Categories : Academic items
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Online Indian Ocean Studies Conference , 28-20 January, 2021
As the new field of Indian Ocean Studies grows in both scope and ambition,
we would benefit from a regular conference – in part to foster
collaborations between different scholars working on the area and in part
for all us to see how the field is growing and changing. To this end, as
scholars of the region, we announce an inaugural meeting to take stock and
look ahead. Bringing together scholars at various stages in their careers,
including doctoral students, the sessions of this conference are meant to
allow us to develop collaboratively a sharper sense of what the stakes are
in our shared enterprise as researchers and teachers.
The meeting will take place between January 28-30, 2021 on Zoom, and will
feature a series of roundtables on the state of the field in various
thematic areas, along with more informal breakout sessions following each
roundtable. Registration is open to anyone interested in participating.
Details and registration links can be found at http://iowconference.org/ .
We look forward to what will be a stimulating conversation, and the first
of many more to come.
Fahad Ahmad Bishara
Associate Professor of History and of Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies
University of Virginia
Ananya Chakravarti
Associate Professor of History
Georgetown University
2. Historians of Islamic Art Association at the College Art Association’s Annual Conference, February 10-13, 2021
The schedule for the HIAA Business Meeting and Majlis, held in conjunction with CAA Annual Conference next month:
The HIAA Business Meeting will be virtually on Thursday, February 11 at 12.30pm (EST). To register for the meeting, please sign up here: https://ucr.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEufuihqDkoH9H8pZ-g2v6Dmev6szJI0Sv2
The HIAA Majlis, will take place virtually as a webinar on Thursday, February 11 from 3:30 to 5:30 pm (EST). To attend, please register using the following link: https://yale.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OLkc7lbMTgiuwIat8hCCMw
** Andrea Luigi Corsi, Sapienza University of Rome, “The Development of Stucco Decoration During the Early Abbasid Period: the ‘Miniaturistic Style’ as a Transregional Artistic Koine.”
** Ariel Fein, Yale University, “Kufic Epigraphy between Ifriqiyya and Norman Sicily.”
** Holley Ledbetter, University of Michigan, “Gender, Race, and ‘Ajab: Automata of the Enslaved in al-Afdal’s Drinking Room.”
** Alison Tendrup, Boston University, “Picture-in-Picture: Representations of Ottoman-Balkan Princely Identities in Nineteenth Century Portraiture.”
** Amanda Lanzillo, Princeton University, “Electroplating as Alchemy: Making metalsmithing Islamic in colonial India, 1870-1920.”
The live Q&A for HIAA’s sponsored panel at CAA will be held on Friday, February 12 at 4:00 pm (EST). Please see the CAA website for attendance details.
Digital Humanities + Islamic Visual Culture
** Lyla Halsted, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, “Animating an Amulet: 3D Modeling, Materiality, and a Medieval Arabic Amulet Scroll.”
** Hussein Keshani, The University of British Columbia, “Soft Eyes: Software’s Visualities and Islamic Art History in the Digital Age.”
** Yasaman Lotfizadeh, The University of British Columbia, “Visualizing Creative Collaboration in the Shah Tahmasp Shahnameh.”
** Michael A. Toler, Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries, “Digital Sustainability in DH Projects: The Case Study of Archnet.”
There are a number of other panels and single papers for those interested in Islamic Art and material culture, the most relevant of which are listed below. Note: this is not an exhaustive list.
For a full schedule of the conference, please see: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2021/meetingapp.cgi
Please note that registration is required to attend CAA. There are several options: https://www.collegeart.org/programs/conference/conference2021/registration
3. Ceramics of Iran: Islamic Pottery in the Sarikhani Collection,
by Oliver Watson with contributions by Moujan Matin and Will Kwiatkowski.
Yale, October 2020; 528pp.; £50 / $60
https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780300254280
4. ONLINE National Conference on “Rahma and Karuna – Compassion as Common Ground for Building Understanding between Islam and Buddhism”, International Islamic University Malaysia, 27 January 2021, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm (GMT+8)
Registeration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVpwHoAe3Vd08o70jFdXyh7OJq-j6IrOEGlSCyyyIgmj_wFA/viewform
5. ONLINE Seminar: “The Bitter Harvest of Lebanon’s Sectarian Politics”, Arab Center Washington DC, 2 February 2021, 10:00 am – 11:30 am ET
Speakers will discuss the serious problems inherent in Lebanon’s politics and will consider the chances for a breakthrough from the current stalemate, including the prospects for compromise. They will explore how political paralysis affects the country’s economy and development.
Information and registration: http://arabcenterdc.org/events/the-bitter-harvest-of-lebanons-sectarian-politics/
6. ONLINE Seminar by Aili Mari Tripp (University of Wisconsin): “Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocracies Adopt Women’s Rights”, SOAS Middle East Institute, 9 February 2021, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm GMT
Aili Mari Tripp explains why autocratic leaders in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria embraced more extensive legal reforms of women’s rights than their Middle Eastern counterparts. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on religiosity to explain the adoption of women’s rights in Muslim-majority countries.
Information and registration: https://www.soas.ac.uk/smei/events/cme/09feb2021-seeking-legitimacy-why-arab-autocracies-adopt-womens-rights.html
7. ONLINE Seminar by Aili Mari Tripp (University of Wisconsin): “Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocracies Adopt Women’s Rights”, SOAS Middle East Institute, 9 February 2021, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm GMT
Aili Mari Tripp explains why autocratic leaders in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria embraced more extensive legal reforms of women’s rights than their Middle Eastern counterparts. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on religiosity to explain the adoption of women’s rights in Muslim-majority countries.
Information and registration: https://www.soas.ac.uk/smei/events/cme/09feb2021-seeking-legitimacy-why-arab-autocracies-adopt-womens-rights.html
8. Postdoctoral Position (Kurdish Studies) and Doctoral Position (Berber/Amazigh Studies), Heidelberg University
We are looking for candidates with a background in Political Science / Middle East Studies with a particular focus on modern Kurdish or Berber/Amazigh politics. For the position as postdoctoral researcher, spoken and written Kurdish is required; for the position as doctoral researcher, a Berber/Amazigh language is required (knowledge of the neo-Tifinagh script is an advantage).
Deadline for applications: 15 February 2021. Information: https://adb.zuv.uni-heidelberg.de/info/INFO_FDB$.startup?MODUL=LS&M1=1&M2=0&M3=0&PRO=29731
9. Arcapita Visiting Professor Modern Arab Studies, Middle East Institute, Columbia University
This is a one-semester position for the fall 2021 or spring 2022 semester. We are interested in candidates whose field of research and teaching is in history, culture, or social sciences of the modern Arab world.
Application deadline: 21 April 2021. Information: https://pa334.peopleadmin.com/postings/6940
10. Books for New Series “Unsettling Colonialism in Our Times” (I.B.Tauris)
This is the principal venue for research at the intersection of settler colonialism studies, decolonization, and critiques of neoliberalism. . It provides a framework for experts to deconstruct history and present contemporary struggles for freedom and human rights in new ways. Series editors: William Gallois (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies) and Ilan Pappe (Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies), both at the University of Exeter.
Information: Contact Sophie Rudland sophie.rudland@bloomsbury.com
11. New Website Launched: “Digital Ottoman Studies Platform”
This website is designed as a hub for digital projects, tools, events, publications, and platforms to contribute to Digital Humanities from the perspective of Ottoman and Turkish Studies.
Information: https://www.digitalottomanstudies.com/
12. Researchers, teachers and librarians at Leiden university joined forces to create this very innovative free online ‘ textbook’.
Mouse&Manuscript is a collection of interactive lessons on codicology and oriental manuscripts. Its aim is to stimulate teaching on codicology in and outside of the classroom, and to contribute to the disclosure of Leiden University’s rich collection of oriental manuscripts. The lessons are centered around fully digitalised manuscripts from the oriental collection of Leiden University Libraries. They include samples in Arabic, Persian and Coptic, from cultures ranging from the Maghrib to Mughal India. The lessons can be read in any order.
With lock-downs around the world and teachers struggling to give shape to their teaching online, this tool could not have been more timely:
https://mouse.digitalscholarship.nl/
https://mouse.digitalscholarship.nl/lessons
13. CfP : We invite submissions for an international conference on the language of kinship in Islamic(ate) societies before the modern period (622–1500 CE).
The Embedding Conquest (EmCo) team has been investigating the social, political, administrative, religious, and economic ties that sustained strategies and mechanics of protection and dependency in the early Islamic empire, contributing to shaping imperial rule under the Umayyads and the Abbasids. As part of our project, we study how writers and document producers expressed vertical and horizontal relationships, including the use of family terms. We now invite other researchers to join in our conversation focusing on relational ties that were expressed primarily through or as kinship. This international meeting will be a venue for presenting new studies about practices, categories, and discourses through which kinship might
(i) connect individuals and groups to one another
(ii) contribute to binding an empire (or other large political entity) together.
For the full description of the conference and details on sending in your proposal, please check the upcoming events page on our website: https://emco.hcommons.org/events/event/call-for-papers-ties-of-kinship-and-the-early-islam…
N.B. Note that this is a different conference from the one advertised on H-net several weeks ago by the Embedding Conquest research team and for which we are still accepting proposals as well.
For additional information/ questions you can contact us at emco@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- January 26, 2021
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.As part of the webinar series Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Ottoman period, the Ifpo is pleased to announce the first series of meetings that will focus on Lebanon and Jordan and will take place every two weeks during the year 2021 (January-July & September-December).
The goal of this series of conferences is to bring together specialists working on a broad region extending from North Africa to the Middle East and focusing on the period from Late Antiquity to Modern era. As the current pandemic is forcing us to reinvent ways of communicating and sharing our work, a webinar would be an opportunity to reconnect the academic community of researchers working on this field. It is open as widely as possible and aims to gather together archaeologists working on this large area as well as students.
While other regions will be addressed in the following cycles, this first series focuses on archaeology and material culture of Lebanon and Jordan. These meetings will present, on the one hand, ongoing projects and, on the other hand, comparative data and synthesis studies, which will allow to frame this region into a broader historical and geographical context.
https://www.ifporient.org/archaeology-mena/
2. The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, presents Honoring Esin Atılon Saturday, February 20, 2021, 9 am – 1 pm EST.
Scholar, curator, teacher, mentor, and trail blazer, Esin Atıl (1937–2019) was all of that and more. Her groundbreaking exhibitions and publications covered a wide range of topics and set new standards in the field of the arts of the Islamic world for their content, design, and presentation. This gathering of leading international art historians will reflect on the remarkable career of one of the first female curators in her field of expertise and assess her success in bringing unrivaled attention to the arts and cultures of the Islamic world.
Speakers include:
Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Professor Emeritus, SOAS University of London
Walter Denny, University Distinguished Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Oya Pancaroğlu, Professor, Boğaziçi University
Julian Raby, Director Emeritus, Freer and Sackler
Günsel Renda, Professor, Koç University
Marianna Shreve Simpson, Visiting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania
Zeynep Simavi, Director, Istanbul Branch at American Research Institute, Turkey
Zeren Tanındı, Professor, Uludağ University
Facilitator:
Massumeh Farhad, Senior Associate Director for Research, Chief Curator, and The Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art
Register for the event here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xX6VJnoVTrSHZfpKLEWDgg
Find more information here: https://asia.si.edu/events-overview/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D150315890
Questions can be directed to:
Lizzie Stein, Scholarly Programs and Publications Specialist, AsiaScholarlyProgram@si.edu
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art
3. Near Eastern Studies and Digital Scholarship @IAS Joint Lecture
February 3, 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
THE HISTORY OF THE ARABIC BOOK: A NEW CHAPTER
Mathew Barber (The Aga Khan University, KITAB), Lorenz Nigst (The Aga Khan University, KITAB), Sarah Bowen Savant (The Aga Khan University-ISMC), Peter Verkinderen (The Aga Khan University, KITAB). Hosted by Sabine Schmidtke (School of Historical Studies, IAS) and María Mercedes Tuya (Digital Scholarship, IAS).
It is an exciting time to be thinking about Arabic book history, as many questions are now being re-framed and addressed in ways that speak to a wider field of scholarly investigation. These questions concern, for example, the arguably scant material evidence for books up until roughly the eleventh century C.E., the non-survival of books treating important topics, the great variability of witnesses to individual works, and the ways that recycling of parts of prior books operated across time and place. Such questions, which query the very nature of ‘the book’, are relevant for the first four Islamic centuries, but also for later periods. This jointly delivered lecture will present the KITAB project – a collaboration between historians and computer scientists that addresses these major questions. We have assembled a corpus of 1.7 billion words of Arabic texts, and are seeking specifically to understand transmission practices (ca. 700-1500), with a special focus on how authors recycled earlier works and how they cited their predecessors. Through this lecture, we hope to describe the frontiers of knowledge, the challenges and promises of our data, and what listeners themselves might now do with it. (KITAB is a European Research Council Consolidator Grant project funded under Horizon 2020 and also has received funding from the Qatar National Library and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.)
Register in advance for this webinar here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Near Eastern Studies Lecture
February 10, 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
THE EUROPEAN QUR’AN: THE QUR’ĀN IN EUROPEAN RELIGIOUS AND
CULTURAL HISTORY
Mercedes García-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [CCHS-CSIC], Madrid), Jan Loop (Københavns Universitet), John Tolan (Université de Nantes) and Roberto Tottoli (Universita degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale). Hosted by Sabine Schmidtke (School of Historical Studies, IAS).
“The European Qur’ān” (EuQu: https://euqu.eu/) is an ongoing project funded by a Synergy Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), dedicated to the important place of the Muslim holy book in European cultural and religious history. From the 12th century to the 19th, European Christians read the Qur’ān in Arabic, translated it into Latin, Greek and various vernacular languages, refuted it in polemical treatises, and mined it for information about Islam and Arab history. The “European Qur’ān”, in its various manifestations (Arabic editions, Latin and vernacular translations) should be conceived as scholarly efforts to understand Islam; as weapons in polemical exchanges between divergent versions of Christianity; as financial ventures on the part of printers and publishers; and as tools for the understanding of Semitic languages, Arab history and culture, and the history of monotheism.
The team that leads the project—Mercedes García-Arenal, John Tolan, Roberto Tottoli, Jan Loop—with their respective units in Madrid, Nantes, Naples and Copenhagen, will be dealing with various aspects of the transmission, translation, uses and study of the Qur’ān in Europe, on the role the Qur’ān played in debates about European cultural and religious identities, and more broadly about the place of the Qur’ān in European culture.
Register in advance for this webinar here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
4. The latest issue of al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā, the open-access, peer-reviewed journal of Middle East Medievalists has been published. TOC and downloadable PDFs of the entire 485-page issue (and all back issues) can be found here: https://www.middleeastmedievalists.com/al-usur-al-wusta/current-issue/
Contents
- Introduction Leonardo Capezzone; 2. Ptolemy’s Place Names of Mesopotamia. Change and Persistence Lamberto Lesti – Cosimo Palagiano; 3. Manāzil Sulaymān: Solomonic Memory and the Islamic Empire in the Early Abbasid Period Michelina Di Cesare; 4. The Past before their own Past. Time, Otherness and the Remains of pre-Islamic Civilizations as seen by medieval Muslim authors Giovanna Calasso; 5. Tradition and re-elaboration of a Shiʿite account on the prophet Idrīs Laura Bottini; 6. Inscriptions and portraits from the past: a fictional temptation in al-Mas‘ūdī’s Murūj al-Dhahab Leonardo Capezzone; 7. The Last Years of the Sasanid Empire as Reflected in the Persian Romantic Narrative Tradition Paola Orsatti; 8. The Journey of Wisdom. Al-Fārābī on Philosophy before the Greeks and the Development of Knowledge Federico Stella; 9. Quoting the Shāhnāma in Monumental Epigraphy. Literary Culture and Legitimisation Strategies across the Persianate World (5th/11th-7th/13th C.) Viola Allegranza; 10. The Roman Past in 7th/13th-century Ḥamā (Syria): A Brass Cast with the Portrait of Nero in the Treasure Of al-Malik al-Manṣūr II Arianna d’Ottone, Erika Zwierlein-Diehl and Hadrien J. Rambach; 11. Beyond Recovery Towards Continuity in the Qajar Perception of the Past: the Case of Āthār-e ʿAjam (Antiquities of the Persians) by Forṣat al-Dowla Shirāzi Simone Cristoforetti; 12. The re-Orientalisation of the Myth of Adonis in ʿAshtarūt wa-Adūnīs by Ḥabīb Thābit Arturo Monaco
5. Before Archaeology, The Meaning of the Past in the Islamic Pre-Modern Thought (and After)
Edited by Leonardo Capezzone
Sapienza-University of Rome, 2020
https://www.artemide-edizioni.it/prodotto/before-archaeology/
6. Invitation: How Do Publishers ‘Really’ Decide Whether to Publish Your Book Manuscript?
The first interview of our ‘Publication Success Interview Series’, where we will discuss how publishers really decide whether to publish your manuscript.
I will be speaking with Katie Chin, Acquisitions Editor at Brill Publishers, about why she accepts or rejects manuscripts, and about practical tools for increasing scholars’ chances of being published – and quickly.
Join us for the interview on January 26 at:
4:30 PM IST / 2:30 PM GMT / 9:30 AM EST
For further info, see: Registration
Attendance is free of charge, and there is a registration link above. If you are interested but can’t attend, you can register and we will send you a recording.
7. The Indo-Persian Confluence Symposium
“Indo-Persian Confluence: Indo-Persian Musical Hybrid in Afghanistan”
Sunday, January 31, 2021
10am PST, Zoom
RSVP: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpcuutrjIiHdV4WsLZhCyRQGsssq-uH1Fk
The third event in the Indo-Persian Musical Confluence series, featuring a panel of eminent ethnomusicologists on Indo-Persian musical hybrid in Afghanistan and a performance by Homayun Sakhi on the rubab.
Panelists
John Baily (Goldsmith University of London)
Lorraine Sakata (UCLA)
Mark Slobin (Wesleyan University)
Chair and Discussant
Richard Wolf (Harvard University)
Performance: music on the rubab
Homayun Sakhi
For more information on The Indo-Persian Music Confluence project: https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/indo-persian-musical-confluence/
Details of subsequent events will be forthcoming soon.
Project leader: Mohsen Mohammadi
Event Sponsors:
UCLA Mohindar Brar Sambhi Chair of Indian Music
UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology
UCLA Center for Musical Humanities (Robert U. Nelson Fund)
UCLA Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair in Iranian Studies
UCLA Iranian Studies program
UCLA Center for India and South Asia (CISA)
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES)
8. Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program
Iraq is home to an ethnically and religiously diverse population and a rich cultural heritage. However, decades of conflict and instability have torn at Iraq’s social fabric, weakened its institutions, and damaged its cultural property. The rise of ISIS and the atrocities perpetrated by the group—including genocide and cultural cleansing—have heightened tensions between different Iraqi communities even further and left much of the cultural heritage in the areas formerly under its control in ruins.
IHSP believes that the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage can contribute to reconciliation and peacemaking within societies affected by communal violence, especially when part of wider humanitarian efforts in post-conflict environments. Our projects in Iraq seek to mitigate the effects of genocide, cultural cleansing, and conflict through the maintenance and promotion of cultural memory, identity, diversity, and freedom of expression. To achieve this goal, we work closely with Iraqi government and civil society groups that are engaged in the protection and preservation of built heritage, particularly in communities directly affected by ISIS and the battle to defeat the group.
IHSP’s projects aim for the following qualities:
- Close work with local stakeholders and employment of local contractors
• Historically accurate conservation and restoration of built heritage for use by living communities
• Action-oriented plans and rapid results
• Cost effectiveness and low operating costs
History
IHSP was founded in 2018 through a $2 million award from the U.S. Department of State to preserve ethnic and religious minority heritage in northern Iraq. The program is based in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
IHSP is built upon the foundations of earlier projects dedicated to the support of Iraq’s cultural heritage and cultural heritage professionals. IHSP’s staff have collaborated closely with Iraqi heritage professionals in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain since 2012 through training workshops and scholarly exchanges facilitated by Boston University’s Mosul Archaeology Program. More recently, many of IHSP’s staff worked on Iraqi cultural heritage issues as part of the American Schools of Oriental Research’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives.
9. The Beginnings of Modern Medicine in Iran
W Floor, Mage, 2020
10. CFP: Innovative Practices and Pedagogies for Teaching Undergraduate International Development Studies
To strengthen the educational practices of international development studies faculty, the Tobias Center for Innovation in International Development at the Hamilton Lugar School for Global and International Studies at Indiana University Bloomington will hold a two-day, virtual workshop on June 7-8 from 10am-3pm ET. entitled “Innovative Practices and Pedagogies for Teaching Undergraduate International Development Studies.”
This workshop will include interactive and engaging presentations that share new and innovative approaches to teaching development studies to undergraduate students. Potential topics could include:
– Best practices for online learning
– Decolonizing your pedagogy
– The possibilities of virtual exchanges
– Bringing reflexive practices into the classroom
– Bridging theory and practice in the field of IDS
– Employing partnerships with development organizations in the classroom
– Case studies of different approaches to teaching development studies
Workshop participants are expected to both present at the workshop and attend all sessions, and they will receive a stipend of $750.00 for their participation. Participation will be capped at 20 people.
For more information and to apply, please click here. Please contact Elisheva Cohen at ellcohen@iu.edu with any questions.
11. Amuletic Archives: Writing Magico-Material Histories of the Middle East
What amulets tell us about the past
Historiography of the Middle East
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
3:00 PM (Pacific Time)
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
10:00 AM (Pacific Time)
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies
13. Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice Processes of Canonization, Subversion, and Change
Edited by Nevin Reda and Yasmin Amin,
McGill, 2020
https://www.mqup.ca/islamic-interpretive-tradition-and-gender-justice-products-9780228001638.php
ZOOM DISCUSSION ROUNDTABLE
Jan 30, 2021
12:00 PM EASTERN TIME5 PM GMT7 PM CAIRO TIME
Zoom link: https://fordham.zoom.us/j/82757414650
14. Saintly Spheres and Islamic Landscapes: Emplacements of Spiritual Power across Time and Place, ed. Daphna Ephrat, Ethel Sara Wolper, and Paulo G. Pinto
Brill, 2020
https://brill.com/view/title/59199?rskey=58MEKF&result=1
- January 23, 2021
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE Seminar of Zeynep Kaya (SOAS): “Mapping Kurdistan: Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism”, London Middle East Institute, 26 January 2021, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm GMT
The author builds on her book Mapping Kurdistan to show how a focus on self-determination, territorial identity and international norms helps analyse how imaginations of homelands have been socially, politically and historically constructed (much like the state territories the Kurds inhabit), as opposed to their perception of being natural, perennial or intrinsic.
Information and registration: https://www.soas.ac.uk/smei/events/cme/26jan2021-mapping-kurdistan-territory-self-determination-and-nationalism.html
2. ONLINE Conference: “Transformations of Arabic Literary Theory”, Columbia University, Preliminary Virtual Discussion Panel: 19 March 2021; First in-person Session in Paris: 27-30 June 2021, Second in-person Session in New York: 1-3 December 2021.
The focus is on Arabic literary theory, engaging with its development from the pre-modern era up to the present. Literary Theory is not limited to the classical or premodern reading of poetics and adab, but also inclusive, and very strongly, of transformations since the late nineteenth century.
Extended deadline for abstracts: 11 February 2021. Information: https://icls.columbia.edu/news/cfp-transformations-of-arabic-literary-theory/
3. ONLINE Symposium: “Muslim Philanthropy in a Canadian Context”, University of Toronto, 27 March 2021
This symposium addresses a simple, yet underexplored, question: How is Muslim philanthropy developing in a secular liberal democracy such as Canada? The symposium will be a pioneering event bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines and practitioners working in the non-profit/charitable sector.
4. Conference on “Translation and Transfer” of the Network “Eastern European-Ottoman-Persian Mobility Dynamics”, University of Marburg, 6–9 October 2021
The conference will stress the pragmatic implications of the translation of texts in its narrower sense and the translators involved in activities across or within the Transottoman focus region. For a closer look at this and the multiple projects within this framework, please visit our website at www.transottomanica.de.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 January 2021. For further information, contact florian.riedler@uni-leipzig.de.
5. ONLINE International Conference on “Canon and Censorship in the Islamic Intellectual and Theological History”, Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 8-10 October 2021
Muslim societies and theologies did not witness the emergence of a single institution that establishes a binding canon for everyone who adheres to Islam. Instead, the constitutional positions are (re)negotiated constantly in a scholarly discourse. Against this backdrop, the conference focuses on the question of how certain texts and positions evolve to a canon while others get lost in time.
6. 3rd ANU Religion Conference: “Religion and Migration: Culture and Policy”, Australian National University, Canberra, 8-10 December 2021
The aim of this conference is to explore the various phenomena related to religion and migration; the political and social transitions impacting upon the transnational religiosity of contemporary communities.
Deadline for abstracts: 21 May 2021. Information: https://hrc.cass.anu.edu.au/events/religion-and-migration-culture-and-policy-0#acton-tabs-link–tabs-0-middle-1
7. Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
We are looking for candidates with broad expertise of the contemporary Middle East with a particular focus on politics and culture. S/he should be proficient in Modern Standard Arabic and preferably also Hebrew. Candidates with a background in Middle Eastern Studies, Arabic Language and Culture, (contemporary) History, Political Science, and related fields are especially encouraged to apply.
Deadline for applications: 18 February 2021. Information: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S00082BP
8. Post-doctoral Position for Research on Race and Racialization in the MENA Region and Middle Easterners in the USA, Graduate Center, City University of New York
The successful applicant must have the doctorate in hand by the start of the fellowship (25 August 2021), but be no more than seven years beyond the granting of the PhD.
The deadline for applications: 1 March 2021. Information: https://home.cunyfirst.cuny.edu/psp/cnyepprd/GUEST/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_JOB_DTL&Action=A&JobOpeningId=22123&SiteId=1&PostingSeq=1
9. Post-doctoral Position for Research on Race and Racialization in the MENA Region and Middle Easterners in the USA, Graduate Center, City University of New York
The successful applicant must have the doctorate in hand by the start of the fellowship (25 August 2021), but be no more than seven years beyond the granting of the PhD.
The deadline for applications: 1 March 2021. Information: https://home.cunyfirst.cuny.edu/psp/cnyepprd/GUEST/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?Page=HRS_CE_JOB_DTL&Action=A&JobOpeningId=22123&SiteId=1&PostingSeq=1
10. Chapters for Edited Collection on “The Arab World as Ghurba: Citizenship, Identity and Belonging in Literature and Popular Culture”, University of Warwick
The aim of this edited collection is to investigate the cultural implications of different kinds of movement and migration to and within the Arabic-speaking world.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 February 2021. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/7093745/call-book-chapters-arab-world-ghurba-citizenship-identity-and
11. New Book Series “Critical Studies on Islamism” Published by I.B.Tauris & Bloomsbury
Books are welcomed from political science, sociology, religious studies, history, political economy, sociolinguistics, media and cultural studies, and international relations. The geographical scope is global and it covers the nature, dynamics, and evolution of Islamism at different contexts and regions.
Information: Contact Khalil al-Anani, Ph.D., kalanani@gmail.com
The Gombroon (Bandar-e ʻAbbas) Factory was established in 1623 to represent the interests of the East India Company (EIC) on the southern coast of Persia (Iran) and the Gulf. It soon became the centre of British trade and political activities following the expulsion of the Portuguese from Hormuz and Bahrain. A Chief Agent headed the Factory’s decision-making ‘Council’. The Council members coordinated with Sub-Agents, Brokers and local partners at the rest of the British establishments in Persia, primarily in Esfahan, Kerman and Shiraz.
13. On-line event: Numerals and Their Alternatives in the Middle East and Europe: A Reckoning, Dr Stephen Chrisomalis
London, Agha Khan University
4 February 2021, 18:00 – 20:00
Synchronous and interactive participation via Zoom and simultaneous livestreaming on AKU-ISMC’s Facebook page (@akuismclondon).
To join via Zoom, register in advance for this event by clicking here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event.
14. The San Diego Museum of Art – Research Assistant
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=60919
APPLICATION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 28, 2021
15. Séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien”, jeudi 21 janvier 2021
Nous avons le plaisir de vous convier à la prochaine séance du séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien” organisé par le CeRMI, qui aura lieu le jeudi 21 janvier 2021 de 17h15 à 19h en visioconférence.
L’intervention de Denise Aigle, intitulée : “Chiraz, citadelle des saints et capitale du Fars”, doit malheureusement être reportée. Nous vous remercions de votre compréhension, et ne manquerons pas de vous faire connaître dès que possible la date de ce report.
Nous serons heureux d’accueillir au cours de cette séance Martina Massullo (Université de Lille), pour une conférence intitulée :
“Le patrimoine funéraire islamique de Ghazni d’après les archives de la Mission Archéologique Italienne en Afghanistan”
Résumé :
Au sein de la documentation collectée à Ghazni par la Mission Archéologique Italienne en Afghanistan (1957-1978), le patrimoine funéraire occupe une place de premier plan. En effet, de nombreuses structures funéraires se dressent autour de la ville. Ces espaces sacrés, mausolées où enclos, présentent une grande variété de styles architecturaux et ils recèlent un nombre exceptionnel de tombeaux en marbre datant du Xe au XVIIe siècle, ainsi que d’éléments remployés relevant du décor architectural des palais et d’autres vestiges ghaznévides de la ville. Cette documentation, partiellement inédite, témoigne de l’occupation continue de ces sites au fil des siècles et de leur valeur sacrée. Un poème mystique en persan confirme ce constat, et révèle qu’au XVIIe siècle ces espaces funéraires devinrent partie d’un circuit de pèlerinage à l’échelle locale, selon une pratique attestée en Asie Centrale et dans les territoires iraniens. Néanmoins, les nombreux remaniements qui ont touché ce patrimoine funéraire, ainsi que la nature fragmentaire des photographies conservées dans les archives italiennes, compliquent l’analyse et la reconstitution chronologique de ces structures et appellent à un travail de réorganisation et d’exploitation de l’ensemble de cette précieuse documentation.
Orientations bibliographiques :
- Massullo, M., “Epigraphic Survey on the Mausoleum of Muḥammad Šarīf Ḫān at Ghazni (Afghanistan)”, Bulletin d’études orientales, 67, 2020, p. 159-184.
- Massullo, M., “Marble Tombs from Ghazni (Fifteenth-Eighteenth Centuries): Morphological and Epigraphic Remarks”, Eurasian Studies, 13, 2015, p. 54-67.
- Szuppe, M., « Une description des lieux de pèlerinage (ziyāratgāh) autour de Ghazna, Afghanistan (fin du XVIIe s. ?)», dans M. Bernardini et N.L. Tornesello (éd.), Scritti in onore di Giovanni M. D’Erme, Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Series Minor, 68, 2005, p. 1167-1200.
Lien de connexion :
ID de réunion : 779 343 3035
Code secret : 759711
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CeRMI – CNRS UMR 8041
Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien
—-
27 rue Paul Bert – 94204 Ivry-sur-Seine – France
cermi@cnrs.fr – https://www.cermi.cnrs.fr
16. Webinar: “On Ruins: The Contemporary Politics of Heritage Preservation and Reconstruction,” International Journal of Islamic Architecture Dialogues Series
Join the International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA) for its Dialogues Series, an annual webinar that brings together scholars and practitioners from across varied disciplines for a discussion of critical contemporary issues that interrogate the boundaries between architecture, art, anthropology, archaeology, and history. In the inaugural session, “On Ruins: The Contemporary Politics of Heritage Preservation and Reconstruction,” series host, Hala Auji (Beirut), is joined by video artists and filmmakers Ali Cherri (Beirut/Paris) and Panos Aprahamian (Beirut) for a virtual discussion (via Zoom) on the intersections between video art, film, and architectural preservation in relation to the socio-political constructs of heritage in Syria, Palestine, Iraq, the Gulf, and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
Date and Time: Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 6:00-7:30 pm (Beirut)
Register in advance for this session:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEvcOGopzksGN1LarCNSZf0ZZWZACDuXFak
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the session. A recording of the event will be posted on the IJIA website and Facebook page. The discussion will also appear in print as part of the journal’s new “Dialogues” section.
- January 19, 2021
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Call for Papers: The Study of Islam and Muslims in the shadow of the “War on Terror”: Complexity, Reflexivity and Decolonising Methodologies
The Alwaleed Centre is delighted to be co-hosting a major online conference later this year entitled The Study of Islam and Muslims in the shadow of the “War on Terror”: Complexity, Reflexivity and Decolonising Methodologies.
Delivered in partnership with the Moray House School of Education and Sport, The Centre for Education for Racial Equality Scotland & RACE.ED, this conference invites academics to critically explore the politics of engaging in research and teaching on Islam/Muslims at British universities through an exercise of self-reflection on their own research and teaching practises.
Please note that paper abstracts must not exceed 250 words, and must be submitted to: idil.akinci@ed.ac.uk and ibtihal.ramadan@ed.ac.uk by 7th February 2021 in order to be considered.
For further information and to submit your abstract, follow this link: www.alwaleed.ed.ac.uk/conference-june-2021
With warmest wishes for 2021,
The Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam
in the Contemporary World
University of Edinburgh
16 George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LD
0131 650 4615
thealwaleedcentre@ed.ac.uk
2. Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam
by Rachel Harris
Indiana University Press, 2020
https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/9780253050205/soundscapes-of-uyghur-islam/
3. “Extended grammars”: descriptive models of Persian
International workshop
19th November 2021, Paris
Call for submissions
Organisation:
Pollet Samvelian (Université Sorbonne nouvelle, CeRMI & Labex EFL)
Pegah Faghiri (University of Amsterdam)
A great number of the languages of the world have been described based on grammatical categories initially developed for other languages. Thus, the grammatical tradition of a small set of languages, namely Arabic, Chinese, Greek and Sanskrit, has played a key role in the development of the grammatical descriptions of many thousands of languages known in the world. The transfer of the Latin grammatical model onto European vernaculars and “exotic” languages –called “Extended Latin Grammar” by Sylvain Auroux is one of the best studied cases in the domain.
Modern Persian is an interesting case of study in this respect, since various paradigms have been used for its grammatical description, as noted by Windfuhr (1979: 9) “The two main paradigms with which Persian grammar has been studied and described are the ‘Muslim/Near Eastern and the ‘Western’ paradigm. (A third paradigm, that of Indian (Sanskrit) grammar, is said to have been applied in some grammars of Persian written in India during the time of Akbar)”.
We invite contributions on various aspects of the use of exogenous grammatical traditions for the description of Modern Persian including, but not limited to: the inventory of the parts of speech and grammatical functions (dependency relations), morphological analysis, history of Persian grammars.
The workshop is a part of the Labex EFL workpackage “Extended Grammars”. Selected contributions will be published as a special issue of the Histoire Épistémologie Langage (HEL) journal.
Timetable:
Deadline for abstracts: 18th June 2021
Notification of acceptance: 10th July 2021
Submission specifications:
All abstracts, in English or in French, should be submitted via Easy Chair https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=egpersian1 ). Please submit an abstract of no longer than 500 words.
Presentations will be allotted 30 minutes, with an additional 10 minutes for questions and discussion.
4. Digital Catalogue of a Photographic Archive of Cairo – The Photographs of Beniamino Facchinelli (1839-1895)
Note the release of the digital catalogue of views of Cairo’s monumental heritage taken by Italian photographer Beniamino Facchinelli (1839-1895) after his settling in 1875 in the Egyptian capital, where he died twenty years later. The catalogue currently features 726 high-definition reproductions of images identified among the holdings of six libraries and museums across the globe; it is designed to incorporate further ones as they appear in collections willing to share their content in full Open Access mode.
It is estimated that Facchinelli produced about 1200 topographical views during his stay in Egypt, of which 900 have been already listed and located, though not all copyright-cleared yet. All images are authenticated through cross-referencing, and their original captions are listed in the entries, as well as the albums and publications where they were reproduced. The whole represents a unique documentation on buildings which have either disappeared since then, or been radically transformed in course of restoration; it also includes rare views on their furnishings. Because the photographs of the reconstructed corpus were often commissioned by dedicated preservationists and inserted in their publications (although without any credit to their author), one can closely follow through them how a vanishing architectural, visual and material culture was then viewed, valued and defended.
The catalogue can be accessed at:
http://facchinelli.huma-num.fr/
5. Instructional Professor (open rank) in Persian
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Humanities Division
Chicago, IL
Jan 11, 2021 – Feb 11, 2021
Description
The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the College of the University of Chicago invite applications for appointment to an open-rank position as Instructional Professor in modern Persian. Start date of the appointment will be September 1, 2021. Appointment will be made at the rank of Assistant Instructional Professor, Associate Instructional Professor, or Instructional Professor, depending on qualifications and educational background.
Responsibilities include both teaching and service duties. Teaching consists of six courses in Persian language across three quarters, both elementary and intermediate, as well as a seventh topical Advanced Persian course (Persian of the Media, modern Persian fiction or poetry, Iranian History, etc.). Service duties may include assistance with student placement, programmatic assessment, coordination of the Persian Language Circle, Conversation Table, or other program-specific duties. Instructional Professors of all ranks are required to engage in regular professional development.
Qualifications
Applicants should demonstrate previous language teaching experience at the college or post-secondary level. An M.A. degree or equivalent is required. Candidates with specialized training in second language acquisition, second language pedagogy, and/or assessment are especially encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to candidates whose pedagogy integrates multimedia and other modern pedagogical tools in the classroom. Applicants must demonstrate sufficient language proficiency for teaching Persian in a university context, e.g. through an ACTFL-certified result at the Superior level or higher, or through receipt of an advanced degree earned in a Persian-language context.
Application Instructions
To apply for this position, please submit your application through the University of Chicago’s Academic Recruitment website at http://apply.interfolio.com/82699. An application must include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, teaching statement, one sample syllabus for elementary or intermediate Persian, and the names and contact information of three potential recommenders. Applicants may be asked to provide additional materials following the initial review.
Application deadline: All applicant materials must be received by February 11, 2021 at 11pm central time.
This position is contingent upon budgetary approval. The terms and conditions of employment for this position are covered by a collective bargaining agreement between the University and the Service Employees International Union. For information on the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, please go to https://nelc.uchicago.edu. For questions about the position, please contact Amanda Young at amanday@uchicago.edu.
- January 16, 2021
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. ONLINE Séminaire IISMM « Orient-Littératures » – Thème : “L’image du Monde arabe dans la littérature européenne du XIXe siècle. Anthologies, différences et influences”, Paris, 14 janvier 2021, 11:00-13:00 h CET
Intervenant : Valerio Vittorini, Chercheur associé à l’ Université Côte d’Azur, Centre Transdisciplinaire d’Épistémologie, de la Littérature et des Arts vivants.
Prière de vous inscrire auparavant à l’adresse : https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0RIR2TDmS-mZndSB0puccQ. Information : https://iismm.hypotheses.org/49853
2. ONLINE Roundtable “New Voices in Middle East Studies”, British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), 13 January 2021, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm, GMT
Yara Hawari, Marc Oven Jones, Kamran Matin and Mezna Qato will reflect on the legacies of the revolts and the opportunities and obstacles for meaningful social, political, and economic transformation in MENA.
Information and registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ode6vrDMoGNZIdRbLJn5qZrFB6-1CoJqA
3. ONLINE Book Presentation by Malte Fuhrmann: “Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean. Urban Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin, 18 January 2021, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm CET
This study examines changes in the histories of space, consumption, and identities of Constantinople, Smyrna, and Salonica in the nineteenth and early twentieth century while the Mediterranean became a zone of influence for European powers.
Please register at registration@zmo.de.
4. ONLINE Workshop: “The Making of Minorities in the Middle East and North Africa: Objects, Images, Spaces”, UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, Part 1: 5 March 2021, 9:00 am PT; Part 2: 12 March 2021, 2:00 pm PT
This two-part workshop addresses minorities and minority-formation in the art, architecture, and urbanism of the Middle East and North Africa through time. A major goal is to consider the role of visual, spatial, and material cultures in mediating minor cultural formations. Another aim is to recognize the complex, varied terrain of interactions between minorities and majority cultures: to emphasize instances of transfer, exchange, and participation that challenge the binary of assimilation and opposition.
Information and registration: Part 1 https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2021/01/08/the-making-of-minorities-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-objects-images-spaces-part-1;
5. Maghreb Review and Maghreb Studies Association Conference: “Empires in the Middle East and the Maghreb: The Shaping of Hopes and Perspectives”, Oxford, 13-14 September 2021
Papers should deal with various aspects of the question of how colonial rule, and its demise, has shaped the perceptions of one another held by the colonial powers and the colonised peoples of the MENA region, including debates and conflicts that came to the fore in the post-colonial period. The conference will be in English or French. Papers will be published in “The Maghreb Review”.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 April 2021. Information: maghreb@maghrebreview.com
6. Assistant Director, Arabic Program, University of Arizona, Tucson
Qualification: Master’s degree in Arabic Linguistics, Applied Linguistics or related. Minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience required.
Open until filled. Information: https://arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/4/home/requisition/3818?c=arizona
7. Articles on “New Media and National Identity” for Special Issue of the “Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research”
This special issue of JAMMR aims at enriching the debate on media, identity and cultural formation. It seeks to critically address this ever-growing area of enquiry and revisit the field from various theoretical and empirical multi-disciplinary dimensions.
Deadline for abstracts: 25 January 2021. Information: https://www.intellectbooks.com/asset/54399/1/JAMMR_CFP_jan2021.pdf
8. New Entries in the Mediterranean Syllabi Index: “The History of the Early Modern Mediterranean (1450-1789)” and “The Mediterranean World, 1450-1750”
The Mediterranean Syllabi Index is an open-access resource for instructors developing or teaching undergraduate and graduate courses relating to Mediterranean Studies topics in disciplines including History, Art History, Material Culture, Archaeology, Literature and Language, Music, Culture and the Social Sciences from Antiquity to the present.
See complete list of courses at http://www.mediterraneanseminar.org/syllabus
9. As part of the efforts of Middle East Medievalists (MEM) to raise the profile of medieval studies at MESA, the MEM Board of Directors announces our 2021 call for panel sponsorship.
MEM is a MESA affiliate and thus may sponsor up to three panels at each annual meeting. We cannot offer financial support, but selected panels will appear as MEM-sponsored panels on the MESA program. We will also publicize MEM-sponsored panels to our membership and highlight them in MEM’s annual “Medieval MESA” circular. We urge medievalists organizing panels for MESA 2021 to send us all the relevant material, including titles, abstracts, and the names of participants, by February 5, 2021, so the MEM board may consider them for sponsorship before the MESA submission deadline. Please email your materials and/or any questions to Zayde Antrim (zayde.antrim@trincoll.edu).
10. As promised in our July 2020 Statement on Anti-Racism, the Board of Directors of Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is pleased to announce the launch of a new fellowship to support graduate students of color in medieval studies who wish to attend the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA).
We expect to award up to $1500 to offset the costs of attending the 2021 meeting for successful applicants. We will open a first round of applications as soon as MESA issues its program decisions to help graduate students of color who are formally participating in the meeting pay the registration fee. Details about our simple, needs-based application process will be forthcoming, but we wanted to make the announcement now, in conjunction with MESA’s 2021 call for papers, in order to encourage those who might otherwise opt out of the conference due to cost. We would like to express our gratitude to the anonymous donor who enabled us to launch this fellowship. We plan to fundraise for this fellowship in order to offer it every year.
11. The Friday Mosque in the City: Liminality, Ritual, and Politics
Editor A. Hilâl Uğurlu and Suzan Yalman
Intellect Books, 2020
https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-friday-mosque-in-the-city
- January 12, 2021
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. The Mu`allaqat for Millennials, Pre-Islamic Arabic Golden Odes, is available open access here and published by the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in cooperation with the AlQafilah Magazine, both initiatives of Saudi Aramco.
Aiming to make the mu`allaqat known to new readers, the project gathers a team of eight commentators and translators. They include Abdallah S. Alroshaid, Professor of Arabic Literature at Al-Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud University; Saudi writer and physician Adi Alherbish; New York University Clinical Associate Professor David Larsen; Huda J. Fakhreddine, Associate Professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Pennsylvania; Kevin Blankinship, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature at Brigham Young University; Saleh Said Alzahrani, Professor of Rhetoric and Criticism at Umm al-Qura University; Sami Abdulaziz AlAjlan, Assistant Professor of Literary Criticism at Al-Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud University; and Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University.
At the helm are Hatem Alzahrani, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature at Umm al-Qura University, and Bander Alharbi, editor-in-chief of AlQafilah Magazine. You can read Professor Alzahrani’s published introduction here, a report by the King Abdulaziz Center here, and news coverage here (English) and here (Arabic). Enjoy and thanks for your attention.
————————————————————————-
Kevin Blankinship, PhD
Assistant Professor, Arabic Language and Literature
Brigham Young University, 3058 JFSB
Provo, UT 84602 | (801) 422-4684
kevin_blankinship@byu.edu | Homepage
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Academia | MuckRack
2. A collection of 40 Ḥadīth related to the pandemic. Published by MT Karaan, Strand, Cape Town, South Africa.
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/65163171/fleeing-from-fate-to-fatedocx
3. Position of a post-doctoral research fellow – ZMO (Berlin)
Ausschreibung_Age_Gen_Postdoc_1.pdf (zmo.de)
Application Date: 15 February, 2021
4. MESA Call for Papers
The Middle East Studies Association calls for proposals from our members for the 55th annual MESA meeting, which is currently scheduled for October 28-31, 2021 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. (Meeting safely in person is of course contingent on governmental regulations, among other critical factors. As with last year, we will continue to be as flexible as possible in response to changing circumstances, within the bounds of MESA’s contractual obligations.)
All submissions must be made through myMESA, MESA’s membership and submissions system. The system is now open.
All submissions must be submitted by midnight (Eastern Standard Time) on February 18, 2021.
Please see the detailed guidelines on submitting proposals. Questions about the submission process can be sent to Kat Teghizadeh at kat@mesana.org.
MESA membership is a requirement to submit a proposal. To renew your 2021 membership, login to myMESA or use this form. Contact Sara Palmer at sara@mesana.org with questions about membership.
- January 09, 2021
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.International Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī Symposium, Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, 20-22 May 2021
Topics include: • Linguistics • Logic • Tafsīr • Astronomy • Mathematics • Medicine • Geography • Philosophy • Illuminationism • Sufism • Kalām • Music • Ethics and Political Theory • Shīrāzī in Manuscripts and Book Culture Studies • Commentaries (Shurūḥ, ḥawāshī, taʻlīqāt) • Scholarly Networks and Ijāzatnāmas • Urban Studies; etc.
Information: http://kutbuddinsirazi.cumhuriyet.edu.tr/en/index.php
2. ONLINE Special Panel on “Religion and International Studies: An Outdated Topic or a Topic in Fruition?” during the “International Conference of the British International Studies Association [BISA]”, 21-23 June 2021
We welcome submissions from politics, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, security studies, geopolitics, area studies, and related fields on any country or region. Our working group seeks to bring together scholars working in this field to examine all aspects of the crossroad of religion and international studies.
Deadline for abstracts extended to 22 January 2021. Information: https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/call-papers and www.hahellyer.com/RAISCall
3. Associate Professorship in Comparative Culture Studies (Focus Middle East), Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
Qualifications: Disciplinary background in a field concerned with cross-cultural comparison and social and cultural theory (ethnography or anthropology for example); Strong expertise in one or more of the following regions covered by the department: Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Middle America, Asia or the Arctic; Long-term ethnographic field experience and the ability to teach fieldwork methods.
Deadline for application: 20 January 2021. Information: https://socioloxy.com/associate-professorship-in-comparative-culture-studies,i7882.html
4. Tenure Track Position in Mediterranean History, Haifa Center for Mediterranean History, University of Haifa
We encourage applications from candidates with distinct interests in medieval and/or early modern Mediterranean history and with proven academic excellence in their fields of expertise, together with an extensive background in Mediterranean studies, and a fully-developed Mediterraneanist approach guiding their research. The candidate should be firmly rooted within the historical discipline, with openness to other fields of knowledge in the social sciences.
Deadline for applications: 31 July 2021. Information: https://hcmh.haifa.ac.il/index.php/opportunities-for-researchers/tenure-track-positions
5. Spring School on “Spoken Images of/in Islam: Languages and Translations in Texts and Images”, Innovative Training Network “Mediating Islam in the Digital Age” (MIDA) and European Network for Islamic Studies (ENIS), Catania (Sicily), 5 – 9 July 2021
The main objective is to investigate the image–text relations in Muslim traditions by applying to different genres of images and texts and by thinking about how they are affected by translation or interpretation. The Summer School will bring together advanced academics and lecturers from different disciplines with doctoral and MA students.
Deadline for application: 1 April 2021. Information: https://iismm.hypotheses.org/49942
6. Articles on MENA Migrants and Diasporas in 21st-Century Media for Special Issue of “Mashriq wa Mahjar: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies”
This special issue seeks scholarly contributions that engage with questions related to the main theme through analyses of representations in local, national, or transnational contexts, both in the Global North and South. We welcome topics including but not limited to examinations of otherness, statelessness, self-representation, cultural citizenship, diasporic activism, and aesthetics of representation.
Deadline for articles: 15 March 2021.
Information: https://lebanesestudies.ojs.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/mashriq/announcement/view/23
7. Articles for Edited Volume on “Christianity in Iraq at the Turn of Islam: History and Archaeology”
An international round table organized on 4 and 5 May 2019 at the University of Salahaddin (Erbil, Iraq) highlighted the interest for a collective work that will address the question of Christianity in Iraq at the turn of Islam. Les Presses de l’Ifpo is now calling for papers related to this theme. Convenors: Kinga Dévényi (Budapest), Sebastian Günther (Göttingen), Sabine Schmidtke (Princeton).
Deadline for articles in French, English or Arabic: 28 February 2021. Information: https://www.ifporient.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Christianity_in_Iraq_at_the_turn_of_Islam_Call_for_Papers.pdf
8. IDHN (Islamicate Digital Humanities Network) is organizing the first conference on Digitial Hadith Studies on January 27, 2021.
Mairaj U. Syed, Danny Halawi, Nazmus Saquib, Shuaib Choudhry, and Mohamed Alkaoud will be presenting the latest development of their pioneering research in Digital Hadith Studies. And we will also present a new software designed by Maroussia Bednarkiewicz and Stefan Wezel to automate the drawing of isnad trees.
In order to attend the conference please register as a member at https://idhn.org/contact/ or send us an e-mail to info@idhn.org and request guest access
Maroussia Bednarkiewicz (University of Tübingen)
Irene Kirchner (Georgetown University)
Pranav Prakash (Windgate Fellow, Center for the Book, U-Iowa)
9. The spring 2021 program of Silsila, NYU’s Center for Material Histories. The theme for spring 2021 semester isTranslations.
Due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, this will be online.
The semester’s program consists of both lectures and more extended presentations and discussions, all open to the public. The lectures will continue to take place on Wednesdays 12.30-2.30 ET (New York time), but we will also have some workshop-type events that will take place on Friday afternoons 12.00-2.30 ET (New York time). For details of each event, please consult the schedule below – further details of each event are posted on our website.
Links to register are available on the relevant web pages for each event (https://as.nyu.edu/silsila/events.html). Once you register, you will then receive a link enabling you to access the event as an attendee. Only registered attendees will be able to access the event.
- January 05, 2021
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE 4th International Conference on “Arabs’ and Muslims’ History of Sciences: Scientific Legacy and its Contemporary Impacts”, University of Sharjah, 4-6 April 2021
Scholars, researchers in higher educational institutions and research centers, museums and heritage foundations, and postgraduate students are cordially invited to submit their recent research findings to be presented and published at this conference.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2021. Information: https://www.sharjah.ac.ae/en/Media/Conferences/ICHS21/Pages/default.aspx
2. ONLINE Doctoral Workshop of the “Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies (SeSaMO)”, Bologna, 20-21 April 2021
The workshop is open to PhD students in Italian universities and working on research projects dealing with the MENA region and the Muslim population in other countries. Italian PhD students working abroad and foreign doctoral candidates enrolled in double-degree programmes between foreign and Italian Universities are also encouraged to participate.
Information: http://www.sesamoitalia.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Workshop-Dottorale-SeSaMO-2021-CfPs-It-En-Fr.pdf
- December 29, 2020
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Call for Papers: Translation & Literary Studies February issue 2021 Extended
Arab World English Journal for Translation and Literary Studies welcomes submissions for the February issue 2021. The deadline for manuscript submission has been extended till January 4. 2021. The issue publication date is February issue 2020. For more information, visit the Submission page. The papers can address but are not limited to the following ..Read More
Calls for Papers March 2021
Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) welcomes the submission of papers for March 2021. The deadline for manuscript submission is December 30, 2020. The issue publication date is March 2021. For more information, visit the Arab World English Journal on www.awej.org. Before sending your paper, please read the submission and Manuscript Guidelines for Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) ... Read More
Kind Regard,
Arab Society of English Language Studies
2. Post-Doctoral Research Assistants in History
Northumbria University
Northumbria University seeks to appoint two Post-Doctoral Research Assistants in History, for three years fixed term, from 1 September 2021. These opportunities arise through the successful award of a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to Dr Felicia Gottmann, entitled ‘Migration, Adaptation, Innovation: A Comparative Global History, 1500-1800’. One of the PDRAs should have specialist historical and linguistic skills appropriate for the study of the Islamic World in the period 1500-1800, with reading ability in at least one of the following: Arabic OR Ottoman Turkish OR Persian OR South Asian languages.
Closing date for applications | 21 January 2021
Further information
3. Associate Professor in Middle East Politics
Durham University
The School of Government and International Affairs (SGIA) at Durham University seeks to appoint an exceptional scholar as an Associate Professor with research and teaching expertise in Middle East Politics. Applicants with research and teaching expertise in any of the following, Geopolitics of the sub-regions of the Middle East (which includes North Africa and Turkey); the politics of Gender and Identity; and the Political Economy of Middle East will be at an advantage.
Closing date for applications | 25 January 2021
Further information
4. Associate Professorship in Politics or International Relations with specialisation in the Middle East
University of Oxford
The Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) and the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA), in association with St Antony’s College, seek jointly to appoint an inspirational teacher and accomplished research scholar to an Associate Professorship in Politics or International Relations with specialization in the Middle East. The post will be held in conjunction with a Governing Body Fellowship at St Antony’s College. The post-holder will have a room for teaching and research in the Department of Politics of International Relations as well as at the Middle East Centre of St Antony’s.
Closing date for applications | 8 February 2021
Further information
- December 26, 2020
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE Symposium: “Muslim Philanthropy in a Canadian Context”, University of Toronto, 27 March 2021
This symposium addresses a simple, yet underexplored, question: How is Muslim philanthropy developing in a secular liberal democracy such as Canada? The symposium will be a pioneering event bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines and practitioners working in the non-profit/charitable sector.
Deadline for abstracts: 24 December 2020. Information: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JsKqeAMvTUuQN7RtVsVSEPPJaGxaHCpEvDKPihpEmi1UN0I2TUxKMVNMWE04MlI5MEg5S0xOUTBEQy4u
2. ONLINE Seminar on “National and Regional Dimension of Mediterranean Studies” at the Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association, 8-11 April 2021
This seminar engages with literary texts from diverse Mediterranean literary traditions, periods, and genres in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, while being theoretically aware of their potential to challenge canonical interpretations of critical artistic, political, religious, and linguistic issues relevant to their and/or other national traditions in the region.
3. ONLINE “Seminar for Arabian Studies”, International Association for the Study of Arabia (IASA), Summer 2021 (Dates to be announced)
This is the only international forum that meets annually for the presentation of the latest academic research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula from the earliest times to the present day or, in the case of political and social history, to the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922).
Deadline for abstracts: 28 February 2021. Information: https://www.theiasa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2021CallforPapers.pdf
4. “4th Congress of Studies on the Middle East and Muslim Worlds”, Aix-en-Provence, 28-30 June 2021
This event is organized by GIS Moyen Orient et mondes musulmans (MOMM) in collaboration with IREMAM, IDEMEC, CHERPA, IMAF, and SEMOMM. The themes fall under anthropology, archaeology and history of art, law, economics, geography, history, islamology and religious sciences, linguistics, literature, philosophy, sociology, political science, in a global or regional perspective. As in previous years, the congress is an invitation to move beyond disciplinary and institutional compartmentalization, by bringing together contributors from diverse backgrounds, working in France and around the world.
Information: http://majlis-remomm.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Appel_4e%CC%80meCongre%CC%80s_en.pdf
5. Tenure-track Assistant Professorship in History and Society in the Modern Middle East, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Copenhagen University (UCPH), Denmark
The successful applicant is expected to teach and conduct research in the field of modern Middle Eastern history and the dynamics that characterize the developments of the regional societies. She or he must have a command of the Arabic language. Insight into classical Arabic history will be an advantage.
Deadline for applications: 20 January 2021. Information: https://employment.ku.dk/tenure-track/?show=153184
6. Visiting Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern History, History Department, Oberlin College (OH)
Requirements: PhD (in hand or expected by August 2021). The incumbent will teach courses in the general area of Middle East and North African History, including a two-semester survey sequence, one or two intermediate-level classes, and at least one advanced class in her/his area of specialization. We are particularly interested in hiring a specialist in the history of the modern Middle East.
Deadline for application: 1 February 2021. Information: https://jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/9679
7. Grant for a Visiting Research Fellowship in Omani Studies (3 Months), Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) Berlin
We are seeking an outstanding postdoctoral scholar who is engaged in projects in research fields related to Omani Studies.
Deadline for application extended to 6 January 2021. Information: https://www.zmo.de/fileadmin/Karriere/CfP_TheOmanResearchGrant_ZMO_2021.pdf
8. Articles for the “Australian Journal of Islamic Studies”
The open access, double-blind peer-reviewed journal invites original research articles, essays and book reviews related to Islamic sciences from academics in Islamic theology, philosophy, sociology, jurisprudence, contemporary studies, comparative religion, spirituality, Qur’anic and Sunnah studies, history and art.
Information: https://ajis.com.au/index.php/ajis/about
9. Articles on “Islamic Constitutions: Managing Religion and Politics” for Special Issue of Journal “Religions”
Papers are invited that examine the ways in which constitutions, constitutional articles, and the writing and abolition of constitutions manage the relationship between religion and politics. Of particular interest are papers which highlight the specific legal, social, and political consequences of how religion is altered by the state’s management of it through constitutional articles especially in Muslim-majority countries.
Deadline for submissions: 15 April 2021. Information: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/Religion_Politics
10. Chapters for Edited Volume on “Creative Processes, Patrimonial Practices: Art and Heritage in the Middle East and North Africa”
Contributors seek to examine how artists, architects, curators and digital content producers engage with various elements of aesthetic practice to produce, re-produce an challenge cultural representations and narratives. This volume analyses current artistic and heritage practices within the region, questioning the appropriateness of existing methods and providing suggestions for future research.
Deadline for abstracts: 20 January 2021. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/6974299/call-chapter-creative-processes-patrimonial-practices-art-and
The British Library
12. ONLINE WORKSHOP: Unspoken memories, unwritten histories: Eastern Mediterranean pluralism in oral history and memory studies (Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul)
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
A series of workshops devoted to theories and practices in academia and civil society in Turkey and beyond
Less than a hundred years ago, most Eastern Mediterranean cities were marked by a high degree of ethnic, linguistic and religious pluralism. Whereas the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of states based on modern concepts of nationhood heralded its end, some of the most important cities of the empire retained their cosmopolitan nature well until the Second World War and its aftermath. Oral histories and communicative memories of ethnoreligious groups that constituted vital parts of these cities are still living, often wound up with unhealed and suppressed traumas of displacement, ethnic cleansing and genocide. At the same time, simplified and nostalgic visions of a pluralist past are sometimes held up as role models for present-day Eastern Mediterranean societies without questioning its implications and meaning, or without regard for the challenges that they entail. Local academics and civil society organizations alike play vital roles in researching, highlighting and supporting pluralism and pluralist heritage, sometimes in defiance of nationalist historiographies and policies, sometimes supported by states and institutions that embrace pluralism.
The following series of online panels, arranged by the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (SRII), operates at a cross-section of academic research and civil society activism. It aims to bring together young scholars of history, minorities and human rights with representatives of academia and civil society in a number of Eastern Mediterranean cities outside of Turkey. The panels will discuss what cultural pluralism meant in the past and what it means today, survey how different Eastern Mediterranean countries have struggled to either sustain or suppress cultural pluralism and pluralist heritage, and debate what academics can learn from civil society organizations and human rights discourses when they deal with the questions it brings up. The series will begin with cases of cultural loss that lie further back in the past and conclude with cases that have a bearing on the present and future. Focusing on the vision and memory of pluralism in times of globalization and homogenization the panels will use these case studies as points of departure for a wider exploration of what cultural pluralism means and why it matters, both in the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.
The initial workshop that will launch the series, is entitled How can we talk about cultural pluralism in the Eastern Mediterranean? will take place via Zoom on January 28, 2021. The Workshop aims to create an interdisciplinary space for discussion among theoretically informed researchers and civil society actors working on memory studies and oral history in Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean at large. We welcome young scholars and motivated graduate students in the humanities who aim to further their studies in this domain as well as workers in civil society who wish to attain a higher perspective in the state of memory studies and oral history in the region. The content of this first workshop will focus on central methodological questions in the field, such as:
– Modern and Post-modern approaches to cultural pluralism: is there a common basis of understanding?
– How have Eastern Mediterranean countries dealt with cultural pluralism in the past? How do they deal with it – and the loss of it – today?
– How should academics in the Eastern Mediterranean area approach cultural pluralism and the loss of cultural pluralism?
Speakers of the first panel, January 28 at 13:00 (UTC+3):
Asena Günal, director of Anadolu Kültür
Bülent Bilmez, professor at Bilgi University
Noémi Lévy-Aksu, Hafıza Merkezi
Following this initial virtual workshop bimensal meetings are planned that will concentrate on multicultural cities of the Eastern Mediterranean beyond Turkey, such as Thessaloniki, Alexandria and Jerusalem. The goal being to offer a critical overview of the state of memory studies and oral history in the region through panel presentations by academic and civil society professionals, followed by an informal participatory Q&A between veterans in the field and young participants interested in specializing in these domains. New CFAs will be issued for each upcoming event.
Contact Info:
Eligible for participation are advanced students with a background in Turkish, Eastern Mediterranean or Ottoman culture and history, cultural and minority studies, or political, social and Human Rights studies. They should send their CV, together with a letter of interest outlining their interest in the topic and the ways in which it connects with their own research, no later than December 31, 2020, to sriiapplication@gmail.com. Participants will be notified by January 11, 2021.
Contact Email:
sriiapplication@gmail.com
URL:
https://rem-em.com/
13. Remaking Muslim Lives
Everyday Islam in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina
David Henig, University of Illinois Press, 2020
https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/9780252085215/remaking-muslim-lives/
14. The Bloomsbury Colleges group, University of London, is offering a PhD studentship for an Islamic visuality project entitled ‘Recording the invisible: Islamic architecture and its photographic archives’, beginning in the academic year 2021/22. The studentship is awarded for UK and EU citizens, and covers tuition fees (at the home fee rate) plus a stipend (the stipend rate was £17,285 per annum for 2020/21) for up to 3 years. Details are available here: http://www.bloomsbury.ac.uk/studentships/2021/recording-the-invisible-islamic-architecture-and-its-photographic-archives
The closing date for applications is: 28 February 2021
- December 22, 2020
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment