or Persian in research. – Documented pedagogical skills. – Fluent oral and written communication skills in English. – Proficiency in a Scandinavian language will be an advantage. – Ability to contribute to the teaching of courses in Middle Eastern Studies at all levels.
Deadline for applications: 15 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yb8cs4ms
11. ONLINE New Article: “The Politics of Provenance Research: Reassessing the Appropriation of Finds from the Samarra Excavations“ by Vincent Engelhardt and Jakob Wigand, Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 36(1): 4, 27 August 2026, 17 Pages
This article re-examines the archaeological excavations in Samarra conducted between 1911 and 1913 under the direction of the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld. By critically engaging with existing scholarship and drawing on new archival evidence, we argue that a significant number of artefacts were unlawfully exported from the Ottoman Empire to Berlin and no legal division of finds ever took place. Additionally, we interrogate the institution’s exclusion of independent provenance research.
View: https://tinyurl.com/2zduwj93
12. ONLINE New Article: “The State Waqfs of Ottoman Istanbul, 1453–1923” by Mustafa Batman and Timur Kuran, SSRN, 20 July 2026, 46 Pages
Drawing on a quasi-random sample of waqfs, this study defines the state waqf as an analytical category, distinguishes it from the private waqf, and identifies its functions. Unlike private waqfs, state waqfs functioned as instruments of governance and delivered urban services at scale. Prior to reforms of the 19th century, religious services, education, potable water, and lodging for visitors were funded almost entirely by state waqfs. Only one-quarter made explicit provisions for the poor.
View: https://tinyurl.com/3z6wwzu3
13. ONLINE New Articles: “The Religious Cultures of Premodern Islamicate Courts in Transregional Perspective”, Special Issue Edited by Christian Mauder of “Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean”, Vol. 38, Issue 2, August 2026, 166 Pages
Recent years have seen a growing interest in the role of Islamicate courts as centers of political, social, and literary life in the premodern period. However, our knowledge of Islamicate courts of this time is still extremely limited in other areas, including that of religious history. This special issue seeks to fill this gap by studying for the first time the role of Islamicate courts in premodern religious cultures from a deliberately broad transregional and diachronic perspective.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/2e4ktumm
14. ONLINE New Article “Uneven Modernization in the Muslim World” by Timur Kuran and Fasih Zulfiqar, “Annual Review of Economics”, Vol. 18, August 2026, 28 Pages
This article distinguishes among continuous, punctuated, and latent modernization trajectories and or-ganizing the literature around four leading explanations for persistent developmental lags: collectivist attitudes, Islamic religious tenets, Islamic legal institutions, and colonial institutional legacies. The re-sulting framework highlights various sectoral contrasts, such as rapid progress in health and basic education alongside persistent deficits in political and religious liberties.
View: https://tinyurl.com/upcmp7hv
15. International Conference
The Translatability of the Scriptures in Christianity and Islam
April 12th-14th 2027 at CMCS Oxford
Call for Papers
Co-organized by the United Bible Societies’ (UBS) TAZI initiative (Taurat Anbiya Zabur Injil) and the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies Oxford (CMCS)
https://www.cmcsoxford.org.uk/cmcs-news/c8hg6cxa9hdtzfztj1oznqqme8pnla
Submission Guidelines: Proposals (300-400 words) plus a short biography (150 words) should be sent to Dr Martin
Whittingham, m.whittingham@cmcsoxford.org.uk by October 31st 2026.
- August 29, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. New Book:
International Relations of the Middle East: Theories and Case Studies,
30 September 2026, Cambridge University Press.
A sample chapter (Introduction) is available here:
https://www.book2look.com/book/9781009617697
2. IMC 2027 CALL FOR PAPERS
MAKING KNOWLEDGE: EDUCATION AND SOCIAL PRACTICE IN MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC AND JEWISH SOCIETIES
How was knowledge made, shared, and sustained within medieval Islamic and Jewish societies? And how did practices of teaching and learning shape the communities in which they took place?
This panel explores education as a social practice through which relationships, identities, authorities, and communities were formed. We invite papers examining the people, places, practices, and material cultures involved in making knowledge across medieval Islamic and Jewish contexts.
Possible topics might include formal and informal learning; teachers, students, families, and scholarly networks; institutions and spaces of education; oral, textual, and manuscript practices; language and translation; religious and professional formation; gender and access to learning; mobility and the circulation of knowledge; and the ways educational practices created or contested boundaries of belonging.
We particularly welcome papers that foreground lived practices of learning and consider how knowledge both emerged from and helped constitute medieval communities.
*Papers may focus on medieval Islamic history or Jewish history individually; comparative and interdisciplinary approaches are also welcome.
If you are interested in proposing a paper, please submit a title & 250-word abstract with a short biography to mahima.khan@qmul.ac.uk or n.a.reiter@qmul.ac.uk by 14th September 2026. We welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages.
3. THE YAVUZ SEZER MEMORIAL ARTICLE PRIZE ($200
The biennial prize is awarded in memory of Yavuz Sezer (1979-2021) for the article that makes the best contribution to the history of architecture and the urban environment in the Ottoman empire and modern Turkey.
The prize is awarded in even‐numbered years to articles published in the previous two-year period (Jan. 2024-Dec. 2025 for the 2026 prize).
If an author appears as a co-author on a second submission, that is allowable only if the nomination is made by the co-author or a third party (e.g. Can Sinov may not nominate their co-authored paper with Roxelana Osmanova if Sinov has already nominated a solo authored paper, the co-authored paper may still be considered if nominated by Osmanova, or a third party). Eligible submissions include peer-reviewed journal articles and peer-reviewed chapters in edited volumes. Pre-print digital editions of articles published in 2024-2025 which will appear in journal volumes in 2026 or later are eligible, with the proviso that the same article cannot then be submitted for consideration in a subsequent year. Articles which appeared in pre-print in 2024-5 but will be included in a 2026 journal volume may be submitted for consideration in the subsequent cycle, provided the pre-print was not first submitted for a prior award. Submissions must be in English.
Nominations may be made by the author, colleagues, publisher, or friends. Applicants must submit the following in an e-mail:
- The recommender’s name, address, and e‐mail address
- The address, e‐mail address, and phone number of the author
- An electronic copy (as a pdf) of the article
No additional materials will be considered as part of the submission.
Materials (or questions) should be e-mailed to the committee chair, Dr. Mehmet Kentel (k.m.kentel@hum.leidenuniv.nl) with “Yavuz Sezer Article Award” in the subject line of the e-mail message.
DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 15, 2026
Contact Information
Dr. K. Mehmet Kentel
Chair of the Selection Committee
Leiden University
Contact Email
URL:
4. Mazda: Bibliotheca Iranica: Literature Series
Established in 1994, the Bibliotheca Iranica: Literature Series is the first and longest-running book series devoted specifically to the publication and critical study of Persian literature in English. From its inception, the series has sought to introduce the richness, diversity, and enduring literary significance of both classical and contemporary Persian literature to scholars, students, and general readers throughout the English-speaking world.
The series was founded on the conviction that Persian literature is one of the world’s great literary traditions and deserves a much wider international readership. Many important works and aspects of Persian literary culture, however, remain inaccessible to readers who do not read Persian. The series seeks to bridge this gap by publishing significant works in carefully prepared English-language editions while preserving, as fully as possible, their literary qualities, cultural meanings, and historical contexts.
The series encompasses both classical and contemporary Persian literature, reflecting the remarkable continuity and diversity of the Persian literary tradition. Over more than three decades, it has contributed significantly to the international dissemination of Persian literature and to a broader understanding of Iran’s rich literary and cultural heritage.
In keeping with Mazda Publishers’ longstanding philosophy, the books in the series are moderately and affordably priced. We believe that important scholarship and literature should be accessible not only to major research institutions but also to students, individual scholars, libraries, and general readers. The Bibliotheca Iranica: Literature Series therefore remains an important part of Mazda Publishers’ continuing commitment to making the finest scholarship on Persian literature available to readers throughout the world.
For more information, please visit this site:
https://www.mazdapublishers.com/series/bibliotheca-iranica-literature-series
5. Two New Courses on Academic Persian and Modern Literature
Introduction to Academic Persian: How to Read Scholarly Literature in Persian (October 9 – November 27, 2026).
The course is designed to introduce students and researchers to the language, terminology, and conventions of academic Persian. Through readings from scholarly articles, critical editions, and works by prominent Iranian scholars, participants will develop the skills needed to read and engage with Persian-language scholarship more confidently and independently.
Persian through Modern Persian Poetry: From Nima to Forugh Farrokhzad (September 18 – November 6, 2026).
This eight-week course uses modern Persian poetry as a way to develop participants’ Persian speaking, listening, and reading skills. Through close reading and discussion of poems by major poets from Nima Yushij to Forough Farrokhzad, participants will deepen their understanding of both the Persian language and modern Iranian literary and cultural life.
Best wishes,
Ruben
Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature
Yerevan, Armenia
Website: www.ferdowsi.org
6. AA VS Bahrain: Cinematic Climate Cartographies
Research in various “post-colonial” contexts, a strong relationship continues to emerge between moments of independence and archaeological excavations. In Bahrain and the wider Gulf, these sites serve as evidence of a pre-colonial era of civilization and alternative histories. They also inspire both artists and architects, influencing their practices. This was explored in connection with environmental changes through Qal’at al-Bahrain in Bahrain, as part of the Climate Cartographies (instagram | LinkedIn) program at AA Visiting School, supported by Alriwaq, MSCEB, and the Arab Regional Centre. The program was led by myself in collaboration with filmmaker Mariam Mekiwi and teaching assistant Maryam AlNoaimi.
Selected parts of the public program are now available on Alriwaq’s YouTube Channel, alongside short movies produced by the students. The program’s archaeologists, who are deeply engaged with environmental questions at the site Melanie Moenzer and Dr. Salman Al Muhairi, included architects and landscape designers who created the site-specific museum housing the collection, artists who incorporate archaeology into their practice John A. Davies and Niels Friis, art historians who highlight the connection between art and archaeology Abdullah Al-Mutairi and Melissa Enders-Bhatia, artists that have engaged with archaeological methods Mahmood Baglawa and Nasser Alzayani, and climate considerations at the site and other heritage sites by Tariq Al-Olaimy and Dr. Mounir Bouchenaki.
The films are
History for Sale, by Hassan Al Shatti, Melad Alfulaij, and Binscal Paul
Spoon, by Hasan Albasri, Mohamed Al Khaja, and Sukainah Al Sadah
Water becomes Life, by Iona Stewart, Muneera AlSager, Naser Alzayani, and Sidra Kishwer With sound by Joy Moughanni
Thank you to everyone who supported the program!
Enjoy watching the talks and the student projects on this link.
7. The Ohio State University – Middle East & Islamic Studies Librarian
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/70232/ohio-state-university-middle-east-islamic-studies-librarian
8. New Book: Qur’anic Abrogation After Muhammad The Eternal Flux
J F Toosi
Routledge, 2026
- August 25, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Sensing Islam
Engaging and Contesting the Senses in Muslim Religiosity
S Stjernholm,
Bloomsbury, 2026
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sensing-islam-9781350324176/
2. Mazda:
‘Persian Fiction in Translation Series’
https://www.mazdapublishers.com/series/bibliotheca-iranica-persian-fiction-in-translation
3. Brill: The Ruzbeh Library: Critical Editions of Modern Iranian Fiction
https://brill.com/page/forthcoming_trl
4. Qatar’s Societal Security
Towards the Inclusive National Concept of ‘Baladna’
Identity, Migration and External Threats Since 2017
Cihat Battaloğlu
ISBN: 9783959941976
Published by Gerlach Press
https://gerlachpress.com/index.php?art_no=9783959941976
5. NLM DeBakey Fellowships open
The NLM and Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) announce the 2027 application cycle for the NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine.
The fellowship provides individual awards of up to $10,000 to U.S. citizens and permanent residents to support research in the collection of the NLM.
To receive consideration, eligible applicants must upload all required materials to the FAES application portal by 11:59 pm ET on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
Complete details: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/get-involved/debakey-fellowship.html.
6. 32nd Congress of the German Middle Eastern Studies Association (DAVO), Ludwig-Maximili-ans-University Munich, 10 -12 September 2026
The DAVO Congress is dedicated to advancing academic research and public understanding of North Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia, by examining questions of history, society, politics and econom-ics, culture and religion, language and literature, health, and related fields, while critically engaging with pressing issues within Germany and Europe, including migration, antisemitism, anti-Arab and anti-Mus-lim racism, and societal transformation.
Deadline for registration: 6 September 2026. Information, preliminary program and registration:
7. Journée d’étude ReligiS « Circulation des textes et des dogmes. Europe et Méditerranée, XVIe et XXIe siècle », Aix-en-Provence, 5-6 novembre 2026
Programme : https://tinyurl.com/mprpey9a
8. Workshop “Translation and Multilingualism Across the Premodern Arabo-Islamic World and Europe”, Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain, 3-4 December 2026
The organisers are looking for focused historical case studies that illuminate multilingual exchange, textual circulation, translation practice, and cross-cultural knowledge production. Focusing on scholars, translators, and intermediaries working across languages such as Arabic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Persian, it explores how knowledge was shaped and reshaped as it moved between intellectual and institutional contexts.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4574krfy
9. Appel à communication pour la journée d’études
« “Occidentalisme” : l’Italie dans la littérature arabe du XVIe au XXe
siècle »
Grenoble, Université Grenoble-Alpes, LUHCIE,
Maison des Langues, Salle Jacques Cartier, 8 décembre 2026
Cette journée d’études se propose ainsi d’explorer, dans des corpus littéraires en arabe rédigés entre le XVIe et le XXe siècle, les traces laissées par les contacts historiques et culturels entre l’Italie et le monde arabe, ainsi que les modalités de leur inscription dans les productions littéraires arabes. Elle entend favoriser une réflexion sur les phénomènes de représentation de l’Italie dans l’espace linguis-tique arabe.
Limite des proposition avant le 30 août 2026. Information : https://tinyurl.com/dymcjmnk
10. Conference “Rural Life in Post-Ottoman Lands (1918-1945)”, Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies, University of Cambridge, 8-10 July 2027
This conference considers social, economic and cultural continuities and changes in pastoral and agrar-ian landscapes across the territories in the Balkans and the Middle East that had once formed the Ottoman Empire. Topics might include, for example, the development of infrastructure; the mechanisa-tion of agriculture; healthcare and the spread and control of disease; internal migration and mobility; climate, environment and natural disasters; village literature and education; reforms in landholding, taxation, and legal practice.
Deadline for abstracts: 5 December 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4x2rsmxv
11. Vice President (3 Years) for International Affairs at the German Jordanian University (GJU), Amman
Qualifikation: Berufung als Professor:in im deutschsprachigen Raum. – Erfahrungen in der Leitung ei-ner Hochschule, (Präsidium/Rektorat oder Dekanat). – Sehr gute deutsche und englische Sprach-kenntnisse, von Vorteil sind außerdem Arabischkenntnisse. – Wissenschaftliches Profil mit Bezug zu den Schools der GJU. – Erfahrungen in der Einwerbung von Drittmitteln.
Deadline for applications: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y4zs6wka
12. Postdoctoral Scholar/Lecturer (2 Years), Bita Daryabari Fellow in Persian Language and Li-terature, University California Davis
Qualification: PhD within the humanities or humanistic social sciences field. – Persian serving as a primary research language and the applicant’s scholarship focusing on the Persianate world. – Strong and well-developed research program. – Ability to teach an undergraduate seminar in Persian language and literature.
Deadline for applications: 31 August 2026. Information: https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07717
13. Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) of Comparative Politics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
We particularly welcome applications from scholars whose research and teaching focus on topics related to migration, democracy, or political economy. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in political science or a closely related field or be ABD with a Ph.D. conferred before the start date of the appointment. Effective classroom teaching is essential for this position.
Deadline for applications: 14 September 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/191508
14. Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in History of the Mediterranean World, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
This is a position for recent Ph.D.’s who have not yet served in a tenure-track capacity. We particularly welcome applicants focusing on transregional exchanges or conflicts across Mediterranean spaces, broadly defined. They should specialize in the history of the Mediterranean world, with a chronological focus in either the medieval or early modern period.
Deadline for applications: 21 September 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/191175
15. Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Humanities, Brown University, Providence, RI
Candidates will have an internationally renowned body of scholarship in the study of Islam and its hu-manistic traditions, and an outstanding record of teaching and mentorship of undergraduate and PhD students.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/190884
16. “Farabi International Award on the Iranian and Islamic Studies”, Tehran
We welcome all researchers in the field of Iranian studies and Islamic studies to submit their outstanding research works completed from March 2022 until the end of March 2025. This includes final research reports, research books, doctoral dissertations, Master`s thesis, and research articles on Iranian stud-ies and Islamic studies.
Deadline for submissions: 22 September 2026. Information: https://farabiaward.ir/page/12/Introduction
17. 10 “ACLS Marwan M. and Ute Kraidy Centennial Fellowships in the Study of the Arab World and Latin America”, American Council of Learned Societies
The fellowships are awarded to scholars confronting official constraints on their research and writing owing to the contested nature of their fields. The fellowship is open to scholars at all postdoctoral career stages, working on or off the tenure track, who have earned a PhD in the humanities or interpretive social sciences by the application deadline. Maximum award: $60,000.
Deadline for applications: 17 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4aw8w55d
18. ONLINE Inekas Summer School on “Philosophy beyond Falsafa: Reimagining the Historiography of Islamic Philosophy”, IAIS University of Exeter & Habib University & Hanif Center for Religious Studies, 3-5 September 2026
The summer school explores the diverse forms of philosophical inquiry in the Islamic intellectual tradi-tion. Moving beyond the conventional focus on falsafa, it examines kalām, bayān, uṣūl al-fiqh, adab, and ʿirfān as important sites of philosophical reflection, inviting participants to rethink the boundaries of philosophy and gain a broader understanding of Islamic intellectual history.
Deadline for registration: 2 September 2026. Information, program and registration: https://inekas.org/en/2026ss/
19. Nouvelle livre : “Penser le monde avec Avicenne – Une introduction à sa philosophie” de Meryem Sebti, Les Belles Lettres, 4 septembre 2026, 240 pages
Ce livre offre une initiation aux questions qui constituent le coeur de sa philosophie. Partant de la vie et de la formation d’Avicenne, il expose les fondements métaphysiques de son système, la démonstra-tion de l’existence et de l’unicité de Dieu, la doctrine de l’émanation, la théorie de l’âme et de l’intellect, avant d’aborder la quête avicennienne de la science dans ses dimensions logique, naturelle et médi-cale. Une troisième partie examine la place de l’homme dans le monde : gouvernance divine, liberté humaine, prophétologie, statut du politique.
Information : https://tinyurl.com/m7at7vz2
20. L’Islam des Lumières
Histoire de l’humanisme musulman (VIIe-XXIe siècle)
Olivier Hanne
2026
Préface d’Olivier Roy, professeur à l’Institut universitaire européen de Florence.
Information : https://tinyurl.com/me3b9u8a
21. Nouvelle livre : “Liberté et féminisme dans la pensée arabe des XIXe et XXe siècles – Trans-ferts culturels et migrations sémantiques”, direction Kalthoum Saafi, hémisphères Èditions & maisonneuve & larose, avril 2026, 240 pages
Cet ouvrage collectif réunit des recherches présentées autour de l’émergence de deux notions fonda-mentales : celle de liberté et celle de féminisme, dans l’aire géopolitique arabe entre le début du XIXe siècle et la première moitié du XXe siècle, et leur interaction dans un contexte historique particulier : c’est à cette époque que la notion de liberté s’ouvre à son acception moderne et que s’opère un chan-gement de paradigme dans la pensée arabe, qui conduira à la naissance du « féminisme arabe ».
Information : https://tinyurl.com/2mvpu4d9
- August 22, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Assistant Professor (9 Months) of Modern Middle East History, Texas A&M University, College Station
We seek a scholar whose research complements and enhances existing departmental strengths and broadens our intellectual and methodological diversity. Candidates should demonstrate a record of, or clear potential for, significant scholarly contributions. The position requires a Ph.D. in History, or a related field.
Deadline for applications: 16 October 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/189211
2. Conference “East Asia, South-East Asia, South Asia and West Asia (the Middle East) in Pan-European Thought, ca. 1900-1980”, University of Amsterdam, 14-15 June 2027
The aim of the conference is to broaden the current discussions on the intertwined histories of de-colonization and pan-European thought, moving beyond the focus on the European Communities and Eurafrica. In particular, we wish to examine how a growing desire for autonomy in Asia shaped pan-European thinking and ideas about the European order – including the Nazis “New Order” – between approximately 1900 and 1980.
Deadline for abstracts: 21 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/5axfcbxc
3. New Book: “Shah Waliyullah Dihlavi: Aspirations and Tensions of Islamic Cosmopolitanism” by SherAli Tareen, Oneworld Academic, 6 August 2026, 208 Pages
Shah Waliyullah Dihlavi (1703–1762) was a highly renowned and influential scholar of Islam who produced foundational works on the Qur’an, Islamic law and jurisprudence, Sufism, philosophy, and politics. In this detailed yet accessible study of his life and scholarship, set in the context of India on the eve of British colonisation, SherAli Tareen examines critical facets of Shah Waliyullah’s intellectual career and explores his contested legacy in South Asia and beyond.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/47jv85uj
4. ‘Muslims between Fragility and Hope in an Age of Existential Crisis’- online conference
The conference will take place on 29 September 2026 and is hosted by the MUSER project at the University of Glasgow. Open to all, but advance registration required.
- August 18, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. CfP: seminar for ACLA, this year in Houston, TX, May 20-23, 2027
ACLA seminar, “The Best Companion: The Aesthetics of Book Love in Arabic Literature,” is now available on the ACLA website:
https://www.acla.org/seminar/05c7d866-cd74-46a7-8813-1779a18fd04e
The ACLA deadline for paper proposals is Sept 22, 2026.
2. Call for Contributions: Reframing Regions: Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East/North Africa in Comparative and Connected Perspectives [LASA Congress, Mexico City, Mexico, June 16-20, 2027
This roundtable brings together scholars working on the historical, cultural, and political connections between Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa. Though scholarship on transnational and global Latin America has expanded considerably, exchanges between these regions remain relatively underexamined despite long histories of migration, commerce, diplomacy, religious exchange, political solidarity, and cultural production.
We invite participants to share works in progress, emerging research questions, methodological reflections, and conceptual approaches that illuminate the movements of people, ideas, texts, objects, and artistic practices across Latin America/the Caribbean and the MENA region from the early modern period to the present. We particularly welcome comparative and connected approaches, as well as work that considers these regions through the lenses of decolonial thought, translation, and transregional networks.
Rather than a series of formal paper presentations, the roundtable will center on conversation and collective exchange. Participants will offer brief interventions followed by an extended discussion among roundtable participants and audience members. We hope to foster a collaborative intellectual space in which scholars can share questions, approaches, and works in progress, identify connections across fields and regions, and explore possibilities for developing new research collaborations and conversations.
We welcome proposals from scholars at all career stages and from a range of disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, political science, religious studies, literary and cultural studies, media studies, art history, architecture, and related fields.
Submissions may describe a specific research project, a work in progress, a methodological or conceptual intervention, or a set of questions that would benefit from discussion in a roundtable setting. Submissions in Spanish as well as English will be considered for acceptance. Please reach out to elvira.blanco@columbia.edu by August 25.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- Early modern and colonial encounters
- Migration, diaspora, exile, and transnational communities
- Comparative and connected histories of colonialism, nationalism, and state formation
- Anti-colonial thought, revolutionary movements, and political solidarities
- Literature, film, music, and other forms of cultural production across regions
- Translation, multilingualism, and the circulation of texts and ideas
- Religion, secularism, and identity
- Race, ethnicity, and indigeneity in comparative perspective
- Contemporary geopolitical, economic, and cultural relations between the regions
- Methodological and conceptual approaches to studying Latin America/the Caribbean and MENA in relation
Ali Noori PhD
Lecturer in Religion | Columbia University
Bahari Visiting Fellow (2026-27) in the Persian Arts of the Book | University of Oxford
alinoori@sas.upenn.edu | (404) 545 – 2785 | alinoori.net
3. The LOEWE Centre Dynamics of Religion (DynaRel) at Goethe University Frankfurt invites proposals for its first international annual conference, “Neighboring Textual and Intellectual Traditions: Dialogues, Polemics, and Translations.”
The conference examines textual and intellectual relationships between Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions from Late Antiquity to the present. It focuses on dialogue, polemics, and translation, asking how religious traditions relate to one another through processes of exchange, reception, appropriation, transformation, and demarcation. The Call for Papers may be of particular interest to scholars working on the medieval Islamic lands and their Jewish and Christian textual and intellectual contexts.
Contributions from both early-career and established scholars are welcome.
Conference: 1–3 February 2027
Venue: Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Conference language: English
Submission deadline: 31 August 2026
Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a brief biographical note of no more than 100 words, to Selma Schwarz at schwarz.s@em.uni-frankfurt.de. Further information is available via the website link.
This announcement is submitted by Anja Glaser on behalf of the DynaRel Communications Team and the conference organisers.
Contact Information
Selma Schwarz
LOEWE Centre Dynamics of Religion (DynaRel), Goethe University Frankfurt
Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a brief biographical note of no more than 100 words, by 31 August 2026.
Contact Email
URL
https://dynamiken-des-religioesen.uni-frankfurt.de/call-for-papers-erste-intern…
4. Call for submissions from Consequence Forum
For the Translations Feature in the spring 2027 issue, we invite previously unpublished translations from Farsi into English that examine the human, cultural, psychological, or historical consequences of war in Iran. We are particularly interested in work that moves beyond the battlefield to explore how violence is remembered, inherited, silenced, resisted, or reimagined, and how conflict reshapes memory, community, identity, and meaning across time.
We welcome:
1- Fiction and creative nonfiction up to 2,000 words
2- Up to five poems or ten pages of poetry
Submissions should include the English translation and the original Farsi text in a single Word document, along with brief author and translator biographies, a short cover letter, and confirmation that permission to translate and publish the work has been secured.
The reading period runs until October 15, 2026. Full submission guidelines are available here.
5. Call for Papers: ACLA Panel on the Question of National Allegory and Forms of Narrativity in the Global South
To propose a paper, please check this link.
The conference will be held in person at the University of Houston, May 20-23, 2027, and online, May 15 & 16, 2027.
If you have any questions about this panel, please reach out to either me (fshams@upenn.edu ) or Mohsen (mohsen.maleki@mail.utoronto.ca ).
Panel Abstract copied below:
“Beyond National Allegory: Forms of Narrativity in the Global South”
The emergence of the modern nation-state and the contested and uneven path of modernization generated a crisis of representation, giving rise to an extraordinary range of forms of narrativity throughout the Global South. Some writers depict this crisis-ridden era through nationalist narratives, while others frame it through allegories of ruin, exile, myth, apocalypse, fragmentation, oil, religion, the collapse of empires, or failed modernization. In his controversial essay “Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism”, Fredric Jameson argues that Third World literature must “necessarily” be national allegory, as in the Third World, the strict divisions between the libidinal-personal and the political-collective have not solidified. Aijaz Ahmad in “Jameson’s Rhetoric of Otherness and the National Allegory” reveals the problematic character of categories such as the Third World and the national allegory as master codes to explain “all” literary production.
Instead of asking whether Global South literature is or is not national allegory, this seminar asks how writers have navigated the shifting landscape of modernization and the turbulent formation and evolution of the nation-state through a diverse repertoire of narrative strategies and symbolic forms. If Jameson’s national allegory pinpoints one recurring strategy, what other allegorical modes arise from the heterogeneous experiences of colonization, partition, occupation, decolonization, oil extraction, ecological disaster, imperial collapse, migration, or religious tensions? As many of these nation-states brought together multiple linguistic, ethnic, and religious communities, what is the political significance of the narrative strategies through which writers have responded to the emergence of the nation-state and nationalism? How do these writers go beyond Jameson’s binary opposition of postmodernism and nationalism as the so-called cultures of the “first” and “third” world? What is the political significance of narrative strategies such as the recurring narrative of modernity as Fall? Going beyond Jameson’s “necessary” nationalist ideology, how do the writers of the Global South respond to what Ahmad calls “the multiplicities of intersecting conflicts based upon class, gender, nation, race, region, and so on,” and what narrative forms do they invent to capture this complex intersection? What other forms of collectivity beyond the category of the nation have these writers imagined? By mediating Jameson’s proposal through Ahmad, this seminar aims to show how “the national allegory” is one among many narrative strategies in the vast repertoire of allegorical responses through which writers have represented promises, contradictions, and failures of the modern nation-state and the modernization process. We welcome papers that examine the literary, cinematic, and artistic representations of modernity, modernization, and the nation-state across the Global South.
6. Hikmat International Institute is pleased to announce its
Each course consists of one live online session per week, providing an opportunity for sustained study, discussion, and direct engagement with the lecturer.
- Exploring and Understanding Islam in the West
Lecturer: Dr Chris Hewer
Schedule: Thursdays | 02:00 P.M UTC
This course explores Islam and the ways in which it has been understood and encountered in Western contexts, offering participants an opportunity to engage with important questions surrounding Islam, Muslim thought, and contemporary Western perspectives.
- Avicenna’s Metaphysics
Lecturer: Dr Jari Kaukua
Schedule: Wednesdays | 01:00 P.M UTC
An in-depth exploration of Avicenna’s metaphysics, covering key themes such as essence and existence, modal logic, the Necessary Existent, God’s knowledge of particulars, future contingency, and freedom of the will. The course brings classical Avicennian thought into conversation with contemporary philosophical questions.
- The Abrahamic Twelvefold: Authority, Anthropology, and Covenant
Lecturer: Dr Kurt Anders Richardson
Schedule: Tuesdays | 04:00 P.M UTC
A cross-tradition exploration of authority, anthropology, and covenant in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Persian intellectual traditions. Drawing on scriptural, theological, philosophical, and mystical sources, the course examines themes including human nature, mortality, covenant, religious authority, and contemporary questions concerning ecology, technology, and human destiny.
Registration Deadline: September 1, 2026
For full course descriptions, schedules, lecturer information, and registration, please visit:
https://hikmat-ins.com/weekly-live-courses/
7. The Mohamed Ali Foundation Fellowship Advisory Panel welcomes applications for the 2027 Mohamed Ali Foundation fellowships, the residencies for which will run from 26 April-25 June 2027.
The Mohamed Ali Foundation is a UK charity whose aims include advancing the education of the public in the history of the Islamic World, of Egypt and of the Mohamed Ali Family in particular, especially the period of reign of Khedive Abbas Hilmi II (1892-1914).
In 2018 the Mohamed Ali Foundation announced the launch of this Fellowship Programme, and which is established to devote scholarly attention to the Abbas Hilmi II Papers held at Durham University and to make the collection’s strengths more widely known to scholars. It is hoped that the fellows’ work will foster deeper understanding of an important period of Egyptian history, and of a transformative era in East -West relations.
The fellowship programme is based at Durham University and managed by an international Advisory Panel comprising academic subject specialists. The programme began in 2019 with the residency of the first fellow Dr Pascale Ghazaleh of the American University in Cairo: her inaugural lecture and the lectures of subsequent fellows are now available online. More fellowships will be awarded over the next years. An Advisory Panel, chaired by Professor Anoush Ehteshami of the Institute for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies will appoint one or two fellows each year.
Fellows will be early career (post-doctoral) or established scholars. The nature of the collection will often require good reading knowledge of Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, French, and English. The online catalogue of the collection indicates the languages of each file of material.
Fellows will research the Abbas Hilmi II Papers, on an agreed topic, and deliver a lecture at Durham University. Each lecture will ultimately form a chapter in a volume of high quality and original research to be edited by Dr Ghazaleh. In the interim the lectures will be published in the university’s Middle East Papers series. The breadth of material in the Abbas Hilmi II Papers will reward an interdisciplinary approach. In order to guide candidate fellows an outline plan of this volume is now provided in the fellowship application documentation. This is not intended to be prescriptive and the Advisory Panel will consider alternative suggestions so long as they are well-grounded in the Abbas Hilmi II Papers and this is evidenced in the application proposal.
The Fellowship, tenable jointly in IMEIS and Grey College, entitles the holder to full access during their residency to departmental and other University facilities such as Computing and Information Services and the University Library. Accommodation is provided at Durham during the Easter term (28 April-27 June 2025), but there is flexibility to arrange residencies in different terms to suit fellows’ availability, and fellows may be permitted to reside in Cairo or Istanbul for the duration of the fellowship and using the digitised collection which is freely accessible online. All fellows will visit Durham, if only briefly, in order to deliver their lecture in June. Lectures and other activities elsewhere during the fellowship will be encouraged.
Fellows who reside at Durham will also be encouraged to take a full part in academic and collegiate life, delivering the already mentioned lecture and perhaps also contributing to seminars.
Fellows will be awarded an honorarium upon completion of their fellowship, and accommodation and all meals will be provided for the duration of the fellowship; a research travel grant is also available to each fellow.
In this, the final year of the fellowship programme, the panel is particularly interested in applicants working on the following topics:
- Infrastructure in its social and political context;
- The use of new technologies in promoting and publicising the Khedive to a wide audience;
- Gender dynamics within the Khedival family and Egyptian society at large during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries;
- The Khedive’s estate and holdings, with a focus on the management of these assets through such mechanisms as waqf;
- The nationalist movement and its relation to the Khedive;
- Political activism, especially by secret organizations using e.g. assassination as a means of protest
Applicants are advised to familiarise themselves with the online catalogue of the Abbas Hilmi II Papers, or the collection itself, and to review the outline plan of the edited volume provided below. More detailed information on the fellowship programme is also provided.
Application Process
The application period for the 2027 fellowship begins in August 2026.
Applicants are required to undertake the following:
- Complete the Application Form
- Send a copy of your Project Proposal (2-3 pages) alongside a copy of your CV (Curriculum Vitae) in support of your application to maf.fellow@durham.ac.uk
*Please note you will be required to complete both stages of this process in order for your application to be considered.
The deadline for 2027 Fellowship programme applications to be received is Tuesday 20 October 2026.
Enquiries can be directed to maf.fellow@durham.ac.uk
8. CFP: Byzantium from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on the Historiography of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Panel at the International Congress on Medieval Studies
Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Sponsored Panel
62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
May 13–15, 2027
Organizers: Catherine McNally (MIT) and Andy Chen (Harvard)
This panel will bring into conversation emerging scholars working across Byzantine studies to reevaluate inherited historiographical traditions and to reflect on the epistemological conditions through which Byzantium has historically been construed. Papers will reexamine the twentieth-century historiographical frameworks that have shaped the study of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean, with particular attention to the scholarly marginalization of communities that resist clear confessional, ethnic, or imperial categorization. Long governed by disciplinary models rooted in nationalism, positivism, and colonialism, Byzantine historiography has often privileged imperial centers rooted in doctrinal orthodoxy at the expense of peripheral, typically heterodox communities that complicate fixed notions of empire. However, disciplinary predispositions towards normative accounts which present Byzantium as monolithic become untenable when confronted with the reality of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean’s fractured geopolitical landscape, linguistic hierarchies, and diverse forms of social organization.
The papers may come from relevant disciplines in Byzantine, Islamic, and eastern Mediterranean studies such as, but not limited to, history, art and architectural history, and comparative literature, with a preference for those incorporating innovative technological applications and/or integrating understudied archives into their approach.
Abstracts of 300 words are due September 15, 2026, and must be submitted using the conference portal (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8539 ). The session will take place in-person.
Please submit any questions to Catherine McNally at csmcn@mit.edu.
Questions that papers might address could include (but are not limited to):
How did particular political, economic, and social conditions in the twentieth century predispose scholars towards certain perspectives and conclusions in Byzantine studies? What methodological prejudices can the reevaluation of historiographical commonplaces reveal and resolve?
Funding
The Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse session participants up to $800 maximum for scholars based in North America and up to $1400 maximum for those traveling from outside North America. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement.
Contact Information
Panel Organizers: Catherine McNally (csmcn@mit.edu ) and Andy Chen (achen1@g.harvard.edu )
Contact Email
9. The Great Lakes Adiban Society (GLAS) invites submissions for its tenth annual workshop, scheduled to take place in Kalamazoo, MI, on October 3-4, 2026. We welcome works in progress that would benefit from extensive discussion and feedback, and especially encourage graduate students to participate.
The Society aims to provide a regional forum for scholars of Islamicate adab to meet and share their work, particularly on the medieval and early modern periods. We leave our parameters of language and genre intentionally open in order to invite as wide a collaboration as can be useful, but as a group we are generally interested in the literary production of the broad complex of premodern Muslim societies across the Eastern Hemisphere. This includes the major Islamicate languages of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, as well as many others (Armenian, Kurdish, Georgian, Hebrew, Spanish, etc.) that participate in similar literary conventions.
Those who wish to participate can apply by filling out our online application before August 30, 2026.
Please note that each accepted participant will be given 45 minutes to present and discuss their work; because of this, we have limited space and may have to turn down some submissions if we receive too many. In such an event, preference will generally be given to graduate students, junior scholars based in the Great Lakes region, and works in progress. This year we have funds to cover the usual meals—Friday dinner through Sunday lunch—plus accommodation for two nights at a local hotel.
All applicants can expect to hear back from us by early September when the schedule is finalized.
10. We are pleased to announce that Digital Collections, the online collections platform of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (State Museums of Berlin), is now available with a brand-new interface and new features.
The Museum for Islamic Art’s collection can be explored directly through Digital Collections, with dedicated filters that allow you to discover objects from our collection.
More than 12,500 objects from the Museum for Islamic Art are currently available online, with detailed information about each object. The collection is continuously expanded and updated by our team.
The platform includes a download feature, making it easier to access available images with the Creative Commons License.
You can access Digital Collections directly, or reach the collection through the Research module of the Online Portal Islamic·Art, which also offers stories, insights, and background information about objects from the Museum for Islamic Art.
Contact Information
Museum für Islamische Kunst (im Pergamonmuseum)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 6
D-10117 Berlin
Contact Email
URL
https://search.smb.museum/en?sammlungen=Museum+f%C3%BCr+Islamische+Kunst
11. The journal Arts (ISSN 2076-0752, IF 0.5) is currently running a Special Issue entitled “Islamic Art Past and Present in Aesthetic-Critical Perspective”. Dr. Valerie Gonzalez is serving as Guest Editor for this issue.
Please visit the Special Issue website at:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/arts/special_issues/464A809POE
The submission deadline is 28 February 2027. You may send your manuscript now or up until the deadline, as papers will be published on an ongoing basis if accepted for publication following peer review. Submitted manuscripts should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to the Editorial Office
in advance (arts@mdpi.com).
Arts is an open-access journal publishing peer-reviewed papers under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). This allows all published papers to be freely and permanently available online. Open access increases the visibility and discoverability of your research, and is supported by authors, institutions, and funding organizations from around the world.
Contact Information
Valerie Gonzalez
Contact Email
Valerie.gonzalez152@goglemail.com
URL
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/arts/special_issues/464A809POE
12. Call for Papers
Environments of Healing: Art, Nature, and Medicine in Medieval Communities, East and West
International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK
5–8 July, 2027
This panel will explore the relationships between art, medicine, and nature in western and eastern communities across the Middle Ages. Medieval art historians have studied medical images for as long as the discipline has existed, but scholarship has often treated medical art as merely representing natural and cosmological phenomena. Moving beyond iconography, this panel invites papers that consider how images and objects actively mediated bodies, environments, and medical practices
The connection between medieval healers and nature was complex; nature inflicted illnesses but also provided cures. Visual art played a central role in communicating and negotiating this fraught relationship. Art was used to teach and record medical knowledge, but art objects were also employed as apotropaic, protective, and powerfully curative in themselves.
Potential themes include, but are not limited to:
- Cosmological medical diagrams
- Illustrated herbal manuscripts
- Apotropaic and curative amulets, stones, and scrolls
- Natural materials and motifs in hospitals and pharmacies
- Animals and insects in medical manuscripts
- Depictions of healers, patients, and remedies
Submissions are due on Friday, September 11, 2026, to zka5@case.edu and ceh160@case.edu. Please ensure your submission includes:
- Your name
- Your current affiliation
- Paper title
- Abstract (max 250 words)
- An updated CV
Decisions will be announced by Monday, September 28. If accepted, this session will take place in person at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds, 2027.
Questions and concerns can be directed to the co-coordinators:
Zoe Appleby, zka5@case.edu, Doctoral Candidate, CWRU
Claudia Haines, ceh160@case.edu, Doctoral Candidate, CWRU
13. ONLINE Lecture “The Suppressed Mother: Sarah and Khadījah in Muslim and Jewish Tra-ditions”, by Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, Islamic Studies and Islamic Theology, University of Helsinki, 17 September 2026, 17:00 – 19:00 CET
This talk will examine the construction of two prominent matriarchal figures: Sarah and Khadījah. Through examining the construction of each character through reception history, from Late Antiquity to modern times, this talk will demonstrate the systematic suppression of feminine authority across literary, religious, and scholarly traditions, with special emphasis on modern and academic writings.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/4ea2x7es
14. Panel on “Byzantium from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on the Historiography of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean” at the “62nd International Congress on Medieval Studies”, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 13-15 May 2027
This panel will reevaluate inherited historiographical traditions and reflect on the epistemological conditions through which Byzantium has historically been construed. Papers will reexamine the twentieth-century historiographical frameworks that have shaped the study of the medieval Eastern Mediterranean, with particular attention to the scholarly marginalization of communities that resist clear confessional, ethnic, or imperial categorization.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/9vpkhpxa
15. Conference “Literatures of the Global South: Space, Place, Environment” (Focus Middle East), University of Toronto, 2-4 June 2027
Space: How complicated minor spaces – such as the home, field, or street index – material ties across regions? – Place: How does a shared experience of neocolonialism shape literary produc-tions across the Middle East and Latin America? – Environment: How do characters perceive envi-ronmental collapse, and how might the latter inspire new forms of thinking the self and its belonging to a greater collectivity?
Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yvb7hx49
16. Associate Professor or Professor in the History of Political Thought and Institutions (Focus MENA), Stanford University, California
We invite applications from scholars working in any time period and region, and encourage candidates whose work brings non-Western, transnational, comparative, or global perspectives.
Qualification: – Ph.D. in History or a closely related field. – Outstanding record of research and publication. – A demonstrated commitment to excellent teaching and mentoring. – Capacity to sus-tain a world-class research program.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3vbv2zy3
17. General Membership (7 Months) at the School for Historical Studies (Focus Islamic World), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
Accepted Members receive access to the extensive resources of the Institute, including offices, access to libraries, subsidized restaurant and housing facilities, and some administrative services. Applicants must have a substantial record of publication and a Ph.D. awarded no later than 31 July 2026. Scholars are not required to hold a current institutional affiliation. Qualified candidates of any nationality are invited to apply.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3zxzu8sd
18. Mellon Fellowship (1 Academic Year) for Assistant Professors at the School for Historical Studies (Focus Islamic World), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
The accepted fellow receives access to the extensive resources of the Institute, including offices, access to libraries, subsidized restaurant and housing facilities, and some administrative services.
Qualification: – Received Ph.D. between 1 January 2020 and 31 July 2026. – Currently Assistant Professors at a college or university in the U.S. or Canada. – Able to return to the current institution after the fellowship.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3zxzu8sd
19. Three Postdoctoral Fellowships (1-2 Years) at the School for Historical Studies (Focus Islamic World), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey
The accepted fellow receives access to the extensive resources of the Institute, including offices, access to libraries, subsidized restaurant and housing facilities, and some administrative services.
Qualification: – Received Ph.D. between 1 July 2024 and 31 August 2026. – One opening for a scholar in the field of Medieval Studies. – Two openings for scholars in the field of Europe & the World post 1800. – At least one writing sample published in a peer-reviewed source.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3zxzu8sd
20. Doha Residence Program in Advanced Arabic & Social Studies Spring 2027, Language Center at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI), 10 January – 29 April 2027
This immersive, semester-long program offers a unique opportunity for international non-native and heritage Arabic-speaking graduate students to deepen their linguistic, cultural, and academic profi-ciency while engaging in a vibrant intellectual exchange. The program is delivered entirely in Arabic, ensuring maximum language exposure and practice.
Deadline for applications: 1 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ujusn7w8
21.Articles for “The Journal of World Religions and Interfaith Harmony (JWRIH)” (Focus Islam)
JWRIH welcomes original research papers on a wide range of religious, philosophical, and theolog-ical topics: – Interfaith Harmony & Dialogue (Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc.). – Comparative Reli-gion & World Religions. – Philosophy of Religion & Theological Studies. – Ilm ul-Kalam (Islamic Systematic Theology). – Orientalism & Occidentalism. – Religious Ethics, Morality, and Contemporary Society. – Sociology and Anthropology of Religion. – Historical Perspectives on Religious Co-existence.
Deadline for contributions: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3dra7b7u
22.Articles for the “Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (ZDMG)”, Sec-tion Islamic Studies
The ZDMG invites the submission of original and innovative contributions to the field of Islamic Studies. We particularly welcome articles with a historical orientation grounded in philological anal-ysis. Contributions should focus on pre-modern Muslim societies (up to approximately 1800 CE) and address topics such as history, religion, culture, law, literature, or social structures.
Deadline for contributions: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y8rxpjj8
- August 15, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. The Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago invites applications for a tenure-track position, at the rank of Assistant Professor, in the Pre-Modern History of the Islamicate Middle East or Central Asia, with an expected start date of July 1, 2027, or as soon as possible thereafter. We invite applications from historians whose research focuses on the social, political, economic, or intellectual history of Muslim/Islamic societies within the Late Antique to Early Modern Periods (approx. 600–1700, C.E.).
Applicants must upload the following materials to the University of Chicago’s recruitment website at apply.interfolio.com/190288 by 10:59 PM Central Time/11:59 PM Eastern Time on October 19, 2026.
For more information, see the above interfolio site.
2. The Department of History at the University of San Diego invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in South Asian and/or Central Asian History with an emphasis on the premodern period (ca. 500-1500 CE) beginning in Fall 2027.
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/70195/university-san-diego-assistant-professor-history
Closing date:
September 15, 2026.
3. “MERI Forum 2026 – The Region We Share: Advancing Stability, Cooperation and Prosperity”, Middle East Research Forum, Erbil, Kurdish Region of Iraq, 12-13 October 2026
This event will bring together local, national, and international policymakers, academics, opinion lead-ers, civil society activists, journalists, and diplomats. Themes will include evolving global and regional power dynamics, U.S. policy in the Middle East, prospects for peace in the Levant, addressing Iraq’s fragility, reforming key state institutions, institutionalising centre-periphery relations, promoting ethno-religious coexistence, and more.
Information, panels and registration: https://tinyurl.com/2b2uj77v
4. Workshop “Translation and Multilingualism Across the Premodern Arabo-Islamic World and Europe”, Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain, 3-4 December 2026
The organisers are looking for focused historical case studies that illuminate multilingual exchange, textual circulation, translation practice, and cross-cultural knowledge production. Focusing on scholars, translators, and intermediaries working across languages such as Arabic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Persian, it explores how knowledge was shaped and reshaped as it moved between intellectual and institutional contexts.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4574krfy
5. “20th Annual International Conference on Mediterranean Studies”, Athens Institute, Athens, Greece, 22-26 March 2027
The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars and researchers from various areas of Mediter-ranean Studies, such as history, arts, archaeology, philosophy, culture, sociology, politics, international relations, economics, business, sports, environment, ecology, and other related disciplines. The con-ference is designed to facilitate discussions among academics from Mediterranean countries and those conducting research on Mediterranean-related issues, fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2026. Information: https://www.atiner.gr/mediterranean
6. Conference “Foreign Language: Prospects for Interaction and Communication with Arab and Eastern Cultures”, College of Languages, University of Baghdad, 24-25 March 2027
Themes include the challenges of translation; literary and intellectual translation between Arabic and Eastern languages on one side and Western languages on the other; comparative literature; contem-porary Orientalism and Occidentalism; the image of the Other in translated fiction; cultural identity; and language education and technology.
Deadline for abstracts: 20 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/466hkx52
7. 12 Doctoral Positions (4 Years) in Research on “Reconciliation and its Equivalents in a Transcultural Comparison”, University of Bonn
The programme seeks to promote early career researchers through specialised training groups. The selected candidates will participate in the group’s research activities while writing their doctoral theses. Qualification: A completed Master’s degree in a relevant Humanistic discipline. – Ability to work as part of a team. – An interdisciplinary mindset. – A C1-level proficiency in English.
Deadline for applications: 17 September 2026. Information: https://www.thoughtfox.xyz/bits/rhenish-friedrich-wilhelm-university-of-bonn-12-doctoral-reconciliation-studies-2026
8. Articles on “Literature Beyond Borders: Festschrift in Honour of Ferial Ghazoul” for “Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics”, American University in Cairo, 48, 2028
Ferial Ghazoul, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and founder of Alif, is honoured on her retirement with the journal’s forty-eighth issue. The call invites colleagues, students, and collabora-tors to engage with her scholarship on medieval and contemporary Arabic literature, and particularly the Arabian Nights; on translation studies, untranslatability, and comparative method; on the formation of comparative literature as a discipline in Egypt and the Arab world; and on her editorial legacy in shaping Alif and other Arab scholarly journals.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yr68v8vd
9. Chapters on “The Muslim Brothers through the Eyes of the Others a Century on: A Battle of Perceptions and Narratives in the Middle East and Beyond” for a Volume Edited by Panos Kourgiotis (University of Macedonia), Vernon Press
Scholars from the field of modern and contemporary history, political sciences, international relations and law, religious studies, anthropology, sociolinguistics and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies are invited to contribute using their expertise on how others perceive the Muslim Brotherhood. Chapters are expected to cover a large repertoire of political parties, foreign governments, religious and academic institutions, minority groups, think tanks and international fora across the globe etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 25 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4ss3v2ej
10. ONLINE New Article: “Technopolitical Energy Governance as Administrative Closure: Digi-talisation and the Depoliticisation of Energy Politics in Iran and Saudi Arabia” by Arash Beidol-lahkhani (University of Manchester/ZMO), 10 July 2026, 16 Pages
The article analyses how digital infrastructures reshape energy policy making and redefine who is en-titled to participate. Focusing on Iran and Saudi Arabia, it traces two converging logics. In Iran, digital systems become most visible during crises such as fuel price reforms and blackouts. In Saudi Arabia, digitalisation is embedded within long-term development planning, where grassroots engagement is selectively structured, narrowing opportunities for meaningful participation in energy policy.
View: https://tinyurl.com/5e35w69j
11. New Volume: “A History of Middle Eastern Modernism” Edited by Levi Thompson, Cam-bridge University Press, August 2026, 452 Pages
A wide-ranging examination of Middle Eastern modernism across Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and other regional languages from the nineteenth century to the present. The volume connects literary and artistic modernist forms across the Arab world, Ottoman and Turkish contexts, Iran, Central Asia, and India, offering a comparative frame for modernist studies well beyond Euro-American norms – a natural com-panion to current work on the Arabic prose poem, free verse, and the periodical cultures of modernism.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/5n8prn45
12. New Volume: “Texts as Living Objects: Dhayls and Knowledge Transmission in the Islamic World” Edited by Sacha Alsancakli and Philip Bockholt, Brill, 6 August 2026, 270 Pages
Nine contributions on dhayls, supplements, and textual transmission in the Islamic world, spanning a wide geographical and chronological range and integrating case studies of texts in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Samaritan Hebrew. The volume proposes a renewed definition of the dhayl as a cultural and historical phenomenon. Of direct value to anyone working on Arabic historiography, continuation and compilation, or the material life of texts
Information: https://tinyurl.com/yatvkw87
13. New Book: “The Islamic World of Education 2027”, Asia Pacific Infoserv Pty Ltd., Sydney, August 2026, 800 Pages
A comprehensive directory and guide to the organizations and institutions throughout the Islamic World of higher education and learning. Facts and figures: • Thousands of universities, colleges, schools of art and music, libraries, learned societies, research institutes, museums and art galleries. • Details on many thousands of staff and officials. • Information on international cultural, scientific and educational organizations. • Completely revised and updated throughout the year.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/3ks8dd78
14. New Book: “The Ottoman Ulema and the Quest for an Islamic Constitution: Revolution and Revelation”, Yakoob Ahmed, Edinburgh Studies on the Ottoman Empire, July 2026, 304 Pages
The Constitutional Revolution of 1908-1909 is one of the most transformative yet misunderstood mo-ments in late Ottoman history. This book challenges conventional narratives of this period as a secular rupture by the Young Turks from Islamic tradition, instead spotlighting the pivotal role of the Sunni ulema in shaping and sustaining the new constitutional order. This book reframes the late Ottoman constitu-tional experience as a dynamic synthesis of faith, reform and political modernity.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/5abhfxff
15. New Book: “Conscripting Breadwinner Soldiers in the Late Ottoman Empire: Family, Law and War” by Kate Dannies, Edinburgh Studies on the Ottoman Empire, July 2026, 272 Pages
This book examines the gender and family dimensions of mobilisation for the First World War in the Ottoman Empire, situating the war in a long-nineteenth-century social history of Ottoman military reform for the first time. It focuses on the military legal concept of muinsizlik (sole breadwinning) and how this concept shaped Ottoman military policy – namely, how militarisation and mobilisation were supported by the exploitation of women’s care and social reproductive labour, as well as the extraction of material and physical resources from Ottoman families.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/ysh2svuf
16. New Book: “The Architecture of Bibliophilia: Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Libraries” by Ya-vuz Sezer, Contributions by Kristel Smentek, Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, Edinburgh Studies on the Ottoman Empire, July 2026, 384 Pages
This book provides a rich account of the social, intellectual and architectural worlds of Istanbul’s library patrons and readers: – First book-length study of the Ottoman library movement. – Anchors the schol-arship on Ottoman cultural and intellectual history in architecture. – Establishes patterns of cross-ref-erences in architecture and decoration. – Discusses the trans-imperial connections of the Ottoman library movement.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/bddnzp9m
17. The Library of Congress Asian Division, as part of the“Fashion at the Library” series, will be hosting a virtual discussion on August 13th(3:00PM-4:30PM EST) “From South Asia to the American South: A Discussion about the History and Trade of Seersucker” (Library of Congress).
Ever wonder how a lightweight fabric from India became the ultimate uniform for Southern summers? To mark one of the final Seersucker Thursdays of 2026, Dr. Giorgio Riello and Dr. Prasannan Parthasarathi will come together for a conversation about the historical trade of the famous cloth, from its place of origin in India, to the American South, where it has become a part of the Southern dress code.
Thursday, August 13, 2026, 3:00PM-4:30PM EST
Register here for the Zoom event: https://tinyurl.com/kn4cbdsc.
For those unable to attend, this talk will be recorded and posted on the Library’s website and Youtube page.
Giorgio Riello is Professor of Early Modern Global History at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy and Professor of Global History and Culture at the University of Warwick, UK (currently on secondment). He has published widely on the material exchange between Europe and Asia in the early modern period. Among his books Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (2013), Luxury: A Rich History (2016), and the forthcoming In Times of Wealth (2027). He co-edited with Prasannan Parthasarathi a book entitled The Spinning World (2009).
Prasannan Parthasarathi is Professor of History at Boston College. He is the author of The Transition to a Colonial Economy: Weavers, Merchants and Kings in South India, 1720-1800 (Cambridge, 2001), The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles (Oxford, 2009), and Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence 1600-1850 (Cambridge, 2011). He is now working on a study of agriculture and the environment in nineteenth-century South India.
Contact Information
Charlotte Giles
South Asia Specialist, Library of Congress
- August 11, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. The non-human mystics of Islam: animals as pious worshippers in early Sufism’
A Salamah-Qudsi
BSOAS, June 2026
2. RGQ 2026 (Review of Global Qur’anic Studies of the Year): 2end meeting
Sponsored by Ind. Int. Quranic Parliament (IQP)
Aug 18-19, 2026
Review of IQSA Vienna 2026 papers With participation of:
Prof. Ghassan El-Masri, Europe
Prof. Abdulla Galadari, Asia
Prof. Roberta Sabbath, America
Prof. Abdelmajid Benhabib، Africa
More info. via:
https://event.fourwaves.com/iqp2026
🔺 Registration:
https://event.fourwaves.com/iqp2026/registration
____
🔸 المجلس الدولي المستقل للقرآن الکریم
🔹Ind. Int. Quranic Parliament (IQP)
http://zabanshenasitarikhi.ir/
ahmadi_mh@ut.ac.ir
3. Call for Papers: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Ibrahim Pour-Davoud
TentativeTitle: Studies in Ancient Iranian Culture, Avestan Literature, and National Identity: Essays in Memory of Ibrahim Pour-Davoud.
We are pleased to invite submissions for an upcoming edited volume (Festschrift) dedicated to honoring the monumental legacy of Professor Ibrahim Pour-Davoud (1886–1968)—pioneer of Iranian studies, scholar of the Avesta, and champion of ancient Persian literature and culture.
Pour-Davoud’s groundbreaking translations and commentaries on the Avesta and Old Iranian texts laid the foundation for modern Iranian philology and inspired generations of scholars in the fields of Indo-Iranian linguistics, ancient history, Zoroastrian studies, and Persian literary history.
Suggested Topics & Themes
We welcome original, unpublished research papers from established scholars, early-career researchers, and independent specialists. Contributions may focus on, but are not limited to, the following thematic areas:
- Avestan & Old Iranian Philology: Textual criticism, linguistics, and translations of Old and Middle Iranian languages.
- Zoroastrianism & Ancient Iranian Religions: Rituals, theology, iconography, and historical development of Iranian belief systems.
- Historiography & Memory of Pre-Islamic Iran: The reception of ancient Iranian history and mythology in Persian literature (e.g., the Shahnameh).
- Intellectual Legacy of Ibrahim Pour-Davoud: Re-evaluations of his life, translations, national vision, and impact on modern Iranian cultural identity.
- Iranian Cultural Contacts: Interdisciplinary studies exploring connections between ancient Iran and neighboring civilizations (Mesopotamia, Greece, India, Central Asia).
Submission Guidelines
- Abstract Submission: Please submit an abstract of 300–500 words along with a short bio (max 150 words) by November 15, 2026.
- Acceptance Notification: Authors will be notified by January 10, 2027.
- Full Chapter Submission: Completed manuscripts should be between 6,000–8,000 words (including references and endnotes) and are due by July 25, 2027.
- All submissions must be written in English.
Note to Contributors: All submitted chapters will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process prior to final publication.
For more information, please contact Mr. A, K, Jabbari, Publisher.
4. The Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World at the University of Edinburgh is seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Associate (0.8 FTE, fixed term for 24 months) to join the internationally funded research project ‘The Global Landscapes of Muslim Lives: Latin American and Caribbean Intersections’, led by Dr Kholoud Al-Ajarma (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Kenneth Chitwood (University of Bayreuth), and funded by the AHRC and DFG.
This is an exciting opportunity to develop and deliver an independent programme of ethnographic and qualitative research on contemporary Muslim communities in Latin America and/or the Caribbean. Working within the Alwaleed Centre, you will undertake original fieldwork, contribute to high-quality publications, collaborate with an international research team, and play a key role in shaping new understandings of Muslim lives, networks and institutions in an under-researched global context.
The closing date for applications is Wednesday 26 August at 11:59pm BST. To view the full advert and submit your application CLICK HERE.
5. GLOBAL GULF
Geo-Economic, Geo-Political, and Geo-Technological Transformation
in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar
N Janardhan
Gerlach
Hardcover, 214 pages, ISBN: 9783959941990
https://gerlachpress.com/9783959941990
6. Belonging on Both Shores: Mobility, Migration, and the Bordering of the Persian Gulf. Lindsey R. Stephenson (Stanford University Press, 2026). Pp. 218. $70.00 cloth.
7. CfP: CAA Session: Picturing Entanglements: Transcultural Creatures in Medieval Eurasian Art
The session will be held on location.
From the simurgh perched on Sasanian textiles to dragons coiling through Yuan porcelain, creatures—real and imagined—were among the most mobile and mutable figures of the medieval Eurasian visual world. They migrated across textiles, metalwork, ceramics, paintings, manuscripts, and prints, shedding and acquiring attributes as they crossed linguistic, religious, and political frontiers. A phoenix in East Asia was not quite a simurgh in the Islamic world, yet the two could share a silhouette, or hybridize altogether. Such creatures did not merely illustrate cross-cultural exchange; they were the very vehicles through which artists, patrons, and viewers co-produced meaning, continually transforming and reinvesting these figures with new significance in the process.
This panel convenes scholars working across the art histories of the Eurasian visual world to examine how zoomorphic imagery materialized transcultural entanglement between roughly 500 and 1500 CE. We invite papers that treat creatures as agents rather than ornaments: as carriers of diplomatic meaning, as sites of iconographic negotiation, as problems of translation, and as catalysts for artistic invention. Why did artists adapt foreign beasts to local visual idioms? What was lost, gained, or generated in the passage? How might attention to creaturely imagery help us move beyond diffusionist models toward richer accounts of medieval connectivity? Interdisciplinary approaches, including those drawing on the environmental humanities and material studies, are especially welcome.
The call for papers is open until 31 August.
Please submit your title, abstract, and CV through the CAA website.
Contact Information
Yuxi Pan, SOAS University of London
Contact Email
URL
https://caa.confex.com/caa/2027/webprogrampreliminary/Session18322.html
8. Fons Vitae: Rumi Series
https://fonsvitae.com/product-category/sufism/jalaluddin-rumi/
9. Conference – “From the Balkans to Bengal in Baltimore: Engaging Diasporas, Shaping Publics, and Reimagining Islamic Art in American Museums”
“How should American museums that present Islamic art engage the diasporic communities that are increasingly recognized as key public constituencies? What strategies might best encourage communities to move from viewing art to responding to it—and in doing so, reshape how it is interpreted in public spaces? Join curators, practitioners, and scholars of Islamic art, art history, and history for this two-day conference, hosted at the University of Maryland and the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore.
To find out more and register, please go to https://arthistory.umd.edu/research-innovation/balkans-bengal-baltimore-engaging-diasporas-shaping-publics-and-reimagining
The schedule is as follows:
Thursday, September 24, 2026
Location: Ulrich Recital Hall, Tawes Hall, University of Maryland
9:30-10:00 Registration
10:00-10:30 Welcome and Introductions
10:30-12:00 Panel #1: Interpreting and Presenting Islamic Art, moderated by Ünver Rustem, Johns Hopkins University
Ekin Akalın, University of Nantes and the Autonomous University of Madrid, The Missing Showcase of Modernity in Islamic Art Galleries and the Ottoman Military Painters (1839-1939)
Elnaz Latifpour, University of Virginia, Rewriting the Label: Interpreting Qashqai and Southern Iranian Weavings in Western Museums
Constance Jame, Musée d’art Roger-Quilliot, Performing the Objects: Beyond Materiality and Art Historical Discourses
12:00-1:30 Lunch
1:30-4:00 Panel #2: Curating Islamic Art and Muslim History in American Institutions, moderated by Karin Zitzewitz, University of Maryland, College Park
Nadirah Mansour, Lake Forest College, Building a Collection of Arabic Calligraphy by Living Artists at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Acquisitions, Interpretation and Community Outreach
Rachel Winter, Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, When Paintings Become About Palestine: Samia Halaby in Michigan
Hiba Abid, New York Public Library, Uncovering Islamic Heritages in New York: Fostering Community Connections via Niyū Yūrk and Further Initiatives
Amy Landau, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, Curating the work of an Iranian American artist in “Tehrangeles”
Ladan Akbarnia, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Silent Revolutions and Small Victories: Reflections on curating Islamic visual culture
Location: Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, University of Maryland
4:15-4:45 Tour of LANDLINE, curated by Islam & Print, University of Maryland Art Gallery
4:00-5:30 Reception, Atrium
5:30-7:00 Keynote, Stefan Weber, Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin, moderated by Peter Wien, University of Maryland, College Park, Rm. 2203
Friday, September 25, 2026
10:00-10:15 Meet at Walters Art Museum
10:15-12:15 Guided Tours of Islamic Galleries at Walters and Making Space/Islam & Print
12:15-1:30 Lunch at the Helmand, registration required
Location: Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street Baltimore, MD 21201
1:30-2:30 Special Collections Tour, Pratt Library
2:30-4:30 Panel #3: Engaging Communities, Reimagining Publics, moderated by Harold Morales, Morgan State University
Alison Kysia, Independent Artist, Muslim American Artist in the U.S.: Contemporary perspectives on art, faith, and identity
Melissa Forstrom, Purchase College, SUNY, and Ashley Dimmig, Crossman Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Sharing Authority: Engaging Historic and Contemporary Diasporic Community Members at the Walters Art Museum
Basmah Arshad, University of North Texas, ‘If Not Now, When?’: The Arab American National Museum During the Post-9/11 Era and Afterward
Sarah Slingluff, University of Maryland, College Park, Beyond the Museum Walls: Challenges and Opportunities in Curating Islamic Art for Virtual Audiences
4:30-5:30 Social Gathering at Stem & Vine
10. Conference: God, Human, Machine | 28 – 30 September 2026 | University of Erfurt (Hybrid)
We are pleased to announce our upcoming conference God, Human, Machine: Images and Imaginaries of Religion in the Age of AI at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Addressing a critical but underexplored dimension of the AI–religion nexus, the conference brings together theoretical and empirical perspectives, connecting scholars and practitioners working at the intersections of Religious Studies, Anthropology, Art History, and Science and Technology Studies. The programme features two keynote lectures by Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan) and Gregory Price Grieve (UNC Greensboro), a conversation with religious digital image creators, and seven panels exploring the relationship between human imagination, religious knowledge, and AI systems.
The detailed conference schedule is on our event webpage: https://www.uni-erfurt.de/to/godhumanmachine
Registration via the conference webpage is open until 16 September.
For any queries, please contact Afaf Abdelrazek via aiimagery@uni-erfurt.de
Please join us for this exciting opportunity to engage with cutting-edge research and critical debates about the ways in which AI image systems and human imaginaries of religion shape each other across traditions, cultures, and social contexts.
Best wishes,
Christoph Günther
Programme
Day 1: 28 September 2026
09:30 – 10:00 Opening remarks
10:00 – 12:00 Panel 1: Sensory and Spatial Aspects (Chair: Christoph Günther)
Tino Grisi (Politecnico di Milano): The “How” of the Rite: AI-Generated Polyhedral Synthesis and the New Imagery of Ecclesial Spaces
Nesrine Mansour (University of Colorado Boulder): What the Machine Cannot See: A Manifesto for Sacred Imagination in the Age of AI
Isobel Dickson (Dublin City University): Envisioning Artificial Intelligence: Mysticism, AI Ethics, and the Religious Imaginary of Starmirror
13:30 – 15:30: Panel 2: Revealing the Hidden and Unimaginable (Chair: Afaf Abdelrazek)
Wajeeha Naween (Bahria University Karachi Campus): The Ghost in The Pen: AI, Barakah and the Future of Islamic Calligraphy
Barbara Denuelle (University of Kent): Seeing with the Eye of the Heart: Sufi Epistemology, Visual Imagination, and AI-Generated Images
Fitri Murfianti (Leiden University): Seeing the Unseen: AI Images, Digital Miracles, and the Remaking of Religious Imagination in Indonesia
15:45 – 17:30 Traversing Design, Art and Devotion: A Conversation with Religious Digital Image Content Creators (Roundtable)
17:45 – 19:15: Keynote (Chair: Christoph Günther)
Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan): Pandora’s Black Box: Techno-Orientalist Images of the Prophet Muhammad in the Age of AI
Day 2: 29 September 2026
09:00 – 11:00: Panel 3: The Politics of AI-charged Imaginaries (Chair: Farwa Ejaz)
Efstathios Kessareas (University of Erfurt): Reimagining Hellenic Polytheism through AI: Aesthetics, Ideology, and Power
Rasool Akbari (University of Bonn): Ambivalences of AI-Rendered Iranian Cultural Imaginaries: A Case Study of the Sun and the Lion
Kathrin Trattner (University of Zurich): “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” The role of generative AI in the digital martyrdom of Charlie Kirk
11:15 – 12:15 Bias Datasets, Artificial Hate and Racist Intelligence: A Conversation with Ari Temkin, followed by the art installation The Jewish Dataset (2025)
13:15 – 14:15 Guided VR Demonstrations: ThePuja.App, VR Hajj, and VR Karbala
14:15 – 16:15: Panel 4: Interactions with AI-generated Imagery (Chair: Jasmin Eder)
Jan Philipp Hahn (EZW, Berlin): Visualizing Divine Authority: The Persuasive Power of AI-Imagery in Interreligious Online Debates
Feeza Vasudeva, Katja Valaskivi (University of Helsinki): Godbots and Religious Mediation: An Exploratory Study of Religious AI Interaction
Sofia Tsourlaki (SOAS University London): Reclaiming Revelation: Use AI to Visualise Qur’anic Meanings Beyond the Authority of the ʿUlamāʾ
16:30 – 18:00: Keynote (Chair: Fouad Gehad Marei)
Gregory Price Grieve (UNC Greensboro): Cave of Dreams: Designing Ethical AI Worlds for the Study of Religion and Human Responsibility
Day 3: 30 September 2026
09:00 – 11:00: Panel 5: Re-Conceptualising AI & Religious Imagination (Chair: tba)
Thowhidul Islam & Nurul Amin (International Islamic University Chittagong), Iftekharul Islam (University of Dhaka): Between Khayāl and Code: Artificial Intelligence and the Islamic Philosophy of Imagination
Arulchelvan Sriram (Anna University): From Darshan to Dataset: AI-Generated Divine Images & the Transformation of Seeing in Hindu Practice in Tamil Nadu
Kris Ramlan (Goethe University Frankfurt): Artificial Imagination? Ibn ʿArabi’s Ontology of the Imaginal and AI-Generated Presence
11:15 – 13:30: Panel 6: AI Images and Imaginaries of Religious Pasts and Futures (Chair: Christiane Gruber)
Murtala Ibrahim (FU Berlin): Machines of the Final Hour: AI as Eschatological Portent in West African Islam
Katharina Yadav (University of Zurich), Feeza Vasudeva (University of Helsinki): Aesthetics and (Religious) Imagination in Hindu and Christian AI Images
Babak Rahimi (UC San Diego): AI Karbala: Artificial Visuality, Shiʿi Mourning, and Futurity
Christoph Günther (University of Erfurt): “Your first day in jannah” vs. “POV: you wake up in jahannam”: AI Images of Paradise and Hell
15:30 – 17:30: Panel 7: Ethical Entrainment, Moral Cultivation, and Postcolonial Subjectification in the Age of AI (Chair: tba)
Maria Majorie Purino University of San Carlos): Hsing Yun’s Humanistic Buddhism: Cultivating AI & Digital Humanities
Myra Abubakar (National University of Singapore): Selective Legacy 2.0: AI-Generated Imagery and the Algorithmic Curation of Postcolonial Islamic Memory
Mohamad Zreik (Sun Yat-sen University): AI and the Revival of Confucianism: Virtual Teachings and Moral Imagery in Contemporary China
11. Ars Orientalis invites submissions of innovative articles on the arts of the broad geographic area of Asia, from the ancient period to the contemporary. We seek original, previously unpublished work that reflects insightful interventions, including but not limited to comparative or interdisciplinary approaches, multimedia content, and digital humanities methods.
Manuscripts should be 8,000 to 12,000 words (including endnotes).
Ars Orientalis is a digital publication with a print-on-demand option. The digital volume also allows for the incorporation of other media, such as video, sound, and 3D models. Visual material must include permissions for print and online reproduction.
We are currently accepting submissions for volume 58 to be published in December 2028. Articles must be received by September 1, 2026, to be considered.
Submissions should be sent to ArsOrientalis@si.edu.
Guidance, submission, and style guide for articles can be found here https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/submit-research/.
Contact Information
Ars Orientalis
Freer Research Center
National Museum of Asian Art
Contact Email
URL
https://asia.si.edu/research/publications/ars-orientalis/submit-research/
12. Grabar Travel Grant
Deadline: August 15, 2026
This competition is open to graduate students (doctoral candidates) who have been invited or accepted as participants in a scholarly conference or other professional meeting for the purpose of presenting papers, chairing sessions or moderating discussions.
The maximum amount of the award is $2,500 USD.
Applicants must be HIAA members in good standing at the time of application. Grabar Travel Grants must be used within 12 months of the award date.
Applications must include the following five components and be submitted in a single PDF to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by August 15, 2026:
- Application cover sheet, available here
- A cover letter explaining the applicant’s purpose in participating in the conference, the expected benefits of participation, and an itemized travel budget
- Curriculum vitae
- Letter of acceptance from the conference/session organizer(s)
- Abstract of the paper to be presented
In addition, a letter of recommendation from the applicant’s primary supervisor should be sent directly to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by the deadline.
Applicants from outside the United States are responsible for meeting the requirements and obtaining any visas necessary for visits to or residence and research in the United States. Upon request, HIAA will supply documentation of the grant and/or fellowship award, the dates of the award, and financial support.
For further details and to apply, please visit: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/opportunities/hiaa-prizes/grabar-grants-and-fellowships
13. The Critical Studies on Terrorism annual conference will take place at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on Tuesday 8 September and Wednesday 9 September 2026.
Venue: G.06, 50 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JU
The Critical Studies on Terrorism annual conference will take place at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on Tuesday 8 September and Wednesday 9 September 2026. Critical Terrorism Studies has witnessed a growing engagement with decolonial and postcolonial perspectives over the past years that have challenged the continued, even if inadvertent, Eurocentrism of the discipline and its dominant approaches. Despite these advances, the field continues to grapple with enduring forms of Eurocentrism in its conceptual frameworks, research agendas, and scholarly conversations. It is therefore time for CTS to consider a more radical re-orientation of the direction it has been taking since its foundation. In light of this, The Critical Studies on Terrorism working group is calling for an initiative that bridges the fields of CTS and Critical Muslims Studies (CMS)
Information and Registration:
14. “Multilingual Transmission and Sufi Lexicography: ʿAbdul Razzāq Kāshānī and the Transmission of Ibn ʿArabī”,
in Religions as part of the Special Issue
Multilingualism, Translation, and Religion in the Premodern Islamic World(s):
Texts, Contexts, and Crossroads.
Leila Chamankhah
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/17/7/837
15. Workshop “Migration and Mobility in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Borderlands (19th – 21st Centuries)”, University of Vienna, 13-14 November 2026
We particularly invite contributions from fields such as history, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, spa-tial and border studies, which address various instances of trans-border mobility, specific borderlands border-zones, transnational diaspora networks, minority histories, memory, and memory production within the context of Ottoman and post-Ottoman space.
Deadline for abstracts: 17 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yjuphfjx
16. Editor (5 Years) for the Journal “Turkish Studies”, London
This role is a great opportunity for an academic with a strong research background in Turkish Studies and who has the commitment, drive and ability to help further develop this leading academic journal. The role would suit mid-career or senior scholars who are keen to make a significant impact on the scholarly field and are able to dedicate the requisite time and attention to the journal. Applicants should have the capacity to devote approximately 10-12 hours each week to the role.
Deadline for applications: 13 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2anhmd2p
17. Two Associated Editors (3 Years) for the Journal “Turkish Studies”, London
Qualification: A PhD in a relevant discipline. – Working in a Social Science discipline and active in research pertaining to Türkiye. – Experience with academic publishing. – Excellent skills of written and spoken English, and a commitment to linguistic detail. – The capacity to devote approximately 5-6 hours each week to the role. – Experience with working effectively with independent peer reviewers.
Deadline for applications: 14 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2phw25n7
18. Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in the Pre-Modern History of the Islamicate Middle East or Central Asia, University of Chicago
Qualification: PhD in a relevant field. – Demonstrated ability to carry out original independent research in the areas of the search, resulting in publications in leading venues. – Excellent command of either Classical Arabic or Persian required. – Research competency in an additional Middle Eastern/Central Asian language (Arabic, Persian, Turkic languages, or other relevant language). – Demonstrated ability or potential for excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching.
Deadline for applications: 19 October 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/190288
19. Articles for the “Journal of Arabic Linguistics Tradition”, Volume 24
We welcome scholarly articles that contribute to the study and research in the field of Arabic linguistics tradition, encompassing the whole range of phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, lexico-graphic, and other related analyses and specific contributions of linguists since the tradition’s earliest inception (around the 8th Century) until the end of the 15th Century. The journal also welcomes trans-lation articles, especially those accompanied by commentary and/or analysis sections, as well as book reviews.
Deadline for contributions: 15 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ykt7w6a8
20. Chapters on “Lives Beyond the Archives: Alf Muslimah Research Competition” for an Ency-clopaedia of Leading Muslim Women, Al-Mujadilah Research, Doha
Proposals are invited for research-based entries for “Alf Muslimah”, a forthcoming encyclopaedia doc-umenting the lives, intellectual contributions, and social impact of leading Muslim women across the globe and throughout the ages. The project sets out to recover the stories of exemplars whose achieve-ments and legacies have been overlooked, underrepresented, or preserved only through local commu-nity histories, oral traditions, or regional archives.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/b2f46jk2
- August 08, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment