Categories : Academic items

1. Call for Papers: Performing Islam

Special Issue: ‘Performing Islamophobia’

A Critical and Anthropological Study of Politics, Poetics and Representation in Europe

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/performing-islam#call-for-papers

Over the past two decades, Islamophobia has evolved beyond discursive prejudice into a complex performative phenomenon, one enacted through politics, law, culture and everyday life. Performing Islamophobia: A Critical Study in Europe seeks to interrogate how anti-Muslim sentiment is not only expressed but also performed, reproduced and normalised through multiple channels of representation, from artistic and media forms to policy frameworks and bureaucratic practices.

This volume aims to bring together interdisciplinary, decolonial and critical perspectives to examine the ways in which Islamophobia operates as a set of performative acts, embodied, institutional and symbolic, that shape both public perception and lived experience. Contributors are invited to explore how Islamophobia manifests in visual and performing arts, film, television, journalism, digital media, literature, popular culture and state mechanisms, including law enforcement, education and immigration policy. The collection is equally concerned with the counter-performances that resist, subvert and expose such practices.

The volume draws inspiration from the works of scholars such as Judith Butler on performativity, Edward Said on Orientalism, Talal Asad on secularism and religious identity, Sara Ahmed on affect and the politics of emotion, and S. Sayyid, Nasar Meer, and Arjun Appadurai on race, identity, and globalisation. It also welcomes engagement with non-Western scholarship and cultural expressions that challenge Eurocentric epistemologies, offering comparative or transnational insights into the staging, scripting and spectacle of Islamophobia.

Contributors are encouraged to consider, among others, the following questions:

– How is Islamophobia enacted through visual, performative, and narrative forms in Europe?
– In what ways do state policies, legal discourses, and security regimes perform and legitimise exclusionary practices?
– How do artists, filmmakers, writers, and activists perform resistance and reclaim agency in spaces of representation?
– What does an anthropological reading of performativity reveal about the social and cultural reproduction of fear, suspicion and belonging?

By foregrounding the performative dimension of Islamophobia, this volume seeks to articulate, critique, and challenge the mechanisms through which bias becomes embodied and made visible, while amplifying the creative and intellectual interventions that seek to undo it.

Submission Guidelines:

Proposals: Please submit a title, a 150-200 word abstract, and a 150-word biographical note by 20 December 2025.

Full chapters: Accepted contributors will be invited to submit their full papers (6,000-8,000 words) by 30 May 2026.

Formatting: All submissions should follow the latest Harvard referencing style. Please send proposals and inquiries to the Editor, Kamal Salhi, performingislam@yahoo.com.

 

 

 

 

2. Upcoming presentation in the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies’ Persian Lithographic Printing Seminar

بررسی تاریخچه مطبعه مجلس از بزرگترین چاپخانه های دولتی ایران
“The Majlis Printing House”
(in Persian)
Homa Afrasiabi
Independent Scholar
Thursday, December 4, 2025, 12:00 p.m. EST  

Zoom Registration Link:
https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/LzX8QvxMR6y0yTkB7ESWqA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Through Meinecke’s Lens: The Cairenes and Cairo in the 1970s

What did it mean to live among centuries-old monuments? In 1970s Cairo, historic buildings were part of daily life. People lived in them, worked in them, and built their communities around them. This quiet yet powerful reality is captured in this online exhibition which was originally presented as a photo exhibition in collaboration with the Museum for Islamic Art as part of the ’20th Colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld Society for Studies in Islamic Art and Archaeology’, held for the first time in Cairo.

This photo exhibition highlights the daily life of Cairenes in Historic Cairo during the 1970s, showcasing one of the world’s richest cities filled with Islamic monuments. The forty images are drawn from the Meinecke archive at the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin, a collection created by the art historian Michael Meinecke (1941–1995) and his wife, the art historian Viktoria Meinecke-Berg (1941–2005). This exhibition aims to reveal a layer of history often overlooked, fostering a deeper understanding of the relationship between Cairo, its people, and visiting scholars while reflecting on the archive’s value for these discussions.

The Photo Exhibition is curated by Dr.-Ing. Eman Shokry Hesham (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck Institute) and Issam Al-Hajjar (Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin)

Contact Information

Museum für Islamische Kunst (im Pergamonmuseum)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Contact: https://islamic-art.smb.museum/kontakt/?lang=en

Contact Email

f.rizvi@smb.spk-berlin.de

URL

https://islamic-art.smb.museum/en/story/cairo-meinecke-photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Multaka 10th Anniversary: Learning from the Past, Envisioning the Future

Two-day event | 5–6 December 2025

Dates:

Fri, 05.12.2025 | 09:30 am – 5:45 pm
Sat, 06.12.2025 | 09:30 am – 2:00 pm

Event language: English

Multaka: Museums as Meeting Point was developed within the framework of the Syrian Heritage Archive Project and initiated in December 2015 by the Museum for Islamic Art – in cooperation with the Museum of the Ancient Near East, the Bode-Museum, and the German Historical Museum. Over the past ten years, the multi award-winning project Multaka has received national and international recognition and is regarded as an innovative source of inspiration both within and beyond the museum landscape.

On 5 and 6 December 2025, Multaka: Museums as Meeting Point will celebrate its 10th anniversary together with co-host Multaka Oxford!

The anniversary event Reflecting the Future, brings together the international Multaka network to explore innovative approaches to participatory museum practice, intercultural exchange, and dialogue-based learning.

Hosted at the Center for Cultural Education – Haus Bastian on the Museum Island, the event highlights a decade of intercultural dialogue, collaborative work, and engagement with historical-cultural collections within the award-winning initiative Multaka: Museums as Meeting Point.

Why participate?

The two-day program offers diverse opportunities for (early-career) researchers and universities interested in decolonial museology, methods and strategies of diverse audience engagement, and collaboration between museums and communities.

As a platform for professional networking, knowledge exchange, and cooperation between museums and universities, the event invites participants to reflect on shared visions and to shape future pathways for inclusive cultural education and transnational collaboration.

Contact Information

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required by Tuesday, 2 December 2025, or until all spots are filled.

Please register early to secure your place on the following website: Reflecting the Future

Contact Email

isl@smb.museum

URL

https://www.smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/museumsinsel-berlin/veranstaltungen…

 

 

 

 

 

5. The final lecture of the Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series for Fall 2025 will take place on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at 12:00 New York / 17:00 London / 20:00 Istanbul.

Amanda Caterina Leong (Courtauld Institute of Art) will present “Recovering the Many Faces of Female Javanmardi in the Illustrated Manuscripts of the Premodern Persianate World (945–1800).”

To attend, please register in advance here:
https://wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/register/EzuPAit6QACKL3Ls9h6uhw
Upon registration, you’ll receive the link to access the lecture.

As always, you can find a full schedule of upcoming talks and register for our list-serv on our website at viahss.org. Although not every talk is recorded, we also have recordings of several recent talks available on the VIAHSS Vimeo page at vimeo.com/viahss. Lastly, you can follow us on Instagram at @theviahss to stay up to date on upcoming events! The schedule for spring 2026 will be released in late December/early January.

Contact Information

Drs. Alexander Brey, Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, and Rachel Winter

Contact Email

winterr6@msu.edu

URL

https://viahss.org/

 

 

 

 

 

6. Arab Studies Journalvolume 33, no. 1–2 (Fall 2025) is now available from Tadween Publishing.

ARTICLES

Writing Africa for Africans: Du Bois, Egyptian Africanists, and the Encyclopedia Africana Project Between Dreams and Disruptions

May Kosba

Crime and Dystopia in Three Egyptian Novels: Dissecting Cityscapes and the Body as a Terrain for Political Critique

Dalia Said Mostafa

Tobacco Cultivation in the West Bank Between Economic Survival and Settler-Colonial Constraints

Kholoud Al-Ajarma, D. A. Jaber, and Jawida Mansour

Palestinian Farmers’ Resilience Against the Settler Colonial-Capitalist Production of Vulnerability in the Jordan Valley

Fairouz Salem

ESSAYS: “Seismic Shifts” in the Middle East

Introduction: “Seismic Shifts” in the Middle East? Reflections From MESA Global Academy Scholars

Diana B. Greenwald

Authoritarianism Reinvented: Post-Assad Syria and the Strategic Reorientation of the Arab East

Dina Hadad

Ruling in the Grey Zones: Hybrid Warfare and the Remaking of Political Order in the Middle East

Nadia Al-Sakkaf

REVIEWS

The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century

By Zozan Pehlivan

Reviewed by Deren Ertas

The Untold Story of the Golan Heights: Occupation, Colonization, and Jawlani Resistance

Edited by Muna Dajani, Munir Fakher Eldin, and Michael Mason

Reviewed by Gary Fields

Egypt’s Beer: Stella, Identity, and the Modern State

By Omar D. Foda

Reviewed by Kaleb Herman Adney

The Arab Nahda as Popular Entertainment: Mass Culture and Modernity in the Middle East

Edited by Hala Auji, Raphael Cormack, and Alaaeldin Mahmoud

Reviewed by Adéla Provazníková

A Landscape of War: Ecologies of Resistance and Survival in South Lebanon

By Munira Khayyat

Reviewed by Susann Kassem

Arab Studies Journal is a peer-reviewed, independent, multidisciplinary journal of Middle Eastern and North African Studies. It is published twice a year by the Arab Studies Institute (ASI) and is affiliated with the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.

Contact Email

coeditors@arabstudiesjournal.org

URL

http://www.arabstudiesjournal.org/

 

 

 

 

 

7. Jobs:

University of Massachusetts Amherst – Assistant Professor in the History of the Modern Middle East
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/69505/university-massachusetts-amherst-assistant-professor-history-modern-middle-east

 

New York University Abu Dhabi – NYUAD Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World – Postdoctoral Fellowship
https://networks.h-net.org/jobs/69504/new-york-university-abu-dhabi-nyuad-humanities-research-fellowship-study-arab-world

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Séminaire “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges” – 3e séance mercredi 3 décembre 18h-19h30
nous avons le plaisir de vous convier à la troisième séance du séminaire “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges”, qui se tiendra mercredi 3 décembre 2025, 18h-19h30, en salle 3.01 à l’INaLCO(65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 3^eétage).

Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir Mme. Ella Kempf, Inalco-Cermi, pour une conférence intitulée : Des montagnes, des plantes et des hommes : Agriculture et savoirs botaniques dans la vallée de Bamiyân du Moyen-âge à nos jours.

Résumé:

Après une introduction d’Arezou Azad consacrée aux Cahiers de Bâmiyân et à leur contribution à l’étude de la vie paysanne de l’Afghanistan médiéval, cette communication présentera les premières données archéobotaniques de la vallée de Bâmiyân ainsi que les perspectives d’un projet de recherche sur le patrimoine naturel et archéologique afghan.La première partie portera sur les résultats préliminaires de l’étude carpologique du site médiéval de Shahr-e Gholgholah, Cette analyse révèle une grande diversité d’espèces économiques et sauvages, témoignant de l’agriculture et de l’exploitation des ressources végétales au XIIIe siècle. La deuxième partie abordera la mission de fouilles conduite en novembre 2025 à Shahr-e Zohak, et la collecte de nouveaux échantillons destinés à approfondir notre compréhension du paysage culturel et naturel de la région. Enfin, la description de la végétation et des cultures actuelles de la vallée de Bâmiyân permettra d’observer l’évolution des interactions entre les populations locales et leur environnement au cours du temps, tout en interrogeant le rôle de l’altitude dans les choix agricoles.

Orientations bibliographiques:

• Baker P.H.B. et Allchin F.R. 1991. Shahr-i Zohak and the history of Bamiyan valley Afghanistan. Archaeopress. 234 p.
• Bendezu-Sarmiento J. 2022. Archaeological Survey and First Preliminary Results of the Site of Shahr-i Gholghola (Afghanistan), in C. Baumer, M. Novák, et S. Rutishauser (dir.), Cultures in contact: Central Asia as focus of trade, cultural exchange and knowledge transmission, Wiesbaden, Allemagne, Harrassowitz Verlag.
• Freitag H. 1971b. Studies on the natural vegetation of Afghanistan. In: Davis P.H. et al.: Plant Life of South West Asia, Edinburgh.
• Taskhir A. 1947. Insect fauna of Afghanistan: The Entomological Society of India. Reprinted from the Indian Journal of Entomology, Bangalore City.
• Younos C. 1970. La végétation de Bamiyan à Band-e Amir. in Paysages du centre de l’Afghanistan. Paysages naturels, paysages culturels. Hindou-Kouch, Lacs de Band-e Amir, Vallée de Bâmiyân. CEREDAF, Paris. 224 p.

Vous trouverez l’intégralité du programme 2025-2026 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges” en ligne sur le site du CeRMI: L’Afghanistan à travers les âges – Centre de recherche sur le monde iranien

Bien cordialement,

Arezou Azad et Matteo De Chiara

 

 

 

 

 

9. The Latin America and Caribbean Islamic Studies Newsletter
Vol. 5, no. 4 | Fall 2025

https://www.lacisa.org/newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

10. Upcoming BRISMES Event | Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize Showcase & Careers Conversatio

Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize Showcase & Careers Conversation

Monday, 8 December 2025, 3-4:30pm (GMT)

BRISMES invites you to celebrate this year’s recipients of the Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize, awarded annually to the writer of the best PhD dissertation submitted at a British university on a Middle Eastern topic in the Social Sciences or Humanities. Prize winners and runners-up will present highlights from their research and share their academic plans moving forward. Senior scholars in attendance will offer comments and career guidance, creating a space that both honours excellence and supports early-career development. This event is open to anyone interested in Middle East research, especially final-year PhD students and early-career academics looking to learn more about the prize and future pathways in academia.

Speakers:

• Dr Sara Abdel Ghany (2025 Joint Winner)
• Dr Eirik Kvindesland (2025 Joint Runner Up)
• Dr Kristine L. Sheets (2025 Joint Runner Up)

Chairs and discussants:

• Dr Sabiha Allouche (BRISMES Outreach and Pedagogy Committee)
• Dr Wassim Naboulsi (BRISMES Outreach and Pedagogy Committee)
• Prof Nicola Pratt (BRISMES President)

More information and registration:

https://www.brismes.ac.uk/events/outreach-and-pedagogy/leigh-douglas-prize-showcase-and-careers-conversation

 

 

 

 

 

11. ONLINE Webinar: ‘Beyond the Botanical with Persian collections at Kew Gardens’ Library and Archives’

British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), 10 December,  2025,  5:00 pm UK Time

This talk explores Persian materials in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, focusing on the unexpected cultural and social histories preserved within a botanical archive. While the exhibition Persia Reimagined: From Herbarium to Heritage (30 September 2025 – 22 January 2026) is rooted in plant expeditions and specimens, it highlights how collectors recorded much more than flora.

Their diaries, labels, photographs, and sketches captured the foods they ate, the buildings they stayed in, the landscapes they admired, and the people they encountered. These traces reveal overlooked dimensions of daily life in early 20th-century Iran, preserved—almost incidentally—within a scientific archive.
By drawing attention to these hidden layers, the talk invites a reconsideration of what botanical collections can tell us, beyond science. It also reflects on the process of curating an exhibition from these materials, including the development of outreach activities and community workshops designed to bring Kew’s Persian collections into dialogue with contemporary audiences.
This is an online event. Register in advance to take part.

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_m8KyDi_OR3WY_N2TJLBdyA#/registration

 

 

 

 

 

12. Applications Open: VIVAMENTE GRANT IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS 2026

The Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) invites applications for the 2026 VivaMente Grant, The Garden of Ideas.

VivaMente: The Garden of Ideas

Deadline: 28 February 2026

Grant amount: up to €5,000

The scheme supports outstanding proposals in the history of ideas and intellectual history, from antiquity to the contemporary period, across philosophy, science, medicine and technology.

VivaMente provides substantial financial and logistical support for a two-day event in Pisa. Each funded proposal receives up to €5,000 together with complimentary use of the Domus Comeliana. Eligible formats include conferences, workshops, seminars, exhibitions and public engagement events. Multidisciplinary approaches are welcome, provided the core focus remains on the history of ideas.

VivaMente is competitive and offers an important platform for both senior and early-career scholars.

Full details are available at:
https://csmbr.fondazionecomel.org/grants-and-awards/vivamente-grant/

Applicants are welcome to contact the Centre (info@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org) with any questions.

Fabrizio Bigotti 

Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) – Director

Domus Comeliana, Via Cardinale Maffi 48, 56126 Pisa, Italy

Tel.: +39.02.006.20.51 – Mobile: +39.333.13.12.203

Email: fb@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org 

 

 

 

 

 

13. An oath-letter (sawgand-nāma) for the Rum Saljuq sultan and his son. Diplomatics and politics in mid-thirteenth-century Anatolia through the Qiṣṣa-yi Salāṭīn

David Durand-Guédy
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Published Online on 21 November 2025

 

 

 

 

 

14. Associate Professorship (or Professorship) and Tutorial Fellowship in Modern Middle Eastern History 1830-1970
University of Oxford

Trinity College and the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford are seeking to appoint an outstanding historian with teaching and research interests in the modern history of the Middle East and North Africa (c.1830 to c.1970) as a Tutorial Fellow and Associate Professor of History. This post is available from 1st October 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Deadline | 7 January 2026

More information

 

 

 

 

 

15. Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial Paper Prize for Early Career Scholars 2025

Prize | CPD Working Group, BISA

The prize is 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.  The winning paper will be chosen by a panel nominated by the conveners of the Colonial, Postcolonial, and Decolonial Working Group and the editors of Review of International Studies (RIS), a BISA journal.

Deadline | 31 December 2025

More information

 

 

 

 

 

16. Call for Papers | Reconstruction
Journal | Oxford Middle East Review (OMER)

The editors welcome submissions for the tenth anniversary issue of OMER, a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal. This issue invites contributors to think broadly about the forms that reconstruction can take, be it physical, political, environmental, or cultural. How are futures imagined after crisis? What new solidarities, aesthetics, or institutions materialize when old structures collapse? How do processes of reconstruction engage with memory, and justice? And what happens when reconstruction itself becomes a site of contestation, shaped by global capital, humanitarian intervention, and ideology?

Deadline | 4 January 2025

More information

 

 

 

 

 

17. Education and Scholarships (Coordinator)
Caabu and Amjad & Suha Bseisu Foundation

Applications are invited for this shared role working three days a week for the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) and two days a week for the Bseisu Foundation.

Deadline | 7 December 2025

More information

 

 

 

 

18. Conference “Exploring the Sacred: People, Place and Power in the Islamic Indian Ocean”, National University of Singapore, 4-5 December 2025

The historical and contemporary papers explore the sacred by grounding it in the archives, texts, material culture, and ethnographies of the Islamic Indian Ocean. Papers focus on local or transregional processes and themes.

Information, program and abstracts: https://tinyurl.com/4p8kupaf

 

 

 

 

 

19. HYBRID “Seventh Annual Islamic Philosophy Conference”, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 5-7 December 2025

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.

Information and registration: https://asipt.org/conferences/

 

1.Early Career Rescue Fellowship

Academic freedom is under pressure today. This requires rescue havens of free research. The Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), the Tübingen College of Fellows (CoF), and the Zukunftskolleg Konstanz (ZuKo) invite early career researchers, whose work is restricted due to political pressure in the USA, to apply for the Baden-Württemberg Early Career Rescue Fellowships 2026-2028 (Ref. No. 2025/229)

Deadline for applications: 9 January 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3j7bh626

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Two Humanities Research Fellowships (10 Months) for the Study of the Arab World, NYU Abu Dhabi

We welcome applications from recent PhD graduates (PhD in hand between September 2021 and September 2026) working in all areas of the Humanities related to the study of the Arab world, its rich literature and history, its cultural and artistic heritage, and its manifold connections with other cultures and regions.

Deadline for applications: 5 January 2025. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/160447

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. 20 ANAMED Fellowships (2026-2027) for Studies on Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, Istanbul

Koç University invites applications from scholars specializing in archaeology, art history, history, cultural heritage, and related disciplines of Anatolia from the Neolithic to the Ottoman period. Research grants will be awarded to approximately 10 PhD students, 10 postdoctoral and senior researchers to spend one academic year.

Deadline for applications: 15 December 2025. Information: https://anamed.ku.edu.tr/en/fellowships/

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Full Time Lecturer in Arabic, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania

Candidates should possess an M.A. in Arabic language and culture. Applicants with a more advanced degree in a field related to Arabic language, literature and culture will also be considered. Successful candidates are expected to demonstrate a proven record of excellence in teaching Arabic as a foreign language. We especially welcome candidates with experience teaching Levantine Arabic and who can offer courses on media, popular culture, or Arabic in the digital age.

Deadline for applications: 15 January 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/177559

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Appel à candidatures “Prix de thèse Islam, Moyen-Orient et mondes musulmans 2026”, CNRS & IISMM

Sont éligibles des travaux soutenus en français ou en France entre le 1er janvier 2024 et le 31 décembre 2025, dans toutes les disciplines des lettres et sciences humaines et sociales. L’organisation de ces prix de thèse entend distinguer des travaux de recherche portant sur l’Islam, le Moyen-Orient et les mondes musul-mans, caractérisés par leur excellence et leur caractère particulièrement innovant.

Date limite : 16 janvier 2026. Information : https://iismm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. New Books:

Social Anthropology in the Arab World – The Fragmented History of a Contested Discipline, Edited by Abdullah Alajmi, Daniele Cantini, Irene Maffi and Imed Melliti, Berghan New York/Oxford, 384 pages

Information: https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/AlajmiSocial

 

Corruption in the Ottoman Polity – Empirical Insights, Conceptual Reflections, Edited by Boğaç A. Ergene and Cengiz Kırlı, Edinburg University Press, 352 pages

Information: https://tinyurl.com/mr34dbb7

 

 

 

 

 

7. CfP : Arab Media and Society

Call for Papers, Issue 40 – Media & Geopolitics in the Arab World

The deadline to send submissions for peer review is December 1, 2025.
The Arab world today stands at the intersection of shifting global alliances, prolonged conflicts, and the rise of new powers competing for influence across the Middle East. Media plays a pivotal role in this environment, not only as a mirror reflecting events but also as an active participant shaping narratives, identities, and public opinion. The coverage of wars and conflicts, the construction of national and regional soft power, and the increasingly blurred lines between journalism, strategic communication, and digital activism underscore the centrality of media in contemporary geopolitics.
Traditional and new media platforms are being mobilized in different ways: to wage information wars, to brand nations in global markets, to influence foreign policy debates, and to create alternative narratives that challenge dominant Western perspectives. At the same time, transformations in media ownership, the rise of AI-driven technologies, and the expanding role of transnational digital platforms are reshaping how politics is communicated and contested across the region.
For its 40th issue, Arab Media & Society invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners to submit contributions that critically interrogate the nexus between media and geopolitics in the Arab world. We welcome theoretically informed and empirically grounded research that sheds light on how media institutions, journalists, communicators, and audiences engage with, resist, or reproduce geopolitical agendas.
Key Themes
Submissions may explore, but are not limited to, the following areas:

1. War, Conflict, and Crisis Coverage

• Media framing of ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, and Syria.
• The politics of visibility and invisibility in reporting war casualties, refugees, and humanitarian crises.
• The use of disinformation, propaganda, and psychological operations in digital and broadcast media.
• AI and algorithmic mediation of war coverage: from drone footage to automated verification.

2. Soft Power and Nation Branding

• Competition among Arab states in projecting global soft power through media, cultural industries, and sports.
• The use of mega-events (World Cup, Expo, film festivals) as tools of geopolitical communication.
• Strategic employment of influencers, YouTubers, and content creators in diplomacy and branding.
• The role of Arabic-language global networks (Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia) in shaping international perceptions.

3. Shifting Media Ownership and Power Structures

• Privatization and consolidation of Arab media industries.
• The role of sovereign wealth funds, multinational corporations, and foreign investment in Arab media.
• Cross-border media influence and the geopolitics of satellite television.
• Global technology platforms (Meta, X, TikTok, YouTube) as new geopolitical actors in Arab media ecosystems.

4. New Forms of Communicating Politics

• Digital activism and the reconfiguration of political participation in the Arab world.
• Online censorship, surveillance, and digital authoritarianism.
• Diaspora and exiled media’s role in reshaping Arab geopolitics.
• The aesthetics of resistance: memes, short videos, and digital humor as political communication.

5. Emerging and Cross-Cutting Themes

• Climate change, environmental diplomacy, and media representations in the Arab region.
• Migration, borders, and the geopolitics of Arab media coverage.
• Gender and geopolitics: women journalists, feminized narratives of conflict, and representation of gendered violence.
• AI, cyber warfare, and the weaponization of digital communication.
• Religious media, sectarian narratives, and their geopolitical implications.
• The Arab-Israeli conflict in contemporary media ecologies and its global resonances.

The above list is a non-exhaustive set for suggested areas of research. We welcome contributions that explore other dimensions related to media and conflict in the Arab region.
Submission Guidelines:
All submissions must be in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx), adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style, and have a maximum length of 10,000 words (including footnotes and citations).
Please include the author’s name (as it should be published), their affiliation, and a brief abstract of no more than 150 words.

Deadline for Full Papers:

December 1, 2025 for peer-reviewed submissions and December 15, 2025 for all other submissions.
Please email all submissions to: editor@arabmediasociety.com For further information regarding our publishing policies, kindly visit: www.arabmediasociety.com/publishing-policies/
Contact Information:
For any inquiries regarding the call for papers, please contact: editor@arabmediasociety.com.
Thank you for your interest and support of Arab Media & Society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Book Launch & Celebration — Fereshteh Molavi’s “Stories from Tehran” (Nov 29, Toronto)

Join us for an unforgettable evening celebrating Fereshteh Molavi and her new collection Stories from Tehran, published by Asemana Books — in collaboration with Zagros Foundation & 2:45 Literature Circle, co-sponsored by Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies, and supported by Noghreh publishing house, Moj Orchestra and Insufin Insurance.

Featuring speakers: Mahdiyeh Ezzatikarami, Mahdi Ganjavi, Diana Manole, Mohsen Maleki, Sasan Qahreman, Niaz Salimi & Marta Simidchieva

With a special note from: Houra Yavari

Plus: the premiere of a short film by 2:45 Literature Circle, inspired by Molavi’s stories

Music: Musical performance by Moj Orchestra, conductor Saman Mohammadnabi

Bilingual: English & Persian

Saturday, Nov 29

6:00–8:00 PM

North York Memorial Community Hall, 5110 Yonge St, Toronto

To read more about this book:

https://asemanabooks.ca/stories-from-tehran/

Asemana Books

 

1.THE TEXTILE MUSEUM JOURNAL SYMPOSIUM

Please join us for The Textile Museum Journal Symposium, a special program celebrating the centennial year of The Textile Museum on December 6, 2025. This free virtual program features interviews conducted with four authors who contributed to this year’s The Textile Museum Journal, which focused on new research illuminating aspects of The Textile Museum Collection.

For description of the program and to register, please visit: https://museum.gwu.edu/textile-museum-journal-symposium

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections is pleased to announce an online training introducing the Islamic art, architecture, and history of al-Andalus, taking place  1- 4 December 2025.

This short online series will introduce participants to the diversity of the art and architecture of al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia) from the eighth through fifteenth centuries. These sessions will cover broad historical context as well as the defining art and architecture of the key dynasties of the region, including the Cordoban Umayyad caliphate.

• Schedule: Each 1.5-hour session will be held between 12pm – 1:30pm – US / 5pm – 6:30pm UK/ 8pm – 9:30pm Istanbul
• Format: Live online on Zoom
• Topic: art, architecture, and history of al-Andalus
• Places are limited

Instructor: Dr. Sarah Slingluff, Postdoctoral Associate, Medieval Islamic Art, Art History and Archaeology University of Maryland & Lead Educator, Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections

Contact Information

Dr. Glaire Anderson

Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art, School of History of Art, University of Edinburgh

Founding Director, Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections

Contact Email

info@digitallabivcc.com

URL

https://digitallabivcc.com/intro-to-al-andalus/

 

 

 

 

 

3. The programme for the 2025 annual meeting of MESA (Middle East Studies Association of North America) commencing Saturday, 22 November,

can be found at:

https://mesana.org/annual-meeting/program

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Le CeRMI a le plaisir de vous convier à la prochaine séance du séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien”, qui se tiendra jeudi 27 novembre 2025, 17h-19h, en salle 5.21 à l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 5^eétage).

Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir notre collègue M. Julien Thorez, géographe, Chargé de recherche au CNRS (CeRMI) et Directeur de CartOrient, pour une conférence intitulée : De la maison à la to’yhona. Une géographie des cérémonies rituelles en Asie centrale.

 Résumé:

Fondée sur des enquêtes et des relevés de terrain réalisées dans le cadre du projet ANR Ceremoniac « Fabriquer les inégalités ou construire le lien social. L’économie cérémonielle en Asie centrale soviétique et post-soviétique (1960 – 2020), cette intervention propose une approche géographique des cérémonies qui ponctuent le cycle de vie en Asie centrale. D’une part, elle souhaite montrer combien la préparation et la célébration de ces rites de passage, et en particulier des mariages, marquent le paysage, s’inscrivent dans l’espace et façonnent le territoire. D’autre part, elle développe une analyse des ancrages géographiques de l’économie rituelle qui révèle que les lieux du mariage se sont multipliés, spécialisés et disséminés au cours des dernières décennies. Elle montre que s’est opéré un déplacement de la préparation et de la célébration des to’y des espaces domestiques vers des espaces privés spécialisés et des espaces publics, c’est-à-dire de la maison vers la ville, dans un contexte de commercialisation et de spécialisation de l’économie rituelle.

Orientations bibliographiques:

– Abashin, S. N. 1999a Vopreki « zdravomu smysli » ? K voprosy o racional’nosti / irracional’nosti ritual’nyh rashodov v Srednej Azii, Vestnik Evrazii (1-2), pp. 87-107.

– Azimova, N. 2020 Ritual’naja èkonomika na primere svadebnyh obrjadov. Namangan, 2018 god, Obščestvo, gender i sem’ja v Central’noj Azii 4, pp. 87-106.

– Borisova, E. & S. Torno 2024 Images of Care: Marriage, family making, and the reproduction of the social order in Tajikistan, Journal of Eurasian Studies pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665241256969

– Cleuziou, J. 2024 Mariées à tout prix. Parcours de femmes, échanges rituels et démariages au Tadjikistan (Nanterre, Société d’ethnologie).

– Di Méo, G. 2001b Le sens géographique des fêtes, Annales de géographie 110(622), pp. 624-646.

– Ilkhamov, A. 2013 Labour Migration and the Ritual Economy of Uzbek Extended, Family Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 138(2), pp. 259-284.

– Khamrakulov, B. 2017 Wedding traditions and customs of Samarkand People (Tachkent, Yangi asr avlodi).

– Lobacheva, N.P. 1975 Formirovanie novoj obrjadnosti Uzbekov (Moscou, Nauka).

– Merchant Henson, T. 2005 Tradition et construction identitaire dans la musique de mariage des femmes ouzbèkes : à propos du kelin salom, Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie 18, pp. 39-50.

https://journals.openedition.org/ethnomusicologie/244?lang=fr

– Pétric, B.-M. 2002 Pouvoir, don et réseaux en Ouzbékistan post-soviétique (Paris, PUF).

– Reeves, M. 2012 Black work, green money: Remittances, ritual and domestic economies in southern Kyrgyzstan, Slavic Review 71(1), pp. 108-134.

– Ruffier, A. 2007 Samarcande – Identités et espaces festifs en Ouzbékistan (Montreuil, Aux lieux d’être).

– Sadigov, T. 2020 Household overspending on marriage: the scale of the problem and governement reactions around the world International, Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 40(11-12), pp. 1509-1532.

– Trevisani, T. 2016 Modern weddings in Uzbekistan: ritual hange from ‘above’ and from ‘below’, Central Asian Survey35(1), pp. 61-75.

– Turdalieva, Ch. & R. Provis 2017 Dynamics of Reciprocity and Networks of the Kyrgyz through Bishkek Toi Making, Central Asian Affairs (2), pp. 197-216.

– Werner, C. 1997 Marriage, Markets, and Merchants: Changes in Wedding Feasts and Household Consumption Patterns in Rural Kazakhstan, Culture & Agriculture 9(1-2), pp. 6-13.

Vous retrouverez prochainement l’intégralité du programme 2025-2026 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien” en ligne sur le site du CeRMI: https://cermi.cnrs.fr/seminaires-de-recherche/societes-politiques-et-cultures-du-monde-iranien-2025-2026/

Dans l’attente du plaisir de vous retrouver à l’occasion de ces séances, qui se déroulent en présentiel sur le site de l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII).

Bien cordialement,

Les organisateurs –

Simon Berger et Justine Landau

Contact: justine.landau@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr

 

 

 

 

 

5. Language, History, and Legacy: The New Issue of AUB’s Al-Abhath

https://executive-bulletin.com/education/language-history-and-legacy-the-new-issue-of-aubs-al-abhath

 

 

 

 

 

6. The history of Jewish communities in the Persian speaking world from the 19th century until today

Job ID: IFI114DOC225

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=pp87whtumr1xj5anw9ibr7bz48un944

 The Austrian Academy of Sciences – ÖAW, the largest, non-university research center for foundational reseach is searching for a candidate for the position of  a Prae-doc (Diss) (70%).

Your Tasks

The position is allocated within the framework of the ERC Project Persian Jews – History, Community, Memory. The research explores the history of Jewish communities in the Persian speaking world from the 19th century until today and is based on anthropological and historical methods and research questions, emphasizing original sources in Persian, Hebrew, and Judeo-Persian. It analyses the status of Jewish communities in the environment in which they lived, the circumstances of leaving and settling in new places and how the memory of the past is created in these processes. While the project emphasizes cultural and socio-economic dynamics, a strong focus is on the development and dissemination of religious thought among Persian speaking Jews and their interaction with other Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Besides the praedoc position, the project team includes two post-doctoral researchers in addition to the PI. As a whole, the research team is committed to a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue and seeks cooperation with the regions involved in order to promote plurilateral research perspectives.

The doctoral position is assigned to research on religious and literary aspects of 19th to early 20th-century Judeo-Persian communities. This includes the production and dissemination of texts, religious education and mysticism, as well as the exchange of these ideas in specific locales throughout the 19th to the 20th century (for example between Bukhara, Tehran and Jerusalem). The focus is envisaged in terms of historical and religious studies.

The successful candidate will pursue a PhD dissertation at the University of Vienna (cooperation / enrollment at another university possible upon agreement), while being integrated in the Institute of Iranian Studies.

Within the larger research project, the position offers the opportunity to link focused research on Persian Jewish communities to larger questions in the humanities, to develop research in continuous inter-disciplinary exchange and to thereby develop a broader outlook on the area of study. Opportunities for mentoring and training in career-relevant skills are available.

Your tasks:

•      Pursuing a PhD dissertation project within the ERC project PersCom
•      Presence in Vienna and engagement in the project as an active team member
•      Active participation in the project’s activities in the domains of research and knowledge transfer
•      International presentations and publication of project results
•      Active participation in the activities of the Institute for Iranian Studies

Your Profile

•      Completed MA in a humanities field relevant to the study of Jewish history in modern Iran or Central Asia
•      Excellent written and verbal communication skills the languages relevant to your research (Persian, Hebrew)
•      Good written and verbal communication skills in English, ability to publish academic articles in English
•      Knowledge of Judeo-Persian and religious traditions among Iranian and / or Central Asian Jewish communities
•      Openness to interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue
•      Initiative and ability to work in a team

Our Offer

The position is awarded on a basis for 36 months (1 year + extension for 2 years) for an annual gross salary of € 39.208,80 paid out conditional on proof of enrolment at the university. PhD supervision arrangements depend on the chosen focus.

Please apply online including a (1) cover letter, (2) academic CV and (3) outline of planned dissertation project of research interest later than January 16, 2026. Any queries may be directed to Dr. Ariane Sadjed: ariane.sadjed@oeaw.ac.at

Use this link to apply: JETZT BEWERBEN Klicken Sie auf diesen Link, um sich für die Stelle zu bewerben.

The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) pursues a non-discriminatory employment policy and places great importance on equal opportunities and diversity. In particular, individuals from underrepresented groups are expressly encouraged to apply.

Contact

Main Contact: Dr. Ariane Sadjed  ariane.sadjed@oeaw.ac.at
Institute for Iranian Studies, A-1020 Vienna, Austria

Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften | Austrian Academy of Sciences

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/

 

 

 

 

 

7. The University of Edinburgh

Caliphal Finances Research Fellow

Apply Before: 09/12/2025, 23:59

Caliphal Finances Research Fellow – University of Edinburgh Careers

 

 

 

 

8. UCLA:

Pourdavoud Lecture Series

Greek-Persian Encounters c. 550 – c. 330 BCE: Looking Beyond Stereotypes

Antigoni Zournatzi

Wednesday, December 3, 2025 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time

Royce Hall 306 and Via Zoom

 

 

 

 

 

9. Fifth Meeting of the Avicenna Study Group now also an online event! (2–4 December 2025)

Due to many inquires we have received from international colleagues who are unable to travel to Bochum and to attend the upcoming Fifth International Meeting of the Avicenna Study Group at the “Avicenna Study Center” (2–4 December 2025) in person, we have decided to make the event also available online via Zoom. In order to “zoom in”, please use the following link and credentials:

Link: https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/66612022942?pwd=3a2ddwbNacDIBYsDKVe0bKOAEKcjFs.1

Meeting-ID: 666 1202 2942
Password: 938409

 

 

 

 

10. Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature:

Three freshly announced courses on my website:

Introduction to Pahlavi: Online Winter School of Zoroastrian Middle Persian, January 5 – January 22, 2026.

Advanced Middle Persian: Pahlavi Texts in Pahlavi Script (Weekly), January 24 – March 14, 2026.

The Shahname: Introduction to the Iranian Epic (Weekly), January 9 – February 27, 2026. During this edition we will be reading the chapter on thepādešāhi-ye Eskandar.

In addition, here is a recently published small list of “8 Must-Know Digital Projects in Iranian and Central Asian Studies” for you! You might find it useful.

Yours sincerely,

Ruben S. Nikoghosyan

Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature

Yerevan, Armenia

Website: www.ferdowsi.org

 

 

 

 

11. Edinburgh University Press:

Introducing Women Interpreting Islamic Law
Series Editors: Masooda Bano, Mirjam Künkler & Khaled Abou El Fadle
A home for new scholarship on women’s Islamic-juristic authority from the prophet’s era until today
Many influential women (ʿalimāt, muftiyāt, qadiyāt, mujtahidāt) in Islam’s past and present exercise(d) juristic authority, by issuing fatwas, informing Islamic legal court judgments, writing judicial treatises, and contributing to highly expert juristic scholarship. Women Interpreting Islamic Law features the best of new scholarship on women who built their religious authority  through writing, interpreting or commenting on Islamic legal and juristic texts.
Find out more about Women Interpreting Islamic Law ( https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fddlnk.net%2Fc%2FAQjSfRCVwqMHGPmorJQFIITb7qkBKKiRjEHR6gTZP2H0nzB4RMojfHdR1uOcCZyZuZaUoFO-8IzTjw&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cf931a6838e014c82a83e08de28d442b8%7C2e9f06b016694589878910a06934dc61%7C0%7C0%7C638993089276238269%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=oTpkJ1ZuRh8oOquOCkWupKOS7B6stcbuZmhGVGM4%2FEg%3D&reserved=0 )

 

 

 

 

 

12. Homeira Qaderi webinar with “Universal Language” screenwriters

12/1 12pm Eastern

The last Yale Iran Colloquium Persian-language webinar of 2025 will be a conversation between our wonderful writer in residence Homeira Qaderi and three of the main participants in the writing of Matthew Rankin’s 2024 film Universal Language/Avaz-e buqalamun. I think most of this list would enjoy the film, set in a version of Winnipeg where everyone speaks Persian and the atmosphere is thick with Iranian New Wave allusions.

Rankin’s co-screenwriters Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati (who also co-stars with Rankin) and script consultant Armin Firouzabadi deserve much of the credit for its intensely specific Persian-Canadian fantasia. (They’re each also brilliant artists: Ila sculpts, Pirouz directs, Armin just came out with a lovely album.) And who better than Qaderi, a major Afghan novelist, to discuss diasporic Persian poetics with Nemati and the siblings Firouzabadi?

The session will be on Monday Dec. 1 at noon Eastern US time, and will be conducted in Persian. If you’re interested, sign up for the webinar here. If you’re near New Haven, we have a screening of the film that same Thursday Dec. 4 at 7pm (full details here), and otherwise, at least in the US, the film can also be rented online.

 

 

 

13.  CUP: 40% off the latest Middle East studies titles for MESA2025

https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/conferences/middle-east-studies-association-annual-meeting?j=8788768&sfmc_sub=1015515047&l=848264_HTML&u=235374938&mid=1423905&jb=0&utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Middle+East+Studies+Association+Annual+Meeting&utm_campaign=AFL_IOC_EX105947_BK%3bJL%3b_AREA%3bMESA2025&WT.mc_id=AFL_IOC_EX105947_BK%3bJL%3b_AREA%3bMESA2025

 

 

 

 

 

14. ONLINE Seminar “How Mediterranean French Became a Language of Contact between East and West”, German Historical Institutes in Paris and Rome, 25 November 2025, 17:00 – 18:00 CET

In the second half of the thirteenth century a linguistic shift started to unfold where vernacular languages began to flourish. The seminar will discuss how Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean became a site of intellectual, spiritual and linguistic contact, and what theoretical models were set in place to make this contact possible.

Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/3tryebpw

 

 

 

 

 

15. HYBRID Book Launch: “Islamic Law in Saudi Arabia” by Dominik Krell, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, 1 December 2025, 12:30 – 14:00 CET

The book offers an in-depth exploration of the Saudi judiciary in the twenty-first century. Drawing on Saudi legal literature and court judgments, as well as interviews with leading members of the judiciary, the book addresses two central questions: first, what is the Saudi jurists’ understanding of an Islamic judiciary? And second, how is this understanding reflected in the Saudi legal system, its laws, institutions, and court practices?

Information and registration:

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/event/book-launch-islamic-law-saudi-arabia-dominik-krell

 

 

 

 

 

16. ONLINE Panel Session “Totally Glocally: Defending Academic Freedom – Developments and Challenges in the US and EU”, Forum for International Cultural Relations, Stuttgart, 3 December 2025, 18:00 – 19:15 CET

What risks arise for democratic societies when academic freedom is restricted and liberal scientific trends at universities are repressed? How can universities and research institutions become more resilient in order to secure their independence from funding bodies, whether state or private sector? How might illiberal practices affecting higher education institutions and academics themselves be described in more detail?

Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/27eh98c8

 

 

 

 

 

17. ONLINE Book Talk “Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil” by Dr. Safaruk Chowdhury, American University in Cairo Press, 9 December 2025, 18:00 CET

This book explores four different problems of evil: human disability, animal suffering, evolutionary natural selection, and Hell. Each study argues in favor of a particular kind of explanation or justification (theodicy) for the respective evil. Safaruk Chowdhury unpacks the notion of evil and its conceptualization within the mainstream Sunni theological tradition, and the various ways in which theologians and philosophers within that tradition have advanced different types of theodicies.

Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/mzf2uxaf

 

 

 

 

 

18. Workshop “From Manga to Manifesto: Youth Culture, Protest, and the Global Circulations of ONE PIECE”, University of Hamburg, 26-27 March 2026

We invite contributions that investigate the transnational lives of symbols, the appropriation of Japanese visual culture in African and Middle Eastern contexts, and the ways in which global media imaginaries shape local expressions of political agency. How does ONE PIECE’s narrative of freedom, friendship, and resistance against corrupt authority resonate with the lived experiences of young activists in postcolonial societies?

Deadline for abstracts: 1 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ynm6zjwf

 

 

 

 

 

19. Two Postdoctoral Researcher Positions in South Asian Studies and Conflict Studies (Focus on the MENA Region), Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul

Qualifications: PhD degree completed within the last five years. – For South Asian Studies: proficiency in English and at least one regional language. – For Conflict Studies: proficiency in both Arabic and English. Completed an MA or PhD degree in conflict studies (or in related discipline with a thesis on conflicts in the MENA region), have knowledge of conflicts, preferably in the MENA region.

Deadline for applications: 5 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y45mvmfu

 

 

 

 

 

20. Postdoctoral Fellowship (Academic Year 2026-27) in Turkish Studies, Columbia University, New York City

The fellowship competition is open to candidates who have received their Ph.D. degree in the humanities or social sciences after 1 May 2023, and have written a dissertation on a topic related to Turkish Studies.

Deadline for applications: 15 December 2025. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/176852

 

 

 

 

 

21. Call for Articles for “Maydan: Journal of Arab, Semitic and Islamic Worlds”

The journal is aimed at PhD candidates, recent graduates, and Master’s students. It revolves around a broad conception of the Arab, Semitic and Islamic worlds, whi includes the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa), the Sahel, the Caucasus, as well as Central and South-East Asia. Maydan also welcomes submissions regarding the connections between these geographical areas and Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world. In the same vein, it appreciates contributions exploring the presence and the experiences of Arab, Semitic and Islamic worlds outside regions traditionally seen as “Arab” or “Islamic”, whi highlight the differences within these worlds. With this view, Maydan welcomes contributions focused on the connections between these areas and other communities and political, economic, social, and cultural dynamics affecting our globalized world.

Deadline for abstracts: 17 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/u7dsmv3y

 

1. Dr. Christine Kämpfer – Rewriting Romance: Khvājū Kirmānī’s Humāy-u Humāyūn as a Post-Mongol Epic [Nov. 22]

Please join us for a zoom lecture as part of UBC’s Alireza Ahmadian Lecture Series on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 11am PST (2pm EST; 8pm CET) for a lecture by Dr. Christine Kämpfer (University of Bamberg) on “Rewriting Romance: Khvājū Kirmānī’s Humāy-u Humāyūn as a Post-Mongol Epic.”

Humāy u Humāyūn recounts the love story of the Syrian prince Humāy, who falls for the Chinese princess Humāyūn and embarks on an adventurous quest to find her. The epic was composed in 1331 by Khvājū Kirmānī at the court of the last Ilkhanid ruler in Baghdad. With this work, Khvājū continues the Persian romance tradition established by his predecessors Gurgānī and Niẓāmī, yet he faced the challenge of renewing the genre for an audience increasingly attuned to Sufi thought. This talk explores how Khvājū both preserves and transforms the literary heritage, transmitting tradition while simultaneously innovating it.

Christine Kämpfer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Iranian Studies at the University of Bamberg (Germany), where she earned her PhD in 2022. Her research focuses primarily on premodern Persian epic poetry and questions of literary transmission. She also works on German travel writing about Qajar Persia and has published in both areas.

Register for the event here: https://ubc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sikjW4EBS-S1w963zpJi_Q#/registration

 

 

 

 

 

2. Online: CLAMS presents THE BACTRIANS, THE KHARAJITS AND THE BARMAKIDS, Friday November 21st at 12 noon EST

https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/U899ul4hTMWjtxEqAzXH_Q

 

3. 3 December 1:00 PM EST AMECYS Childhood, Lit & Memory Across MENA Roundtable

The roundtable focuses on the works of scholars writing for children and young adults, particularly those aged 8-12. It will explore how childhood memories and experiences are evoked, narrated, and imagined through children’s literature. The discussion will reveal the power of this literature to shape histories, identities, and collective memory. The discussion will engage with the intersections of narrative, art, translation, and memory to reconsider representations of childhood, opening new pathways for understanding history, loss, and imagination. It features works by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay (Golden Threads) and Sabiha Al Khemir (Fables Across Time: Kalila and Dimna), and will be moderated by Yael Warshel.

Event Details:

• Date:Wednesday, December 3
• Time:11:00 am MST | 12:00 pm CST | 1:00 pm EST
• Location: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/7613654977
• RSVP to: amecystudies@gmail.com

 To inclusively engage our community in programming, AMECYS will open Zoom tools for translation and transcription to assist those whose abilities are stronger in languages other than spoken English. Additionally, and as feasible, our board members may be available to offer informal simultaneous spoken translation between English and Arabic, French, Turkish, and Hebrew. If you believe you will require the latter form of translation assistance, kindly let us know ahead of time. When you RSVP, simply specify for which language and whether you will require it throughout the roundtable or solely during the Q and A.

Please reach out to the AMECYS’ Program Committee at amecystudies@gmail.com if you have any questions, ideas for talks, and/or recent work you would like to present.

 

1. Séminaire L’Asie centrale dans tous ses états, lundi 17 novembre, 14 h 30, EHESS – Aubervilliers

La prochaine séance du séminaire “L’Asie centrale dans tous ses Etats : questions et méthodes” aura lieu lundi 17 novembre, à l’EHESS – Condorcet, salle A515, de 14 h 30 à 16 h 30.

Nous accueillerons Maria Szuppe (CNRS, CeRMI) pour une intervention intitulée : “Une madrasa princière disparue (1799-1800) : topographie historique et étude de documents au service de l’histoire culturelle de Khiva sous les Qungrats”

Si vous n’êtes pas encore inscrit-e et souhaitez y assister ou recevoir le lien de visioconférence, nous vous remercions de bien vouloir vous inscrire au plus tard 48h avant sur https://participations.ehess.fr

 

 

 

 

 

2. Post-Doctoral Fellowship – La3M-Aix-Marseille University, France

A new Research Program titled The Indo-Persian Continuum, c. 11th-17th Centuries, directed by Professor Alka Patel and housed at La3M (within Aix-Marseille University’s [AMU] archaeology institute, ARKAIA, MMSH), offers one 3-year (36-month) Junior Postdoctoral Fellowship beginning 1 July 2026. Applications are invited from junior scholars with PhDs conferred within the last three years (i.e. not before June 2023); current doctorands must have PhD in hand by June 2026. Preference will be given to projects on the “Sultanate” period (circa 12th c.-16th c.).

The Program includes two field trips (required), one to India and another to Central Asia. The successful applicant will be a full-time postdoctoral scholar (salaried with health benefits), expected to submit a book manuscript to a reputed academic press, and complete at least one journal article by 30 June 2029. Final works should be composed in English or French. No citizenship restrictions.
Direct queries to alka.patel@univ-amu.fr
Located in the region of Provence, southern France, AMU consists of 114 research units in all disciplines and is among the foremost European universities responding to current global challenges with new research programs. Prominent Humanities alumni hold positions throughout Europe (e.g. Sorbonne Université; Musée du Louvre; Università Napoli – L’Orientale), the US (e.g. UCLA; National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian), and elsewhere. La3M and AMU maintain MOUs with museums, universities, and institutes across Europe and Asia. The Aix-Marseille area offers specialized University libraries, additional resources such as the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, and is nationally and internationally well connected by TGV and air.
To apply, send the following to indopersian.la3m@gmail.com:
1) a three-page Letter of Interest detailing professional history, relevant experience and publication plans;
2) complete CV;
3) entire dissertation if available, if not then dissertation chapter;
4) official graduate transcripts and PhD diploma (if available);
5) book project title and chapter outline (4000-5000 words);
6) supporting materials such as publications;
7) and the names and contact details of three recommenders.
Application deadline is 10 January 2026; finalist interviews in early February, offers by end February 2026.

Contact Email

alka.patel@univ-amu.fr

 

 

 

 

 

3. Approaches to Christian-Muslim Encounter in the Modern Era Seminar Series
We are pleased to announce the programme for this year’s Theology & Society in Christianity and Islam Seminar series at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. This year’s series will focus on Approaches to Christian-Muslim Encounter in the Modern Era. Beginning on 20 November, lectures will take place on Thursdays at 4pm in Lecture Room 1 of the AMES Faculty building (1 Pusey Ln, OX1 2LE). They will also be streamed online via MS Teams. For more information, and to register your interest, please use this link:

https://forms.office.com/e/Y72qDJjK3b.

The first lecture, on Thursday 20 November, will be given by Msgr. Michael Nazir-Ali, who will be speaking on ‘Mission Seeking Understanding: The Work of W.H.T. Gairdner and Constance Padwick on Islam, Muslim Devotion and Mysticism’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Al-Mahdi Institute invites paper submissions for its upcoming international conference, “Ways of Knowing in Sufism: Epistemology, Authority, and Contemporary Implications” (1–2 June 2026). This conference seeks to explore the epistemological dimensions of Sufism and how knowledge is understood, experienced, and validated through unveiling (kashf), inspiration (ilhām), tasting (dhawq), and dreams. Scholars are invited to examine how these experiential forms of knowing have shaped theology, law, and mysticism in Islam, as well as their modern implications for religious authority, psychology, gender, and reform. Selected papers will be published in an edited volume with Brill. Abstracts (max. 400 words) are due by 6th February 2026.

Full details: https://almahdi.edu/ims-cfp/ 

 

 

 

 

 

5. SOAS Events:

Ancientness, Myth, and Sonic Imagination: Making Persian Music Legible in Israel

5.30pm, Tuesday 25 November 2025
Speaker: Edoardo Marcarini (SOAS)

Registration

 

Research Seminar in Islamic Art (ReSIA) 

The Subversive Feminine: Contemporary Iranian Women Artists Challenging Gender Paradigms

6.00pm, Thursday 04 December 2025

Speaker: Katayoun Shahandeh (SOAS)

Registration

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Announces 2025 Awards and Prizes

The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) will present its annual award for Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, along with ten book prizes, a graduate student essay prize, an article prize, and an award for distinguished service in library and information resources on Saturday, November 22, 2025, during its 57th Annual Convention at the Washington Hilton, Washington, DC.

Established in 1948, ASEEES is the leading international scholarly society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about Eastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

The Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Award honors eminent scholars who have made major contributions to the field through scholarship, service, and mentoring. The 2025 award will be presented to Dr. Edith W. Clowes, Brown-Forman Chair Emerita in the Humanities in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures (University of Virginia) A complete citation is available here.

The following scholars will also be recognized for their contributions to the field:

The Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize for the most important contribution to Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies will be presented to two Winners: Benjamin Nathans (University of Pennsylvania)  To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement (Princeton University Press) - read the citation here; and Masha Salazkina (Concordia University)  Romancing Yesenia: How a Mexican Melodrama Shaped Global Popular Culture (University of California Press) – read the citation here.

An honorable mention will be given to Agnieszka Pasieka (University of Montreal)

Living Right: Far-Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe (Princeton University Press)

Read the citation here.

The USC Book Prize in Literary and Cultural Studies for outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia in the fields of literary and cultural studies will be awarded to Samuel Hodgkin (Yale University) Persianate Verse and the Poetics of Eastern Internationalism (Cambridge University Press) Read the citation here.

Honorable mention will also be awarded to: Xiaolu Ma (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) Transpatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia via Japan (1880–1930) (Harvard University Asia Center) - read the citations here.

The Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History will be awarded to two winners: Winner: Simon Morrison (Princeton University)  Tchaikovsky’s Empire: A New Life of Russia’s Greatest Composer (Yale University Press) - read the citation here;  and Benjamin Nathans (University of Pennsylvania)  To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement (Princeton University Press) - read the citation here.

An honorable mention will be awarded to Jeffrey S. Hardy (Brigham Young University)

Finding God in the Gulag: A History of Christianity in the Soviet Penal System (Oxford University Press) - read the citations here.

The Davis Center Book Prize in Political and Social Studies is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eurasia, or Eastern Europe in anthropology, political science, sociology, or geography in the previous calendar year. This year’s prize will be awarded to Henry Thomson (Arizona State University) Watching the Watchers: Communist Elites, the Secret Police and Social Order in Cold War Europe (Cambridge University Press). Read the citation here.

An honorable mention will also be awarded: Michele Rivkin-Fish (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Unmaking Russia’s Abortion Culture: Family Planning and the Struggle for a Liberal Biopolitics (Vanderbilt University Press) Read the citations here.

The Marshall Shulman Book Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph dealing with the international relations, foreign policy, or foreign-policy decision-making of any of the states of the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe. This year’s prize will go to: Samuel J. Hirst (Bilkent University) Against the Liberal Order: The Soviet Union, Turkey, and Statist Internationalism, 1919-1939 (Oxford University Press) - read the citation here.

Two honorable mentions will also be awarded to: Maria Cristina Galmarini (College of William & Mary) Ambassadors of Social Progress: A History of International Blind Activism in the Cold War (Northern Illinois University Press); and Radoslav Yordanov (Harvard University) Our Comrades in Havana: Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe, 1959–1991 (Stanford University Press). Read the citations here.

The Ed A Hewett Book Prize is awarded for an outstanding monograph on the political economy of Russia, Eurasia and/or Eastern Europe. This year’s winner is Anne O’Donnell (New York University) Power and Possession in the Russian Revolution (Princeton University Press). Read the citation here.

An honorable mention will also be awarded to Nataliya Kibita (University of Oxford)

The Institutional Foundations of Ukrainian Democracy: Power Sharing, Regionalism, and Authoritarianism (Oxford University Press). Read the citation here.

The Barbara Jelavich Book Prize for a distinguished monograph published on any aspect of Southeast European or Habsburg studies since 1600, or 19th- and 20th-century Ottoman or Russian diplomatic history will be awarded to two winners: Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky (University of California, Santa Barbara) Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State (Stanford University Press); and Katya Motyl (Temple University) Embodied Histories: New Womanhood in Vienna, 1894-1934 (University of Chicago Press). Read the citations here.

The Kulczycki Book Prize for Polish Studies will be awarded to Karen Underhill (University of Illinois Chicago) Bruno Schulz and Galician Jewish Modernity (Indiana University Press). Read the citation here.

An honorable mention is being awarded to Agnieszka Pasieka (University of Montreal)

Living Right: Far-Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe (Princeton University Press). Read the citation here.

The W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize, which is awarded for an author’s first published monograph or scholarly synthesis that is of exceptional merit and lasting significance for the understanding of Russia’s past, will be awarded to two winners: Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky (University of California, Santa Barbara) Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State (Stanford University Press); and Polly Zavadivker (University of Delaware) A Nation of Refugees: Russia’s Jews in World War I (Oxford University Press). Read the citations here.

The honorable mention goes to: Masha Kirasirova (New York University Abu Dhabi)

The Eastern International: Arabs, Central Asians, and Jews in the Soviet Union’s Anticolonial Empire (Oxford University Press). Read the citations here.

The Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize in Ukrainian Studies will be awarded to Waitman Wade Beorn (Northumbria University) Between the Wires: The Janowska Camp and the Holocaust in Lviv (University of Nebraska Press).  Read the citation here.

An honorable mention will be awarded to Eugene Finkel (Johns Hopkins University)

Intent to Destroy: Russia’s Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine (Basic Books).

Read the citation here.

The Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia Article Prize, established in 2024, is awarded annually for an outstanding research article in the social sciences by a junior scholar published in a peer-reviewed journal. The winner is Jessie Barton Hronešová (University College London), “The uses of victimhood as a hegemonic meta-narrative in eastern Europe,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 32,2 (2024): 442-458.

Read the citation here.

An honorable mention will also be awarded to Monika Rice (Lafayette College), “Dr. Arnold Mostowicz: ‘Not alone in space.’ Moral Injury and the Quest for extraterrestrial Redemption,” Jewish Culture and History 25,4 (2024): 601-631. Read the citations here. 

The Beth Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize will be awarded to Emma Larson (Princeton University), “Day of Abolition of Kalym in the Kazakh ASSR, 1924-1932″ Read the citations here.

The CLIR Distinguished Service Award honors ASEEES member librarians, archivists, or curators whose contributions to the field of Slavic, East European and Eurasian studies librarianship have been especially noteworthy or influential. The 2025 award goes to Robert H. Davis (Columbia University/Cornell University). Read the full citation here.

For additional information about ASEEES, the awards presentation, full text of the citations for the awards, or contact information for prize winners or publishers, please contact: Margaret Manges, Convention Manager, email: aseees-prizes@pitt.edu or visit: https://aseees.org/aseees-prizes/

 

 

 

 

 

7. CfP: The Ottoman Balkans as a Space for Multilingualism: Actors, Practices, and Sites of Translation

Bosnia & Herzegovina

From 4-6 June 2026, the international workshop “The Ottoman Balkans as a Space for Multilingualism: Actors, Practices, and Sites of Translation” will take place at the Gazi Husrev-beg Library in Sarajevo. Organised jointly by the University of Münster (Philip Bockholt, TRANSLAPT) and the University of Sarajevo (Munir Drkić), the event aims to address the Ottoman Balkans as a dynamic space for translation and cross-linguistic exchange between Arabic, Persian, (Ottoman) Turkish, and other regional languages between the 15th and 19th centuries. Please note that the event will be conducted solely in English. The deadline for the call for papers is 10 December 2025.

Contact Information

Prof. Dr. Philip Bockholt (University of Münster)

Prof. Dr. Munir Drkić (University of Sarajevo)

Contact Email

translapt@uni-muenster.de

URL

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

 

 

 

 

 

8. Entangled Histories: Borders and Cultural Encounters from the Medieval to the Contemporary Era Seminar Series

A Captivating Seminar Series Exploring the Many Faces of Borders and the Power of Cultural Exchange

We are thrilled to invite you to the launch of Entangled Histories, a dynamic interdisciplinary seminar series that delves deep into the rich and complex intersections of borders, mobility, and cultural encounters across history — from the medieval period right up to our contemporary world.

When: Starting Wednesday, November 26, 2025, and continuing every Wednesday at 5 PM (CET)
Where: Online via Zoom — Join us live or access anytime by scanning the QR code on the poster!
Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/aumv88jz
(The poster attached includes a convenient QR code for quick access)

Organized by Dr. Ester Cristaldi (Üsküdar University) and Dr. Elisa Ramazzina (University of Insubria), this series gathers scholars, students, and curious minds from diverse fields to explore how histories, peoples, and ideas have continuously intertwined — crossing and reshaping boundaries in surprising ways.

What You’ll Discover:

• Physical and Geographical Borders: Natural and artificial boundaries such as rivers, seas, mountains, and man-made frontiers shaping human experience.
• Political and Administrative Borders: Historical, geopolitical, administrative, and cadastral lines that define states, regions, and governance.
• Cultural, Social, and Symbolic Borders: Ethnic, religious, social, and spiritual boundaries that influence identity and community.
• Temporal and Epistemological Borders: Linguistic, scientific, textual, and knowledge-based divides that evolve over time.
• Structural and Functional Characteristics: Porous, permeable, impermeable, fluid, mutable, real, imaginary, symbolic, commercial, and economic borders that affect movement and interaction.

Under the patronage of Üsküdar University and the Master’s Program in Media and Cultural Studies, this seminar series aims to spark meaningful dialogue about shared pasts, global connections, and the transformative power of cultural encounters.

Provisional Programme — First Part of the Series

Join leading scholars as they present cutting-edge research and fresh perspectives on borders and cultural encounters:

26th November – Marjan Shokouhi Tajadini Sarvestani (University of Granada): Bordered Voices: Kavanagh, MacNeice, and the Poetics of Belonging in Ireland

3rd December – Ester Cristaldi (Üsküdar University): Perceiving the Divine from the Margins: Sensory Experience, Linguistic and Theological Boundaries in Byzantine and Islamic Medieval Riddles

10th December – Angela Puca (Leeds Trinity University): Borders of Healing: Transmission, Secrecy, and Syncretism in Italian Shamanism

17th December – Andrii Kepsha (University of Hradec Kralové): Nature and Boundaries: Water, Space, and the Sensory Experience of the Rus’-Steppe Frontier (1050s–1100s)

Christmas/New Year Break

14th January – Rafael Pascual (University of Granada): Crossing Epistemological Borders: New Ways of Studying Alliteration in Old English Verse

21st January – Sophie Wei Ling-chu (The Chinese University of Hong Kong): Title to be announced

28th January – Jasmine Bria (University of Bari Aldo Moro): Borderlands and Cultural Identities in Arthurian Narratives

4th February – Naoko Kato (Independent Scholar): Languages in Exile: The Lost Japanese Archives of War and Return

11th February – Dario Capelli (University of Urbino Carlo Bo): Echoes of the Struggles against the Beguines in a Poem by Thomas Hoccleve

Date TBC – Elisa Ramazzina (University of Insubria): Negotiating Borders through Margins, Maps, and Mythical Creatures in the “Wonders of the East”

This is only the first part of the series — stay tuned for more inspiring talks by distinguished scholars in the upcoming sessions!

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to embark on a fascinating journey through the entangled histories that continue to shape our world today. Whether you are a scholar, student, or passionate learner, your presence and participation will enrich the conversation.

Mark your calendar, spread the word, and join us every Wednesday at 5 PM CET!

For questions or more information, please contact Dr. Ester Cristaldi or Dr. Elisa Ramazzina.

URL

https://tinyurl.com/aumv88jz

 

 

 

 

9. Foroutan, Yaghoob, (2025), ‘Social Demography of Contemporary Iran’, 1st Edition, Babolsar, Iran: University of Mazandaran Press (in English Language).

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

FOREWORD

Chapter 1: Demographic Swings in 65 Years from Social Approach

Chapter 2: Population Dynamics and Cultural Changes

Chapter 3: Gender Socialization and Educational Institution: Demographic Emphasis

Chapter 4: Gender Identity and Language Diversity: Socio-Demographic Perspectives

Chapter 5: Religious Socialization: Demographic Emphasis

Chapter 6: Religious Authorities and Representation of Dress Codes

Chapter 7: Social Attitudes towards Dress Codes: Demographic Determinants

REFERENCES

More information will be available soon on its link (in Persian/Farsi Language): https://press.umz.ac.ir/

 

 

 

 

 

10. HYBRIDE Colloque international : “Patrimoine matériel (archéologique et manuscrit) et immatériel en Libye et dans les pays voisins : situations contemporaines et perspectives”, IRMC, Tunis, 17-19 novembre 2025

Information et programme : https://tinyurl.com/24mzc6af

 

 

 

 

 

11. HYBRIDE Table-ronde sur la publication “La croisade. Une histoire partagée” avec le autour Abbès Zouache (IFAO), IISMM, Paris, 18 novembre 2025, 11:00 – 12:30 CET

Information et inscription: https://iismm.ehess.fr/evenement/table-ronde-avec-abbes-zouache

 

 

 

 

 

12. ONLINE Webinar of Empowering Muslim Women in Scientific Research: “Islamic Feminism: Hermeneutics and Activism” by Dr Mulki al-Sharmani (University of Helsinki), University of Manchester & University of Sharjah, 26 November 2025, 14:00 – 15:30 CET

Dr Mulki Al-Sharmani will explore what Islamic feminism contributes both as an academic field within Islamic studies and as a form of knowledge-based gender activism. She will also discuss the key critiques of Islamic feminism and what they can teach us about the Movement’s potential and limitations.

Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/dakukj6a

 

 

 

 

 

13. Assistant Professor in Political Science with Emphasis on the Middle East, American University in Cairo

We are inviting applications from individuals who demonstrate excellence in teaching and have an active research agenda. Candidates with experience in and familiarity with the North American higher educational system are preferred.

Deadline for applications: 20 November 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y9hxuerb

 

 

 

 

 

14. Lecturer (Tenure-track) in Jewish History of Islamic Lands, Ariel University

Applicants should have a Ph.D. degree and international post-doctoral training. Mastery of the theory and metho-dology of current historical research and languages relevant to the fields is required, including proficiency in Arabic and/or Turkish and competence in European languages.

Deadline for applications: 10 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/wp8e6v9

 

 

 

 

 

15. Lecturer in Arabic Language and Literature, University of Cape Town

This is a permanent position after probation. Requisites include a Ph.D. in Arabic language and literature or a related field; strong command of Modern Standard Arabic; experience in teaching MSA; and evidence of active research.

Deadline for applications: 1 December 2025.

Information: https://jobs.uct.ac.za/job/Cape-Town-Lecturer/1266091101/

1.The Well-Tempered Reader, The Legitimization of Adab in the Arabic Literary Tradition

S Tyeer

UC Press, 2025

https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-well-tempered-reader/paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. ‘Love, Desire, and Death: Charms from Islamicate Southeast Asia’

Teren Sevea and Faizah Zakaria
Thursday, November 13, at 6:30 PM
The Institute of Fine Arts
1 East 78th Street, New York, NY 10075
and Online

In-Person and Virtual Lecture
Advance registration is required

To register to join us in person or online, please use the link at:

https://ifa.nyu.edu/events/southeast-asia.html
This event, part of the series, South-East Asian Connections: Art, History and Archipelagos, is supported by the Institute’s Gulnar Bosch Fund.
Pondering on themes of love, desire, birth, and death, Faizah Zakaria and Teren Sevea explore a selection of Islamicate materials from Southeast Asian settlements, themselves fertile sites of the intersections of ‘globalized’ and ‘localized’ Islam. Drawing on their research into everyday religious practices, Zakaria and Sevea discuss how these performances negotiate boundaries between multiple religious traditions and shape Islamicate identities in ordinary spaces related to production and reproduction. Their discussion extends to Malay manuscript traditions from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, introducing charms and manuals that systematized knowledge about how bodies were marked in nature, offering signs and resources for human socio-sexual welfare while highlighting communities devoted to bodily pleasures, engagement, and discipline. The presentations consider how such Islamicate materials provide insight into communities conscious of their esoteric practices, communal boundaries, complex religio-sexual rituals and seemingly rigid gendered identities.

 

 

 

 

3. CFP – Stucco in the Borderlands: Crossroads of Art and Architecture in Eastern Türkiye and Northwest Iran

An International Conference on Islamic Art, Architecture, History, and Archaeology
Keynote Lecture by Professor Robert Hillenbrand

Submission Guidelines
All papers will be presented in either English or Turkish
Please submit an abstract of 250 words, along with a short CV to:
richard.mcclary@york.ac.uk
Deadline for submissions: 30 November 2025
Notification of acceptance: 31 December 2025
Selected papers will be considered for publication in English in an edited volume following the conference. We kindly ask authors to indicate whether the material has been previously published or presented elsewhere, and, if not, to confirm their interest in contributing to the planned publication.
Date: 30–31 March 2026
Venue: Van Museum, Van, Türkiye

From monumental mosque mihrabs and palace walls to domestic interiors and funerary structures, stucco has long served as both surface and structure, decoration and discourse. It offers rich insights into patterns of cultural exchange, technological innovation, and regional identity across the medieval Islamic world.
While stucco has been the subject of considerable research over the last century, many aspects of its regional expression, technical execution, and artistic transmission remain underexplored. This international conference seeks to bring together scholars and specialists in art history, archaeology, architectural conservation, and material studies to examine the forms, functions, and meanings of stucco across time and space.
With a special focus on the frontier regions of eastern Anatolia and northwest Iran, the conference aims to highlight how these areas operated as interconnected cultural zones, transcending modern political boundaries.
Stucco fragments from the ruined congregational mosque of Van, preserved today in the Van Museum, demonstrate both the high level of local craftsmanship and shared visual vocabularies with contemporaneous Iranian sites. In northwest Iran, numerous examples of stucco work survive in situ or through archaeological documentation, from elaborately decorated mihrabs to funerary structures. Together, these materials reveal a dynamic interplay of continuity and innovation during the medieval time.

Key Topics
We invite papers addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
Techniques and technologies of stucco production
Decorative programmes and iconographic themes
Epigraphy and textual elements in stucco
Regional styles and transregional influences
Conservation challenges and museum practices

New archaeological discoveries and documentation

Contact Email

richard.mcclary@york.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. We’re pleased to announce the International Intensive Academic Course on Interreligious Dialogue, hosted by Hikmat International Institute.

This unique program brings together distinguished scholars and faith leaders from around the world to explore the foundations, challenges, and opportunities of dialogue between religions — in theory and in practice.

About the Course:

Format: Fully Online (Zoom)

Global Access: Open to participants worldwide

Limited Scholarships

Dates: January 5 – 23, 2026

Featuring: Distinguished professors from top universities

Explore full course details and submit your application (free):
https://hikmat-ins.com/interfaith-dialogue/

Spaces and scholarships are limited. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible to secure your place.

 

 

 

 

5. Keyan Emami, Music on the Borderland: Remembering and Chronicling the 1979 Revolution’s Shadow on Iranian Music

(Toronto: Asemana Books, 2024),

ISBN 9781738285556.

https://asemanabooks.ca/music-on-the-borderland/

 

 

 

6. Hybrid British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), AGM Lecture Webinar:

‘The Idea of Persia’

With Ramin Jahanbegloo

20 November, 2025, 6.45 pm UK Time

Location:

The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH & Online on Zoom

The event will take place in person at the British Academy, London, and online on Zoom. The event is free to attend, but booking is necessary. In person bookings are currently open to members only through this link.

1.Hybrid Lecture – Navina Najat Haidar, “Ornament and Light in Mughal Architecture” – 13 November

In person, or if you are not in London join us on Zoom (for a link, please contact Matty: mb@royalasiaticsociety.org)

Follow us on YouTube: SOAS ReSIA playlist
Navina Najat Haidar
Nasser Sabah al Ahmad al Sabah Curator in Charge of Islamic Art  at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ornament and Light in Mughal Architecture

Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/resia-presents-dr-navina-haidar-tickets-1828852309489?aff=oddtdtcreator
  

 

 

 

 

2. CFP – Arts and Crafts in the Late Ottoman Empire: Rethinking Practices and Concepts of Material Culture in Syria and Beyond (18th – early 20th c.) – May 22-23, 2026

Date: May 22-23, 2026

Venue: Lebanese American University (Beirut, Lebanon)

Convenors: May Farhat and Sarah Sabban

The conference Arts and Crafts in the Late Ottoman Empire aims to advance art historical and interdisciplinary research on practices and concepts of material culture in Ottoman lands between the 18th and the early 20th centuries. While inviting contributions on all geographies of the Empire, our call for papers foregrounds late Ottoman Syria as a case through which to expand the analytical and historical horizons of Islamic art and architecture studies and to contribute to broader debates in Ottoman and Arab historiographies of modernity. We encourage authors to consider the analytical frameworks—temporalities, epistemes, and materialities—that underpin the conference’s critical inquiry into the entangled modernities of Ottoman arts and crafts.

For the full call for papers, please visit this link.

We invite abstracts of up to 300 words, along with a short biography (max. 100 words), to be sent to MAIA.events@lau.edu.lb by January 15, 2026. Papers may be delivered in English or Arabic.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Nov 12 Talk on Classical Madrasa as a Liberal Arts Tradition

The next event in Zahra Institute’s online Fall Speaker Series, Wednesday, November 12.

“Forming the Mind: The Classical Madrasa as a Liberal Arts Tradition”

Date: Wednesday, November 12
Time: 12 PM Central / 1 PM Eastern

Speaker: Mahsuk Yamac, Dean of Graduate Studies, Zaytuna College

Register here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/jTAYbk7KRH-QPsIPDq_5aQ#

For details on this and other upcoming events,   visit our website: www.zahrainstitute.org.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Open Access: Article on Mamluk Maqamas on Black Death

Muhammed Omar, Nahyan Fancy

Special issue of the Journal of Arab and Islamic Studies on Environmental Challenges in Premodern Eurasian and Mediterranean Narratives.

The article can be accessed here: https://journals.uio.no/JAIS/article/view/12790

 

 

 

 

 

5. Call for Applications – “The Futures of Islamic Art: Remapping the Field” – Traveling seminar organized by Khamseen

Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online is pleased to announce its new project “The Futures of Islamic Art: Remapping the Field,” supported by a Connecting Art Histories grant by the Getty Foundation. Co-directed by Dr. Christiane Gruber and Dr. Mira Xenia Schwerda, the project will include three traveling seminars to Istanbul (2027), Kuwait (2028), and Kuala Lumpur (2029).

The project is situated within the context of growing and democratizing the field of Islamic art history, which includes an expansion of geographies, a stretching of chronological brackets, a diversification of artistic and creative expression, and an unrestricted experimentation with various theoretical approaches, intellectual models, and technological tools to disseminate knowledge in a free and open manner. It places the engagement with previously overlooked materials–such as women’s embroideries, amulets and gems of various tribes and nomadic groups, photographs, posters, and prints, and diminutive coins and other ephemera–at its center.

We invite applications from graduate students and early- to mid-career scholars of Islamic art—including curators, conservators, and practicing artists—to participate in all three seminars in Istanbul, Kuwait City, and Kuala Lumpur. We especially welcome applications from students and scholars based in the region. The project will cover travel costs, including airfare, ground transportation, and accommodation.

Interested candidates should send a letter of interest explaining why these traveling seminars are important for their intellectual development and how their own areas of expertise will contribute to the group effort as well as a CV and a writing sample (of up to 25 pages) to FuturesofIslamicArt@umich.edu no later than February 1, 2026. Applicants will be contacted by March 15, 2026.

Contact Email

FuturesofIslamicArt@umich.edu

 

 

 

 

 

6. CfS: 2026 British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World

In the 2026 British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World is now open for submissions. The submission deadline is 5pm GMT on Friday 30 January 2026. Full details about the submission process, including all rules and regulations, can be found here: https://www.brais.ac.uk/prize

This international prize is awarded annually to an outstanding doctoral thesis. English-language submissions on any aspect of the academic study of Islam and the Muslim world, past and present, including Muslim-minority societies are accepted.

The award includes a cash prize of £1000 which will be officially presented at the Annual Conference of BRAIS.

Should you have any queries, please email brais.prize@ed.ac.uk .

 

 

 

 

7. Book Talk: ‘Building Local Support: Architectural Patronage for Multiconfessional Communities in Ottoman Greece and Albania’

Emily Neumeier (Temple University)

Thursday, November 13, 2025
10:00–11:20 AM
110 Warren, Room 312, Rutgers University–Newark
In the early nineteenth century, some of the most consequential developments in Ottoman architecture unfolded not in Istanbul but on the empire’s frontier. This talk explores the ambitious building program of Ali Pasha of Ioannina (r. 1788–1822), the renegade governor of Greece and Albania whose architectural patronage ranged from mosques to dervish lodges and even Orthodox Christian monasteries. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival sources, we will explore how Ali Pasha’s constructions redefined the sociopolitical order by challenging imperial norms of patronage and consolidating regional authority. His unprecedented support for multiple faith traditions reveals how architecture became a powerful tool of negotiation in a diverse, contested landscape.

Contact Information

Alex Dika Seggerman

Contact Email

alex.seggerman@rutgers.edu

URL

https://sites.rutgers.edu/islam-humanities/event/book-talk-building-local-suppo…

 

 

 

 

 

8. CFP: International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA) Special Issue–“Reimagining Islamic Architecture in the 20th and 21st Centuries”

Thematic volume planned for July 2028)

Guest Editors: Emily Neumeier & Jennifer Pruitt

Proposal submission deadline: 15 December 2025

We invite submissions for this special issue of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture that investigates the modern reimagining of historical architecture from the Islamic world. Specifically, we are interested in the phenomenon of architects working in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries who refer to premodern Islamic monuments in their own practice. These ‘sites of citation’ can be understood to serve diverse functions and contexts, ranging from proclaiming connections to a perceived glorious imperial past, crafting new national identities through architectural revivals, recollecting a nostalgic homeland for diasporic communities, or even incorporating orientalist tropes to convey luxurious consumption or cosmopolitan sophistication.

Within the disciplines of Islamic art and architectural history, scholars have debated the logical terminus for the field’s timeline. Most of the major survey texts intended for undergraduate courses have ended around 1800, prior to the rise of European colonialism in the nineteenth century. This creates the distinct impression that the diverse regions of the Islamic world took up modernization efforts that were, at best, mimetic of western Europe, and therefore not worthy of investigation. As a corrective to these temporal restrictions and the resulting lacunae in the scholarship, a resounding call to extend the chronological framework of the field into the modern period has emerged in the past two decades (Flood 2007; Flood & Necipoğlu 2017).  Yet scholars are only beginning to investigate how the forms and narratives of precolonial Islamic art history inform postcolonial architectural practice. In this special issue, we seek to build on the work of historians such as Nasser Rabbat and Mercedes Volait, who have demonstrated the importance of investigating revival architecture beyond a western European context to the Islamic world.  We also take as a point of inspiration the scholarship of Kishwar Rizvi, whose examination of the transnational mosque open up discussion on a variety of state-sponsored religious constructions built in the postmodern and present neoliberal eras, all of which consciously adopt historicizing elements in their design.
We invite papers that will expand the investigation of Islamic architectures to include a diversity of architectural typologies. This special issue seeks case studies ranging from the late nineteenth century until the present, drawn from a wide geographical range inclusive of the Middle East, North and West Africa, the Americas, Europe, and South and Southeast Asia. We particularly welcome papers that address cross-cultural exchange and the transnational networks of architects, designers, and patrons. Case studies might address extant sites as well as ephemeral examples, like the pavilions from international expositions and theatre scenery. We envisage submissions that will investigate the reimagining of imperial Ottoman forms in twenty-first-century Turkey; the orientalizing anachronism of Shriner architecture in the United States; representations of Islamic spaces in theme parks and video games; or the adaptation of historical forms for restoration and cultural heritage projects in the Middle East. We are especially interested in examining how scholarly narratives of precolonial Islamic art history have shaped architectural projects, and thus also invite abstracts that explore how the built form references or translates the visual representations of historic monuments (i.e., etchings, photographs, ground plans, satellite views, 3D mapping) found in academic publications and mass media. In so doing, we seek to offer new insights that emerge specifically from the connection between modern and contemporary architecture and the historiography of Islamic art.

Additional questions may be addressed by contributors to this special issue:

• To what extent has the reinvention of historical Islamic architecture prompted a revival, reactivation, or appropriation of traditional craft practices and building technologies? Who are the agents, institutions, and sources key to this transmission of knowledge?
• Do modern and contemporary case studies reflect present-day conceptions about the ‘quintessential’ elements or forms of Islamic architecture? Is it possible to identify a canon of historical monuments?
• How might our understanding of a single site shift when taking into account both top-down perspectives (i.e., architects, designers, patrons and donors, cultural organizations, and government institutions) and the everyday experiences of users and visitors? How can these meanings persist or change over a long period of time, in the course of subsequent mediations or renovations during the life of a particular monument or site?
• Are specific practices of citation in architecture embedded within historical legacies, or an opportunity to think beyond colonialism, orientalism, and modernism? To what extent does architectural revival create a sense of anachronism, authenticity, and/or nostalgia for the past?
• What negotiations or translations can take place when forms that were originally developed for Islamic sacred spaces are reinterpreted for non-religious purposes? Can such reimagining of Islamic architecture open up possibilities to revisit deep-seated assumptions about the separation of the sacred and secular?
• In an age of consumption and neoliberalism, how do the demands for tourism, entertainment, and spectacle impact the designs of built environments that are marketed as looking to the historical architecture of the Islamic world?

Articles offering historical and theoretical analysis (DiT papers) should be between 6000 and 8000 words, and those on design and practice (DiP papers) between 3000 and 4000 words (notes are included in the word count). Practitioners are welcome to contribute insofar as they address the critical framework of the journal. Urbanists, art historians, anthropologists, geographers, political scientists, sociologists, and historians are also welcome. Please send a title and a 400-word abstract to the guest editors, Emily Neumeier (neumeier@temple.edu) and Jennifer Pruitt (jpruitt@wisc.edu), by 15 December 2025. Authors of accepted proposals will be contacted soon thereafter and will be requested to submit full papers by 1 July 2026. All papers will be subject to blind peer review and a rigorous editing process. For author instructions, please consult: www.intellectbooks.com/ijia

Contact Email

neumeier@temple.edu

URL

https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-islamic-architecture

 

 

 

 

 

9. New Program: Master of Professional Studies in Persian at UMD

Starting Fall 2026, the Capstone Year of the Persian Flagship Program will become the Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Persian. University of Maryland Persian Flagship Students complete this program toward their Flagship Certification. The Language Flagship Program is an initiative of the Defense Language and National Security Education Office, within the U.S. Department of Defense.

For more information:

https://sllc.umd.edu/special-programs/arabic-persian/persian-flagship/capstone

 

 

 

 

 

10. Modernists and Muslims: E. J. Pace and His Islam-Inspired Cartoons

STEVEN BEMBRIDGE
Journal of American Studies, Volume 58 / Issue 5, December 2024, pp 661 – 688
doi: 10.1017/S0021875824000641

 

 

 

 

 

11. South Asia, the British Empire, and the Rise of Classical Legal Thought: Toward a Historical Ontology of the Law

Faisal Chaudhry. 529 pp.

Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2024.

https://academic.oup.com/book/57374?login=true

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. Genealogical History in the Persianate World

Jo-Ann Gross (Anthology Editor) , Daniel Beben (Anthology Editor)

Bloomsbury, 2025

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/genealogical-history-in-the-persianate-world-9780755649808/

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. HYBRID Lecture “Digital Citizen Science and the Co-construction of Omani National and Cultural Identity: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis” by Dr. Najma Al Zidjaly (Sultan Qaboos University), Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 11 Novembre 2025, 17:00 – 19:00 CET

This presentation forms part of a larger longitudinal, ethnographic project spanning over two decades that examines the evolving relationship between human agency and emerging forms of creative media in the Arab world, with a particular focus on Oman. The study conceptualizes Omani social media users as active contributors to collective knowledge production and cultural meaning-making.

Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/cemweem9

 

 

 

 

 

14. Conference “Forms of (Un)Freedom: Emancipation and Post-Slavery in the Red Sea Region”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 13-14 November 2025

This conference aims to further consolidate the subfield of Red Sea slavery studies by expanding the scope of inquiry beyond the processes that enslaved people and held them in bondage. The conference will focus on what happens “afterwards” – i.e. when human bondage ends. In the Red Sea Region, abolition and emancipation have been incompletely implemented. This has had complex ramifications that continue to reverberate at the individual, communal, and societal level.

Information and programme: https://tinyurl.com/484zmjhd

 

 

 

 

 

15. Symposium “The Translation Movement Between East and West, with a Special Focus on the Late Translation Movement”, Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, London, 19-20 November 2024

During the medieval period, as a result of the famous Graeco-Arabic translation movement, Arabic emerged as a ‘lingua franca’ of scientific exchange. For most of the medieval and early modern periods, Latin was the ‘lingua franca’ of scientific exchange. Then, we started to see the reverse translation movement from different European languages into Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman.

Information and detailed programme: https://tinyurl.com/2m9kfmch

 

 

 

 

 

16. Five Residential Fellowships (12 Months) in Germany for Scholars at Risk at Universities in Dortmund and Essen, Academy in Exile

Eligible are scholars from any country who have a PhD in the humanities, social sciences, or law, and who are at risk because of their academic work and/or civic engagement in human rights, democracy, and the pursuit of academic freedom. “Academy in Exile” fellowships give scholars the opportunity to continue their careers in Germany and to work on a research project of their own choosing in a multidisciplinary environment.

Deadline for applications: 15 November 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y6anapuj

 

 

 

 

 

17. Assistant or Associate or Full Professor in Comparative Literature (Focus Arabic Literature), Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI), Qatar

Preference will be given to candidates with specializations in literary theory, approaches to World Literature and the new comparative literature, and with demonstrable expertise in Arabic literature and an Asian, African or Latin Ameri-can literature. The candidate must be able to teach in Arabic. High proficiency in English is required.

Deadline for applications: 15 January 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yc4udv3f

 

 

 

 

 

18. Omar Khayyam Postdoctoral Research Associate (1 Year) in Iranian Studies, Brown University

The position is open to candidates whose work explores topics related to modern or contemporary Iran, with a preference for work in the humanities or the humanistic social sciences (e.g., anthropology, sociology, history). We especially welcome candidates who thrive in an interdisciplinary environment and whose work is informed by comparative and global perspectives.

Deadline for applications: 6 December 2025. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/175851

 

 

 

 

 

19. University of Notre Dame Postdoctoral Fellowship (9 Months) in Byzantine Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana

This Fellowship is open to qualified applicants in all fields and sub-disciplines of Byzantine Studies, such as history (including its auxiliary disciplines), archaeology, art history, literature, theology, and liturgical studies, as well as the study of Byzantium’s interactions with neighboring cultures. The fellowship holder will pursue research in residence at the University of Notre Dame’s famed Medieval Institute during the academic year.

Deadline for applications: 1 February 2026. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/176059

 

 

 

 

 

20. Research Fellowships in Islamic Law and Civilization (2026-2027), Yale Law School

The fellowships are meant to a promising scholars time to make significant progress on their writing and research agenda in subjects related, however loosely, to Islamic law and civilization while contributing to the intellectual life of the Law School and Yale University more broadly.

Deadline for applications: 30 November 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4yzzh97y

 

1. In person: Durham University/ British Institute of Persian Studies Event:

2025 Ann Lambton Memorial Lecture
12 November 2024, 15.30 UK time

with Mr. Nicholas Hopton

 “A British Diplomatic Perspective on Iran’s Position & Policies in the Middle East Since 7 October 2023”

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 15:30 – 18:00 GMT

MHL452, Mill Hill Lane, Durham University

Durham DH1

Use this link for free registration:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2025-ann-lambton-memorial-lecture-nicholas-hopton-tickets-1852218087159?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

 

 

 

 

2. Assistant Professor or Higher (Tenure-track) in Ottoman History, American University in Bulgaria, Sofia

Candidates should be specializing in Southeast Europe, the Middle East, or the Eastern Mediterranean, with a preference for Ottoman studies or Ottoman history, religious studies, environmental history, institutional history, transnational history, or the history of science, broadly defined.

Deadline for applications: 21 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yc2z4ss2c

 

 

 

 

 

3. Research Fellowship of the Emirates Leadership Initiative 2026-2027, Havard Kennedy School

Deadline for applications: 1 December 2025.

Information: https://tinyurl.com/56km857n

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Columbia University’s Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowshipfor a one-year appointment running from September 1, 2026 to August 31, 2027.

The fellowship is open to scholars in the humanities and social sciences, focusing on any period within the field of Turkish Studies.The fellowship competition is open to candidates who have received their Ph.D. degree in the humanities or social sciences after May 2023 and have written a dissertation on a topic related to Turkish Studies. Fellows cannot hold another scholarship, visiting position, or employment during the term of the fellowship.

Deadline for applications: 15 December 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4z636mcf

 

 

 

 

5. Toronto Persian Book Fair 2025
1001 Books Fair and Cyrus Film Festival in collaboration with Global Link present:
The Toronto Persian Book Fair: The Toronto Persian Book Fair is a major cultural event celebrating Persian-language and diaspora publishing, with participation from several Canada- and Europe-based publishers. Alongside book exhibits, the fair offers a vibrant schedule of readings, workshops, and film-related sessions, making it a gathering place for writers, readers, cinema enthusiasts and creatives across generations. The diasporic and Persian publishers participating in the book fair include Asemana Books, Azadegan, Baran, Forough, Gardoon, Iran Namag, Kabul Books, Noghteh, Noogam, Saray-i Bamdad, Zagros, and others.
For the full schedule, please follow the fair’s official channels, including the 1001 Books Fair Instagram page and the participating publishers.
📍Venue: Global Link, Toronto
📅Dates: November 14–15, 2025

Program Highlights
Friday, November 14
6:00–7:00 PM — 🎭 Workshop: Commedia dell’Arte
Presenter: Dr. Duman Riyazi (دکتر دومان ریاضی)
A dynamic, hands-on introduction to the Italian theatrical tradition that influenced modern acting and improvisation.
7:00–8:00 PM — 📖 Book Launch: من و هشتاد سالگی (Me and My Eighties)
Author: Dr. Ezzat Mossallenezad (دکتر عزت مصلی‌نژاد) — Published by Zagros Press
Join us for an intimate discussion and book signing with the author, reflecting on life, memory, and resilience.
Saturday, November 15
10:30–11:30 AM — 🎥 Workshop: Frame and Frame
Presenter: SADAF
A visual storytelling session exploring rhythm, perspective, and narrative framing in film and photography.
12:00–1:15 PM — 📚 Book Launch: Colour and Mystery (رنگ و راز)
Author: Irene Monique Salehi (ایرن مونیک صالحی) — Published by Asemana Books
Launch of Colour and Mystery: A Life in Seven Panels — a biographical and artistic journey through colour and imagination.
1:30–2:30 PM — ✍️ Workshop: From Story to Screenplay (تبدیل داستان به فیلم‌نامه)
Presenter: Bita Malakouti (بی‌تا ملکوتی)
Learn how to translate fiction into cinematic language through structure, character, and visual storytelling.
3:00–4:15 PM — 📘 Book Launch: From Northwest (از شمال غرب)
Author: Amir Hossein Bakhtiari (امیر حسین بختیاری) — Published by Asemana Books
A presentation and discussion of short stories exploring identity, migration, and belonging.
4:30–5:30 PM — 💼 Workshop: Film Production and Financing
Presenter: Asa Kazerani

 

 

 

 

 

6. UCLA: Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World

The Bible in Its Ancient Iranian Context Conference Videos Available

https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/events/the-bible-in-its-ancient-iranian-context/

 

 

 

 

7. The members of ISHMap Prize Committee 2025 and Trustees for the International Society for the History of the Map (ISHMap) are pleased to announce the recipients of the Best Paper Awards for presentations delivered at the Society’s biennial Symposium, held in Paris, France, 9–11 July 2025.

The Best Paper Award for a participant with a terminal degree:

Zeinab Azarbadegan, “The Domain of Two Sovereigns: Ottoman Mapping of Iraq”

The Best Paper Award for a participant without a terminal degree:

Dominic Keyßner, “Cartographies of Anti-Imperialism? Mapping a (Post-)Colonial World in the Socialist East (1960s–1970s)”

An Honorable Mention for a poster delivered by a participant without a terminal degree:

Milena Natividade da Cruz, “Historical Cartography and Processes of Racialization: The Case of the Mural Maps by Longchamps and Janvier (1754)”

Congratulations to all award winners! The Committee thanks all participants for their great contributions and looks forward to hearing more from the awardees in upcoming ISHMap events.

Contact Information

Anne-Rieke van Schaik,
Chair of Awards Committee 2025
Trustee of ISHMap

Contact Email

ishmap.society@gmail.com

1.Warburg Institute Short Courses – Autumn 2025

THE WARBURG INSTITUTE
School of Advanced Study | University of London

The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. It is dedicated to the survival and transmission of culture across time and space, with special emphasis on the afterlife of antiquity.  Throughout the year we offer a wide range of Short Courses and Research Training in key areas of knowledge and skills. Courses are generally open to students at all levels, researchers, and the public. NB: some pre-requisites may apply.

Our short courses for the Autumn Term 2025 are currently open for booking:

Crossing the world without an interpreter: Arabic studies in England 1550-1640

3 – 7 November 2025, 11.00am – 1.00pm GMT | Warburg Institute

Examining the origins and manifestations of the great flourishing of interest in England in the study of Arabic from the mid-16th to mid-17th centuries.

Booking: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/events/arabic-studies-england-in-1550-1640-2025

The Representation of African People in Early Modern European Art & Culture

13 November – 11 December 2025, 2.00pm – 3.30pm GMT | Online via Zoom

An introduction to the representation of African people in the art and culture of early modern Europe. Drawing on the resources of the Image of the Black archive.

Booking: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/events/representation-of-african-people-2025

Black Atlas in the Warburg Archives

25 – 27 November 2025, 5.00pm – 7.00pm GMT | Warburg Institute

Examining resources for studying Africa and the Americas and their diasporas at the Warburg Institute, with focus on the Image of the Black archive and creative responses to controversial collections material and marginalised histories by artists associated with the Warburg.

Booking: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/events/black-atlas-warburg-archives

Visual History of European Alchemy

15 – 19 December 2025, 2.00pm – 4.00pm GMT | Online via Zoom

This course opens a window onto the development of European visual culture and the history of science by tracing the evolution of alchemy and its artefacts. Alongside historical developments, we will examine how alchemy shaped art, intellectual traditions, and symbolic thinking.

Booking: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/events/visual-history-of-european-alchemy-2025

 

 

 

 

2. Textile History Symposium at CUNY Graduate Center, NYC (9 am-5 pm, Nov. 13, 2025)

Textile as Object: Centering Cloth in Interdisciplinary Approaches to Textile History

This full day symposium showcases research that takes materially focused methodologies to textile history, investigating new approaches to explore what engagement with the material enables, and to demonstrate what the close looking of the textile historian can reveal. Studies include Byzantium, Asia and the Islamic World, and Spain; as well as the role of textiles in museums today. Livestreamed and in-person at CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. Registration and Event page: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/textile-object-centering-cloth-interdisciplinary-approaches-textile-history

Symposium co-organizers: Nazanin Hedayat Munroe, Amanda Phillips, Eiren Shea, Rachel Silberstein, and Elizabeth Dospěl Williams

Hosted by the CUNY Academy for Humanities and Sciences

Contact Email

NMunroe@CityTech.Cuny.Edu

URL

https://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/textile-object-centering-cloth-interdisciplinary…

 

 

 

 

3. Hybrid Seminar:

Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh,

Our next (IMES) Research Seminar will be held on Monday, 3 November at 5:15 in room LG.08, 40 George Square Lower.

Our speaker will be Prof Nacim Pak-Shiraz (IMES), University of Edinburgh, who will speak on

Staging Masculinity: Hegemony, and Patriarchy in 1990s Iranian Popular Cinema

This talk examines the varied constructions of masculinity through the lens of popular commercial cinema in the 1990s Iran. It focuses on two of the decade’s highest-grossing films, released in 1991 and 1999, respectively. By analyzing them, this study examines how dominant and contested models of masculinity were constructed and circulated through mainstream cinema during a decade marked by cultural and political transformation.

The sessions will be hybrid. For those who wish to join us online, please email Anthony.Gorman@ed.ac.uk, who will send you a link on the day of the seminar.For further details see  https://llc.ed.ac.uk/islamic-and-middle-eastern-studies/imes-seminar-series-251103

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Séminaire “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges” – 2e séance mercredi 5 novembre 18h-19h30

Chères et chers collègues,

Chères étudiantes, chers étudiants,

Nous avons le plaisir de vous convier à la deuxième séance du séminaire “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges”, qui se tiendra mercredi 5 novembre 2025, 18h-19h30, en salle 4.21 à l’INaLCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 4^e étage).

Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir Mme. Alya Karame, Orient-Institut Beirut, pour une conférence intitulée : The Qur’ans of the Ghaznavids and Ghurids: New Genres (en anglais).

Résumé:

The understudied corpus of the Ghaznavid and Ghurid Qur’ans (c. eleventh–twelfth centuries CE) illustrates the shaping of regional visual trends in medieval eastern Iran (at the centre of which is present-day Afghanistan) out of diachronic and synchronic multidirectional movement within a medieval landscape that was continuously in flux. These manuscripts were innovatively designed presenting us with new genres of Qur’ans, employing new scripts on the newly adopted material, paper. Many elements in them tell us stories about the people who commissioned them, made them, and used them. They also inform of the ways in which they were used and their roles, up until our day. Deemed “peripheral” (the lands of provincial rule), they were, in fact, models that challenged the artistic agency of t raditional political capitals (the lands of dominant dynastic rule) from which artistic excellency and a pure visual language is said to have spread.

Orientations bibliographiques:

• Flood, Finbarr Barry. ‘Islamic Identities and Islamic Art: Inscribing the Qur’an in Twelfth-century Afghanistan’ in Elizabeth Cropper (ed.). Dialogues in Art History, from Mesopotamian to Modern: Readings for a New Century. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2009, p. 91–118.
• Karame, Alya. ‘Ghaznavid Imperial Qur’an Manuscripts: The Shaping of a Local Style’ in Simon Rettig, Sana Mirza (eds.). The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qur’anic Manuscripts from the Seventh to Seventeenth Centuries. Washington DC: Smithsonian Scholarly Press, 2023, p. 27–53.

Vous trouverez l’intégralité du programme 2025-2026 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “L’Afghanistan à travers les âges” en ligne sur le site du CeRMI: L’Afghanistan à travers les âges – Centre de recherche sur le monde iranien

 

 

 

 

 

5. Grabar Travel Grant – Deadline: December 15, 2025

This competition is open to graduate students (doctoral candidates) who have been invited or accepted as participants in a scholarly conference or other professional meeting for the purpose of presenting papers, chairing sessions, or moderating discussions.
The maximum amount of the award is $1,000 USD.
Applicants must be HIAA members in good standing at the time of application. Grabar Travel Grants must be used within 12 months of the award date.
Applications must include the following five components and be submitted in a single PDF to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by December 15:

1. Application cover sheet, available here
2. A cover letter explaining the applicant’s purpose in participating in the conference, the expected benefits of participation, and an itemized travel budget
3. Curriculum vitae
4. Letter of acceptance from the conference/session organizer(s)
5. Abstract of the paper to be presented

In addition, a letter of recommendation from the applicant’s primary supervisor should be sent directly to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by the deadline.
Applicants from outside the United States are responsible for meeting the requirements for and obtaining any visas necessary for visits to or residence and research in the United States. Upon request, HIAA will supply documentation of the grant and/or fellowship award, the dates of the award, and financial support.
For further details and to apply, please visit: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/opportunities/hiaa-prizes/grabar-grants-and-fellowships

 

 

 

 

 

6. Grabar Post-doctoral Fellowship – Deadline: December 15, 202
The Grabar Post-doctoral Fellowship is intended to support post-doctoral scholars at an early stage of their careers in advancing their research. Fellowship funds may be used in one of two ways:

• To spend up to two months in residence as a visiting professor or fellow/research scholar at a university, museum, research institute, or similar institution outside their usual country of residence or employment.
• To support additional research to aid in preparing the dissertation for publication.

Applicants should have completed their Ph.D. within the last five years or have submitted their dissertations by the start of the fellowship.
The Grabar Post-doctoral Fellowship will provide up to $2000 US per month, for a maximum of two months. An additional $1000 may be requested for travel or supplies.
All materials should be submitted by email to the chair of the Grabar post-doctoral fellowship committee chair (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by December 15, 2025. Files exceeding 25 Mb should be sent via WeTransfer.
For further details and to apply, please visit: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/opportunities/hiaa-prizes/grabar-grants-and-fellowships

 

 

 

 

 

7. The Margaret B. Ševčenko Prize in Islamic Art and Culture – Deadline: December 15, 2025

Every year, the Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA) sponsors a competition and awards the Margaret B. Ševčenko Prize for the best unpublished essay written by a junior scholar (pre-dissertation graduate student to three years after the Ph.D. degree) on any aspect of Islamic visual culture. This competition is open to HIAA members only. The Ševčenko Prize recipient receives an award of $500 and a citation, generally presented at HIAA’s annual business meeting. The Prize is named in memory of Margaret Bentley Ševčenko, the first and long-serving Managing Editor of Muqarnas, a journal devoted to the visual culture of the Islamic world sponsored by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard and MIT. The winning essay will be considered for publication by the Muqarnas Editorial Board.
Submissions must include the paper in both Word and PDF format, and a separate sheet with the author’s contact information (address, telephone number, and email address). Papers should not exceed 10,000 words in length (including footnotes) and can be accompanied by up to 15 low-res illustrations.
Please note that submissions cannot be in press or under review with any publisher.
A letter of recommendation for the paper should be sent separately by the author’s adviser or referee.
All materials should be submitted by email to the Ševčenko committee chair (sevcenko.hiaa@gmail.com) by December 15, 2025. Files exceeding 25 Mb should be sent via WeTransfer. 
For further details, please visit: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/opportunities/hiaa-prizes/the-margaret-evenko-prize-in-islamic-art-and-culture/

 

 

 

 

 

8. Fellowships – National Museum of Asian Art, Ebrahimi Fellowship for Persian Art, Apply by February 2, 2026

The Ebrahimi Fellowship for Persian Art promotes excellence in research and publication on Persian art from the ancient to the contemporary period. Fellowships support research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC. Research proposals are evaluated in terms of merit, originality, methodology, and potential for significant publication that will advance scholarly and public understanding of Persian visual arts. Interdisciplinary proposals with a primary focus on Iranian visual arts will be considered.

The Ebrahimi Fellowship is intended to provide an environment conducive to research, writing, and collegial discourse. Fellows are expected to devote themselves full-time to the proposed project and to participate in the museum’s scholarly community and programs.

Scholars of all nationalities are welcome to apply. Meeting the requirements and obtaining the required visas for residence and research in the United States are the responsibilities of the applicant. If necessary, the Smithsonian will review the individual for participation in an Exchange Visitor Program and will support the individual, if eligible, in their application for a J-1 visa.

Doctoral candidates, early career scholars, and senior scholars are all encouraged to apply.

For more information, visit https://asia.si.edu/about/jobs-opportunities/ebrahimi-fellowship-for-persian-art/.

URL

https://asia.si.edu/about/jobs-opportunities/ebrahimi-fellowship-for-persian-ar…

 

 

 

 

 

9. The UC Berkeley South Asia Art & Architecture Dissertation Prize

The South Asia Art Initiative at UC Berkeley invites submissions of doctoral dissertations for the annual UC Berkeley South Asia Art & Architecture Dissertation Prize. The prize will be awarded to an outstanding doctoral dissertation on the art, architecture, or visual cultures of South Asia and its diasporas from any discipline in the arts, humanities, or social sciences. The dissertation may focus on any time period from the prehistoric to the contemporary. The prize comes with a $1,500 award. Ph.D. dissertations submitted for consideration must have been filed between September 2, 2024 and September 1, 2025 at an accredited university in North America or Europe. The submission package must include the following:

• A pdf abstract (< 1000 words)
• A pdf curriculum vitae (please include your contact information)
• A pdf copy of the dissertation
• A nomination letter from the chair of the department or the chair of the dissertation committee must accompany the application package. This letter should confirm that the application fulfills all eligibility requirements, and include the official dissertation submission date.

The 2025 Prize Committee: Sugata Ray (Chair, University of California, Berkeley), Rebecca M. Brown (Johns Hopkins University), Yuthika Sharma (Northwestern University), and Nachiket Chanchani (University of Michigan).

The UC Berkeley South Asia Artist Prize

The South Asia Art Initiative at UC Berkeley invites submissions from Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students for the annual UC Berkeley South Asia Artist Prize. The prize will be awarded for an outstanding body of work by an artist of the South Asian diaspora or by those whose work addresses the politics and cultures of South Asia. Applicants must have filed their Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree between September 2, 2023 and September 1, 2024 at an accredited school in North America or Europe. The submission package must include the following, and with each file size a maximum of 15MB:

• A pdf Artist Statement (< 1000 words)
• A pdf curriculum vitae (please include your contact information)
• 20 images in a single pdf file and/or
• Links (and password) to Vimeo for up to 15 minutes of time-based work
• A confidential letter of support from a faculty member

The 2025 Prize Committee: Asma Kazmi (Chair, University of California, Berkeley), Shiben Banerji (University of California, Berkeley), Al-An deSouza (University of California, Berkeley), Nidhi Gandhi (San José Museum of Art), and Padma Maitland (Asian Art Museum).

DEADLINE: The submission package must be in English and submitted via email to Puneeta Kala <pkala@berkeley.edu> by January 10, 2026. Late submissions will not be accepted. The result for the 2025 prize recipient will be announced on the South Asia Art Initiative website on March 14, 2026. The winner will give a talk via Zoom on Wed, April 16, 2026 at 9 am PST.

All inquiries regarding the prizes should be directed to Puneeta Kala <pkala@berkeley.edu>  at the Institute for South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Contact Information

Puneeta Kala,  Institute for South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Contact Email

pkala@berkeley.edu

URL

https://southasia.berkeley.edu/art-awards

 

 

 

 

 

10. Call for Contributions – Digital Humanities in Middle East Studies for RoMES Special Issue
TheReview of Middle East Studies(RoMES) invites contributions to an upcoming special issue on Digital Humanities in Middle East Studies. In light of the growing impact of technology on the study of language, history, and culture, this special issue aims to chart the current and emerging contours of digital humanities in Middle East Studies. We are delighted to have Laila Shereen Sakr (University of California, Santa Barbara) as guest editor for this issue.

We welcome submissions from across the diverse landscape of digital humanities work in Middle East studies, including but not limited to: computational and AI methods (such as text mining, data visualization, natural language processing (NLP), LLMs and generative models applied to regional sources); algorithmic empire and digital colonialism, militarized AI and the political economy of tech, Middle Eastern futures and futurity, social media and digital public spheres; critical approaches to data ethics, privacy, and algorithmic accountability; feminist and decolonial perspectives; digital archives and libraries; mapping and spatial humanities; as well as media, arts, and cultural digital humanities.

This issue will focus on contributions demonstrating the unique opportunities and distinct challenges that emerge when the linguistic, cultural, and archival work of Middle East Studies meets digital technology. This issue aims to provide theoretical grounding and guidance for scholars interested in developing digital humanities projects for their research or teaching while fostering broader conversations about the future of Middle Eastern studies in the digital age.

Contributions may take several forms:

• DH Interventions- Explorations of how digital humanities reshapes our understanding of key questions in Middle East Studies – what new intellectual terrain does DH open up, and what are the stakes of these shifts for the field?
• State of the Field Reflections- Analytical pieces that survey current trends, assess methodological approaches, or provide frameworks for understanding digital humanities within Middle East studies. These pieces may trace key conversations, collaborations, and areas of innovation across languages, regions, or disciplines.
• Pedagogical Applications- Articles focusing on the use of digital humanities projects in Middle East studies classrooms and/or course design, and getting started guides.
• Project Showcases- Examinations of how digital humanities projects generate new historical, cultural, or linguistic insights, emphasizing their broader implications for the field.

We recognize digital humanities work’s innovative and collaborative nature and welcome co-authored submissions and interdisciplinary approaches.

Timeline

• Abstract Deadline: Jan 12, 2026
• Full Manuscript Submission for Invited Contributions: May 15, 2026
• Peer-Review Process: Summer through early fall of 2026
• Final Revised Manuscripts Due: November 2026
• Target Publication Date: Spring 2027

Submission Guidelines

Please email abstracts to romes@mesana.org by January 12, 2026. Abstracts should be 350-500 words and include:

• Proposed title
• Author name(s) and affiliation(s)
• Brief description of the proposed contribution
• How it fits within the special issue themes

If you have questions about the scope of the issue, potential contributions, or the submission process, please contact: Review of Middle East Studies Editorial Team romes@mesana.org.

Hoda Yousef, Editor of Review of Middle East Studies
Laila Shereen Sakr, Guest Editor of Review of Middle East Studies
Laila Hussein Moustafa, Associate Editor of Review of Middle East Studies 

 

 

 

11. Events at SOAS:

SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies 

Oral Literature, Adaptation, and Resistance in the Zoroastrian Community

6.00pm, Monday 10 November 2025

 

Research Seminar in Islamic Art (ReSIA) 

The Subversive Feminine: Contemporary Iranian Women Artists Challenging Gender Paradigms

6.00pm, Thursday 04 December 2025

 

Sadler’s Well 

Armin Hokmi – Shiraz

14 – 15 November 2025

 

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in association with the National Film and Television School 

Salam Cinema

6.30pm, Sunday 16 November 2015

 

 

 

 

 

12. Persia Educational Foundation 

Abdolreza Ansari Scholarship Fund

The scholarship is designed to support the education of students of Iranian descent, of any age or citizenship, enrolled in a Master or Doctorate programme in human rights or public service at an internationally accredited university in the UK or beyond.

Deadline: Friday 21 November 2025

 

 

 

 

 

13. Lecturer in the Study of Islam (fixed term, 0.5FTE), University of Glasgow

Fixed term until May 2027:

https://www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer-in-the-study-of-islam-lts

The closing date is Thursday, 13 November.

 

 

 

 

 

14. Oxford: Call for Applications for Bodleian Visiting Fellowships in Special Collections

Full details of opportunities, and instructions on how to apply, at:

Bodleian Visiting Fellowships in Special Collections | Bodleian Libraries

The call closes on 28 November 2025.

 

 

 

 

15. University of Toronto: Persian Lithographic Printing Seminar:

“Attitudes towards Lithography in 19th-Century India: The East India Company and Christian Missionaries”
Graham Shaw
University of London
Thursday, November 6, 2025, 12:00 p.m. EST  

Zoom Registration Link:
https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/LzX8QvxMR6y0yTkB7ESWqA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

16. Of Piety and Heresy: Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad Ghazzālī’s Persian Treatises on Antinomians

A Seyed-Gohrab,

De Gruyter, 2024

https://research-portal.uu.nl/en/publications/of-piety-and-heresy-abū-ḥāmid-muḥammad-ghazzālīs-persian-treatise/

 

 

 

 

 

17. IQP20th meeting: European Qur’an ERC Project
By: Prof. Dr. Roberto Tottoli , The president of the University of Naples, L’Orientale
Wednesday Nov.5 2025, 15:00-16:30 (Mecca Zone)
For participation: send email to: info@zabanshenasitarikhi.ir
http://zabanshenasitarikhi.ir/p/73/IQP20th-meeting:-European-Quran/

 

 

 

 

 

18. Lecture – “Carpeting Safavid Shrines,” Sarah Molina, Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series, November 4

The next lecture in the Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series will take place on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, at 12:00 Boston and New York / 17:00 London / 20:00 Istanbul.

Sarah Molina (Harvard University) will present “Carpeting Safavid Shrines.”

To attend, please register in advance here:

https://wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/register/Zz_b0jGdRuK8EPDTIxgy4Q

Upon registration, you’ll receive the link to access the lecture.

As always, you can find a full schedule of upcoming talks and register for our list-serv on our website at viahss.org. Although not every talk is recorded, we also have recordings of several recent talks available on the VIAHSS Vimeo page at vimeo.com/viahss. Lastly, you can follow us on Instagram at @theviahss to stay up to date on upcoming events!

A reminder that our 2026 CFP is open until November 14. To learn more and submit a proposal, please visit: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSft18j9ZomsQ58XNp7QU4z-6aGDrkMFyKmmqaXzt7bVBm9wyQ/viewform__;!!HXCxUKc!yI1L9AAKLn5JlU1wX1Sya3GKLWLHC5GTMw0WFLMqg-bjHMW9ce0fJvcfNdtbclLQbm9uN0-U9Es_o8D-$.

Contact Information

Drs. Alexander Brey, Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, and Rachel Winter

Contact Email

winterr6@msu.edu

URL

https://viahss.org/

 

 

 

 

19. The Islamic College

The Story of Leili o Majnun
As an Allegory of the Sufi Path of Love in Persian Poetry
Dr Leili Anvar

Friday, 28 November 2025

6:00-7:30 pm (London time)
Online (register for link)

https://islamic-college.ac.uk/monthly-talk-the-story-of-leyli-o-majnun/

 

 

 

 

 

20. Call for Papers | 2026 BRISMES Annual Conference: War, Empire and Sabotage in an Age of Genocide

In these profoundly challenging times, our commitment to fostering knowledge exchange and building a vibrant scholarly community remains at the heart of the BRISMES Annual Conference. With this in mind, we are pleased to announce that submissions for the 2026 BRISMES Conference, co-hosted by the SOAS Middle East Institute on 23-25 June 2026, are now open. We warmly invite you to review the call for papers and submit your abstracts for individual presentations, panels, roundtables or creative interventions.

As always, we encourage submissions that sit outside the conference theme and are more broadly related to Middle East Studies. Relevant disciplines include – but are not limited to – politics, culture and society, language, literature, anthropology, economics, history, linguistics and translation studies, in or related to the MENA region.

Deadline: 14 December 2025

https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/call-for-papers-2026-brismes-annual-conference

 

 

 

 

21. Early Career Research Fellowship – Arts

University of Cambridge

Applications are invited for a Research Fellowship in the following Arts subjects – Archaeology, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Geography (Social Science), History, History and Philosophy of Science, History of Art, Social Anthropology – which will normally be tenable for three years from 1 October 2026.

Deadline | 10 November 2025

More information

 

 

 

 

 

22. Call for Papers | Kurdish Studies Conference 

Conference | LSE | 29 April – 1 May 2026

The conference organisers warmly invite the submission of papers for the fourth Kurdish Studies Conference organised by the Kurdish Studies Series at the LSE Middle East Centre and the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield. The organisers welcome paper submissions with social sciences and humanities disciplinary approaches to any aspect of Kurdish studies.

Deadline | 28 November 2025

More information

 

 

 

 

23. Traversing Spaces of Exception: Exploring New Methodologies in Research Practice and Publication

Seminar | AKU-ISMC | 4 November 2025

This seminar addresses the explosion of interest within Academia in alternative methods for both doing and publishing research. Using his own research project ‘The Native and Refugee’ as a case study, Malek Rasamny will explore a whole host of non-paper associated media from blogs to websites to documentary film.
More information

 

 

 

 

24. 4 novembre 2025 : 1ère séance du séminaire de l’IISMM : Autorité et culture politique en Iran qajar et dans l’Empire ottoman (ca. 1780-1920)

La première séance (2025-2026) du séminaire Autorité et culture politique en Iran qajar et dans l’Empire ottoman (ca. 1780-1920) aura lieu le mardi 4 novembre de 10h à 12h, à l’IISMM (EHESS, 54 bd Raspail 75006 Paris), Salle B3-18.
Il est également possible d’y assister à distance par le lien zoom suivant :

https://ehess-fr.zoom.us/j/98558979025?pwd=1EOFoBWcE9No6JJTZb9fixfu9VamZe.1

Intervenante : Sara Zanotta (Università di Torino)

Titre de l’intervention : Entre constitutionnalisme et anti-impérialisme : l’activisme international des Iraniens à l’étranger pendant la révolution constitutionnelle iranienne (1906-1911)

Résumé de l’intervention

Cette séance traitera de la façon dont les Iraniens à l’étranger ont interprété et participé à la révolution constitutionnelle iranienne, en mettant l’accent sur leurs efforts pour obtenir un soutien international. Après le bombardement de l’Assemblée Nationale en juin 1908, d’éminents députés et constitutionnalistes ont fui vers le Caucase du Sud, l’Empire ottoman et l’Europe pour échapper à l’arrestation ou à la mort et ils ont alors rejoint les communautés iraniennes déjà établies à l’étranger. Cet exil a renforcé l’activisme politique des communautés iraniennes en dehors de l’Iran qajar, tandis que la résistance à l’autocratie et à l’impérialisme s’intensifiait dans l’empire. Leur action ne se limitait pas à un soutien direct aux révolutionnaires en Iran à travers des financements, mais prenait également la forme d’un « activisme international » visant à rallier le soutien d’activistes et de gouvernements étrangers. Ce séminaire discutera les pratiques et les stratégies discursives grâce auxquelles ils ont recueilli du soutien en Asie, en Europe et en Afrique, depuis des dizaines de pétitions envoyées des pays aussi lointains que la Grande-Bretagne, l’Égypte et l’Inde jusqu’aux réunions publiques et aux manifestations en France et dans l’Empire ottoman, et montrera comment, de cette manière, les débats issus de l’Iran qajar ont trouvé un écho international.
Contacts
Denis Hermann : dnshermann@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

25. 11th International Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (SSCLE) “Crossing Seas – Crossing Cultures”, University of Porto, 29 June – 3 July 2026

Themes: Politics, Religion and Culture. – Women and Gender. – The Muslim World and the Crusades. – New Sources, New Interpretations. – Art, Archaeology and Material Culture. – Military History.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 November 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/mrxwu7wm

 

 

1.Call for Application: SoFCB Junior Fellows Program, November 19, 2025

We are inviting applications for the 2026 cohort of Junior Fellows. The SoFCB is a community of scholars working across disciplines to advance the study of texts, images, and artifacts as material objects. Ten Junior Fellows will be selected to join the SoFCB in 2026; they may become Senior Fellows after completing two years of the fellowship’s required activities in good standing. The application deadline for the SoFCB Junior Fellows Program is Wednesday, 19 November 2025, at 11:50 pm ET. To learn more about the fellowship program and application, please visit: www.tinyurl.com/Apply-SoFCB-2025. For any questions about the SoFCB Junior Fellows Program, please email sofcb_staff@virginia.edu.

We would very much appreciate it if you could share our call for applications and welcome letter with interested students and colleagues at the Association of Print Scholars.

With warm wishes,

Pranav

Contact Information

sofcb_staff@virginia.edu

Contact Email

sofcb_staff@virginia.edu

URL

https://rarebookschool.org/admissions-awards/fellowships/sofcb/

 

 

 

 

 

2. ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE AMERICAN CENTER OF RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
2026–2027

Deadline for the following fellowships is February 15, 2026.

The Amman Prize, Postgraduate:The Amman Prize supports four months of research and residence in Jordan. Prize winners are provided with a monthly stipend, room/board and a private workspace at ACOR. One award of $25,000 is expected in 2026, including $5,000 for travel and research expenses (including language training, if applicable). This award will support someone who has completed their formal course of study (holding an advanced degree[s] is not required). The recipient may be at any stage of their career. Research may be in any field of scientific, social scientific, or humanistic research whose principal concern is Jordan. Selection criteria are the merits, impact, and likelihood of completing a major work (e.g., book) during the term of the award. The successful applicant may be of any nationality; preference may be given to Jordanians, Americans, Canadians, Syrians, and Australians. A prior record of completing significant scholarly or creative work(s) is expected. Individuals who have been awarded a fellowship from ACOR in the past two years are not eligible. Undergraduate students are not eligible. Priority may be given to individuals who can complete the term of the award in calendar 2026.

The Amman Prize, ABD doctoral students: The Amman Prize supports four months of research and residence in Jordan. Prize winners are provided with a monthly stipend, room/board and a private workspace at ACOR. Two awards of $25,000 are expected in 2026, including $5,000 for travel and research expenses (including language training, if applicable). These awards will support Prizes to graduate students pursuing their dissertation research. Research may be in any field of scientific, social scientific, or humanistic research whose principal concern is Jordan, ancient, modern, or contemporary. Selection criteria are the merits, impact, and feasibility of the proposed research. The successful applicants must be a United States citizen enrolled in an institution of higher education located in the United States and will have completed all requirements for the PhD except for the dissertation by the start of the fellowship period. Individuals who have been awarded a fellowship from ACOR in the past two years are not eligible. Priority may be given to individuals who can complete the term of the award in calendar 2026.

Bert and Sally de Vries Fellowship: One award of $2,500 to support a student for participation on an archaeological project or research in Jordan. Senior project staff members whose expenses are being borne largely by the project are ineligible. Open to enrolled undergraduate or graduate students of any nationality except Jordanian citizens.

Burton MacDonald and Rosemarie Sampson Fellowship: One award either for a four-week residency at the American Center of Research for research in the fields of ancient Near Eastern languages and history, archaeology, biblical studies, or comparative religion, or for a travel grant to assist with participation in an archaeological field project in Jordan. The residency fellowship option includes room and board at the American Center of Research in Amman and a stipend of $1,500. The travel-grant option provides a single stipend of $2,500 to help with any project-related expenses. Both options are open to enrolled undergraduate or graduate students of Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status.

Donald O. Henry Fellowship: One award of $500 for a field project, publication, or related event in support of archaeological research in or about Jordan. The fellowship has a preference for the support of archaeological efforts related to prehistory and/or work in southern Jordan, but proposals involving all periods and locations are eligible, welcome, and encouraged. The most compelling proposal will receive the award. Undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers of all nationalities are eligible to apply.

Frederick-Wenger Memorial Endowment: Two awards of $2,000 to assist a Jordanian student with the cost of their education. Eligibility is not limited to a specific field of study, but preference will be given to study related to Jordan’s cultural heritage. Candidates must be Jordanian citizens and currently enrolled as undergraduate or graduate students in a Jordanian university.

Harrell Family Fellowship: One award of $2,500 to support a graduate student for participation on an archaeological project or for research in Jordan. Senior project staff members whose expenses are being borne largely by the project are ineligible. Open to enrolled graduate students of any nationality except Jordanian citizens.

James A. Sauer Fellowship: One award of $1,500 for educational assistance to support a graduate student participating in an ACOR-approved archaeological fieldwork or research project in Jordan. For the 2026–2027 cycle, the Sauer Fellowship is open to enrolled graduate students of any nationality except Jordanian.

Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellowship: Two awards of $3,000 each to support beginners in archaeological fieldwork who have been accepted as team members on archaeological projects in Jordan. The fellowship is intended to help defray the costs of participation in excavations. Open to undergraduate or graduate students of U.S. or Canadian citizenship, with a preference for individuals who graduated in the past 12 months (i.e., January to December 2025) and/or have been accepted to a graduate program for fall 2026.

Jennifer C. Groot II Memorial Fellowship: This fellowship provides financial support to help improve the preparation and qualifications of Jordanians, or residents of Jordan, for future graduate-level study in Europe or the Americas. The fellowship must conclude with the submission of a qualified application for graduate study outside of Jordan or an application to a funding program that supports the same (e.g., a Fulbright scholarship). The scholarship will provide support for taking English-language courses and/or preparations for and taking required standardized tests (e.g., TOEFL, IELTS, GRE), as well as support from ACOR staff. Preference is given to those studying archaeology, history, or fields related to the cultural heritage of Jordan.

Jordanian Graduate Student Scholarship: One award of $3,000 to assist a Jordanian graduate student with the annual costs of their academic programs during the period June 1, 2026, through May 31, 2027. Candidates must be Jordanian citizens and currently enrolled in either a master’s or doctoral program in a Jordanian university. Eligibility is limited to students in programs related to Jordan’s cultural heritage (for example: archaeology, anthropology, linguistics/epigraphy, history, conservation, museum studies, and fields related to cultural resource management).

Kenneth W. Russell Fellowship: One award of $2,500 for educational assistance for a Jordanian graduate student enrolled in an archaeology or cultural heritage degree program in any country.  For the 2026–2027 cycle, the Russell Fellowship is open only to enrolled graduate students of Jordanian nationality.

Lawrence T. Geraty Travel Scholarship: One award of $1,250 for an undergraduate or graduate student from an accredited institution to conduct in Jordan excavation and/or research approved by ASOR’s Committee on Archaeological Research and Policy (CAP). The award is intended to assist in travel costs and/or accommodation at the American Center of Research, based on need. Funding may be combined with other fellowships and must be spent within a calendar year.

Pierre and Patricia Bikai Fellowship: Two awards for one month each, or one two-month award, for residency at the American Center of Research in Amman. The fellowship is open to enrolled graduate students of any nationality, except Jordanian citizens, participating in an archaeological project or conducting archaeological work in Jordan. The fellowship includes room and board at the American Center of Research and a monthly stipend of $800.

Thomas Parker Memorial Fund:One award of $1,750 for an undergraduate student, graduate student, or postdoctoral researcher of any nationality. Proposals are accepted for support for fellowships, field projects, and events in Jordan. Preference is given to archaeological fieldwork or publication efforts, but proposals in all areas of academic inquiry are welcome and encouraged. The most compelling proposal will receive the award.

Conference Travel Award for Jordanians: This award is intended to assist Jordanians resident in Jordan participating in and delivering a scholarly paper at an international conference held in the United States or Canada. One award of $3,500 will be made for an in-person paper presentation and one award for a paper presentation in a virtual conference (i.e., conference registration, membership when required) will be available annually. Awards are eligible in any field of study related to ACOR’s mission. Poster presentations are not eligible.

Applications should be submitted online at orcfellowships.smapply.org/.

Inquiries should be directed to fellowships@acorjordan.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. From Manga to Manifesto: Youth Culture, Protest, and the Global Circulations of ONE PIECE

1 Theme, 2 Days, 3 Departments 

CALL FOR PAPERS

In 2025, the emblematic flag of the Japanese manga ONE PIECE has surfaced in youth-led protests from Nepal and Indonesia to Morocco and Madagascar, transforming a symbol of fictional pirate rebellion into a banner of real-world dissent. In this two-day interdisciplinary workshop scholars from Middle Eastern, Japanese and African studies explore together how popular culture travels across linguistic, cultural, and political boundaries to animate new forms of protest and solidarity among Generation Z.

We invite contributions that investigate the transnational lives of symbols, the appropriation of Japanese visual culture in African and Middle Eastern contexts, and the ways in which global media imaginaries shape local expressions of political agency. How does ONE PIECE’s narrative of freedom, friendship, and resistance against corrupt authority resonate with the lived experiences of young activists in postcolonial societies? What does the circulation of such symbols outside of the ‘Western’ imaginary reveal about the shifting landscapes of global cultural exchange, digital communication, and generational identity? And are there cases of protest centered in Asia, Africa or the Middle East that operate outside (or resist being absorbed into) global capitalist frameworks?

Written and illustrated by the Japanese author Oda Eiichirō (b. 1975) and published since 1997, the modern pirate story ONE PIECEcounts with more than 500 million copies in circulation worldwide as the best-selling manga series ever. By examining the ONE PIECEpirate flag with its characteristic straw hat as both a cultural artifact and a political signifier, the workshop seeks to map the intersections of popular culture, protest aesthetics, and transnational youth mobilization. We welcome papers from across the humanities and social sciences — including anthropology, cultural studies, political science, and regional studies — that contribute to understanding how Japanese pop culture (not limited to ONE PIECE) is reimagined in local acts of resistance.

Research Workshop at the Asia-Africa-Institute of the University of Hamburg, 26-27 March 2026, Asia-Africa-Institute, Hamburg, Germany; organized by Nora Derbal (Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies), Kerstin Fooken (Japanese Studies) and Hewan Semon Marye (African Studies)

Instructions:

Limited travel funding may be available for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty from low-income countries and institutions. We aim to publish the revised papers as a special issue in a refereed journal.

Submissions: Individual proposals should include an abstract (300 words), email address, affiliation, and short biography of presenter(s). Please also indicate if you will need assistance with travel funding.

Email submissions to both Nora Derbal (nora.derbal@uni-hamburg.de) and Kerstin Fooken (kerstin.fooken@uni-hamburg.de).

Deadline for submission of proposals: December 1st, 2025

Notification of acceptance: December 15, 2025

Contact Information

Nora Derbal, University of Hamburg, Asia-Africa-Institute, Germany

Contact Email

nora.derbal@uni-hamburg.dev

URL

https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/voror/aktuelles/26-03-26-from-manga-to-manifesto…

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Lambeaux de la nature

Fragments de sciences naturelles

de Avicenne

https://www.editions-harmattan.fr/catalogue/livre/lambeaux-de-la-nature/80396?srsltid=AfmBOopFnHopXSblAT8UfTC96ACjSPBEWi1qH-Bfc48qZY5NSn-kqLJl

 

 

 

 

5. Rashwan, Hany. et al.(2025) ‘Balāgha is not rhetoric: The untranslatability of Arabo-Islamic literary terms’,Translation and Interpreting Studies: The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association. doi: 10.1075/tis.25037.ras.

https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/tis.25037.ras#html_fulltext

 

 

 

 

 

6. Mon. Nov. 3 12-1:30pm EST webinar: Atiq Rahimi and Homeira Qaderi in conversation

The Iran Colloquium at Yale will be hosting one of the most exciting events in the Afghan novelist Homeira Qaderi’s multi-year series of Persian-language public conversations with fellow writers. This time, she will be speaking with the Cannes award-winning Franco-Afghan writer and director Atiq Rahimi!

This will be a webinar in Persian, open to all, on Monday November 3, 12-1:30pm Eastern US time. Register here, and for more information on the event, see here.

This event is co-sponsored by the Yale Center for Middle East Studies and the Central Asia Initiative, supported by the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund. We hope to see you there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Amir Khosrow Afshar Visiting Fellowship, 2026-27

The LSE Iranian History Initiative welcomes applications for the Amir Khosrow Afshar Visiting Fellowship for the 2026-27 academic year. The Afshar Fellowship provides an opportunity for an external post-doctoral scholar of modern Iranian history, including both early-career researchers and established scholars, to travel to London and be affiliated with LSE while conducting research on any aspect of the modern history of Iran between 1500 and 1979. This might include research at the UK National Archives, the British Library, the LSE Library and Archives, or other libraries and archives in London and the UK.

The Iranian History Initiative particularly welcomes applications from scholars based outside of the UK; from scholars whose research involves the use of Persian-language primary sources; and from scholars working on any aspect of the history of Pahlavi Iran (1921-1979).

The Afshar Fellowship is tenable for a period of one month during either the Autumn (28 September to 11 December 2026), Winter (11 January to 25 March 2027) or Spring (26 April to 11 June 2027) terms at LSE. Fellowships are not tenable outside of these dates of term. Afshar Fellows will be reimbursed up to £2,000 for the cost of return economy travel to London, up to £125 per night for accommodation for a maximum of 31 days stay in London, and up to £125 for UK visa expenses.

Fellows will be formally affiliated with the Iranian History Initiative and the Department of International History at LSE. Afshar Fellows will receive an LSE ID card, granting them access to campus buildings, including the LSE Library. An IT account, including LSE e-mail and access to the LSE Library’s online resources, will also be provided. Afshar Fellows are expected to attend IHI and departmental events during the period of their residency in London and to present their research in a departmental forum or public event.

Applications, consisting of a research proposal (no more than three pages) and CV, should be made by email to Dr Roham Alvandi (R.Alvandi@lse.ac.uk) by no later than 19 January 2026. Applications will be assessed by a selection committee, and the fellowship will be awarded by the Department of International History’s Research Committee.