Categories : Academic items
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Augusta University – Assistant Professor of History Modern European History & Africa/Islamic World
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=64140
Closing date: 28.10.22
2. Southern Methodist University – Lecturer in South Asian Religions/Islam
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=64178
Closing date: 29.12.22
3. Georgetown University – Assistant Professor in the history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=63984
Closing date: 15.11.22
4. Propagandist Strategy or Artistic Agency? The story behind a unique pictorial Dorokhsh carpet
Moderated by Prof Pedram Khosronejad, Curator of Persian Arts, Powerhouse.
Powerhouse Ultimo, Sydney
15 October 2022, 11am – 12pm
A panel of specialists in Persian art, material culture, carpet weaving and Islamic art and architecture will discuss the significance of a unique pictorial Persian Dorokhsh carpet, showcased for the first time in Weavers, Merchants and Kings, an exhibition celebrating Cadrys 70th Anniversary, on now at Powerhouse Ultimo.
The hand-knotted wool carpet, made in Birjand, Khorasan, Persia, about 1890, was recently acquired by the Cadry family having captured the private collectors’ attention for being one of only a handful of known examples of very large antique Dorokhsh carpets to feature an architectural scene as the central design. It appears to depict an Indian palace and it is speculated it may have been intended for display inside one. This object is very similar to noted Dorokhsh pictorial carpet from Golestan Palace, Iran.
Since the early 1500s the Dorokhsh region – near Birjand and Qaen in South Khorasan, Iran – has been renowned for the design and production of traditional Persian carpets. Our panel conversation will focus on the mechanisms around the creation of this particular Dorokhsh carpet to examine the agency of the artists who made it and the spectrum of socio-cultural and political factors involved in the traditional act of carpet-weaving.
Speakers include Robert Cadry, Managing Director of Cadrys Rugs; Dr Andrew Jacob, Curator of Astronomy, Powerhouse-Sydney Observatory, Dr Mahroo Mousavi, Nizami Ganjavi Fellow, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford and Lecturer in Architectural History, University of Sydney, and Prof Pedram Khosronejad.
More details: https://www.maas.museum/event/propagandist-strategy-or-artistic-agency/
5. Digital Archiving of Diasporic Cultural Productions and Transnational Citizenship of Arabs in the West
https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/diaspora.21.2.2021.05.07
6. The 9th Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies
Providence, Rhode Island, USA | June 2023
Call for Papers
We are pleased to announce the 9th Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies, which will be held at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island (USA) from June 8-10, 2023. The conference will be conducted in two parts and will be preceded by a three-day intensive course on the history of the Arabic language during the Mamluk period.
Themed day: The Languages of the Mamluk Sultanate (June 8, 2023)
The first day of the conference will be devoted to the theme of language in the Mamluk sultanate. We invite papers that treat the phenomena of multilingualism, translation, orality and literacy, vernaculars and cosmopolitan languages, sociolects, and other topics related to the history of language during the period. The languages explored may include any relevant to the sultanate including but not limited to Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Coptic, Greek, Latin, and Mongolian. A maximum of twelve to fifteen paper proposals will be selected. The time allotted to each paper will be twenty minutes, plus ten minutes for discussion.
Panels (June 9-10, 2023)
The following two days of the conference will be structured in panels, which may focus on any aspect of the intellectual, political, social, economic, and artistic life of the Mamluk period. Panels will be composed of three to four papers, of twenty minutes each. Discussion will follow the presentation of each panel’s papers. The language of the conference is English.
Publication
- a) Themed day: The conference organizers expect that a selection of papers from the themed day will be published in a volume of proceedings, pending interest from scholarly publishers.
- b) Panels: Selected papers will be published in Mamlūk Studies Review.
Proposals
Scholars who wish to give a paper on the “themed day” (June 8) must submit a paper proposal through the School of Mamluk Studies webpage (http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/school-of-mamluk-studies.html ) by October 31, 2022.
Those who wish to give a paper on one of the “panel days” (i.e. June 9 and 10) should submit their proposal as part of a pre-organized panel. (Please note: it is the responsibility of the applicants to put together their own panels; the conference organizers will not accept individual papers for this portion of the event; only the themed day will accept individual papers). Panel proposals may be submitted via the webpage above by November 30, 2022. The proposal should provide the following information for each paper in the panel: (1) the name of the speaker; (2) a one-page CV; (3) a provisional paper title; (4) an abstract of a maximum of 1500 characters (about 300 words). Panel proposals should also identify the panel’s chair (who may be one of the panelists).
Paper and panel proposals will be peer-reviewed. A first circular will be sent by January 2023 to those whose proposals have been accepted, and to those who have expressed interest in attending the conference as listeners. Please note that if more than half of the participants on a panel withdraw, the entire panel must be withdrawn from the program.
Fees
The conference registration fees will be $50 for participants and attendees. For those interested, there will be a farewell dinner at a local restaurant, at a cost to be determined. Payment of the fees must be received by April 30, 2023, and information on the method of payment to be used will be provided in the first circular.
Participants must make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. Information and suggestions for accommodations will be provided in the first circular.
Intensive course: Arabic in the Mamluk Period
Prior to the conference, Professor Marina Rustow (Princeton University) and Professor Phillip Stokes (University of Tennessee) will offer a three-day intensive course (June 5-7) on the history of the Arabic language during the Mamluk period. The course will present an overview and history of the different varieties of Arabic attested in Mamluk-era sources, with a focus on Judeo-Arabic, Christian Arabic, and other forms of Middle Arabic.
Students will be introduced to the major repositories of documents that are sources for the linguistic history of this period, such as the Cairo Geniza, Saint Catherine’s Monastery, and the Haram al-Sharif documents. The course is intended for advanced graduate students and other qualified participants, and will combine lecture and discussion with hands-on investigation of Mamluk-era materials. Advanced proficiency in Classical Arabic is required, but no other specialized training is necessary to attend.
Since the number of the participants will be limited (a maximum of 10), those who desire to take part in the course are requested to submit a CV, a statement of purpose, and a letter of recommendation to the following email address: schoolofmamlukstudies2023@gmail.com by the end of January, 2023. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by the end of February 2023.
The course fee is $300.00, which also includes the registration fee for the subsequent conference (June 8-10). The fees must be paid by April 30, 2023. Participants must make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. The local organizer will provide suggestions for lodging at an affordable price.
Please contact schoolofmamlukstudies2023@gmail.com with any questions, and we look forward to meeting you in Providence!
7. Webinar – British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS)
‘Humayun Padshah and Iran: Safavid Present and Mythical Past’
with Ebba Koch
19 October, 2022, 5pm UK time
For full information and to register:
https://www.bips.ac.uk/event/humayun-padshah-and-iran/
8. Appel à communications/Call for papers (colloque/conference), Paris 2023
Appel à communications
Le colloque “Texts as Living Objects: Reconsidering Dhayls as a Means for the Study of Authorship and Knowledge Transmission in the Manuscript Age” se tiendra à Paris les 22-24 novembre 2023.
Organisateurs : Sacha Alsancakli (CeRMI / Inalco) & Philip Bockholt (WWU Münster)
Date limite d’envoi des propositions : 31 octobre 2022
Langue des communications : Anglais
————————————–
Call for Papers
The conference “Texts as Living Objects: Reconsidering Dhayls as a Means for the Study of Authorship and Knowledge Transmission in the Manuscript Age” will be held in Paris on November 22-24, 2023.
Convenors: Sacha Alsancakli (CeRMI / Inalco) & Philip Bockholt (WWU Münster)
Deadline for abstract submission: 31 October 2022
Application Procedure
Proposals including an abstract (max. 400 words) and a short biography (max. 200 words) may be sent as one pdf file to both Dr. Sacha Alsancakli (Inalco/CeRMI, sacha.alsancakli@inalco.fr ) and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Philip Bockholt (WWU Münster, pbockhol@uni-muenster.de ) by 31 October 2022.
The conference will be held in English. Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered.
9. Asli Bâli – From Revolution to Devolution? Dilemmas of Federalism & Decentralization in the Middle East
Please join the Center for the Middle East and North Africa (CMENA) and the Legal Studies Program at UC Santa Cruz – over zoom – on Friday, October 14th, 12-1:30 pm PST to listen to and think with Professor Aslı Bâli of Yale Law School.
Click here to register: https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/asli-bali-from-revolution-to-devolution-dilemmas-of-federalism-and-decentralization-in-the-middle-east/
10. Online Workshop – “People of the Desert: Nomadic Networks and the Spread and Practice of Islam” – 28 October
15:45 -19:00 (CET time)
Chairs: Irina Shingiray (University of Oxford) and José C. Carvajal López (University of Leicester)
https://hajar.hypotheses.org/339
11. Ernst Herzfeld Award for Master Theses in Islamic Art History and Archaeology
Call for Applications
Deadline November 13, 2022
The Ernst Herzfeld-Gesellschaft für Islamische Kunst und Archäologie | Ernst Herzfeld Society for Studies in Islamic Art and Archaeology is pleased to announce the third edition of the Ernst Herzfeld Award for Master Theses in Islamic Art History and Archaeology. The aim of the award is to encourage and support emerging scholars in Europe who are working on visual and material culture of Islamic countries in the fields of Art History, Archeology, and Historical Building Research. The Ernst Herzfeld Award highlights the diversity and innovation of current research in these growing fields. The successful candidate is honored at the annual colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld Society, offered a full travel grant to present her/his master thesis at the colloquium, and is granted publication of the presented paper in the series of the Society, Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie (BIKA).
Eligibility:
- Outstanding master thesis (MA, Master, M.phil., and similar) on a topic situated within the research fields of History of Islamic Art and Architecture, Islamic Archeology, or Historical Building Research on Islamic Architecture.
- The thesis must have been written and supervised at a European university. For this call, theses are eligible that were fully reviewed and marked between January 1, 2020 and November 13, 2022.
- Accepted languages of the thesis are: German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish.
Application procedure:
- Applicants are proposed by the supervisor of the MA thesis.
- Applications include 1) the complete MA thesis as it was submitted (PDF); 2) a summary in English (3 pages); 3) the completed recommendation form by the proposing supervisor; and 4) the original official review/evaluation of the thesis for/by the university, at which it was submitted.
Review Procedure:
- The review procedure is jointly organized by the award and steering committee as well as the advisory board of the Ernst Herzfeld Society.
- Proposing supervisors are excluded from the review procedure and the peer-review.
- Applications fulfilling the criteria of eligibility will go through a peer-review by the joint committees and by external reviewers.
Submission:
Please send the complete application by November 13, 2022 to award@ernst-herzfeld-gesellschaft.com
The recommendation form to be filled out by the proposing supervisor is available with this link: http://ernst-herzfeld-gesellschaft.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/EHG_Award_Supervisor_Evaluation_Form_2022_final.docx
12. Online Lecture: East of Byzantium: Syriac Christianity along the Silk Road
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 | 12:00 PM EDT | Zoom
East of Byzantium: Syriac Christianity along the Silk Road
Li Tang, University of Salzburg
Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/
Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.
13. New book: History and Memory in the Abbasid Caliphate
L Osti,
14. Indigenising Islam – a panel discussion on the case of the late Shaykh Seraj Hendricks
The Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, in coordination with the Woolf Institute, invites you to an evening in the company of Dr Hisham A. Hellyer, Dr Timothy Winter, Dr Asim Yusuf, and Ms Arzoo Ahmed, for a panel discussion on the case of the late Shaykh Seraj Hendricks and his role and impact as a Muslim minority leader in Cape Town, South Africa, as an example of the indigenisation of Muslim religious authority as a minority, deeply impacted by Western traditions.
Dr Hellyer will also share insights on his recently published book “Shaykh Seraj Hendricks: A Luminous Lamp in the Shade of Table Mountain“, a contemporary Sufi shaykh and Islamic scholar who was one of the main reference points for the Muslim community of the Cape in South Africa, who drew from his own Western education and his training at the hands of sages and savants in Makka, as resident scholar of Azzawia Institute in Cape Town.
The event will start at 5.30pm on Oct 24th in the Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies in Cambridge and the moderator will be Dr Julian Hargreaves of the Woolf Institute.
Copies of Dr Hellyer’s book “A Luminous Lamp” will be available following the discussion .
For full details go to: https://tinyurl.com/IslamMinority”
15. University of Edinburgh
W.M. Watt Lecture 2022
Emerita Professor Carole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh
‘Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Islam’
1.11.22, 17:30-20.00
In-person and on-line
Full details at:
https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/islamic-middle-eastern/events/watt-lecture
14. Armenian School of Languages and Cultures – ASPIRANTUM invites you to apply to the “Learn Persian through the Shahname” online course. The entire course will last for 2 weeks, but students may choose to participate in the first week. This online course will start on November 7, 2022, and last till November 18, 2022.
For more details and to apply, please visit: https://aspirantum.com/courses/learn-persian-through-shahname
- October 08, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE Webinar “Iran Protests: Gender, Body Politics, and Authoritarianism”, Center for Middle East Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI, 4 October 2022, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm ET
In conversation with Manijeh Nasrabadi (Bernard College, Columbia University) and with Moderators Nadje Al-Ali (Brown University) and Kathryn Spellman Poots (Columbia University) we aim to go beyond the head-lines to shed light on the meaning and potential for these protests.
Information and registration: https://watson.brown.edu/cmes/events/2022/iran-protests-gender-body-politics-and-authoritarianism
2. ONLINE Seminar “‘Women, Life, Freedom’: What’s New about Iran’s 2022 Protests?”, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, 7 October 2022, 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm EDT
Mohammad Ali Kadivar, Arang Keshavarzian, and Nazanin Shahrokni, in conversation with Naghmeh Sohrabi, will look at issues of gender, socio-economic crises, and the domestic political scene to shed light on the recent protests in Iran and place them in the context of Iran’s history of protests in the 21st century.
Information and registration: https://brandeis.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t_UKdJICR_yxWIbbtfLEdA
3. ONLINE Seminar “Reflections on Islam and Anarchism” by Dr. Mohamed Abdou, Department of Politics, York University, Canada, 7 October 2022, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm EDT
“Islam and Anarchism” is an interdisciplinary work, which simultaneously disrupts two commonly held beliefs – that Islam is necessarily authoritarian and capitalist; and that anarchism is necessarily anti-religious and anti-spiritual. Deeply rooted in key Islamic concepts and textual sources, and drawing on radical BIPOC, Islamic anarchistic and social movement discourses, Abdou proposes ‘Anarcha-Islam’.
Information and registration:
https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwod-qorTMsHdZuxK3OAQ1Yi63XMeiDKGnV
4. ONLINE Webinar “Worldmaking in the Long Great War: How Local and Colonial Struggles Shaped the Modern Middle East”, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, 12 October 2022, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET
Jonathan Wyrtzen in conversation with Rana Baker, will offer a new account of how the Great War unmade and then remade the political order of the Middle East. Ranging from Morocco to Iran and spanning the eve of the Great War into the 1930s, Wyrtzen’s work demonstrates that the modern Middle East was shaped through complex and violent power struggles on the ground among local and international actors.
Information and registration: https://brandeis.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dAq0rFW1TiiblL3rlyHTYQ
5. HYBRID Lecture “Komitas, Oosti Gookas?: The Post-Ottoman Musical Worlds of the Armenian Diaspora” by Sylvia Alajaji, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative, New York University, 20 October 2022, 5:00 pm EST
There is perhaps no name more ubiquitous or discursively powerful in Armenian musical culture than Komitas (1869-1935). Born Soghomon Soghomonyan in the Ottoman city of Kütahya (in what is today Turkey), Komi-tas has come to embody “Armenia” – or rather, the possibility of Armenia. He has become synonymous with and emblematic of a symbolic, imagined homeland.
Information and registration: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJclcOqoqT4oHtfF04D2YVyxFGps6sHLWEUg
6. Fall 2022 Workshop of the Mediterranean Seminar on “The Mediterranean Origins of the West”, Boulder, Colorado, 21-22 October 2022
We seek to explore questions relating to the role of the Islamicate world and of peoples of Africa and West Asia in the evolution of modern science, theology, art and literature; the nature and significance of political and commercial engagement between the Islamic and Christian spheres; the role of gender, class and social affiliations; and the status and role of ethnic and religious minorities in pre-Modern and Modern Mediterranean societies.
Registration until 10 October 2022.
Information and program: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/attend-mediterranean-seminar-fall-2022-workshop-the-mediterranean-origins-of-the-west-21-22-october-boulder?e=82aeb6c61d
7. Inaugural Forum for Jewish-Muslim Theology and Thought: “Cultures of Continuity – Jewish Muslim Conversations on a Contested Ideal”, Berliner Institut für Islamische Theologie, Hum-boldt-Universität zu Berlin, 24-26 October 2022
Keynotes: “Women`s Midrash and Tafsir: Twenty-First Century Exegetical Continuities and Ruptures” by Celene Ibrahim; “Interreligious Theology and Its Relevance for Jewish-Muslim Relations” by Ephraim Meir.
Deadline for registration: 21 October 2022.
Information: https://www.islamische-theologie.hu-berlin.de/de/event
8. HYBRID Panel Discussion “Sisters in Resilience: Women’s Movements in Muslim Contexts”, Aga Khan University, London, 28 October 2022, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm London Time
The panel aims to celebrate the achievements of the women’s movements for gender equality in Muslim contexts and discuss their legacies. It will analyse the main issues of struggle for women’s rights movements, the past and present of organisational structures, and forms of activism by reflecting especially on the cases of Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Tunisia.
Information and registration: https://www.aku.edu/ismc/events/pages/event-detail.aspx?EventID=2187&Title=Sisters%20in%20Resilience:%20Women%E2%80%99s%20Movements%20in%20Muslim%20Contexts
9. HYBRID “3rd International Congress of Women in a Global World”, Research Center on Women Studies, Istanbul Topkapı University, 1-3 December 2022
The Congress which will bring together academicians, researchers and NGO volunteers partaking in the organization is expected to contribute to the production of scientific information as well as to make way for new viewpoints.
Deadline for abstracts: 10 October 2022. Information: https://www.topkapi.edu.tr/tr-TR/3rd-international-congress-of-women-in-a-global-world-(wgw2022)-ana-sayfa-home/135655
10. International Conference on the “Typologies of Western Islam in European Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries and Lexicons in the 18th and 19th Centuries”, University of La Réunion and Uni-versité de Lorraine, 16-17 March 2023
This conference will explore the conceptual and methodological modalities adopted in these scholarly books to describe Islam according to types determined by the choice of certain criteria and symbols.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 October 2022.
Information: https://iismm.hypotheses.org/files/2022/08/CFP_Conference_Nancy.pdf
11. Seminar “The Ottoman Empire, Its Minoritized Voices, and the Global South”, Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association, Chicago, 16-19 March 2023
The focus should be on epistemic, aesthetic, sociocultural and political imaginaries of minoritized com-munities in and outside the Ottoman lands. How do the histories, images, and legacies of the Ottoman Empire appear when perspectives from the Global South and the disadvantaged populations of the empire are foregrounded? Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 October 2022. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/11012989/cfp-acla-2023-ottoman-empire-its-minoritized-voices-and-global
12. Conference “Diaspora and Indigeneity – Intersections of Modern Jewish, Kurdish, and Amazigh History”, Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies, 27–29 March 2023
The goal of the conference is to explore and theorize the intersections of modern Jewish, Kurdish, and Ama-zigh history, with a special focus on competing claims to identity, indigeneity, and diaspora politics. Papers can be presented in English or French.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 October 2022. Information: https://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/Documents/Research/GatheringDispersed_CfP_DiasporaIndigeneity.pdf
13. One-Year Visiting Professor (W2) for Cultural Studies of the Middle East, MA Program “Cultural Studies of the Middle East”, Universities of Bamberg and Erlangen-Nuremberg
The relevant qualifications consist of a doctorate in a relevant discipline, demonstrated ability in teaching, and an excellent track record in publications and related academic achievements. The position presupposes the ability and willingness to teach in English (01.10.2023-15.08.2024).
Deadline for application: 15 November 2022.
Information: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/en/abt-personal/stellenausschreibung/professorship/
14. Five Research Associates and Visiting Faculty (2023-24), Women’s Studies in Religion, Har-vard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA
Proposals for book-length research projects using both religion and gender as central categories of analysis are welcomed. They may address women and religion in any time, place, or religious tradition, and may utilize disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches from across the fields of theology, the humanities, and the social sciences.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2022. Information: https://wsrp.hds.harvard.edu/apply
15. Open-Rank Tenure-Track Professor for Arab American Studies/Muslim American Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Preference will be given to interdisciplinary candidates with teaching experience working with diverse student communities. PhD required by the start date.
Deadline for applications: 11 November 2022.
Information: https://asianamerican.northwestern.edu/about/open-positions/
16. Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Middle East and North Africa Prior to 1800, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
We particularly welcome applicants whose work is innovative and interdisciplinary. Discipline open.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2022.
Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=63761
17. STARTALK Arabic Teacher Training Program 2023 (Fully Online and Free of Cost)
Pre-Program 26 Feb. – 30 Apr. 2023; Main Program 2 June – 14 July 2023; Post-Program 20 August 2023 – March 2024
Deadline for application: 28 November 2022. Information: https://www.classroad.org/courses/classroad-startalk-2023-advancing-language-learning-through-professionalism/
18. THE ITS MAWLID DISCOUNT 2022
Between 3rd and 9th October, in celebration of the Mawlid al-Nabi, the Islamic Texts Society will be offering its readers a 15% discount on all titles.*
Books from ITS are the perfect gift for family, friends and loved ones; beautifully designed and produced to the highest quality, ITS titles enable readers to gain access to treasures of classical Islamic thought and spirituality.
In order to take advantage of this offer, please visit our website by clicking on the button below and enter the coupon code, MAWLID22, on the purchase page.
19. October 5: Book Launch: The Routledge Handbook of Persian Literary Translation (2022)
This Wednesday, October 5 at 10:00-12:00 CT, organized by CMES of the University of Chicago.
You can register using the link below:
https://uchicago.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpf–rrjgiHt0ChWpgWA_MGo6qh8NgoHA3
with
M. R. Ghanoonparvar
Professor Emeritus of Persian and Comparative Literature
The University of Texas at Austin
Christine van Ruymbeke
Soudavar Professor of Persian Literature and Culture
University of Cambridge (UK)
Asghar Seyed-Gohrab
Professor of Persian and Iranian Studies
Utrecht University (The Netherlands)
Hosted by
Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
Instructional Professor of Persian, NELC
University of Chicago
Discussant
Thibaut d’Hubert
Associate Professor, SALC
University of Chicago
20. Oxford Interfaith Forum:
Environmentalisms in Qur’anic Perspective: Creatures and Resources
31 October, 2022, 6pm UK time
Professor Anna Gade, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Environmental Studies and Associate Dean for Research & Education in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
More info/registration at:
21. October 13, 2022, 12pm ET – The Author’s Voice: The Perils and Joys of writing on the Arabs before Islam
The Institute for Advanced Study, in partnership with Gorgias Press, presents the 2022 online lecture program, The Author’s Voice. The series of free to access quarterly talks, led by Gorgias Press authors, will showcase the latest research across history, linguistics, and religious studies. You are cordially invited to attend our fourth and final lecture of the series:
The Perils and Joys of writing on the Arabs before Islam
Ayad Al-Ani, Professor for Change Management and Consulting, Associate Member of the Einstein Centre Digital Future, Berlin, and Professor extraordinary at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University.
For a political scientist, the contradictory themes surrounding the Arabs and their region before the coming of Islam often seem strange and incomprehensible. Although there are no major barriers posed by rivers or mountain ranges, numerous civilizations are identified in the region each with their own language. As such, there is little opportunity for an Arab identity to emerge among those groups, despite the fact the Arabs themselves, as well as the Romans, seemingly had no problem identifying “Arabs”. Some discussions on the theme have revealed a hesitancy in delineating the Arab language and script before the 5th century, rendering the appearance of the Qur’an mysterious. The majority of Arabs in the Roman East were Christians by this same period, and some still believe that monotheistic informants of the prophet need to be identified. Once these contradictions are unraveled a fascinating longue durée of events can emerge, which provides a common historical space between the East and the West, with religious ideas flowing from the periphery to the center. This talk will explore the process of dealing with these and other contradictions by adding a political and sociological lens to this stretch of history which focuses on the disappearance of the Arabs from history before Islam, their sudden appearance behind the banners of the Prophet, and the powerful and traumatic effect this emergence into world history has had on the relationship between the Arabs and the West.
Register in advance here. After registering, you will receive an email containing information about joining the event.
Hosted by: Sabine Schmidtke (School of Historical Studies, IAS) and George A. Kiraz (School of Historical Studies, IAS and Editor-in-Chief, Gorgias Press) in cooperation with Angelos Chaniotis (School of Historical Studies, IAS).
For more information please contact ds@ias.edu .
22. 2022 Kamran Djam Biennial Lectures at SOAS
7 and 8 November, 2022
After a pause due to lockdown, the Centre for Iranian Studies is delighted to invite you to the 2022 Kamran Djam Biennial Lectures at SOAS on Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 November 2022.
Our speaker this year is Professor Robert Hillenbrand FBA, University of St. Andrews, who, will give two lectures on The Great Mongol Shahnama, a long-awaited major work on one of the most magnificent illustrated Persian manuscripts of all time, dating to 1330s. Hali Publications Ltd., the UK publishers of this splendid book, have kindly agreed to bring several advance copies of the book for your perusal before its imminent availability in the UK. Please see below for details of the lectures.
Professor Robert Hillenbrand FBA, University of St. Andrews
What Problems Does the Great Mongol Shahnama Pose?
5.30pm, Monday 7 November
(followed by a reception at 7.00pm in G3 Suite)
What Makes the Great Mongol Shahnama Great?
7.00pm, Tuesday 8 November
Venue: Djam Lecture Theatre
SOAS, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Admission Free – All Welcome
23. Invitation to the October Monday Majlises (online) of the Centre for the Study of Islam at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.
Monday the 10th of October. 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
Mehdy Shaddel
Universal Empire, Supersessionist Ideology: The Emergence of Islam in Umayyad Syria
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcpduqqqDgrH9y-JyHmO5wlaFr9gvm8bcqd
Monday the 17th of October. 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
Rahim Gholami
The soul’s fulfilment in Nāṣir-e Khusraw’s The Wayfarer’s Sojourn at the Banquet
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYpfu2rqTkvHd3Lizc02KhoZr0Fitzica9H
Monday the 24th of October. 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
Isabel Toral and Jens Scheiner
Baghdad: Insights into a city (seven centuries) and the making of a book (eleven years)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIqde2spzgoHtSf7Ta9-TFp20yLICz3aKh-
Monday the 31st of October. 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
Alexandra Hoffmann
What makes a man a man? Neẓāmi’s Majnun in a network of masculinities
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkduCgqjsjG9wubRuGMlL22IavQChNXzQP
24. The Crown Center (Brandeis University) for Middle East Studies invites applications for a one-year faculty leave residential fellowship for scholars of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. The fellowship is open to all disciplines—particularly politics, economics, history, religion, sociology, or anthropology—for the 2023–2024 academic year.
Successful applicants must be tenure track or tenured professors (or equivalent) with a well-established publication record seeking a faculty leave appointment and interested in engaging in a substantive research or book project, mentoring the Center’s junior research fellows, and contributing to the Center’s publications.
*
Eligibility
*
The 2023–2024 faculty leave fellowship is open to *all faculty members, tenured and non-tenured*, in the ranks of assistant, associate, full, and emeritus professor (or equivalent) who work on the contemporary Middle East and North Africa.
*Terms*
The faculty leave fellowship is an academic year appointment beginning September 1, 2023 and ending May 31, 2024. The fellowship is designed to supplement the scholar’s faculty leave salary from their institution and will provide a stipend plus funding for research, travel, and related expenses. The fellowship stipend is set at three levels based on academic rank (or rank equivalency based on scholarly attainment): $40,000 for assistant professor or career equivalent; $50,000 for associate professor or career equivalent; and $70,000 for full professor, emeritus, or career equivalent. The Crown Center will determine the level based on the candidate’s rank or equivalent rank as of the application deadline. Fringe benefits, when not provided by the scholar’s home institution, can be made available during the appointment period.
Fellows are required to be *in residence* at the Crown Center during the tenure of the fellowship and be fully relieved of teaching and service responsibilities at their home university. During their residence, fellows contribute to the Center’s publications and participate in all Crown Center events, including seminars, workshops, meetings, and retreats.
*Application Materials
*
1. Cover letter
2. Curriculum Vitae
*Application Submission*: https://academicprogramsonline.org/ajo/fellowship/22902 <https://t.e2ma.net/click/kvjpgf/07bopb/kzivbr>
*Application Deadline*
January 1, 2023
*Notification
*
March 1, 2023
*
Inquiries*
You may direct inquiries to Kristina Cherniahivsky at crowncenter@brandeis.edu or call 781-736-5320.
- October 04, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Edinburgh’s “Oriental” manuscript collection renamed “Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia” and now searchable on ArchiveSpace
We now have entries for 168 items up on the ArchiveSpace platform, with titles digitally searchable in Arabic and Latin script. More entries will be coming soon!
You can visit the “Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia” collection page and search the entries below:
https://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/86063
The “Scope & Content” section will give you background on the collection, it’s provenance, and why we have gone with this new name.
If you click on the Additional Description tab at the foot of the page, you will see other fields including Custodial History and Immediate Source of Acquisition that are also well worth a read.
2. Le CeRMI a le plaisir de vous adresser en pièce-jointe le programme 2022/2023 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien”.
Au plaisir de vous retrouver à l’occasion de ces séances, qui se dérouleront en présentiel sur le site de l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris).
La première séance du séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien” aura lieu le mardi 18 octobre 2022 (de 17h à 19h, salle 3.15).
Nous serons heureux d’y accueillir Valentina Bruccoleri (Université Ca’ Foscari de Venise) pour une conférence intitulée :
« Au-delà de la collection d’Ardebil : nouvelles perspectives sur la porcelaine chinoise dans le monde iranien »
3. The Islamic College
An online short course on
Tawhid (Monotheism) in Qur’an
1st Session: 28th Oct 2022
2nd Session: 4th Nov 2022
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Registration Deadline: 20th October 2022
*Free but registration is mandatory
Further information at:
https://www.islamic-college.ac.uk/study/short-courses/tawhid-in-quran/
4. Position in Modern Arabic Literature and Islamic Culture at the University of California, Berkeley. Assistant Professor – Modern Arabic Literature and Islamic Culture
Open August 24, 2022 through Saturday, Oct 15, 2022 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
5. Harvard Islamic Finance Conference
The Annual Harvard University Muslim Alumni (HUMA) International Islamic Finance Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 21st and 22nd. This year’s conference is going to be the Silver Jubilee year of the conference with the theme of being “Waqf and Philanthropic Foundations: Shared Values for Socio-Economic Development”. The aim of the conference is to build the bridges across the communities in their endeavor towards humanity.
This year’s keynote speakers will be Dr. Omar Suleiman, the Founder and President of Yaqeen Institute and Professor Asim Khwaja, the Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. Other prominent speakers and panelists include representatives from The Templeton Foundation, McKinsey & Company, Khalil Center, Fidelity, Boston Islamic Seminary, Islamic Finance Guru, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative, The World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, religious leaders from various communities and several academic institutions.
You can register at this link. Please note that your registration does not guarantee you a seat. The auditorium will be filled on a first come, first serve basis.
Learn more about the HUMA IFC conference at the following website: https://humaifc.com/.
Please reach out to jennaalbezreh@college.harvard.edu if you have any questions or concerns.
6. “Digital Islam across Europe: Understanding Muslims’ Participation in Online Islamic Environments” is A 30-month research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through CHANSE (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe).
The project team includes colleagues working in five European countries, and the UK team is looking to recruit a full-time Postdoctoral Researcher.
The successful candidate will have the option of working at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s Lampeter Campus, or remotely.
The deadline for applications is 10th October, and further information can be found here: https://jobs.uwtsd.ac.uk/JobDescription/9q162YnH2h8
7. Online Event: Contemporary Arabic Literature and Literary Translation
Registration is open for this exciting panel organised by the BRISMES Outreach & Pedagogy Subcommittee. The panel will discuss contemporary Arabic literature and literary translation published in the last dozen years, particularly following the onset of the ‘Arab Spring’. Distinguished international writers, translators and researchers within the Arabic literary (translation) field will discuss and reflect on recent developments as well as publishing trends and practices. Panel members will also discuss their writing experience, the challenges they face and the reception of their work in the Arab and Western worlds.
Date: Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Time: 16:00-18:00 (BST)
Location: Online via Zoom
8. *Change of Date* 2022 BRISMES Annual Lecture
The 2022 BRISMES Annual Lecture will now take place online on Thursday, 17 November from 17:30 to 19:00 (GMT). Professor Nadje Al-Ali will be speaking on Feminist Dilemmas and Ambivalences: Gendered and queer perspectives on the Middle East.The lecture will be chaired by Dr Paola Rivetti.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this change of date. If you have already registered to attend, you do not need to re-register and you will receive an email confirming the new details. If you have any questions/problems registering, please get in touch by emailing office@brismes.org.
9. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
The Pitt Rivers Museum is seeking to recruit an exceptional post-doctoral researcher to a three-year Research Fellowship to work on the extensive photograph collection of Sir Wilfred Thesiger in the Gulf Cooperation Countries region. The ideal candidate will hold a PhD in the humanities or social sciences, have spoken and written proficiency in Arabic, as well as demonstrable knowledge of the histories and cultures of the Middle East.
Deadline | 7 October 2022
10. University College Dublin
The School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe) is looking for a full-time research assistant with fluency in Arabic. The candidate will be expected to work independently to collect and analyze secondary interviews and other primary sources in Arabic. The candidate will conduct online research in Arabic to identify secondary interview data with Arabic- speaking conflict participants.
Deadline | 20 October 2022
11. SOAS University of London
SOAS wishes to appoint a Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute and MBI Al Jaber Chair in Middle East Studies. The person appointed will split their time approximately 50/50 in carrying out activities as the MBI Al Jaber Chair in Middle East Studies and as the Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute.
Deadline | 21 October 2022
12. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Department of History invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in the history of the Middle East at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin August 16, 2023. We welcome research that focuses on any time period, although candidates should also be qualified to teach courses on the modern Middle East.
Deadline | 1 November 2022
13. Aga Khan Centre
The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) is seeking a part-time, hourly-paid Persian Language Instructor to teach 6 hours per week over the 30 weeks of the academic year, beginning on 26th September or as soon as possible thereafter. The ideal candidate will be suitably qualified and experienced in teaching Persian as a foreign language at university level.
Deadline | 27 November 2022
14. Prize | BISA’s Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Working Group (CPD)
Applications are invited for this prize aimed at supporting CPD’s early-career members in the development of peer-reviewed work, while at the same time carving out space in International Studies to engage with the question of empire and coloniality as fundamental to the discipline. In addition to being invited to present their paper at the annual BISA conference, the prize winner will be mentored through the review process at RIS.
Deadline | 18 November 2022
15. Panel | 5 October 2022, 18:00 | LSE Middle East Centre
Students at all levels and institutions are invited to this careers panel where practitioners in various Middle East-related fields will talk through their career paths. The panel will be followed by an informal reception with the opportunity to meet fellow students, academic staff and the Middle East Centre team.
More information
16. Research Seminar | 6 October 2022, 17:30 | The Alwaleed Centre, University of Edinburgh
A special research seminar featuring one of the world’s leading experts on Islamist thought in Turkey. Dr Katerina Dalacoura (LSE) will discuss her research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, entitled ‘The International Thought of Turkish Islamists: History, Civilisation and Nation’ – an intellectual history that engages with the concept of a ‘global International Relations’.
17. Film Screening | 12 October 2022, 18:30 | The Alwaleed Centre, University of Edinburgh
‘In the wake of unimaginable loss, three Syrian refugees turn to their love of Sufi music’. This special screening of ‘Wajd: Songs of Separation’ will be followed by a discussion featuring Professor Jonathan Shannon and Dr Ezgi Guner. Refreshments will be available before the screening begins.
18. CFP – “Mongol Bling: From Xanadu to Tabriz to Venice” (Annual Conference of The Association for Art History) – DUE 4 November
ANNUAL CONFERENCE of The Association for Art History
12-14 APRIL 2023
University College London
To offer a paper: Please email your paper proposals direct to the session convenor(s). You need to provide a title and abstract (250 words maximum) for a 20-minute paper (unless otherwise specified), your name and institutional affiliation (if any). Please make sure the title is concise and reflects the contents of the paper because the title is what appears online, in social media and in the digital programme. You should receive an acknowledgement of receipt of your submission within two weeks.
Deadline for submissions: 4 November 2022.
Mongol Bling: From Xanadu to Tabriz to Venice
Sussan Babaie The Courtauld, University of London sussan.babaie@courtauld.ac.uk
Shane McCausland SOAS, University of London sm80@soas.ac.uk
Stunning objects, wonderous new materials and technologies, and novel ideas constitute what was the shared Mongol taste for splendour across the four khanates that made up the Great Mongol State from its foundation by Genghis Khan (r. 1206-27) on the Mongolian steppe heartlands, and between eastern China and Korea to Western Asia and Eastern Europe. In spite of their reputation as cannibals and philistines who sowed terror, how did the Mongol overlords reveal themselves to have also forged a dynamic, creative, and aesthetic empire which valued the highly sophisticated cultures of the settled peoples they conquered and in which the arts featured prominently? This panel focuses on the crosspollinated artistic landscapes that fashioned through local technologies, styles and tastes a distinctively Mongol-inflected regional identity. We invite papers that address through objects and analytics of transcultural possibilities the ways Mongol khans in China, Persia, Central Asia or Russia championed their own local artists to fashion favoured regional styles. How do the extraordinary richness and diversity of the arts produced to serve the local elites reflect and embody the wealth and power of the Mongol state? We envision a panel that contributes to developing of critical new ways to re-evaluate the Eurasian localities—Europe to East Asia, Northern Steppes to insular Southeast Asia—of artistic production in light of the overarching Mongol predilections for prestige conveyed through the charisma of the object.z
- October 01, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE Webinar “Ukraine from Ottoman Times to Today“, University of California, Davis, 30 September 2022, 9:00 am – 10:30 am Pacific Time
Nihat Çelik (San Diego State University), Dilyara Agisheva (Harvard University), and Oleksandr Halenko (İstanbul Üniversitesi) will speak about “The Russian Annexation of Crimea in 1783,” “The Making of Colonial Space in Crimea in the Late 18th and 19th Centuries,” and “History or Life: The Ottoman Past that Tempted Russia to Invade Ukraine.” Victor Ostapchuk (University of Toronto) will chair the panel and moderate the open discussion.
Information and registration: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcudOCupjMoH9QOyjHHq7Xc96uylaO6ea8M
2. HYBRID Annual Islamic Philosophy Conference of the American Society of Islamic Philosophy and Theology on “Islamic Philosophy and Theology in Contemporary Engagements”, Harvard University, 2-4 December 2022
We invite academic studies of scholars, methods, institutions, texts, and topics typically considered within the domain of philosophy, as well as those that treat kalam-theology, Islamic legal philosophy (usul al-fiqh), or other intellectual trends that at times may be seen as distinct from philosophy. Papers may be within specific disciplines (Philosophy, Islamic Theology, Religious Studies, etc.) or may be interdisciplinary.
Deadline for abstracts: 20 October 2022. Information: https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2022/09/23/annual-islamic-philosophy-conference
3. Workshop “Theorizing Jewish-Arab Transculturation”, Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies, 7-9 February 2023
Co-organized by the Heidelberg Center for Jewish Studies, the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the workshop will bring together scholars interested in Jewish-Arab relations from a transcultural perspective – from medieval times to the present.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 October 2022. Information:
4. 10 PhD Students in Humanities, Social Sciences, and Area Studies for the Doctoral Program of the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
The Graduate School investigates the plurality, changeability, and global connectedness of Muslim cultures and societies. Applications with a focus on strategies of negotiating diversity, difference, and distinction, both among Muslims and between Muslims and non-Muslims are especially encouraged. Our language of instruct-tion and communication is English.
Deadline for applications: 1 November 2022.
Information: https://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/application/call_for_applications/index.html
5. Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of History in Late Medieval/Early Modern Middle East, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
We are particularly interested in scholars with research agendas focusing on comparative empire, mobility, race and gender. Applicants must have earned a Ph.D. in History or an adjacent field by the time of appoint-ment, or shortly thereafter.
Deadline for applications: 20 October 2022.
Information: https://history.northwestern.edu/about/news/late-medievalearly-modern-middle-east.html
6. New International MA Program in Middle East Studies (MAPMES): “Intertwined Worlds: Jews, Christians, and Minorities in Islamic Societies”, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
One year MA program, with a special focus on minority religious communities and inter-religious relations taught in English.
Program launch in October 2023. Registration will open in January 2023.
Information: https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/international/Pages/Middle-East-Studies.aspx
7. Chapters for Edited Book on The Crusades : Historiography, Settlements, People and Roads (11th– 14th Centuries)
Topics: The origin of the idea of crusade; Crusades historiography: eastern and western sources; Battles: The Crusades of 1096-1291; Alliances and Conflicts; Settlements: Crusader States (County of Edessa, Principality of Antioch, County of Tripoli, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Kingdom of Cyprus); Roads: Crusades army route: sea and land roads from Clermont to Jerusalem; Byzantine Empire, Constantinople and the crusades.
Deadline for abstracts: 3 October 2022. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/call-for-articles-the-crusades-historiography-settlements-people-and-roads-11-14th-centuries?e=82aeb6c61d
8. Race and the Middle East/North Africa Mellon Sawyer Seminar: Marie Grace Brown: “Finding Black Joy in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan”
Thursday, September 29 at 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Skylight Room on the 9th Floor, The Graduate Center, CUNY (365 5th Avenue, New York NY 10016)
Where do we find Black joy in the archive? How do we evaluate claims of interracial affection or friendship made by white imperialists? Using case studies of servants, sex, and food, Marie Grace Brown addresses these questions and more in her examination of everyday life in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. She argues that the search for Black joy—whether we find it or not—is a new, critical responsibility for today’s racially conscious scholars.
Marie Grace Brown (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 2012) is a cultural historian of the Modern Middle East with a special interest in questions of intimacy, gender, empire, and the body as historical text. Her award-winning book, Khartoum at Night: Fashion and Body Politics in Imperial Sudan (Stanford University Press, 2017), traces gestures, intimacies, and adornment to give a history of northern Sudanese women’s lives under imperial rule. Brown’s second book-length project, “A World of Color: Adventures in Romance in Imperial Sudan,” continues the exploration of the relationship between bodies and imperial power. Brown’s work has been supported by grants from the American Association of University Women, the Social Science Research Council, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
This event will also have a Zoom option for those unable to attend in person, registration is required: https://gc-cuny.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYpc-6grTIrGNb5MCa-AS3hOcvtUy2Uncic
https://racemena.gc.cuny.edu/event/09-29-2022-finding-black-joy-in-the-anglo-egyptian-suda…
- September 27, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Socio-spatial Marginalization in Islamic Contexts: Architectural Conditions and Active Approaches
Thursday, October 27, 2022
11:00 am–12:30 pm CDT
Free & open to the public
This program will be recorded. Registrants will receive a link to the video after the event.
Temporary architectures, adaptive tactics, the large- and small-scale movement and relocation of people, and concerted programs of colonization and razing shape sites and spaces of marginalized communities in Islamic contexts. People may be marginalized for reasons of religious practice, gender, ethno-linguistic identification, nationalist policies, conflict, environmental shifts, or other factors, with the result that they have limited access to certain resources and live their lives, seek places of worship, assemble support systems, and adopt and adapt the built environment in specific ways. Architectures created by the forces of marginalization include buildings on the urban outskirts and the borderlands of states, makeshift housing and services in the socio-economic badlands, and solutions to the need for space enacted in the “in-between” of ad hoc adaptations.
The impetus for our panel comes from our collective work to understand the marginalization of communities in Islamic contexts around the globe through the built environment, as well as from our active engagement with the selfhood, rights, and safety of women, children, minority denominational communities, sectarian groups, racialized people, and even those questioning their own socio-political and scholarly dominance.
According to UN statistics, migration disproportionately impacts states with majority Islamic populations, and the primary host countries for refugees are also largely Muslim. These dynamics have historical roots, and when combined with environmental and economic factors, can lead to marked changes in the architectural fabric, the exclusion and erasure of undesired peoples and their narratives, and a misunderstanding of how the built environment functions.
Our panel includes architects, visual artists, and scholars working to understand, address, and confront the conditions of marginalization embodied in architecture in Islamic contexts as part of their practice, teaching, research, and activism.
2. Publication Announcement – Karl Stowasser’s translation of al-Maqrīzī’s Khiṭaṭ
Karl Stowasser’s partial translation of al-Maqrīzī’s Khiṭaṭ is now available for download (Open Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2268/237608):
Al-Maqrīzī: Book of Exhortations and Useful Lessons in Dealing with Topography and Historical Remains (al-Khiṭaṭ). Translated and annotated by Karl Stowasser (d. 1997). Parts I-II in 3 vols. Edited by Frédéric Bauden and Clopper Almon with an Introductory Essay by Frédéric Bauden. Liège, 2022.
This translation covers a bit more than the first half of the first volume of the Khiṭaṭ in the Būlāq edition, ending with page 285, and volume 4 of the Wiet edition. It will serve as a basis for a new critical edition with an annotated English translation in the frame of the Bibliotheca Maqriziana project published by Brill.
3. Online Symposium – The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology, NMAA – October 21-22, 2022
Join the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art on October 21 and 22, 10 am-5 pm EST daily, for The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology.
This is a hybrid event: In-person attendees register on eventbrite here / Virtual attendees register on Zoom here.
Between the third and seventh centuries CE, the Sasanian Empire became one of the most dominant powers in the ancient world, extending geographically from Western to Central Asia. From monumental buildings and impressive rock reliefs to elaborately designed metal vessels and finely carved seals, these structures and objects provide a glimpse into the empire’s artistic diversity and its rich material culture. Recent scholarship has further expanded our knowledge of the Sasanian empire and has confirmed its enduring legacy beyond its geographic borders, long after the Arab conquest in the seventh century.
The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology gathers some of the most renowned national and international scholars to share their recent work on the Sasanians and their lasting artistic and historical contributions.
This symposium is generously supported by the Tina and Hamid Moghadam Fund and is organized in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine.
4. The 2022 BRISMES Annual Lecture will be given by Professor Nadje Al-Ali (Brown University). Nadje Al-Ali is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at Brown, where she is also Robert Family Professor of International Studies and Professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies. Her main research interests revolve around feminist activism and gendered mobilization, mainly with reference to Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and the Kurdish political movement.
The title of the lecture will be Feminist Dilemmas and Ambivalences: Gendered and queer perspectives on the Middle East.
Date: 22 November 2022, 17:30-19:00 (GMT)
Location: Online (via Zoom)
More information and registration: www.brismes.ac.uk/events/annual-lecture/2022
5. The Islamic College
Postgraduate Studies Certificate in Islamic Philosophy
Three Semesters (full-time) & Six Semesters (part-time)
18:00 -20:30 (London Time)
Starting: 14 November 2022
Application Deadline: 15 October 2022
Fees: £1500 (All students are eligible for a scholarship of up to 50%)
https://www.islamic-college.ac.uk/psc-islamic-philosophy/
6. Funds: The J.B. Harley Research Fellowships in the History of Cartography: call for applications (Deadline: 1st November)
The Harley Fellowships – the only one of their kind in Europe – provide support for those working on the history of cartography, from any discipline, doing the equivalent of post-graduate level work in the historical map collections of the United Kingdom. Awards range up to £2000. Website: http://www.maphistory.info/harley.html
The J.B. Harley Fellowships were set up in London in 1992 in memory of Brian Harley (1932-91). Prof. Harley was founding co-editor of the History of Cartography Project and the leading theoretical thinker in the field.
Applications are invited from anyone pursuing advanced research in the history of cartography, irrespective of nationality, discipline or profession, who wishes to work in London and other parts of the United Kingdom. While independent of them, the fellowships are run in association with the four institutions in the London area that, together, hold the greatest number of early maps, namely: British Library, The National Archives, Royal Museums Greenwich and Royal Geographical Society.
The closing date for applications is 1st NOVEMBER. The Fellowship website has an application page that should provide all the necessary information as well as answering many frequently asked questions: http://www.maphistory.info/application.html . Please indicate in your application if you are a postgraduate or an early career researcher within five years of completion of your PhD.
It would be helpful if you could say where you saw this notice. Please forward to others who might be interested.
Contact Info:
Tom Harper
Honorary Secretary, J.B. Harley Fellowships, Lead Curator of Antiquarian Mapping, The British Library
Contact Email:
URL:
http://www.maphistory.info/harley.html
7. New Publication – Lüsterkeramik. Schillerndes Geheimnis / Luster Ceramics. Shimmering Secret, Museum für Islamische Kunst
Dear Friends of the Museum für Islamische Kunst,
We are pleased to announce our latest publication Lüsterkeramik. Schillerndes Geheimnis / Luster Ceramics. Shimmering Secret
The volume aims to explore the fascination of the shimmering shine of luster ceramics by illuminating the history of this special ceramic technique up to the present day. The starting point is the restoration of a unique Iranian luster vase of the thirteenth century, which the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation has given to the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin on permanent loan.
The 98-page publication is bilingual in English and German.
Table of Contents
- Preface Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation: Benjamin Dodenhoff
- Foreword: Stefan Weber
- Introduction: Martina Müller-Wiener
- The Reconstruction of the Reconstruction: Stephanie Fischer
- Mastery Has Many Facets – A Monumental Luster Vase in the Museum für Islamische Kunst: Martina Müller-Wiener
- Luster – the Secret of the Shimmering Ceramic: Deniz Erduman-Çalış
- Interview with Master Potter Abbas Akbari
- Image of Architecture with God’s Word – The Luster Tile Panel of a Prayer Niche from Kashan: Markus Ritter
- Friedrich Sarre’s Gift to Munich – A Collection of Lusterware from Rayy: Miriam Wallner
- Shards That Reveal (Hi-)Stories – Egyptian Lusterware of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: Miriam Kühn
- The Consumption and Reception of Iberian Lusterware – Medieval to Contemporary: Mariam Rosser-Owen
- Luster Glaze – Thoughts of a Master Potter from Iran: Abbas Akbari
Check for the restoration of the luster vase also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXVeDxbp4M8
The restoration and publication were sponsered by Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftung Aachen https://ludwigstiftung.de/
8. Great Lakes Adiban Society Workshop 2022
I’m pleased to invite you to this year’s Great Lakes Adiban Society Workshop on October 1-2 at the University of Chicago. Online participation is also an option. You will find below details including the panels, paper titles, and associated times. Please feel free to circulate the program more broadly. If you have any questions, please email greatlakesadibansociety@gmail.com. We are very much looking forward to your participation.
- Dates and times:
Saturday, October 1, 9:00am–3:30pm (Central Time)
Sunday, October 2, 9:00am–4:15pm (Central Time) - Physical location:
Foster Hall 103
1130 E 59th St
Chicago, IL 60637 [link to map] (visitor parking available nearby)
- Remote participation:
On registering at [tinyurl.com/glas2022]tinyurl.com/glas2022 , you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Saturday, Oct 1
On Persia, Persian, and Persians (09:15-10:45)
09:15-10:00: Jeson Ng (U of Chicago), Arab roots in a Persian land: Saljuq panegyrists and the negotiation of ethnic identity in the eleventh century
10:00-10:45: Shaahin Pishbin (U of Chicago), Persian and the Cosmos: Iranophilia in Akbar’s Hindustan
The Politics of Translation in Persianate South Asia (11:00-12:30)
11:00-11:45: Justin Smolin (U of Chicago), Religion As a Question: The Tauḍīḥ al-milal and Mughal Political Theology
11:45-12:30: Zoë Woodbury High (U of Chicago), Translating the new taste: Rasa, movement, and multilingualism in Ibrahim ʿAdil Shah II’s Kitāb-i nauras
Islamicate Poetics of Time and Place (14:00-15:30)
14:00-14:45: Rama Alhabian (Hamilton College), The Poetics of Contingency in Ḥarīrī’s “Maqāma of Oman”
14:45-15:30: Cameron Cross (U of Michigan, Ann Arbor), Call Him Diyanus in Greek! The Correlating of Pagan and Islamic Knowledge in ʿUnsurī’s Vāmiq-u ʿAzrā
Sunday, Oct 2
Islamicate Editorial & Critical Practices (09:15-10:45)
09:15-10:00: Shiva Mihan (Princeton U), Text transmission and editing in 15th-century Iran under the Timurids
10:00-10:45: Shahla Farghadani (U of Michigan, Ann Arbor), The Earliest Critics: The role of rhetoric in the creation of a proto-literary canon
Adab & the Paratext (11:00-12:30)
11:00-11:45: Seher Agarwala (Colombia U), Between word and image: Illustrated manuscripts and the construction of ethics in sixteenth-century Golconda
11:45-12:30: Manpreet Kaur (Colombia U), Scenographic Strategy as Literary Technique: Framing the teacher-student relationship in the Sufi malfūẓāt genre in South Asia
The Adab of Disclosure & Recitation (14:00-15:30)
14:00-14:45: Zach Winters (U of Chicago), Speaking Too Freely with Āẕarī Isfarāyinī (d. 866/1461-2)
14:45-15:30: Fateme Montazeri (UC Berkeley): Zikr and ‘Aqd-i Nikah: Forgotten functions of Persian quatrain
Closing Discussion (15:30-16:15)
- September 24, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.CHAT PREMODERN RESEARCH FORUM SYMPOSIUM
Epidemics and the Environment in the Pre-Modern World
Temple University
Friday, September 30, 9:00 am-6 :30 pm
Webinar Registration Link: https://temple.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sIp1vOwQStep7H0czB49lg
This symposium will explore the wide array of environmental and institutional factors that influenced the way in which plague, in the broadest sense, and other epidemics originated and spread, as well as their intellectual, artistic, demographic and socio-economic consequences at a local and global scale throughout history from Antiquity to the 18th century. How did Pre-Modern societies cope with epidemics that presented challenges and upheavals comparable to the ones we are currently experiencing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic? What can the Pre-Modern past offer to better prepare us for our present and future?
2. ASIAN CULTURAL RESEARCH WEBINAR
Mardomname and Ahmadabad University Fourth Webinar
This webinar brings together two different perspectives on ethnographic methods, as employed by an Iranian anthropologist and an Indian one in relation to their respective fields.
THE OUTSIDE: TRANSLATION AFTER THE REVOLUTION
Milad Odabaei is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE, ACADEMIC BORDERS AND THE MAKING OF THE INDIAN HIMALAYAN FRONTIER
Suchismita Das is an Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences Division at Ahmedabad University.
22 SEPTEMBER 2022 — 6 pm IST — 5 pm IRDT — 1:30 pm GMT
Meeting ID: 969 9161 8262 Passcode: 207524
3. Conference “The Theory and Practice of Rebellion in the Early Islamicate World”, University of Hamburg, 22-24 September 2022
See program at https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/voror/forschung/score/news/conf-prog-2022.html . Registration: score.aai@uni-hamburg.de .
4. ONLINE Meeting “The Ongoing Struggle for Academic Freedom and Autonomy at Boğaziçi University”, Series Turkey Now, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association (OTSA) 23 September 2022, 9:00 am PT
Boğaziçi University faculty members and instructors Can Candan, Mine Eder, Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, Cengiz Kırlı, and Ünal Zenginobuz will provide an update on the recent developments that continue to threaten academic freedom and autonomy at Boğaziçi University gravely. Laurie Brand, the chair of the Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom (MESA CAF), will be the moderator.
Information and registration: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEvcOuoqj0oGdX7TpPw2T9qDH965LZhu-V9
5. ONLINE Webinar “Blasphemy Laws in Islam and in Muslim-Majority Countries – Do They Violate Qur`anic Teaching?”, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), 24 Sep-tember 2022, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST
Speakers: Prof. Khaled Abou Elfadl (UCLA Law School), Mustafa Akyol (Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute), Prof. Ahmet Kuru (San Diego State University), Dr. Basheer Ahmed (Southwestern Medical School, Dallas TX), Dr. Radwan A. Masmoudi (President, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy).
Information and registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ua0k6XDkSeO7rRqa5IyfIQ
6. ONLINE Session “Connected Crusaders. Expert Knowledge and the Plans for the Recovery of the Holy Land (1291–1336)”, German Historical Institutes in Paris and Rome, 27 September 2022, 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm CET
The Egyptian sultans conquered the last remaining Crusader states in the Levant between 1289 and 1291. Faced with this defeat, the Latin rulers began to question their military modus operandi and tried to find entirely new ways and means of reconquering the Holy Land. The session examines the creation and dissemination of knowledge in the subsequent 40 years of crusade planning and discusses these and related topics with the audience.
Information and registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqfuCrqD4oGNf2g4qTKIbOJWbDsH0wSKEN
7. International Conference: „Rationality in Islamic Theology in the Post-Classical Period (1200-1900)“, Department of Islamic-Religious Studies, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, 28-29 Sep-tember 2022
The post-classical period is a very important period and the connecting bridge between the classical and the modern Islamic thought. In this period interdisciplinary connections between the Islamic sciences became an important characteristic element and took place between many disciplines. The conference will shade a special light on the importance of this period.
Deadline for registration: 25 September 2022. Information and program: https://www.dirs.phil.fau.de/files/2022/09/DIRS-Tagung_GoldenAge_8Seiter_400mm-breit_B.pdf
8. HYBRID Panel “Petitions and Petitioning in Iranian & Ottoman Constitutionalism”, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative at NYU, 13 October 2022, 12:30 pm ET This panel will examine the constitutionalism processes in the Ottoman and Iranian contexts with a particular focus on the meaning, institution, and transformation of petitioning. Yuval Ben-Bassat will explore the Ottoman institution of petitioning following the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. Nader Sohrabi will explore the democracy of petitions in Iran’s constitutional movement. Etc. Information and registration: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsdOutpzMsHdRaDkhIKnnZ8wHmuFYZ_RyL
9. Conference “The Futures Past of the Ottomans”, Université Paris Cité, 12-13 October 2023
The program of the conference intends to examine how Erdoganism brings together 1) anti-Kemalism: revolutionary utopia as the rejection of the old order and the shaping of a new man leads to a multi-faceted counterrevolution; 2) post-Kemalism; 3) Neo-Ottoman Kemalism: modelling on the sultan, the Turkish president ensures the redistribution of resources and the balance of justice; 4) anti-Westernism.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 December 2022.
10. Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Culture (Premondern Islamic, Christian, Jewish Cultures), Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
The Department of Art and Visual Culture, in conjunction with the Religious Studies Department and the Classical and Medieval Studies Program, seeks a tenure-track colleague in premodern visual cultures with an emphasis on visual cultures produced in and among varied religious cultures, including Islamic, Christian, and/or Jewish, in the centuries before 1500 CE.
Deadline for application: 1 November 2022.
Information: https://www.bates.edu/employment/opportunities/?job=492560
11. Book Chapters for Edited Volume “Timurid Manuscripts in Context: Prince Baysunghur, Before and After” of the Persian Manuscripts Association
The edited volume can cover a range of topics, periods, and regions, from Jalayirid Iran to the early modern Persianate world at large, and cross several disciplinary boundaries, including but not limited to history, literature, codicology, conservation, and art history, in relation to the connoisseurship and patronage undertaken by the Timurid Prince Baysunghur and his corpus.
Deadline for abstracts: 17 October 2022. Information: https://persianmanuscripts.org/edited-volume/
12. Articles on “Middle East and North African Archives” for Special Section of the “American Archivist Journal”
Articles may cover records management, repositories, archival practices, the content of specific collections, or other topics which affect archival collections in the region. While articles are free to engage archival theory, in general they should discuss actual records and collections and not approach archives solely as metaphor.
Deadline for submissions: 1 February 2023. Information: https://www2.archivists.org/news/2022/american-archivist-calls-for-articles-on-middle-east-and-north-african-archives
13. Articles on “Manuscript Studies” for the Online, Open-Access Journal “Shamsa: The Journal of the Persian Manuscripts Association”
Articles and research notes are invited for the inaugural 2024 volume of Shamsa. The journal focuses on Islamic manuscript studies in the historically Persianate world (including Iran, Iraq, South Asia, Central Asia, and Turkey). We welcome submissions that focus on manuscripts and related media from the Late Antique up to the modern periods and discuss material written in Persian, Arabic, Turkish and other related languages like Urdu, Chagatai, and Uyghur. Deadline for submissions: 24 February 2023. Information: https://persianmanuscripts.org/journal/
14. Articles for “Indonesian Journal of Religion, Spirituality and Humanity”, State Islamic University (UIN) Salatiga, Indonesia
This Journal focuses on the works which deal with anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, philosophy of religion, history of religion, religious education, religious literature, theology, religious law, religious studies, Islamic studies, and religious tourism.
Submission deadline: 30 September 2022. Information: https://e-journal.iainsalatiga.ac.id/index.php/ijoresh/index
15. Articles for Journal “Forum Islamic-Theological Studies”, University of Innsbruck
This peer-reviewed, international journal isdevoted to the interdisciplinary study of Islamic Theology and Reli-gious Education, principally in Europe. Papers can be submitted in Qur´anic Studies and Qur`anic Exegesis (tafsīr); Hadith Studies; Sufism; Islamic Ethics and Philosophy; Islamic Religious Education; Sociology of Religion on Muslims in Europe; Islam and Pluralism, Islam in Europe; Interreligious Studies; etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 October 2022. Information: https://ojs.nomos-journals.de/index.php/fits/CfP
16. CYCLE DE CONFÉRENCES PUBLIQUES
22-23 IISMM-BULAC
Prêcher et convaincre en contexte musulman
La naissance de l’islam : convaincre entre apocalyspe, conquêtes
et empire
Paris, 4 October, 2022, 18.30-20.00
Information: https://iismm.hypotheses.org/files/2022/08/AfficheConf_Oct.pdf
17. Call for Papers on Science & Religion in the MENA Region under the auspices of the International Research Network for the Study of Science & Belief in Society based in the University of Birmingham.
Unpublished papers (between 8,000 and 10,000 words) on subjects such as those outlined above should be emailed by November 15, 2022 to mena.science.religion@gmail.com
The best six papers will receive an award of GBP 1,000. The best among the six selected will be awarded a further GBP 2,000.
For more information contact: mena.science.religion@gmail.com
18. MA programs in Middle Eastern Studies & Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut
The spring semester application deadline is approaching for the following Master of Arts programs at the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) at the American University of Beirut:
An interdisciplinary program which provides students with a broad knowledge of the history, culture, and politics of the contemporary Middle East. Students may structure their own course of study in order to develop a critical understanding of the region as well as to conduct in-depth, independent research. Arabic language study is a required part of the program.
An interdisciplinary program which provides students with a broad knowledge of classical and modern Islamic religious thought and textual traditions, and offers critical insight into the political, intellectual, literary and social history of Islam up to the present day.
The deadline to apply for Spring 2022-23 is November 3, 2022. Both programs offer students funding opportunities.
For information on how to apply to graduate programs at AUB, please visit the Office of Admissions website and the Graduate Council website.
For any questions about our programs, please email us on cames@aub.edu.lb.
19. Highlights from the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection at the University of Pennsylvania
Friday, 30 September at 10am EDT / 3pm GMT / 4pm EET (via Zoom)
In collaboration with Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS), Lynn Ransom, Curator of Programs, and Nicholas Herman, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Curator of Manuscripts, at the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies will present highlights of the Schoenberg Collection’s Islamicate manuscripts and the various ways in which SIMS encourages and engages scholars around the world in support of research involving the collection.
Arabic simultaneous interpretation will be available throughout the event.
- September 20, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. MERIP is hiring for a new social media coordinator! https://mailchi.mp/0efa0abac2b3/merip-is-hiring?e=88dd2708f5
2. The Politics of Engaged Gender Research in the Arab Region
Feminist Fieldwork and the Production of Knowledge
S Joseph, et al., eds.
IB Tauris, 2022
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/politics-of-engaged-gender-research-in-the-arab-region-9780755645220/
Enter the code BTU22UK at the checkout for 25% off
3. Call for Applications for Postdoctoral Fellowships, 2023/2024
The Dan David Society of Fellows aims to support outstanding postdoctoral research in the study of the past. The Society’s two-year postdoctoral fellowship provides generous funding for international and Israeli scholars, to pursue innovative research at the highest level while enjoying the professional mentorship of faculty members at Tel Aviv University. Candidates who have completed their PhD in any discipline involved in the study of the human past, including but not limited to history, archaeology, history of the arts, history of education, history of science and medicine, physical anthropology, literature, philosophy and digital humanities are eligible to apply.
Researchers who have completed their PhD at Tel Aviv University are not eligible for the Fellowship. Candidates must have their PhD degree in hand no earlier than October 1, 2018 and no later than September 1, 2023. (applicants who were on maternity leave are entitled to add an extra year for each child born since receiving the PhD degree). The fellowship will be awarded without regard to ethnicity, religion, gender or age.
Up to four fellowships will be awarded for a maximum of two years each, beginning October 1, 2023. Those accepted to the program must commit to completing a full two-year term. Fellows will be asked to spend at least three days a week at Tel Aviv University and be active members of the university’s scholarly community. They will be required to fully participate in the activities of the Dan David Society of Fellows, including a twice-monthly seminar dedicated to cutting-edge methodologies and historiographic approaches, and to present their research to the other fellows once a year. The program’s academic activities will all be conducted in English.
Fellows will receive an annual scholarship of $40,000. Non-Israeli fellows will also be eligible to partially subsidized on-campus housing.
Applications should include the following documents in English: CV (including a list of publications and a list of research languages); a statement of research plans (max. 5 pages); summary of PhD dissertation (max. 1 page); and 2 letters of recommendation (one from the applicant’s doctoral supervisor)
The deadline for applications for the 2023/2024 academic year is December 1, 2022.
4. 2023 Mohamed Ali Foundation Fellowship, Durham University, call for applications
Applications for the 2023
The Mohamed Ali Foundation Fellowship is hosted by Durham University and is awarded to early career (post-doctoral) or established scholars. 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 the reign of Khedive Abbas Hilmi II (1892-1914).
In June 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 is now available online. Fellowships will be awarded over the next 5 years. An Advisory Panel, chaired by Professor Anoush Ehteshami 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 of the collection’s subject strengths 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 in the Institute for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, 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 (late April-late June), but fellows may request to reside elsewhere for the duration of the fellowship. All fellows will visit Durham, if only briefly, in order to deliver their lecture. Lectures and other activities elsewhere during the fellowship will be encouraged.
Fellows who do 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 and accommodation and all meals will be provided for the duration of the fellowship; a research travel grant is also available to each fellow.
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 of the collection’s subject strengths provided below. More detailed information on the fellowship programme is also provided.
Applicants for the 2023 Fellowship (24 April-23 June 2023) should send a CV (of no more than 2 pages), a two to three-page outline of their proposed research and contact details for two referees, preferably by e-mail, by Tuesday 1 November 2022 to:
The Secretary
Mohamed Ali Foundation Fellowship programme
Durham University Library
Palace Green
DH1 3RN
United Kingdom
Email: maf.fellow@durham.ac.uk
For further details please see the online notice
5. DePaul University – The Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University invites applicants for a tenure-track appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning July 2023. We are looking for a candidate who specializes in Contemporary Islam in the Americas.
Full info at: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=63947
For full consideration please upload a letter of application, curriculum vitae, a research statement, a recent writing sample, one sample syllabus, and the names and addresses of three referees by October 15, 2022.
6. University of Pittsburgh – Assistant Professor, Modern Islam, and Race
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=63916
In order to ensure full consideration, applications should be received by October 24, 2022.
7. Tenure Track Professor of Iranian-Persian Linguistics and Literature, Open Rank
The Department of Central Eurasian Studies in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University Bloomington announces an Open Rank, Tenure Track search for a Professor of Iranian-Persian Linguistics and Literature focusing on Persian (Farsi) and its historical developments.
Applicants should be capable of conducting research and teaching on topics relating to the literatures and linguistics of Persian or its earlier versions. Candidates should demonstrate commitment to excellence in research, teaching, public engagement, and program development of Iranian-Persian Studies within Indiana University’s world-class Central Eurasian Studies faculty as well as within the Hamilton Lugar School. Candidates are expected to teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels as determined by the department. The appointment begins August 1, 2023.
Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled, with all applications received by October 11, 2022 being assured full consideration.
Interested candidates should review the application requirements and submit their application at: https://indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/13663
Departmental Contacts for Questions:
Professor Jamsheed Choksy
Interim Chair and Distinguished Professor
Department of Central Eurasian Studies
jchoksy@indiana.edu
Ms. April Younger
Administrative Assistant to the Chair
Department of Central Eurasian Studies
ayounger@indiana.edu
Fuller information:
8. The Association for Iranian Studies (AIS) is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief for its flagship journal, Iranian Studies: Journal of the Association for Iranian Studies. This multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal is dedicated to the study of all aspects of Iran and the Persianate world from the pre-Islamic period to the present. As the official publication of the Association for Iranian Studies, it has served as the leading forum for the exchange of ideas and promotion of discipline-based and interdisciplinary research in all fields of Iranian Studies since 1967.
The Editor-in-Chief oversees the journal’s online peer review and editorial processes and gives strategic direction to the journal. As an officer of the Association for Iranian Studies, the Editor-in-Chief receives, annually, an honorarium of $10,000 USD, funding up to $10,000 for two course releases, support for travel to the AIS biennial conference, and a $10,000 USD operating budget to support the editorial process with the expectation of additional support from the scholar’s home institution. The position is a five-year appointment and renewable for a second term.
Applicants should be active and published scholars in fields covered by the journal; demonstrate an interest in, and ability to work with, a diverse team of editors and AIS council members; and build relationships with researchers in the field of Iranian Studies. Some previous editorial work and familiarity with digital media are preferred. We especially welcome applications from tenured mid-career scholars and institutional applications from scholarly research centers. The disciplinary field and period of scholarly concentration of the Editor-in-Chief remain open. We also invite inquiries from members of underrepresented groups in the field.
The deadline for applications is October 15. Applications should include a CV and a letter of intent explaining your vision for the journal and the resources your home institution can provide to support your efforts for augmenting the operating budget. Please send application materials to Sussan Siavoshi (Chair, Iranian Studies Search Committee) at ssiavosh@trinity.edu . Informal queries are welcome and encouraged.
9. Call for Contributions to the 8th IDHN Conference
The 8th IDHN Conference which will take place on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
We are now calling for contributions from both members and guests, who are developing or deploying digital methods and tools in the study of Islam and Muslim communities and languages. Our conference is open to participants from both humanistic and scientific disciplines. We would also like to encourage Master’s and PhD students to share their Digital Humanities research with our forum.
If you wish to participate in the conference, please send an email to team@idhn.org with a preliminary title, abstract (150-300 words), and your academic affiliation by Thursday, October 13, 2022.
We will select four to six presentations for our conference. Each presentation will be 20 minutes long, followed by Q&A for 10 minutes. We will hold the meeting online on ZOOM; the access code and link will be sent to you in the network’s newsletter. We will schedule our conference to accommodate presenters from all time zones. This schedule will correspond with the morning hours in the Americas and evening hours in Europe and the Middle East.
With warm wishes,
Irene Kirchner (Georgetown University)
10. On-line Wed 21 Sep, 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Book Launch: Rethinking Islam and Space in Europe
(Dr Tobias Muller (Woolf), Prof. Esra Özyürek (University of Cambridge) Prof. Sarah Bracke (University of Amsterdam
Centre of Islamic Studies
University of Cambridge
11. CFP/Institute for Mediterranean StudieS: Dictionary of Mediterranean Inter-Civilization Exchanges
We are writing to find authors for the second edition of the Dictionary of
Mediterranean Inter-Civilization Exchange.
Its first edition was published in 2020, demonstrating its academic
significance by being awarded as “Achievement of Excellence” by the Ministry
of Education in Korea.
And in the year 2022, we would like to expand the authors to scholars and
institutes of international society, who are interested in civilization
exchange based on their relationships.
If you are interested, please feel free to contact us by Oct, 31st, 2022.
(We do have a guide and reference for your understanding)
Thank you. We hope you all the best.
Sincerely,
Institute for Mediterranean Studies
Institute for Mediterranean Studies,
Busan University of Foreign Studies
E-mail : icims@ims.or.kr/imsmr@ims.or.kr
Phone : + 82-51-509-6695
11. Ibn Arabi PhD Scholarship
Monash University in Australia is hiring a PhD student who will specialise in Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), his work, heritage, later influence, and/or reception. You can find the call here: https://careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/job/640536/phd-scholarship-in-islamic-intellectual-history-through-the-lens-of-sufism-global-dissemination-of-knowledge-in-islam
Deadline: Sunday 16 October 2022, 11:55pm AEDT
Enquiries: aydogan.kars@monash.edu
13. In-Person Lecture – “The Külliye as Hypotext: A New Reading of Histories of Imperial Mosques and Tombs,” Nebahat Avcıoğlu – October 25
Lecture by Nebahat Avcıoğlu, Hunter College and Graduate Center/CUNY
Date: October 25th 2022, 6:15 to 8:00 pm
Place: Columbia University, 612 Schermerhorn Hall
The Külliye as Hypotext: A New Reading of Histories of Imperial Mosques and Tombs
Universally described as a ‘city of mosques and minarets’, Istanbul is invariably symbolized in literature and visual arts by its Ottoman skyline as a means to make people see and imagine the glorious or oppressive histories and cultures of the empire. Nowhere are these two classic city-features, urban landscapes and iconic shapes, so tightly knit than in Istanbul. But when and how exactly did this form—the mosque—, once an integral part of a building complex commonly known as külliye, the Ottoman version of an urban unit combining three key functionalities for nomadic conquerors—the spiritual (a praying room), the practical (lodgings for travellers and sufis) and the communal (soup-kitchen)—become the sum and substance of an entire city? By the end of the eighteenth century, külliyes were everywhere and everything to the city, however, the proliferation of this ideal type, highly codified, could not be replicated without modification or distortion. As ‘Istanbul’ became the key-metonym of the Ottoman empire itself, its cityscape and urban fabric evolved into the new scale of the külliye-practice, and came to be reimagined mostly through self-standing singular buildings amidst growing neighborhoods and ceremonial sites, with the mosque and the tomb in particular becoming separated and made self-sufficient. Focusing on imperial complexes exemplary of Istanbul’s urban expansion from the conquest to the Tanzimat, this talk will make use of Gérard Genette’s theoretical toolbox and show how this process of reduction took place through excision, condensation, and concision of the original külliye prototype. In turn, this methodology activates a critical paradigm of Istanbul as palimpsest.
14. Fellowships – American Research Institute in Turkey, Fellowships for 2023-2024 – Due November 1
The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) is pleased to announce 2023-2024 fellowship programs for graduate students and scholars based in the U.S. and Canada:
ARIT Fellowships for Research in Turkey support projects in ancient, medieval, or modern times, in any field of the humanities and social sciences. Post-doctoral and doctoral dissertation fellowships may be held from one month to one academic year.
ARIT / National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for Research in Turkey cover all fields of the humanities, including prehistory, art, archaeology, anthropology, literature, and linguistics as well as all aspects of history. The fellowships support applicants who have completed their academic training, for terms ranging from four months to one year.
Applications for ARIT and ARIT-NEH fellowships must be submitted by November 1, 2022.
ARIT Summer Fellowships for Advanced Turkish Language offer intensive advanced study at Bogazici University in Istanbul during the summer 2023. Partiipants must have two years of Turkish language study or its equivalent. The application deadline will be in early February 2023. The fellowships provide airfare, application and tuition fees, and a maintenance stipend.
Additional information at https://aritweb.org/fellowships/
15. 2022 Riggsby Lecture: “A Mediterranean Divide: Islamic versus Christian Experiences of the Black Death”, 22 September 2022 – Monica H Green
The lecture will be virtual and open to the public. It will be held at 5pm Eastern Time (US) on Thursday, 22 September. Here is the link for further information and registration: https://marco.utk.edu/riggsby-lecture/.
Monica H. Green, PhD
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8978-9631
Fellow, Medieval Academy of America
Independent Scholar
https://independentscholar.academia.edu/MonicaHGreen
Twitter: @monicaMedHist
16. 14th Annual International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conference (IRTP) on 21st June – 24th June 2023 Medjugorje/Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
All detailed information about the Conference can be found at our web site: www.irtp.co.uk
- September 17, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.CFP: The Quest for Modern Language between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, University of Chicago, April 2023
Language ideologies were an important component of modern nationalism, and figured prominently in the cultural and political discourses of modernity and modernization in and around what came to be known as “the Middle East” in the 19th and early 20th centuries. We invite submissions for a two day workshop, to be held at the University of Chicago on April 13-14, 2023, which seeks to bring together scholars across humanistic and social scientific disciplines (such as History, Literary theory, Linguistic and Anthropology) to explore the articulation, circulation, and mobilization of ideas about language death and revival, language reform, and language modernization in the contexts of empire, emerging nationalisms, and a modernized / quickly modernizing world.
Invited speakers:
Dima Ayoub, Middlebury College
Johann Strauss, Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg
Some of the topics we hope to see addressed include:
(a) What does / did it mean for a language to be or become a modern language within the relevant discourses?
(b) How does multilingualism and translation figure within projects of language modernization in the relevant geopolitical contexts?
(b) How, if at all, did developments in linguistics, philology, and adjacent disciplines inform and shape ideas about “modern language” and related ideas such as “modern / national literature”?
(c) How do notions of native tongue, language family, vernacular dialect or register interact with concepts such as empire, nation, motherland?
(d) How does the relation between language and the body figure in projects of (re)generation of modern polities and individuals?
1-page abstracts for a 30 minute presentation should be sent to ifrancez@uchicago.edu
Submission deadline: December 15th, 2022
Notification of acceptance: January 2022
2. Call for Papers
Proposal for Special Issue of Critical Comparative Studies, Edinburgh University Press
Iranian Comparative Literature: Between Chaos and Discipline
This special issue is building on two panels organized in the XXIII Congress of International Comparative Literature Association in Tbilisi, Georgia, in July 2022. The issue seeks two aims: a historical and a methodological. First, to study the development of Comparative Literature in institutional settings during the past two decades in order to critically review the current state of the discipline as it is practiced in Persian and other Iranian languages, in Iran and diasporic locations. Second, to investigate the impact of comparative methodologies that have contributed to the formation of modern literary studies – in particular Orientalism and Eurocentric knowledge – and to examine the effects of this (comparative) literary studies as a “local” form of knowledge in Iranian academia.
Historically, the study of modern foreign literatures was part of the curriculum at the first modern Iranian university (i.e. University of Tehran) in the 1920s, but a department of Comparative Literature proper did not – and does not – exist in Iranian academia. During the past two decades, the discipline has been developed as a subfield under the department of national literature, i.e. Persian Language and Literature. It is probably in response to this change that there has been a sharp increase in the number of books on Comparative Literature translated into Persian, as well as in the number of academic journals published in Persian with “comparative” as part of their titles. Outside Iran, the majority of students and scholars who contribute to the field have conventionally been located in Area Studies departments, engaging, and oftentimes extending, the legacies of Orientalism.
On the methodological side, this issue seeks to discuss the disciplinary adjustments needed for the practice of Comparative Literature – or rather comparative literary studies – in the Iranian context. The structures of knowledge formulated during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were based on two fundamental postulates: the centrality of capitalism and secularism as the defining essence of modern culture; the history of European cultural development as the norm against which other cultural histories would be assessed. In this structure, Area Studies was created in Europe for introducing non-European literatures – placed outside capitalism – to European readers.
As a result, the study of modern Iranian literatures in Iran, positioned on the margins of capitalism, via Eurocentric knowledge would encounter deep epistemological and, subsequently, methodological problems: Orientalism places – via cliched images constructed through romanticist interests – the “golden age” of literary creativity in the past, consistently positioning modern Persian as an outsider to modern literary studies; energized by romantic nationalism, it has failed to consider and incorporate the diversity of Iranian literatures beyond Persian in the body of literary knowledge; it assesses a culture that has developed in the periphery of capitalism with the norms suitable to evaluating European literature and, therefore, cannot account for formal innovations and developments, if form is understood as the literary effect of negotiations between multiple cultural forces. In short, it is not clear what methodologies would be suitable to the study of Iranian literary traditions in a comparative setting.
As a result of these concerns, in order to integrate Persian in comparative literary practices, a number of changes are needed to formulate the critical position(s) and priorities of the discipline. First, disentangling the history of Iranian cultural development from the global history of colonialism, particularly European modern history. The normative assumptions of the discipline must be dealt with as fluid frames that essentially fall short of describing the peripherality and diversity of the Iranian condition. This critical perspective must extend to a critical review of Area Studies and the Orientalist knowledge it produces. Second, the problem of a temporal lag in a context that has been on the margins of the modern world, hence a latecomer to both capitalism and disciplinary knowledge, must be tackled, too; this temporal lag is most evident in the way Comparative Literature subfields have been formed, and journals founded, without having developed a linguistic pedagogical program or a clear research method.
Approaching Comparative Literature as a transdisciplinary field, with a Eurocentric and colonial history, this special issue takes into account contemporary questions and lived experiences that engage and promote the causes of comparative literary studies within and beyond Persian – as Iran’s lingua franca. Given the modern history of the nation, and the academic system, can Comparative Literature be practiced at all as a discipline in the Iranian context? What new theoretical interventions are essential to render the discipline not only productive but also critically relevant? This special issue invites researchers to share their thoughts and research on the state of the discipline. Topics of interest are – but not essentially limited to – the following:
– The history of modern (foreign) literary studies at Iranian universities
– The legacies and limits of Area studies and Orientalist knowledge
– “Internal colonialism” and non-Persian Iranian languages and literary traditions
– Being/becoming World Literature: peripherality and universality
– Formulating the condition: Is combined and uneven development sufficient?
– The “literary” and comparatism: discipline building and curriculum development
– Conceptualizations of translation, imitation, and adaptation in a romanticist culture
– Disciplinarity and the question of visual cultures, digital literatures and future research.
Please send a 300-word abstract to both Omid Azadibougar omid.azadi@hunnu.edu.cn and Laetitia Nanquette l.nanquette@unsw.edu.au by 31 January 2023.
Timeline:
Abstract submission deadline: 31 January 2023
Notification of acceptance: 28 February 2023
Paper submission deadline: 31 December 2023
Paper acceptance notification: 30 June 2024
Publication: December 2024
3. ONLINE Turkish, Hebrew, Persian and Arabic Roundtables “Lexicons of Race Projects”, Middle East Studies Association (MESA), 12-15 September 2022, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EDT
When and where are racial histories and hierarchies embedded in languages of the Middle East and North Africa? How do vocabularies of race, Blackness, and minoritization travel across languages? What are the intellectual and political benefits of centering Blackness in Middle East Studies?
Information and registration: https://mailchi.mp/mesana/lexicons-of-race-virtual-roundtables-in-arabic-hebrew-persian-and-turkish?e=6c5710e83c
4. HYBRID Third JaNeT Workshop “Janissaries in Ottoman Port-Cities: Muslim Financial and Political Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean”, Istanbul Medeniyet University, 14-15 September 2022
JaNet investigates the economic and sociopolitical role of the Janissaries in the 18th and early 19th centuries through their examination as a complex of interconnected networks in the Mediterranean. By studying the Janissary corps, the project brings forward a radically new historical analysis concerning the role of Muslims in the Ottoman and wider Mediterranean commercial economy.
Information and registration: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/10812519/third-ja-net-workshop-14-15-september-2022-istanbul
5. HYBRID Third JaNeT Workshop “Janissaries in Ottoman Port-Cities: Muslim Financial and Political Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean”, Istanbul Medeniyet University, 14-15 September 2022
JaNet investigates the economic and sociopolitical role of the Janissaries in the 18th and early 19th centuries through their examination as a complex of interconnected networks in the Mediterranean. By studying the Janissary corps, the project brings forward a radically new historical analysis concerning the role of Muslims in the Ottoman and wider Mediterranean commercial economy.
Information and registration: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/10812519/third-ja-net-workshop-14-15-september-2022-istanbul
6. Section « L’islam dann la culture populaire : reconfigurations et nouvelles visibilités » dans le cadre du treizième congrès des francoromanistes, Universität Wien, 21-24 septembre 2022
Information, programme et abstracts: https://frankoromanistentag.univie.ac.at/fr/sections/etudes-culturelles/
7. Conference “The Middle East in Myth and Reality”, 2022 Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies Conference, University of Iceland, 22-24 September 2022
Program: https://conference.hi.is/nsmes2022/files/2022/08/Nordic-Middle-Eastern-Conference-Program-.pdf
8. ONLINE Webinar “Struggling for Reproductive Rights: Perspectives from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East”, Center for Middle East Studies, Brown University, Provi-dence, RI, 30 September 2022, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm ET
Information and registration: https://brown.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0fmbG0nyR7uTXb6hc1vtxA
9. HYBRID Conference “Faith Saving Water: Muslims, Christians and the Environment”, Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford, 28 November 2022
The conference will focus on Muslim and Christian perspectives on water from environmental, theological and practical points of view. The scope of the conference encompasses all topics and disciplinary approaches relating to the study of Islam and Christianity and their encounter around water as a shared natural resource. The main case study for the conference will be the water crisis in Jordan.
Deadline for abstracts: 7 October 2022. Information: https://www.cmcsoxford.org.uk/cmcs-news/faith-saving-water-conference-28th-november-2022-call-for-papers
10. “3rd Mediterranean Studies Symposium”, Centre for Mediterranean Studies (CMS), Dubrovnik, Croatia, 29 June – 1 July 2023
Interdisciplinary approaches from humanities, social sciences, media studies, and other fields of research are pivotal. Any historical period of reference is welcome, though we would strongly encourage presenters to look at the region’s current complexities.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 November 2022.
11. Doctoral or Post-Doctoral Position (3 Years, TV-L 13, 65%-100%) for Research on “Jews and Christians in Arabia: Between the Qur’an and Early Islam”, University of Tuebingen
Holding at least an MA or a PhD, the successful candidate will possess a very good command of Arabic and detailed knowledge of the early Islamic tradition. In addition, the candidate should have good knowledge of the disciplines of historiography and Qur’anic Studies. They must be able to work with further late antique Jewish and Christian primary sources relevant to the study of early Islam.
Deadline for application: 30 September 2022.
12. Assistant or Associate Professorship of the Arab American Educational Foundation, History Department, Rice University, Houston, TX
The Department seeks a historian of the modern Arab World who has an outstanding record of research, competence in the Arabic language, demonstrated expertise in Arab culture and history, and proven excellence in teaching.
Deadline for applications: 15 November 2022. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/112001
13. Tenure-Track Assistant Professor for Comparative Literature of the Early Global South (1000 – 1600 C.E.), University of California, Los Angeles, CA
The ideal candidate should work in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, or the Americas. Applicants should have a PhD in Comparative Literature or a related field. The candidate will show broad and sophisticated theoretical competence. We seek the potential for exceptional research and excellence in teaching.
Deadline for application: 30 November 2022. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/job-assistant-professor-early-global-south-comparatist-comp-lit-ucla?e=82aeb6c61d
14. Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of International Relations and Global Studies, West Chester University, PA
Qualification: Experience teaching courses in International Relations, Comparative Politics, and/or Global Studies. Experience teaching specialized courses in Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and/or transnational issues.
Deadline for applications: 1 November 2022.
Information: https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2022/09/08/tenure-track-faculty-position
15. 3 and 10 November 2022 Short Course – Arabic Transliteration for Academics, Publishers and Librarians
AKU- ISMC
More information at:
https://www.aku.edu/ismc/study/Pages/short-courses.aspx
16. CFP – Interiors Reconfigured: Changing Materiality and Craftsmanship in the Decorative Arts of the Middle East and North Africa (18th-20th centuries) – Due October 15
Vitrocentre Romont, November, 3-4, 2023
Organizers: Francine Giese and Sarah Keller (Vitrocentre Romont), Mercedes Volait (CNRS / InVisu)
Keynote Speaker: Stefan Weber (Museum for Islamic Art in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin)
Call for papers
Deadline for submissions: October 15, 2022
Notification of acceptance: November 30, 2022
We are pleased to announce the call for papers for an international conference dedicated to the decorative arts of the Middle East and North Africa with a special focus on material aspects and local practices. The 19th century witnessed an unprecedented disassembly of historical interiors in the cultural centers of the region, be it Cairo, Damascus or Istanbul. Dismounted architectural elements such as wood panels, ceilings, domes, marble incrustations, tiles, stucco glass windows or textiles reached the West via collectors or the art market, leaving behind a fragmented cultural heritage. This trend followed profound changes in the countries of origin since the 18th century, in the course of which local tastes and craftmanship began to mutate under Ottoman and Western influence.
The conference is jointly organized by the Vitrocentre Romont and the CNRS (InVisu research center in Paris), and will address the growing importance of material-based analysis in the field of Middle Eastern and Maghrebi décors. The starting point are the interiors of residences and palaces in the above-mentioned region, which have been extensively documented and described by Western architects, artists, and travelers. Some have undergone substantial restorations in recent times that have erased their most modern layers. Their exploration has so far often been limited to what they can tell about domestic architecture at the time of their building, or more recently with questions dealing with provenance, art market or cultural appropriation, without their original material composition being investigated by means of micro-analyses. When non-invasive analyses are possible, they may help to collect reliable data on the different components of a historical interior, with the aim of virtually reconstructing their furnishings and the changes undergone during their period of existence.
The organizers welcome proposals on the following topics:
- Case studies of the different materials used in interiors of the mentioned period
- Transformation of interiors across time: reuse, substitution and reassembly
- Material characterization and technical analysis of the different components of interiors
- Local versus global manufacturing practices, including all the range of hybridisations
- The potential of virtual 3D reconstructions for art historical research
The presentations should be max. 20 minutes and may be given in French or English. Please submit a proposal of maximum 300 words and a brief curriculum vitae by October 15, 2022 to franziska.niemand@vitrocentre.ch.
Accommodation and meals during the conference will be covered. Participants are expected to pay for their own transportation.
For further information, see www.vitrocentre.ch
17. Webinar – Ditch the Negativity and Transform Your Relationship With Writing – September 28
During her first year as an assistant professor, Jane Jones, developmental editor, academic book coach, and founder of Up In Consulting, found it challenging to navigate her tenure-track responsibilities. She ultimately decided to leave this career path to become a writing coach and developmental editor. Jane decided to make it her mission to help other scholars achieve access to proper support, feedback, and mentorship and, ultimately, restore their faith in their work.
Join us as Jane shares what scholars, like you, can do to best mitigate these challenges in order to positively transform your relationship with writing. You will learn how to:
- Schedule and plan your writing process from the outset
- Overcome the magnitude of the task and find joy in writing
- Identify writing communities that support and hold you accountable
September 28 at 4:30 PM Israel time / 1:30 PM GMT / 9:30 AM EDT on Zoom
The ‘Publication Success Interview Series’ offers unique insights into the publishing world through in-depth conversations with leading editors, publishers, and other influential figures in the industry. Through exploring relevant topics, the interviews address and answer pressing issues in order to make the publishing process more accessible to authors.
- September 13, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Au coeur du harem
Les princesses ottomanes à l’aune du pouvoir (XVe-XVIIIe s.)
J Dumas
Brill, 2022
https://brill.com/view/title/61197
2. The Land between Two Seas: Art on the Move in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea 1300–1700
A Payne
Brill, 2022
https://brill.com/view/title/61882
3. AKU-ISMC: 28 October 2022 – ‘Sisters in Resilience: Women’s Movements in Muslim Contexts’
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4. Language Position at US Naval Academy
POSITION TITLE: Instructor (Senior Lecturer) in Foreign Languages and Cultures
LOCATION: Languages and Cultures Department, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402
APPLICATION TIMELINE: Review of applications will begin on 01 October 2022 and continue until the position is filled.
POSITION DESCRIPTION: The Languages and Cultures Department invites applications for the position of Instructor (Senior Lecturer) in Foreign Languages and Cultures, beginning as early as spring semester of 2023. This is a three-year renewable (non-tenure-track) teaching position. The anticipated teaching load is four courses per semester. The successful candidate should have expertise in foreign language pedagogy, second language acquisition, literature, cultural studies, or a related field. Candidates should be able to teach at least two of the seven languages offered in the department – Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish – across all levels of proficiency. The successful candidate will be expected to collaborate with faculty colleagues in support of the departmental and institutional educational mission.
Please visit https://www.usna.edu/HRO/jobinfo/Instructor-LCD-2022.php for more information about the position and instructions on how to apply.
5. The Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies Oxford is delighted to announce a conference on the intersection of faith and the ecological environment with particular focus on water as a constituent element of creation.
The event on 28 November 2022 will be the first in-person conference for over two years (with the possibility to join online). We look forward to reconnecting with colleagues and friends in the beautiful surroundings of Oxford. We now invite proposals for individual papers from postgraduate students, early career and established academics, as well as from professionals who have specialist expertise or unique insights into water management and religious responses. https://www.cmcsoxford.org.uk/cmcs-news/faith-saving-water-conference-28th-november-2022-call-for-papers
Abstract deadline: Friday 7 October 2022
6. The Invisible East Project:
Afghanistan: from Buddhism to Islam (8th to 13th century)
15 September 17:00 to 13 October 17:00
Zoom webinar
Full details at:
https://invisibleeast.web.ox.ac.uk/event/mooc-afghanistan-from-buddhism-to-islam
7. “Olfaction in the Medieval Islamic World: Perfumes, Incense, and Material Culture” [Silsila Fall 2022 Series]
Sterenn Le Maguer-Gillon, CEFREPA/Institut Catholique de Paris
Wednesday, September 14th, 12:30pm EDT
[Webinar] Silsila Fall 2022 Lecture Series, Body and Senses
Fragrant substances such as musk or camphor appear several times in the Qur’an. In addition, the use of perfumes and scented smoke is recommended for purification before prayer in some hadiths attributed to the Prophet collected by authorities such as al-Bukhari. This lecture will shed light on the use of perfumes and incense in medieval Arab society between the 7th and the 15th centuries.
Full details of the event and a link to register as an attendee can be found at:
Only registered attendees will be able to access this event.
8. Dear Colleagues,
It is my pleasure to announce the release Podcasting the Ottomans series entitled “Navigating ‘the Book of Navigation’.” (on SoundCloud and Apple Podcasts). The series was produced by Boston College undergraduates.
The podcast is about the Book of Navigation (Kitab-ı Bahriye), an atlas of the Mediterranean composed by the Ottoman navigator, cartographer, and pirate-turned-admiral, Piri Reis (d. 1553). We used the images of the marvelous manuscript copy (ms. W.658) preserved at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Thank you,
Dana Sajdi, Boston College
9. The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University presents
Fall 2022 AKPIA Lecture Series
A Forum for Islamic Art & Architecture
(All lectures are in person, in Cambridge MA)
October 13, 2022, 6:00pm
“The Textility of the Alhambra”
Olga Bush
Visiting Scholar, Vassar College
November 10, 2022, 6:00pm
“Islamic Architecture for Wisdom: Looking Back on the Classical Legacy”
Susana Calvo Capilla
AKPIA Fellow; Titular Professor, History of Art Department, Complutense University of Madrid
November 17, 2022, 6:00pm
“The Extraordinary Architectural Patronage of a 13th Century Sultan-Queen: Shajar al-Durr of Egypt”
Fairchild Ruggles
Debra L. Mitchell Chair in Landscape Architecture; Director of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Co-Sponsored with the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies at Harvard University
The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University
Lectures are open to the public and held Thursdays, 6:00-7:30pm,
at 485 Broadway (Basement Auditorium), Cambridge, MA.
For further information, call 617-495-2355 or email agakhan@fas.harvard.edu
Visit the website: https://agakhan.fas.harvard.edu/news-events
We anticipate that the Calvo Capilla and Ruggles lectures will be recorded and made available at the AKPIA website, after the event date.
10. Online Workshop
HIAA Workshop: Applying for Museum Jobs
Panelists: Ladan Akbarnia (San Diego Museum of Art), Mariam Rosser-Owen (Victoria & Albert Museum), Laura Weinstein (Boston Museum of Fine Arts)
Friday, September 16, 2022
12 pm EDT on Zoom
Register here
This event will not be recorded
- September 10, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. HYBRID International Workshop “Travelling Matters: Rereading, Reshaping, Reusing Objects across the Mediterranean”, Haifa Center for Mediterranean History, University of Haifa, 8 September 2022, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm IST
The workshop intends to tackle objects as sources and subjects of the history of cross-cultural encounters in innovative ways focusing on the “second-handedness” of displaced objects across the Mediterranean with a broad chronology, extending from antiquity to the present-day intersecting different time frames.
Program and registration: https://hcmh.haifa.ac.il/2022/06/30/travelling-matters-rereading-reshaping-reusing-objects-across-the-mediterranean/
2. 3rd Network for the Study of Environmental History of Turkey (NEHT) Workshop: “Environmental Histories of the Ottoman and post-Ottoman World – The Anthropocene: From Empire to Nation-States”, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna, 8-10 September 2022
The workshop will discuss the ways of integrating the concept of the Anthropocene into the field of Otto-man/post-Ottoman environmental history. It will open a space for analysing the role of human activities in transforming the Ottoman/post-Ottoman landscapes in the age of the Anthropocene.
Information and program: https://orientalistik.univie.ac.at/en/disciplines/turkish-studies/events/neht-2022/
3. ONLINE Webinar “A Persianate Japanology? The Reach and Limits of Inter-Asian Exchange” by Nile Green (Professor of History at UCLA), British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), London, 21 September 2022, 6:00 pm GMT
In the wake of the Japanese defeat of Russia in 1905, intellectuals from Iran, India, and Afghanistan looked to Japan as a model for achieving military and industrial modernization without adopting Western culture. Probing the secrets of Japan’s success, they wrote poems, travelogues, and histories of Japan in Persian.
Information and registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2916534763519/WN_BdqxsryTQ5O53W0ymUkbYQ
4. “Workshop on the Heritage of Indigenous Knowledge for the Persian Qanat (Aqueduct)”, Institute of Geography, University of Tehran, 12-15 October 2022
In addition to teaching the basic concepts of aqueduct and Qanat construction in Iran and studying the geography of the desert, the participants will visit the Qanat rehabilitation methods in Ardestan, Ardakan, Meybod, Zarch, Yazd and Bayazeh.
Deadline for registration extended to 15 September 2022.
5. “56th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA)”, Denver, Colorado, 1-4 December 2022
The preliminary program is now available with over 250 sessions on a wide range of topics, a number of roundtables, and several special sessions.
Deadline to pre-register: 8 November 2022. After that date, individuals must register on-site at the higher, on-site rate starting 1 December 2022.
Program: https://mesana.org/pdf/MESA2022_preliminaryprogram_FINAL.pdf
6. Visiting Research Fellowship for Omani Studies (3 Months), Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin
The Grant comprises funding for a research stay in Berlin of up to 3 months in 2023 at ZMO, as well as travel costs to Berlin, for the successful candidate. We are seeking to attract an outstanding postdoctoral scholar who is engaged in projects in research fields related to Omani Studies.
Deadline for applications: 15 September 2022. Information: https://www.zmo.de/fileadmin/Karriere/Ausschreibungen_2022/CfP_Oman_Research_Grant_2023.pdf
7. Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies, Stanford University
We seek candidates specializing in pre-modern Islam (7th–15th centuries), with a preference for the early period. Regional focus and disciplinary approach are open. A PhD is required at the time of appointment.
Deadline for applications: 30 September 2022.
Information: https://facultypositions.stanford.edu/cw/en-us/job/493443/assistant-professor-in-islamic-studies
8. Program Officer Iraq, National Endowment for Democracy, Washington DC
Qualifications: B.A. in international affairs, politics, or a related discipline required; Master’s level education or equivalent knowledge is desired; 2+ years of living or working in the Iraq/MENA region; 2+ years of experience in democracy-related work is required; fluent Arabic (reading, writing and speaking) is required.
Information: https://www.ned.org/about/jobs/#op-487262-21157-program-officer-iraq
9. New Publication – Scenes From The 16th Century Ottoman Empire Vol. 2 COECKE VAN DER AELST Moeurs et Fachons des Moeurs Turcz
SOTA PUBLICATIONS / SOTA YAYINLARI
CORPUS OF TURKISH ISLAMIC INSCRIPTIONS nr.51
SAMPLE PAGES: https://www.academia.edu/86084014/Coecke_brochure
FOR ORDERING AND MORE INFO WRITE TO: sotapublishing@gmail.com
NORTHERN EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE AND TURKISH IMAGE
This second volume of our series “Scenes from the 16th Century Ottoman Empire” collects some of the very early illustrations of Ottoman Empire and its people by Northern Artists. (Netherlandish, Flemish, German, Austrian and Swiss) It consists of 4 main parts with in every part an art object or an artist. We have given this volume the name of Coecke van der Aelst because his Customs of fashions of Turks is the main object of this book.
The four objects are accompanied by earlier published articles by different authors.
- Mercenaries and Turks 1530 (Museum Booijmans van Beuningen)
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has since 2010 exceptional set of prints from 1530 called “Landsknechten en Turken” or in english Mercenaries (lansquenets) and Turks, In terms of subject, the lansquenet set (20 woodcut prints) and the Turks is a set of 18 prints. (16 Turks and 2 Muscovites)
We will repint in this book the complete Turkish set with additional few specimens of
Lansquenets. This chapter is introduced by an article by Peter van der Coelen who is curator of Prints and drawings of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam:
- Jan Swart van Groningen, Süleyman and His Cortege, 1526
Second chapter of the book consists of 4 drawings made by Jan Swart van Groningen Netherlandish, ca. I500-ca. 1560. - Pieter Coecke van Aelst Customs and Fashions of Turcs and (1553)
The set of Turks from Museum Booijmans van Beuningen, meanwhile, has a splendid counterpart in Pieter Coecke van Aelst’s 1553 frieze, more than four metres wide, depicting the customs and practices of the Turks.4. The Wall map of the Turkish Campaign of 1529 - The Wall map of the Turkish Campaign of 1529
The last work of art we present in this volume is a Map of an Ottoman Campaign. This map by Johann Haselberg (1514-1537) is a very remarkable map which was recently discovered wall map by swiss artists which is now housed in England is our closing.
- September 06, 2022
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment