1.The University of Chicago: The College: Humanities Collegiate Division
Location
Chicago, IL
Open Date
Jan 17, 2020
Deadline
Feb 29, 2020 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time
Description
The Humanities Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago is accepting applications for a full-time, benefits-eligible Senior Lecturer in its undergraduate program Fundamentals: Issues & Texts. Starting on 1 September 2020, the initial appointment is for one year and renewable for three years upon successful review. In addition to the appointment as Senior Lecturer, the successful candidate will be appointed as Co-Chair of the Fundamentals Program, working under the direction of the Faculty Chair of Fundamentals: Issues & Texts. The regular annual teaching load will be a minimum of 4 courses in the Fundamentals: Issues & Texts program.
The Fundamentals: Issues and Texts program brings undergraduates together with some of UChicago’s most distinguished professors in fields from the humanities and social sciences, representing interests and competencies in both the East and the West and scholarship in matters ancient and modern. This diversity exists within a common agreement about the primacy of fundamental questions and the centrality of important texts and reading them well. Working with a faculty adviser, students develop their own program of study. The Fundamentals program is comprised of 13 courses, a Junior Paper, and the Senior Exam. Further information about the program can be found at: http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/fundamentalsissuesandtexts/#programrequirements, and https://college.uchicago.edu/academics/fundamentals
As Senior Lecturer and Co-Chair of the Fundamentals Program, the successful applicant will regularly teach the Gateway course as well as Texts and Issues courses within the Fundamentals curriculum; conduct the Junior Paper/Project seminar; advise students on course selection, program policy issues, grant/fellowship opportunities; enroll new majors and minors and track their progress through the program; liaise with College Advising regarding the academic progress of majors/minors; aid majors in identifying appropriate faculty advisors for Junior Papers and research projects; coordinate the Senior Exams and dossiers required for BA Honors applications; oversee undergraduate awards; advise students on internships, post-graduate employment, and graduate school applications; plan and organize, in collaboration with the Faculty Chair, the program’s co-curricular events; engage in outreach activities to promote the Fundamentals major and minor; assist the Faculty Chair in the evaluation of the undergraduate curriculum and in the development of new curricular initiatives; maintain, update, and enhance the program’s website; coordinate program faculty meetings, aid the Faculty Chair in preparing the annual report on the program; and work on alumni outreach. Supervision of Junior Papers and Senior Exams of Fundamentals majors may also be required.
A PhD or equivalent in a relevant discipline of the humanities or social sciences is required by the start date of the appointment. A strong record of undergraduate teaching at the college or post-secondary level is required. Experience in administration and student advising is desirable.
To apply for this position candidates must submit their application through the University of Chicago’s Interfolio jobs board at http://apply.interfolio.com/73234. Applicants must upload a current curriculum vitae; a cover letter of interest; sample syllabi; a statement of teaching philosophy; and the names and contact information of three references whose recommendation letters may be solicited. Optionally, a teaching dossier and/or course evaluations (if available) may be uploaded.
Application deadline for all required materials is February 29, 2020. Only completed applications will be considered. Please contact Malynne Sternstein, msternst@uchicago.edu, with any questions.
This position is contingent upon budgetary approval.
2. ‘Digital Humanities for Arabic Book History: First Work on Models by the KITAB Project’ by Sarah Bowen Savant (Aga Khan University):
6-8pm, Wednesday 5 February, Room 1.01, Bush House South East Wing, King’s College London
How can computer scientists and historians work together to better understand thehistory of complex written traditions? The Arabic tradition provides an important case at the forefront of this type of research. At present, the KITAB project – a collaboration between historians and computer scientists – has assembled a corpus of 1.5 billion words of Arabic texts and is seeking to understand how transmission practices resulted in a tradition that is both enormous and also hugely intertextual. In this lecture, I will discuss, first, our work to model “text reuse” (meaning, the reuse, in whole or in part, of substantial chunks of texts by later authors). The extensive recycling of texts in new ones explains partly the large size of the Arabic tradition; it is important also for understanding transmission of ideas and the workings of cultural memory broadly. Secondly, I will focus on our work to identify automatically across our texts the isnads, or chains of previous authorities, frequently cited by authors to explain their sources. These chains are important for both interpreting the diffusion of texts and how complex texts came into existence. Oftentimes, our authors tell us precisely how they reused earlier texts, but their explanations are so many, and so complex, that interpreting them without digital methods is nearly impossible. Models help us to capture this information. Through this lecture, therefore, I hope to show the frontiers of what we might learn about one of the world’s richest and most complex written traditions.
Speaker: Sarah Bowen Savant is a Professor at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations at the Aga Khan University. She is a cultural historian specialising in the Middle East and Iran ca. 600-1500, and is Principal Investigator for the Arabic Digital Humanities project ‘Knowledge, Information Technology and the Arabic Book (KITAB)’ (funded by the European Research Council and the Aga Khan University.
The seminar will be followed by a drinks reception. Attendance is free of charge but as space is limited, please register in advance at: https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/22132
This series is part of the AHRC-funded Open World Research Initiative, and is supported by OWRI projects Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community and Language Acts and Worldmaking projects, and by the AHRC Leadership Fellow for Modern Languages (Janice Carruthers). The series is convened by Paul Spence (King’s College London) and Naomi Wells (Institute of Modern Languages Research).
3. Tenure-track Lecturer Position in Arabic Literature
The Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Haifa, Israel, invites applications for a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) position to begin October 2021, pending budgetary approval. We welcome applications from candidates specializing in either Modern Arabic Literature, or Classical Arabic Literature. The Department of Arabic Language and Literature and the University of Haifa boast a roster of internationally renowned researchers, and the most ethnically diverse student body of any university in Israel, providing opportunities for academics at all stages of their careers to participate in its dynamic scholarly and pedagogical life. The successful candidate will be expected to teach eight hours per semester. While the language of instruction in the department is Arabic, candidates may teach in English or Hebrew in the first few years if they prefer. Candidates holding a PhD with relevant teaching experience and a strong publication record should submit a cover letter, a CV (including the names of three referees) and a statement of research interests to Mrs. Noya Pearlman (Department’s Coordinator) npearlm1@univ.haifa.ac.il.
Review of applications will begin on April, 1st 2020.
4. AGSIW: Visiting Scholar
https://agsiw.org/job/visiting-scholars/
For more information, contact Mary Casey-Baker, Director of Publications and Digital Media (mary.caseybaker@agsiw.org <mailto:mary.caseybaker@agsiw.org>)
*Position Title*: Visiting Scholar
*Department/Team*: Resident Scholars
*Term*: Fall 2020*Location*: Washington, DC
*About AGSIW:*
The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW), launched in 2015, is an independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to providing expert research and analysis of the social, economic, and political dimensions of the Gulf Arab states and key neighboring countries and how they affect domestic and foreign policy. AGSIW focuses on issues ranging from politics and security to economics, trade, and business; from social dynamics to civil society and culture. Through programs, publications, and scholarly exchanges the institute seeks to encourage thoughtful debate and inform the U.S. foreign-policy, business, and academic communities regarding this critical geostrategic region.
*About the Candidate*:
Visiting scholars are individuals who possess a PhD or equivalent professional experience. The length of stay for a visiting scholar is typically a semester or academic year. AGSIW is actively seeking candidates with significant regional experience and fluency in written and spoken Arabic. AGSIW will provide a stipend that can be used to cover living expenses, travel costs, or incidental research expenses.
*Responsibilities:*
In addition to conducting an independent research project relevant to AGSIW’s work, visiting scholars are expected to actively contribute to the publications and programs of the institute, and participate in events as a speaker or moderator. Visiting scholars should also provide intellectual leadership on issues of cultural, political, and economic life in the Gulf Arab states.
*How to Apply:*
Applicants should submit a curriculum vitae, proposed dates of the appointment, and a proposal for a research project that explains its relevance to the work of AGSIW. Non-U.S. citizen/resident applicants should indicate their visa status and potential visa sponsorship during a term at AGSIW.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Candidates should submit applications to jobs@agsiw.org <mailto:jobs@agsiw.org>.
5. Conference: “The Influence of Islam in Politics and Society: Civic Engagement, Social Inclusion and Political Participation”, American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS), Villanova University, PA, 27-28 March 2020
The conference puts particular emphasis on socio-political dimensions of Islam and covers a vast range of topics and areas from Sufism, the so-called apolitical dimension of the faith to economic and financial aspects of Islam, both in Muslim and non-Muslim societies.
Deadline for abstracts extended until 1 February 2020.
Information: https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/publications/jsames/acsis/conference.html
6. Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference: “Decolonial Histories: Imperialism, Resistance, and Liberation”, Stony Brook University, New York, 24 April 2020
The conference will focus on the experiences and transnational connections of colonialism, decolonial resistance, liberation movements, and related subjects. Graduate students from across the world will engage with innovative scholarship from multiple disciplines, and receive feedback from fellow students as well as established scholars.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 January 2020.
7. 6th Student Conference on “Global Histories“, Humboldt University and Freie Universtität Berlin, 22-23 May 2020
This conference targets relations, flows and actors that challenge the assumption of the nation state and calls attention to the importance of transnational connections and their influence in the past. Some financial support for transport is availble to participants.
Deadline for abstracts: 3 February 2020.
Information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TesocErR1f9W61yqYjUVFY0VEyD53ZsY/view
8. 4th International Conference on Kurdish Studies, University of Exeter, 18-20 June 2020
Thematic areas include Kurdish literature, women’s participation in politics, cultural production, history, political international relations, governance, civil society, civil rights, diplomacy, conflict and democratization, forced displacement, internal and external interference, internal colonialization and rewriting Kurdish history.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 January 2020. Information: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/events/details/index.php?event=9969&fbclid=IwAR2VN-1Rxp8E0ZIP31tpDgSRW7CxDgNAXxHktMZEQQtYFG8_NaBlkQln5w
9. Research Fellowship in the Study of the Islamic World, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
The successful candidate will be engaged in research and publication in any area of the arts, humanities or social sciences which contributes to a more informed understanding of the Islamic world – its history, economics, politics, culture, civilisation and contemporary life. The fellowship is tenable from October 2020 for three years.
Deadline for applications: 24 March 2020. Information: https://www.oxcis.ac.uk/sites/www.oxcis.ac.uk/files/inline-files/Research%20Fellowship.pdf
10. Aarhus University – Teaching Associate Professorship in Arabic
The teaching associate professorship is a permanent position dedicated to full-time teaching, including professional development. The appointment begins on 1 September 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter. Requirements: Master’s degree in teaching Arabic as a foreign language or in Arabic; fluency in Arabic; relevant experience of teaching MSA and Arabic dialects at all levels; experience in teaching in English or a Scandinavian language.
Deadline for applications: 19 February 2020. Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=59825
11. Faculty Position in Islamic History, Habib University, Karachi
Specialization may be in any period or region of the Islamic world and/or Muslim communities elsewhere in the world including the Americas, Africa, and the Black Diaspora. The ability to teach Islamic Intellectual History in a comparative and global vein will be a plus. Depending on credentials and experience, candidates will be considered at the rank of Lecturer, Assistant Professor or Associate Professor as appropriate.
Deadline for applications: 16 April 2020. Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=59824
12. Assistant Professor of Human Rights in the Middle East & North Africa, University of Arizona
Candidates will be expected to have a PhD in a field represented in the UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS); exceptional ABD applicants nearing completion will also be considered. The position has a preferred focus on Egypt, North Africa, or Turkey, although applications from specialists in any area of the Middle East and North Africa are welcome and will receive full consideration. This position requires the ability to design and teach undergraduate and graduate courses and mentor students; and occasional domestic and foreign travel for meetings, seminars, and conferences.
Deadline for applications: 15 April 2020. Infromation: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=59822
13. Training School: “Islamic Heritage in Europe“, Palermo, 28-29 May 2020
This is initiated by the project „Islamic Legacy: Narratives East, West, South, North of the Mediterranean (1350-1750)“ in order to create a network that will provide a comprehensive understanding of past relations between Christianity and Islam in the European context through the addressing of three main research problems: otherness, migration and borders.
Deadline for applications: 7 February 2020.
Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/call-islamic-heritage-in-europe-28-29-may-palermo?e=82aeb6c61d
14. Summer School Languages Program: Modern Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, Ibn Khaldun University Süleymaniye Complex, Istanbul, 8 June – 24 July 2020
This programme offers intensive language instruction for international students and professionals. This is a full Summer Term that over seven weeks offers twice the transferable credits as a regular 14-week semester. A wholly immersive experience is designed to comprise co-curricular and extra-curricular activities such as conversation tables and study hours; seminars by top scholars on Turkish history, politics, literature, and art; cultural events, movie screenings, and field trips to historical sites and archives.
Application deadline: 31 March 2020.
15. Contributions to Journal “Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World“, Volume 38, 2021
Muqarnas is a scholarly journal that publishes articles on art and all aspects of Islamic visual and material cultures, historical and contemporary. Full-length articles are accompanied by shorter submissions grouped under a separate section titled “Notes and Sources,” for which we particularly welcome studies that introduce textual and visual primary sources.
Deadline for submissions: 1 March 2020.
16. Open Access Newspaper Archive: The Iraq Times (1948-1964)
https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/mena/?a=p&p=publication&sp=iraq
17. Call for papers for prearranged panel on
The Role of Photoportraits in Islamic Funerary Traditions
(Deadline February 15th, 2020)
For presentation in
The Arts and Archaeology of Funerary Cultures in Islam
16th Colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld-Gesellschaft | Ernst Herzfeld Society
Rome, Sapienza University, July 2-4, 2020
The theological objections to figurative visual art have been active from the early periods in the history of Islam and have successfully prohibited the entrance of visual representations of human beings into any part of the religious life of the Muslim communities. To many observers, visualization and seeing are central to the recollection of holiness and saintly power; to the dissemination of religious knowledge; to the transformation of emotions; to cultic behaviour; and to the understanding of ethical values and spiritual experiences. Therefore, there are complex relationships between the visual, the unseen and Islamic aesthetical practices and sensory experiences (Khosronejad 2019, 182-3).
Like other societies, also among Islamic lands and Muslim communities, since the advent of photography, photoportraits are not only being used for immortalising the dead; they are also being used as religious material culture and devotional devices for evoking the gaze of mourners, devotees and pilgrims. Today, in all private, public or institutional Islamic funeral ceremonies and rituals, and also in cemeteries, shrines and mortuary sanctuaries, we observe the usage of photoportraits of the deceased. These mortuary visual arts and funerary material cultures are being used as temporary posters or flyers use in death rituals and ceremonies, imbedded in tombstones or installed on top of them, or being hung as framed pictures on the wall of shrines or private family funerary chambers.
In this panel, with the help of interdisciplinary research methods, we aim to discuss and study the different meaning(s) and diverse function(s) of photoportraits of the deceased (ordinary people, martyrs, Sufi masters, saints and the Prophet Mohammad) in the context of death and dying among Muslim communities and devotees. Topics of interest may include but are not limited to:
Please submit a title, an abstract of no more than 500 words presenting your topic (including five keywords), and your academic affiliation by Feb. 15th, 2020 to Dr. Pedram Khosronejad, Religion and Society Research Cluster, Western Sydney University, Sydney (P.Khosronejad@westernsydney.edu.au). Speakers will be in charge of their full costs including travel, accommodation and the membership fee.
For the general information regarding the main program, please visit:
https://ernst-herzfeld-gesellschaft.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Aktuell_EHG16-CFP.pdf
Used reference:
Khosronejad, Pedram, “The Ahl‐I Beyt Bodies: the mural painting of Lahijan in the tradition of Persian Shiite figurations,” in Figuration and Sensation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, eds. Birgit Meyer and Terje Stordalen (2019, London: Bloomsbury), 172‐184.
18. Mosques, the Congregation and Anglophone Islam
By Abdul-Azim Ahmed, Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK
There are currently somewhere in the region of 2000 mosques in Britain, with many more being established every year, and those that are established, growing and expanding in size. The importance of the mosque to British Muslims, and the role of the congregation in establishing and maintaining them, is an unexplored aspect of contemporary Islamic studies. In this lecture, Abdul-Azim Ahmed explores the role of the Muslim congregation in Britain, and more widely, within Anglophone Islam, as a means of doing and producing religion together.
Speaker
Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmedis Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK. His doctoral study was an ethnography of a British mosque, exploring the everyday, rhythm, and sacred space. He is continuing his research, but focusing on the prominence of the congregation amongst Muslims in diaspora, and its relationship to an emerging category, that of Anglophone Islam. He has also previously worked in the third-sector in Wales, managing a youth work project and undertaking policy research.
Organiser
Jonas Otterbeck, Professor of Islamic Studies, Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations.
Time and Venue
Wednesday 5 February 2020, 18.00-19.30
Atrium Conference Room,
Aga Khan Centre,
10 Handyside Street,
London N1C 4DN
Booking
This event is free but booking is essential:
To attend in person, please click here.
To attend online, please click here.
1.Postcolonial Questions and Performances Presents:
Christiane Gruber and Shahzia Sikander at Rutgers-Newark
Friday, January 31 | Dana Room, Dana Library
185 University Ave | Newark, NJ
4 p.m. book talk | 5:30 p.m. conversation
*rescheduled from 2019 due to weather*
“The Praiseworthy One: Devotional Images of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Traditions”
Christiane Gruber, University of Michigan
This presentation explores a number of paintings of the Prophet Muhammad produced in Persian and Turkish lands from the fourteenth century to the modern day. Ranging from veristic to abstract, these images represent Muhammad’s individual traits, primordial luminosity, and veiled essence. Their pictorial motifs reveal that artists engaged in abstract thought and turned to symbolic motifs in order to imagine Muhammad’s primordial origins and prophetic standing. In creating and gazing upon such images, artists and viewers also were inspired by various mystical beliefs and practices, including devotional invocation, in the process seeking to express their piety through both verbal and pictorial language. Within a variety of Islamic expressive cultures, paintings thus have functioned as a powerful means for devotional engagement with Muhammad, the “praiseworthy” Prophet and Messenger of Islam.
Followed by a conversation between
Shahzia Sikander, Artist & Christiane Gruber, University of Michigan
Moderated by, Alex Dika Seggerman, Rutgers-Newark
Shahzia Sikander is a Pakistani-American artist who uses South Asian, American, Feminist and Muslim perspectives to highlight the mercurial nature of transnational identity. Sikander’s pioneering practices takes historical Indian and Persian painting as a point of departure and challenges the strict formal tropes of Indo-Persian miniature genre by experimenting with scale and various forms of new media to interrogate ideas of language, empire and migration. A Mac Arthur Grant recipient (2006) her artwork has been exhibited globally.
Christiane Gruber is Professor of Islamic Art and Associate Chair in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research interests span medieval Islamic art to contemporary visual culture. She has authored three books and has edited a dozen volumes on Islamic book arts, ascension texts and images, images of the Prophet Muhammad, and modern visual and material culture.
Sponsored by Office of the Chancellor, Department of English, Arts, Culture and Media Department, and Honors College
Free and open to all, organized by Alex Dika Seggerman and Amir Moosavi
Part of the 2019-2020 Islam and the Humanities Lecture Series at Rutgers University-Newark
2. Ernst Herzfeld Award for Master Theses in Islamic Art History and Archaeology
Call for Applications
Deadline March 1, 2020
The Ernst Herzfeld-Gesellschaft für Islamische Kunst und Archäologie | Ernst Herzfeld Society for Studies in Islamic Art and Archaeology is pleased to introduce the Ernst Herzfeld Award for Master Theses in Islamic Art History and Archaeology. The aim of the award is to encourage and support young scholars in Europe who are working on visual and material culture of Islamic countries in the fields of Art History, Archeology, and Historical Building Research. The Ernst Herzfeld Award highlights the diversity and innovation of current research in these growing fields. The successful candidate is honored at the annual colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld Society, offered a full travel grant to present her/his master thesis at the colloquium, and is granted publication of the presented paper in the series of the Society, Beiträge zur Islamischen Kunst und Archäologie (BIKA).
Eligibility:
Application procedure:
Review Procedure:
Submission:
Please send the complete application by March 1, 2020 to award@ernst-herzfeld-gesellschaft.com
3. Conference: “Islam, Peace, and Justice”, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, 21-22 September 2020
Papers are invited that challenge stereotypes about Muslims, their relationship with cultural and religious pluralism, and the connection between Islam and violent extremism. We are looking for critical articulations of how Islam and Muslims draw on faith-inspired principles and energies to fostering resilient cultures of peace and justice.
Deadline for abstracts: 6 April 2020. Information: Christopher Hrynkow (chrynkow@stmcollege.ca)
5. British-Kuwait Friendship Society Prize
A prize or prizes will be awarded each year to the value of up to £10,000 for the best scholarly work in English on the Middle East which has been published in its first edition in the United Kingdom. We will shortly be accepting submissions for books published during the calendar year 2020 and listed in Whitaker’s Books in Print. The year will be taken as the copyright year listed within the book. Particular consideration will be given to books of sound scholarship which enhance understanding of the Middle East among a wider readership in the English speaking world. Translations of work published in other modern languages are not eligible.
The judges welcome entries on any aspect of Middle East studies. Normally the chronological remit of the prize will be from the rise of Islam until the present day, but outstanding scholarly entries from the pre-Islamic era may also be considered.
The award of the prize is the sole responsibility of the judges, whose decision is final. If the judges so decide, the prize may be divided.
Further information at: https://www.bkfsprize.com/what-we-do
6. The University of Edinburgh
Call for applications (deadline 28 February) for an IASH-Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellowship (early career researchers) and an IASH-Alwaleed Research Fellowship (senior scholars).
All information at: https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/news/new-fellowships-2020-21
1.Muqarnas, volume: 36
Editors: Gülru Necipoğlu and Maria J. Metzler
Muqarnas 36 features a stunning variety of Islamic art genres, ranging from monumental architecture, manuscripts, textiles, and tiles, to inscriptions, material objects, and forgery. It sweeps across India, Iran, and Turkey, and concludes in Britain, with the discovery of an Ashmolean Museum objet d’art that is not exactly what it is advertised to be.
The volume begins with an overview by Finbarr Barry Flood of the architecture, calligraphy, epigraphy, painting, and portable arts of pre-Mughal Islamicate South Asia. Pre-Mughal court culture has always played second fiddle to the overwhelming hegemony and brilliance of the Mughal dynasty but in its regional heterogeneity it is more than worthy of study.
This is followed by two essays examining manuscript illumination: Cailah Jackson, 2017 winner of the Margaret B. Ševčenko Prize in Islamic Art and Culture, discusses two manuscripts illuminated by Mukhlis ibn ʿAbdallah al-Hindi in thirteenth-century Konya; and Denise-Marie Teece treats the early sixteenth-century Safīna manuscript (Biblioteca Reale Ms. Or. 101), its illuminator Ruzbehan al-Modhahheb, and its unique six-page preface. A Byzantine stole with embroidered Arabic inscriptions in the collection of Vatopediou Monastery on Mount Athos is the subject of the fourth essay by Nikolaos Vryzidis.
The volume’s seven essays conclude with three investigations into Ottoman art history: the blue-and-white tiles of the Baba Naqqaş style of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, as prominently displayed in the Muradiye Mosque in Edirne (Patricia Blessing), the architectural book Risāle-i Miʿmāriyye of the seventeenth-century Caʿfer Efendi and in particular his notes on surveying and the architect’s cubit (Gül Kale), and the evolution of the late sixteenth-century Ottoman custom of requiring the sultan to be victorious over the non-Muslim enemy and to only use spoils from the holy war in the construction of a sultanic mosque (Samet Budak).
The Notes and Sources section continues with Bill Hickman’s analysis of the tantalizing calligraphed tiles of the now destroyed mosque built for the Sufi shaykh and poet Eşrefoğlu Rumi (d. 1469?), and two communications about artifacts on British soil: a wooden box, believed to have contained the heart of Abbot Roger de Norton (d. 1291), with an Arabic inscription that is now deciphered by Barry Knight, 147 years after its discovery; and a gorgeous Persian luster bowl in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, which when subjected to UV examination, revealed that it was a product of extensive repair, or “restoration,” over the centuries. A systematic examination of the bowl and its remarkable history by Francesca Leoni and her colleagues uncovers a level of fakery of antiques that, it is suggested, might be prevalent in museum ceramic collections.
https://brill.com/view/title/56479
2. Call for Papers
The Arts and Archaeology of Funerary Cultures in Islam
16th Colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld-Gesellschaft | Ernst Herzfeld Society
Rome, Sapienza University, July 2-4, 2020
In cultures of Islam, like those of other religions which believe in life in the hereafter, death is not the end but a transition into something to come. The significance of visual and material culture relating to the dead is clear from the wide spread of monumental mausolea that shelter and mark the grave, remember the buried, and invite visitors. It is reflected in various other arts, and in social practices of visiting burial places and in literature such as pilgrimage guides. Research has shown that since the early Islamic period, despite religious disapproval of ostentatious grave marking, burial monuments for specific persons were a part of funeraryculture as well as the use of inscribed tombstones.
While art historical and archaeological research on various civilizations has dealt with funerary culture in a wider sense, this is less the case in Islamic art and archaeology. Although a significant amount of scholarship has been produced, a comprehensive image of visual and material aspects of funerary cultures is lacking, and some aspects have been overshadowing others. One focus has been on the form, function, and epigraphy of funerary architecture, such as mausolea, tomb towers, their relation to other buildings, and commemorative mosques.
Graves with tombstones and cemeteries, which constitute the majority of burials, have been less systematically studied; even lesser the various media and artefacts which furnish them, such as cenotaphs, railings, textiles, and other. Semantics of form have rarely been dealt with.
The evidence gained from archaeology, such as types of tombs, the placement of corpses,their clothing, the use of epigraphy, often has remained discrete, disconnected from wider discussions and interpretations of visual and material culture. Among the reasons behind this fragmented perspective are the diversity and geographical spread of evidence and the variety and range of disciplines and methods involved. They include field archaeology, archaeometric analysis of human remains, art historical study and discussion of architecture and artefacts,epigraphy, anthropology, historical and religious studies based on texts.
The 16th Colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld Society aims to bring together these diverse perspectives on visual and material aspects of death and the hereafter in Islamic cultures. It discusses Islamic funerary cultures through art history and archaeology as well as related disciplines and subfields. It invites individual papers and pre-arranged panels on all aspects and subjects that relate to this theme.
The Ernst Herzfeld Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der islamischen Kunst und Archäologie |Ernst Herzfeld Society for Studies in Islamic Art and Archaeology and the Department of Sciences of Antiquity, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy are delighted to invite you to participate in the Colloquium to be held in Rome, July 2–4, 2020.
Schedule – The Colloquium is planned to start with a keynote lecture on the evening of Thursday, July 2, 2020. The Colloquium continues with sessions on Friday and Saturday, July 3–4. A meeting of graduate students is scheduled for Thursday, July 2, for which a separate call will be circulated. The annual general assembly of the Ernst Herzfeld Society will be held on Friday or Saturday afternoon. A detailed schedule will follow in due course.
Application – Please submit your panel or paper proposal for the Colloquium by March 1,
2020 to Prof. Michelina Di Cesare: michelina.dicesare@uniroma1.it
All proposals will undergo a peer review selection process. Acceptance will be notified in the first week of April 2020.
The preferred colloquium language is English, while Italian and German are possible. Each presentation is limited to 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion (or 30 minutes of discussion per panel).
– Pre-arranged panels: will preferably include three presentations. Please submit a title and an abstract of no more than 500 words presenting the topic and the aim of the panel, as well as a provisional list of speakers.
– Individual papers: will be presented in open panels. Please submit a title and an abstract of no more than 300 words.
If you want to submit a paper proposal for the graduate meeting (separate call), please send your title and abstract to Sarah Johnson: sarah.cresap.johnson@gmail.com
Registration and participation in the colloquium are free for members of the Society. Other speakers and participants are asked to join the Society by paying the annual membership fee.
Speakers and participants will organise their own travel and accommodation. A list of hotels located in the vicinity of the Colloquium venues will be circulated in due course.
3. Reminder – closure of the V&A’s storage at Blythe House
Access to the V&A collections which are in storage at Blythe House will close while we prepare for the biggest move of our collections since the Second World War. Appointments services will reopen at our new Collections Research Centre at V&A East in Spring/Summer 2023.
The key closure dates you need to know are:
Further information on the store move is available at the following link:
https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/planning-collections-research-centre
Please keep this in mind as you plan your research trips to London this year, and please make sure your students and colleagues are aware.
Objects housed at the V&A in South Kensington will still be available for study.
4. Iranian Elements in the Pseudo-Aristotelian Sirr al-asrar (Secretum secretorum)
Maria Subtelny, Professor of Persian and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, the University of Toronto
Date: Thursday, January 30th, 2020
Time: 7:00-8:30 pm
Room 100, Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street
Abstract: The pseudo-Aristotelian Politics, known in Arabic as Sirr al-asrar (The secret of secrets) and in its medieval Latin translations as Secretum secretorum, purports to be Aristotle’s correspondence with Alexander the Great who at the time was engaged in the conquest of Persia. Probably compiled in the 10th century, this Arabic mirror for princes exhibits the influence of many different Late Antique sources, of which the Iranian—that is to say Sasanian—usually gets short shrift in the scholarly literature. The presentation seeks to identify the Iranian elements in the Sirr al-asrar that arguably constituted the basis for this poorly understood medieval blockbuster.
For free registration https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/iamcc-monthly-workshop-featuring-maria-subtelny-tickets-87162783231
5. Muhammad bin Hamad Aal Thani Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization
College of Islamic Studies
Hamad bin Khalifa University
Muhammad bin Hamad Al Thani Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization announces a student writing competition entitled: Muslim Intellectual Life in 2nd Century Hijri/8th Century CE Baghdad
Undergraduate Paper Writing Competition: $10,000 top prize on the theme of Muslim Intellectual Life in 2nd/8th c. Baghdad. Two top $10,000 prizes (one for Arabic and another for English) will be awarded. The best Arabic and English papers will be published. For further information please contact: cmccaward@hbku.edu.qa
The Awards
1) There would be separate and equal awards for both English and Arabic language papers. The awards shall be as follows:
Competition Themes:
1- Religion and Ethics
2- Natural Sciences
3- Philosophy
4- Literature and Poetry
5- Architecture
6- Art and Music
7- Calligraphy
8- The Art of Healing
9- Political Thought and Governance
Terms of participation in the competition:
1) Participants should be UNDERGRADUATE college/university level students only.
2) The competition is open to all Qatari and International students, both in Qatar and globally, whether Muslims or non-Muslims.
3) Participation in the competition can be in Arabic or English languages.
4) Participants must submit the registration form through the given Cognito Online Form link along with a recent photograph and a copy of their valid passport or identity card:
https://www.cognitoforms.com/HBKU3/_2ndCMCCUndergraduateCompetition2020
5) The research must be an original work, which was not published before and was not submitted to any other institution or research contest.
6) The researcher must adhere to the norms of academic writing and observe honesty in research.
7) The research paper must be written in a grammatically correct language with well-structured sentences and refined linguistic style.
8) The length of the research paper should be between 10000-11000 words.
9) The following format should be followed in writing the research paper:
a) Font type: Time New Roman
b) Font size: 12 for the text and 10 for the footnotes
c) Space between lines: 1.5
d) Page numbers: Bottom of the page
e) Footnotes: At the bottom of the page
f) References and sources: At the end of the research paper
10) Research papers would be reviewed and judged by an academic committee
11) The decision of the committee shall be final.
12) The research papers submitted for competition will be the academic property of the Center and will not be returned to the participants.
13) Participation in the contest starts as of January 01, 2020.
14)The last date for submission of papers shall be June 30, 2020. No submissions would be considered if they reach the Center after this date.
6. DEADLINE APPROACHING: AMERICAN CENTER OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH IN AMMAN FELLOWSHIPS
2020–2021
Deadline for the following fellowships is February 1, 2020
NEH Fellowship: Maximum single award of ten months for a scholar who has a Ph.D. or has completed his or her professional training. Other awards for minimum of four to nine months. Fields of research include, but are not limited to: modern and classical languages, linguistics, literature, history, jurisprudence, philosophy, archaeology, heritage studies, comparative religion, ethics, and the history, criticism, and theory of the arts. Social and political scientists are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or foreign nationals living in the U.S. three years immediately preceding the application deadline. The award for ten months is $50,000 of which $32,000 is for stipend and travel and the remainder is for ACOR room and board. Shorter award periods are prorated accordingly (i.e., six months award for $30,000 includes $19,200 for stipend and travel); residency at ACOR is required. The award must be used between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Funding for this fellowship provided by the National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutes (FPIRI).
ACOR-CAORC Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Two or more two- to six-month fellowships for post-doctoral scholars and scholars with a terminal degree in their field, pursuing research or publication projects in the natural and social sciences, humanities, and associated disciplines relating to the Middle East. U.S. citizenship required. Maximum award is $32,400. Awards must be used between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2021 and Fellows must reside at ACOR. Funding for this fellowship is provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
ACOR-CAORC Fellowship: Two or more two- to six-month fellowships for masters and doctoral students. Fields of study include all areas of the humanities and the natural and social sciences. Topics should contribute to scholarship in Middle East studies. U.S. citizenship required. Maximum award is $23,800. Awards must be used between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2021 and Fellows must reside at ACOR. Funding for this fellowship is provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellowship: Up to four awards of $1,500 each to support beginners in archaeological fieldwork who have been accepted as team members on archaeological projects with ASOR CAP affiliation in Jordan. Open to undergraduate or graduate students of U.S. or Canadian citizenship as well as individuals who graduated less than 12 months before February 1, 2020 and/or have been accepted to a Graduate program for Fall 2020.
Bert and Sally de Vries Fellowship: One award of $1,500 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.
Harrell Family Fellowship: One award of $2,000 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.
Pierre and Patricia Bikai Fellowship: Two awards for one month each or one two-month award for residency at ACOR in Amman. It 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 ACOR and a monthly stipend of $600.
Burton MacDonald and Rosemarie Sampson Fellowship: One award for either eight weeks residency at ACOR for research in the fields of Ancient Near Eastern languages and history, archaeology, Bible studies, or comparative religion, or a travel grant to assist with participation in an archaeological field project in Jordan. The ACOR residency fellowship option includes room and board at ACOR and a monthly stipend of $400. The travel grant option provides a single payment of $2,000 to help with any project related expenses. Both options are open to enrolled undergraduate or graduate students of Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status.
Kenneth W. Russell Fellowship: One award of $1,800 toward educational assistance for a Jordanian student enrolled in an archaeology or cultural heritage degree program in any country. For the 2020–2021 cycle, the Russell fellowship is only open to enrolled graduate students of Jordanian nationality.
James A. Sauer Fellowship: One award of $1,250 to support a graduate student participating on an archaeological project or pursuing independent research in Jordan. For the 2020–2021 cycle, the Sauer fellowship is only open to enrolled graduate students of non-Jordanian nationality.
Frederick-Wenger Memorial Endowment: Two awards of $1,500 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.
Jordanian Graduate Student Scholarship: Four awards of $3,000 each to assist Jordanian graduate students with the annual costs of their academic programs during the period May 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021. 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 cultural resource management related issues). Awardees who demonstrate excellent progress in their programs will be eligible to apply in consecutive years.
Please Note: NEH, CAORC, MacDonald and Sampson (residency option), and Bikai Fellows will reside at the ACOR facility in Amman while conducting their research.
Deadline for the following scholarship is February 1, 2020.
See the application instructions for this scholarship:
Jordanian Travel Scholarship for ASOR Annual Meeting: Two travel scholarships of $3,500 each to assist Jordanians participating and delivering a paper at the ASOR Annual meeting in mid-November in the United States. Academic papers should be submitted through the ASOR’s website (www.asor.org/am) by February 1, 2020. Final award selection will be determined by the ASOR program committee.
Deadline for the following scholarship is February 15, 2020.
See the application instructions for this scholarship:
ACOR Fellow MESA Award: One award of $1,000 to a former ACOR Fellow of any nationality for participation in the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) annual meeting. Eligible applicants are anyone who had previously been awarded any ACOR Fellowship (including the named fellowships and former CLS students) and their abstract has been submitted for presentation at the 2020 MESA annual meeting. The awardee must mention the award and ACOR in the text of paper, in addition to including ACOR’s logo on the “Thank You” slide. A check for $1,000 will be mailed before the meeting takes place. To apply, please submit the abstract, CV, and cover letter to usa.office@acorjordan.edu by February 15, 2020. For more information about the MESA annual meeting, please check MESA’s website: https://mesana.org/annual-meeting/
Further information can be found at: ACOR Fellowships 2020 – 2021. Applications should be submitted online at https://orcfellowships.fluidreview.com/
7. The Department of Medieval Studies at the Central European University is pleased to announce its call for applications for graduate programs offering tuition waivers and scholarships for the majority of students:
We provide comparative and multi-disciplinary postgraduate education on all aspects of the history and
culture of the period between c.300 and c.1600, including the following fields of study:
Multi-disciplinary research
We host innovative research units, such as the Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, the Medieval Central Europe Research Network (MECERN) or the Center for Religious Studies. Students also have the opportunity to specialize in fields like Jewish studies and political thought. https://medievalstudies.ceu.edu/non-degree-specializations
Vienna / Budapest: Old and New Campus Work Together
CEU is a graduate English-language university in Vienna. While the mandatory teaching will take place there, we are also considering to offer research possibilities and optional teaching in Budapest during the academic year. Please signal in your application material if you would be interested in activities in Budapest.
Free source language courses
Our Source Language Teaching Group offers students year-round courses in less commonly taught languages, including Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Latin, Syriac, Hebrew, Armenian, Old Georgian, Ottoman, Old Church Slavonic and Persian, to help students get first-hand access to key research sources. https://sourcelanguages.ceu.edu/
Flexible funding options
CEU is committed to attracting talented students and scholars from around the world and offers a variety of merit-based scholarships and tuition awards available to students from any country. https://www.ceu.edu/financialaid
Application
Learn about our admissions process, deadlines and requirements at www.ceu.edu/apply. Deadline for applicants to master’s and doctoral programs who wish to be considered for CEU financial aid: January 30, 2020.
Questions?
Ask about our programs by contacting us at medstud@ceu.edu or through our inquiry form: http://sits.ceu.edu/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_enq&code1=AUMEDS&code2=&code4=IPR_UDF1=CFAREC1617MEDS
8. 2020 Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize
We are currently accepting entries for the 2020 Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize (for theses defended successfully in 2019). The prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best PhD dissertation on a Middle Eastern topic in the Social Sciences or Humanities awarded by a British University in the previous calendar year.
The current value of the prize is £600 for the winner and £150 for the runner up.
To enter, please send the following to administrator@brismes.org by midnight on 31 January 2020:
9. 20th ISA World Congress of Sociology on “Resurgent Authoritarianism: Sociology of New Entanglements of Religions, Politics, and Economies”, Melbourne, Australia, 24-30 July 2022
Information: https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/world-congress
10. 2 Postdoctoral Researchers for the Project “Going Local in the Perso-Islamic Lands: Afghan Geniza, Islamisation and Language in the pre-Mongol Islamic East”, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
We are looking for someone who has (or will have by the start of the role) a relevant PhD/DPhil, and expertise in Persian, Arabic, Hebrew or other specialist knowledge of the ancient languages, traditions and history of the pre-Mongol Islamicate East. Ideally you will also have an understanding of and interest in Islamicate history, Iranian linguistics, documents and archival practices.
Deadline for applications: 7 February 2020.
Information: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BXN982/postdoctoral-researcher-golocal-project-2-posts
11. Intensive Summer School of Ottoman History and Paleography: “Ottoman Provincial Elites: Origins and Transformations“, Rethymno, Crete, Greece, 8-14 July 2020
The aim of the summer school is to combine students’ training in the reading of Ottoman documents with their familiarization with research methodology and the academic literature and theoretical debate about an important theme of Ottoman history.
Deadline for applications: 31 January 2020.
1.The latest issue of International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA), 9/1:
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ijia/2020/00000009/00000001
2. The University of Michigan Library invites applications for fellowships for research in residence. We will award Ralph C. and Mary Lynn Heid Research Fellowships to support research projects that require substantial on-site use of our special collections, including the Islamic Manuscripts Collection held in the Special Collections Research Center. Applications for support for all types of research projects — academic, creative, journalistic, etc. — will be considered, and no specific credentials are required.
Fellows are expected to be in residence for at least one week during the period from 1 July 2020 through 30 June 2021. Fellows will be awarded $1,500 for a project requiring a residence of one week or more, or $3,000 for a project requiring a residence of three weeks or more. The application deadline is 31 January 2020. Award notifications will be made by 31 March 2020.
Applicants are required to provide a description of the proposed research (500 words or fewer), a description or preliminary list (one page max) of the collection material to be consulted, a curriculum vitae or resume, and two letters of support. The fellowship opportunity is open to applicants of all nationalities. Non-U.S. citizens awarded a fellowship are required to obtain a J-1 visa. Fellowships are normally not granted to researchers who live within commuting distance of the library.
Applications must be submitted online through Submittable.
Questions, including those regarding collections that are in scope for this fellowship opportunity, may be directed to Martha O’Hara Conway, Director, Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan Library, at moconway@umich.edu.
3. The programme for the 6thannual Islamic Archaeology Day co-hosted by SOAS and UCL and held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on Saturday February 1st 2020 between 11 and 6pm is below.
Rsegister online at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/islamic-archaeology-day-2020-tickets-84251457377. There is an early-bird registration fee of £12 for those who register before January 10th; registration after the 10th is £18 (£10 for students) so we encourage you to register as soon as possible! Registration will cover a sandwich lunch, refreshments and a wine reception.
There will be a dinner afterwards at the Life Goddess on Store Street for anyone who would like to attend at a cost of £35pp (including 3 courses, plenty of wine and tip) so please indicate on the registration form if you are interested in joining us. We’ll confirm final numbers and the price for the dinner with all those interested in mid-January.
Islamic Archaeology Day 2020 Programme
11-6pm, Saturday, February 1st 2020
31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY
Session 1 (Chair: Hugh Kennedy)
11:00 Introduction
11:15 A Recent Project on the Mosque-Palace Complex of Kufa
Michelina Di Cesare (La Sapienza-Rome)
11:40 Rayy: Citadel, the Walled City, Its Neighborhoods and Expansions, and the Suburban Zone
Renata Holod (University of Pennsylvania)
12:05 Missing bricks: exploring the long history of Dandankan (Daş Rabat)
Martina Rugiadi (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Paul Wordsworth (Oxford)
12:30 Jāṭū – Recent research on a medieval ‘Muslim City’ in Western Sicily
Nicole Mölk (University of Innsbruck)
1:00 Lunch (provided)
Session 2 – (Chair: Corisande Fenwick)
2:00 Zooarchaeological insights into social Islamisation in al-Andalus
Marcos Garcia Garcia (York)
2:25 Meat consumption and food taboos in Islamic Sicily
Veronica Aniceti (Sheffield)
2:50 Persian Blue: A New Blue Pigment or A Different Method of Egyptian Blue Production?
Rahil Alipour (UCL) and Thilo Rehren (Cyprus Institute/ UCL)
3:15 Palermo’s trade from the end of the 9th to the 11th century: written Arabic sources and archaeological data
Viva Sacco (École française de Rome)
3:45 Tea break
Session 3 – (Chair: Scott Redford)
Michaela Sinibaldi (Cardiff University)
4:40 Rethinking the periurban landscape in Nasrid Granada: the land of Aynadamar
Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz (Universidad de Granada)
5:05 The Mongol Conquest in Central Asia: New evidence from Merv (Turkmenistan) and Otrar (Kazakhstan)
Katie Campbell (Oxford)
5:30 Julfar: a port of the Hormuzi maritime empire
Rob Carter (UCL)
6-7pm Reception in SCR
7 :15pm Dinner (for those who have pre-booked) at the Life Goddess, Store Street
For more information on the Islamic Archaeology Network and its events: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/directory/islamic-archaeology-network
4. Organizers of the Second Annual Workshop on Ibadi Manuscripts & Manuscript Cultures, “Ibadi Manuscripts in European and North American Libraries,” are pleased to announce a call for participants. The workshop will be held in Lviv, Ukraine on 24-25 April 2020, and the deadline for proposals is 15 February 2020. Details can be found in Arabic, English, and French at: https://ibadistudies.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/lviv_ibadi_mss_cfp_2020.pdf
5. Intensive course: A methodological seminar on Venetian sources concerning trade in Mamluk territories and the role of Cyprus in this regard
A three-day intensive seminar on a wide range of Venetian sources related to maritime trade in the Mamluk sultanate and to the role of Cyprus in this regard will be conducted by Professor Benjamin Arbel of Tel Aviv University. The course, which will focus on late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century materials, will be held immediately before the Seventh Conference of the School of Mamlūk Studies at the Centre for Visual Arts and Research in Nicosia, from June 29 to July 1, 2020. It is intended to develop methodological, palaeographic, and analytical abilities for the study of sources related to the above-mentioned field, such as decisions of Venice’s government bodies (particularly documents on the organization and control of commercial shipping), reports by Venetian consuls and governors, notarial contracts, commercial guides and tariffs, merchant letters, etc. An advanced or intermediate ability in reading Italian texts is required.
) Since the number of the participants will be limited (a maximum of 12), those who desire to take part in the course are requested to submit a CV, a statement of purpose, and a letter of recommendation by someone familiar with your work to the following email address: sms2020nicosia@gmail.com by the end of January, 2020. Those who are selected for the course will be notified by the end of February, 2020, at which time information about the method of payment for the course fees will be provided.
The course fee is 315€, which also includes the registration fee for the subsequent conference (July 2–4). The fees must be paid by April 30, 2020. Registration and participation will not be confirmed until payment is received. Please note that any cancellations received in writing by May 14, 2020, will secure a full refund of the fees paid, minus 20%. Refunds of fees paid will not be made under any circumstances for cancellations made after May 14, 2020. Participants must make their own travel arrangements.
6. The Balzan Seminar on the formation, maintenance, and failure of states in the Muslim world before 1800
To advanced graduate students, postdocs, and holders of tenure-track positions working on relevant topics:
We are seeking to bring together an internationally recruited group of eight to ten early-career scholars working on topics related to the formation, maintenance, and failure of states in the various regions of the Muslim world prior to 1800. We would also like to include in the group two early-career scholars working on similar topics in the non-Muslim world. The project will last for five years, and is funded by the generosity of the Balzan Foundation. In the first two years the group will meet twice on its own, and in the last three it will convene up to five conferences to which other scholars, including more senior ones, will also be invited. The first meeting will be in late June or early July of 2020 at a location yet to be determined. The project will issue in the publication of a volume the core of which will be studies written by members of the group. The regular language of the group will be English, and basic expenses of the participants (including travel and accommodation) will be funded. More details are available below, and preliminary inquiries can be addressed to Antoine Borrut (aborrut@umd.edu) or Michael Cook (mcook@princeton.edu).
Applications to join the group should be submitted by January 31, 2020. Your application should consist of a CV, a cover letter setting out your interests and fields of expertise, two writing samples (papers or chapters, published or unpublished), and contact information for two referees. In the cover letter you should also indicate your availability in late June or early July of 2020. These materials should be assembled in the form of a single PDF, and sent to: nessemi@princeton.edu. Please name the file “lastname firstname Balzan application.pdf”.
Antoine Borrut (University of Maryland)
Michael Cook (Princeton University)
FURTHER DETAILS
The Balzan seminar seeks to shed fresh light on the formation, maintenance, and failure of states in the various regions of the Muslim world prior to 1800 in a comparative perspective. The basic idea of the project is to examine the roles not just of material resources and obstacles, but also of traditions and values, both Islamic and non-Islamic, over time and space, and the interactions between all these elements. We may decide to delimit the themes of the project in some respects after the group has taken shape.
As stated above, we would like to recruit eight to ten scholars working on the Muslim world together with a couple of scholars working on comparable topics in non-Muslim contexts. These contexts could be ancient, medieval, or early modern. We would particularly like to secure the presence of a scholar familiar with the well-developed literature on such issues in the European context, but are also interested in recruiting a scholar working on East Asia, Hindu South Asia, or another part of the non-Muslim world.
The venue for the meetings and conferences remains to be determined; one consideration in making the decision will be visa requirements, particularly as they may affect scholars from the Muslim world.
The purpose of the first meeting (summer 2020) is for the members of the group to get to know each other and begin to establish a framework for the discussion of the issues. What matters is not that all members of the group should agree, but that they should be in widely-based conversation with each other. To expedite this process, we ask each member of the group to submit a month in advance a chapter or paper representative of their work for group discussion. Another significant part of the agenda of this first meeting will be to decide the basic parameters of the position paper that each member of the group will submit a month in advance of the second meeting.
The first task of second meeting (summer 2021) will be to discuss the position papers. These papers will not be presentations of detailed research but rather analytical and synthesizing discussions of agreed-upon issues within the region and period of the member’s broader field of expertise. When this is concluded, we expect to have a well-knit group with shared interests (not necessarily shared views) that reach across space and time, and include comparison with the non-Muslim world. The second task of the meeting will be to plan a series of up to five conferences.
These conferences will take place over the following three years. They could be on particular regions or periods, or particular themes across regions and periods. The group will identify other scholars, including more senior ones, to invite to these conferences; these would be scholars it was particularly interested in engaging with. The group will nevertheless constitute the backbone of each conference, and several of the papers submitted will be by its members.
Within six months of the final conference, each member of the group will be responsible for submitting a final version of the paper discussed at the second meeting, taking account of the work of the conferences. These papers, together with a few contributions from the senior scholars, will be peer-reviewed and published with a leading university press. We plan to seek a contract for the volume after the second meeting. We attach great importance to the coherence of the volume.
Members of the group in good standing will receive an annual research fund of $2,000 for the five years of the project. This can be used for relevant expenses including books and travel (other than travel to the meetings and conferences, which is already covered).
The project will also be able to support a few manuscript review workshops outside the framework of the meetings and conferences.
7. Persian Calligraphy, Nasta’liq Script
Mondays 6:00-8:00pm 20 January 2020 — 23 March 2020.
Wednesdays 6:00-8:00pm 22 January 2020 — 25 March 2020.
SOAS University of London (room to be confirmed at registration)
10 Thornhaugh St, Bloomsbury, London WC1H 0XG
Information is available at: https://www.iranheritage.org/calligraphy.html
8. Why Yemen Matters: The Heritage of a Land in Crisis
Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 5-6:30 pm
White-Levy Room, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ
Yemen’s war and humanitarian crisis are in the news, but very little is known about the rich cultural heritage of the southwestern corner of Arabia throughout history. Also largely unknown are Yemen’s geographic and economic diversity or their impact on recent events. Yemen’s diversity owes much to conquest, trade, and migration between Yemen and Christian Ethiopia, Sasanian Iran, Ayyubid Egypt, Islamic Iran, Ottoman Turkey, the African coast and Southeast Asia.
In this panel experts on different periods of Yemeni history and its diverse contemporary contexts probe beyond current politics to share their insights and discuss potentials for future scholarly research on Yemen.
Panelists, currently scholars at IAS, include: historians of antiquity, Glen Bowersock (IAS) and Christian Robin (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris), and of the Islamic era, Hassan Ansari (IAS), Sabine Schmidtke (IAS), Daniel Varisco (American Institute for Yemeni Studies), and anthropologists Najwa Adra (IAS) and Nathalie Peutz (New York University Abu Dhabi).This event is part of the Near Eastern Studies Workshops sponsored by Professor Sabine Schmidtke (IAS).
RSVP to nitschke@ias.edu
9. The newly established, fully open-access Journal of the Contemporary Study of Islam is now accepting submissions for its first issue, to be released at the end of March 2020.
The Journal of the Contemporary Study of Islam was launched by the Institute for the Contemporary Study of Islam, based in the UK, to promote and disseminate research related to Islam and Muslims in the contemporary world. Although we may consider any submissions that fall within the scope of JCSI, we are keen to publish research articles that deal with some of the most pressing issues that Muslims face in the contemporary world, such as new approaches to Islamic law, new religious trends in the Muslim world (e.g. new atheism, deism, and agnosticism), Islam and politics, sectarianism in the Muslim world, Islam and social change, Islam and human rights, Islamophobia, Muslim-Christian relations, new methodological developments in Quranic studies, and hadith studies.
JCSI aims to reach a wider readership beyond academia, and thus we suggest authors use accessible language in their submissions. The journal is open-access, free of cost for authors and readers alike, and provides unrestricted online access to its readers.
JCSI is a member of Crossref, an independent membership association for building shared technologies. Crossref was launched in early 2000 as a cooperative effort among publishers to enable citation linking in journals using the Digital Object Identifier, or DOI. Our DOI prefix is 10.37264 and our ISSN is 2633-7282 (online). We are in the process of applying for membership to the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and CLOCKSS archival service.
JCSI has a prestigious advisory board and will be covered by the leading relevant indexing services.
Interested scholars are invited to submit their articles for consideration at https://contemporarystudyofislam.org/index.php/jcsi/about/submissions
Manuscripts will undergo a process of blind peer review. Author guidelines are available at https://contemporarystudyofislam.org/index.php/jcsi/about/submissions
10. ISMC Event: Recognising Islam in Europe and North America Mosques, the Congregation and Anglophone Islam
London – 5 February 2020
By Abdul-Azim Ahmed, Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK
There are currently somewhere in the region of 2000 mosques in Britain, with many more being established every year, and those that are established, growing and expanding in size. The importance of the mosque to British Muslims, and the role of the congregation in establishing and maintaining them, is an unexplored aspect of contemporary Islamic studies. In this lecture, Abdul-Azim Ahmed explores the role of the Muslim congregation in Britain, and more widely, within Anglophone Islam, as a means of doing and producing religion together.
Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed is Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK. His doctoral study was an ethnography of a British mosque, exploring the everyday, rhythm, and sacred space. He is continuing his research, but focusing on the prominence of the congregation amongst Muslims in diaspora, and its relationship to an emerging category, that of Anglophone Islam. He has also previously worked in the third-sector in Wales, managing a youth work project and undertaking policy research.
Wednesday 5 February 2020, 18.00-19.30
Atrium Conference Room,
Aga Khan Centre,
10 Handyside Street,
London N1C 4DN
For the full programme: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SwToy-v2BuV7dchg4TOKEdx9g-y14jRj/view
This event is free but booking is essential:
To attend in person, please click here.
To attend online, please click here.
11. Workshop: “Western Intervention in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings: Political Containment, Neoliberalism, and Imperial Legacies”, University of Oxford, 10-11 March 2020
This workshop will situate current military and development interventions into a larger context and debate about (neo)colonialism, governance, the state, sovereignty, and to encourage a systematic treatment of the historical continuities and ruptures between the present and the explicitly imperial political contexts of the early twentieth century.
12. Assistant Professor in Global Public History (Focus on the Islamic World since 1800), York University, Ontario, Canada
Required qualifications include a completed PhD in History or a related discipline, and an ongoing program of research in the area of specialization. Candidates are expected to demonstrate excellence or the promise of excellence in teaching and in scholarly research.
Deadline for applications: 25 January 2020.
Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=59541
13. Non Tenure-track Instructor in Islamic Studies at the Rank of Lecturer (2020-2021), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
The ideal candidate will have the PhD in hand as well as proven ability to teach in at least three of the following areas: Sufism, Islamic Intellectual Traditions, Islamic Scriptures, Shi’ism, Islamic Mystical Literature, the Prophet Muhammad, an introduction to Islam, and a survey of religions of the Western World.
Review of applications will begin on 14 February 2020. Information: http://jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/107353
14. New Posts at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University, Canberra
Lecturer (Iranian Studies with a Focus on Political Science and IR Related to Iran)
Deadline for application: 3 February 2020. Information: https://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/534784/lecturer-iranian-studies
Senior Lecturer (Politics and International Relations of the Arabic Speaking Middle East)
Deadline for application: 2 March 2020. Information: https://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/530822/senior-lecturer-politics-and-international-relations-of-the-arabic-speaking-middle-east
Lecturer (Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies)
Deadline for application: 2 March 2020. Information: https://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/535130/lecturer-sociology-of-islam-and-muslim-societies
Postdoctoral Fellow (Central Asian Studies)
Deadline for application: 2 March 2020. Information: https://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/535158/postdoctoral-fellow-central-asian-studies
15. Intensive Summer Course in Modern Standard Arabic, Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, 29 May – 24 July 2020
Participants will develop their Arabic language skills, learn about North Africa, and experience various aspects of Moroccan culture through club activities and field trips.
Deadline for application: 24 May 2020. Information: http://www.aui.ma/aranas/
16. Teach English or Music to Palestine and Syrian Refugee Children in the Camps of Lebanon, 29 June – 8 August 2020
Volunteers are invited to provide English language instruction and other recreational enrichment activities (such as music, theater, dance, film, yoga, and creative writing), while living and working in the refugee camps of Lebanon.
Deadline for application: 12 February 2020.
Information: https://leap-program.org/?na=v&nk=410-cab1fdffad&id=66
18. Lecturer in Arabic
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures is seeking a lecturer in Arabic, beginning on August 15, 2020 for a full-time, non-tenure-track, nine-month position. This appointment may be renewable, subject to performance, department needs, and available funding. The preferred candidate will have formal training in the teaching of foreign language and specifically in the teaching of Arabic as a foreign language.
The successful candidate will have the ability to teach elementary through advanced Modern Standard Arabic courses, as well as any of the languages taught in the department (e.g., French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish) at the elementary level or higher.
Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate courses (12 credit hours per semester), meeting with students during regular weekly office hours, and collaborating with the program director on course and curriculum development. Superior proficiency in Arabic, intermediate proficiency in the secondary language, and a solid knowledge of English are required.
Qualifications include a commitment to excellence in Arabic language pedagogy, a minimum of one year of college-level teaching experience, and a Ph.D. in Arabic literature or linguistics, or a related field, in hand by July 31, 2020.
Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Preference will be given to candidates whose materials are received by January 31, 2020
The application should consist of a cover letter, curriculum vitae, transcripts, and three letters of recommendation. Materials should be submitted through Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/71953
1.Conference “Digital Humanities in Arabic”, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar, 20-21 April 2020
This conference focuses on issues pretraining to the praxis of Digital Humanities in diverse geographical contexts, countries, and cultures, especially Arabic. The conference is very multidisciplinary by nature with the aim of advancing the current state of knowledge for researchers in Arabic literature, culture, media, arts, history, political science, and sociology.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2020. Information: https://socialhistoryportal.org/news/articles/309989
2. Early Career Academics Symposium in Honour of Fred Halliday, Middle East Centre, London School of Economics, 30 April 2020
The main objective will be to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas between researchers in the last year of their PhD, or still within three years of having completed one, undertaking research on any of the topics that Fred Halliday worked on: Greater West Asia/the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, revolutions, historical sociology, gender, nationalism and internationalism, historical International Relations.
Information: http://www.lse.ac.uk/international-relations/ir-events/fh-symposium
3. 11th Annual Conference of the “Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)“, George Washington University, 21-22 May 2020
Papers will focus on the politics of the contemporary Middle East. The conference will include workshop sessions on each accepted paper, with each paper read by multiple senior scholars in the field with an eye towards preparing them for submission for publication.
Information: https://pomeps.org/call-for-proposals-11th-annual-pomeps-conference
4. International Conference: “The Discourse of Anger in the Arab World since 2011”, Grenoble Alpes University, 28-29 May 2020
Researchers in Arabic Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Political Communication, Psycholinguistics, Sociology, History and other related disciplines are invited to submit proposals to this conference. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary research that tackles any aspect of the discourse of anger in the Arab world. Papers are invited in Arabic and French.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 February 2020.
Information: http://cefas.cnrs.fr/IMG/pdf/cfp_the_discourse_of_angerfv.pdf
5. Conference of the Working Group “Ethnology of Reiligion“ of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 6-9 September 2020
The conference wants to draw closer to the current as well as historical dynamics of the “religion-nature” interdependence and thus to the cultural ecologies of beliefs. We are interested in a broad set of questions and research foci, i.e.: how do religions and religious communities in past or present symbolically and ritually articulate and negotiate relationships with their immediate and distant environment? What role do other species – i.e. animals, plants – play within religious (knowledge) systems and practices? Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 March 2020. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/5651674/religion-and-nature-–-cultural-ecologies-belief
6. Grants for Three-years PhD Program at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) (Focus MENA Region), Hamburg
Requirements: Excellent MA in political science/international relations, economics, history, or a related discipline, high-quality project proposal that fits with the GIGA’s core research agenda with a focus on comparative area studies or a cross-regional focus, strong command of the English language. Starting 1 October 2020.
Deadline for applications: 1 February 2020. Information: https://www.giga-hamburg.de/sites/default/files/md_pdf/GIGA-20-01_DP_CfA_external_funding.pdf
7. Faculty Positions for Middle Eastern History & Arabic Language plus Others, Gulf University for Science & Technology (GUST), Kuwait
Open Faculty positions at GUST are to start in Fall 2020. Review of applications begins in December and will continue until the positions are filled.
– Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern History; https://www.gust.edu.kw/Vacancy_details/92977
– Assistant Professor in Arabic Language; https://www.gust.edu.kw/Vacancy_details/92978
– Further vacancies: https://www.gust.edu.kw/vacancies
8. One-Year Fellowships for Researchers at the Pre-doctoral, Postdoctoral, and Junior Faculty Level for Research Related to Middle Eastern Governance and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA
Applications from political scientists, historians, economists, sociologists, and other social scientists are welcome. Eligible candidates include advanced doctoral candidates, recent recipients of a Ph.D. or equivalent degree, and untenured faculty members. Priority will be given to applications pursuing one of these six primary areas of focus: Improving governance; building peace; revitalizing the state; broadening financial and labor markets; governing technology; adapting to environmental challenges; etc.
Deadline for applications: 15 January 2020.
9. Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations of the Arabic Speaking Middle East, Australian National University, Canberra
This position requires active independent contribution to research, undergraduate and graduate teaching and the supervision of research students. Knowledge and research competency in Arabic language is desirable.
Deadline for applications: 20 January 2020. Information: https://socioloxy.com/senior-lecturer-in-politics-and-international-relations-of-the-arabic-speaking-middle-east,i6247.html
10. MA in Islamic & West Asian Studies (1 Year), Royal Holloway University of London
Based at Department of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy, this degree provides empirically-grounded engagement with West Asia, combining an understanding of Islamic and regional history, with a clear connection to contemporary policy-relevant issues.
Deadline for application: For more information visit: https://bit.ly/37tQgFh or email: ciwas@rhul.ac.uk
11. The Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center (SQCC) is now accepting applications for the
2020 Summer Arabic Language and Media (SALAM) program, a fully-funded
competitive scholarship program to study intensive Arabic in Manah, Oman. The
SALAM scholarship allows students to gain a deeper knowledge of Arabic, while becoming
familiar with Omani history and culture.
Eligibility: All applicants must be U.S. citizens, enrolled in a degree seeking program (BA,
MA, or PhD) in Spring 2020, and have completed at least four semesters (or the
equivalent) of university-level Arabic coursework.
SALAM 2020 Program Dates: 29 May – 21 July 2020
To submit an application, or for more information,
please visit the SALAM page on the SQCC website.
Deadline: 15 February, 2020
12. Call For Proposals: Jack G. Shaheen Research Grants
Sponsored by the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University
In collaboration with the NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Deadline: January 15, 2020 5:00 p.m. EST
The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU are pleased to announce the first annual competition for the Jack G. Shaheen Research Grants. These grants are meant to facilitate travel to and accommodation in New York City over a short period of time for scholars conducting archival research in the Jack G. Shaheen Collection on Arabs in US Film and Television held at the NYU Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Kevorkian Center’s Ettinghausen Library, and Asian/Pacific/American Institute. Grants will be made at one of two levels described below, ranging between $500 and $2500, for research stays approximately three weeks in length. All recipients will be eligible for Visiting Researcher or Visiting Scholar status at NYU, and recipients will be encouraged to participate in the intellectual life of the Kevorkian Center and A/P/A Institute during their stay. Further information about the Shaheen Collection can be found below and at this link.
Exploratory Grants:
This grant category is meant for early career researchers who are interested in conducting exploratory research in the Jack G. Shaheen Collection over a brief period — as little as one week or up to three — in order to assess and familiarize oneself with the available materials in preparation for more substantive future research. We highly encourage early career researchers and graduate students working on dissertation proposals to apply in this category.
For applicants in this category, your application will require the following:
Residential Research Grants:
This grant category is open to more senior scholars who are interested in conducting substantive research in the Jack G. Shaheen Collection at NYU. These grants would fund approximately three weeks of research in New York. Scholarship recipients may be invited to present their research and findings at a Kevorkian Center and/or A/P/A Institute event, in which case further remuneration may be made available, depending on circumstances.
For applicants in this category, your application will require the following:
Apply Here.
Contact information: kevorkian.center@nyu.edu
1.Inaugural Middle East Conference 2020 – Ideas Towards New Agendas
The Middle Eastern Studies Department (MESD) at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) in Hamad Bin Khalifa University is proud to host this inaugural two-day international conference on 20-21 April 2020 in the Education City in Doha. This is an interdisciplinary conference and we expect participants with expertise from a broad range of academic disciplines in both social sciences and humanities. The conference aims to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on Middle East studies in its quest for developing new research agendas.
Representations of the Middle East in recent years have been beset with disturbing images of conflict and civil war, radicalism and sectarian strife, ethnic and gender violence, and destruction and forced displacement. Such portrayals are not limited to popular discourse alone; the academic and research agenda too have been securitised by concerns over radicalism and identity politics. The perception that the Middle East is somehow different in an unfortunate manner from the rest of the world has thus reshaped – and arguably distorted – both public understanding and the research agenda of the region.
This conference presents an opportunity to recast the Middle East beyond the reductive daily headlines. The case for the conference and its timing emanate from an urgent need to redress a distorted research agenda which has in recent years been unduly shaped by conflict, radicalism and security issues.
The principal objective is to take steps to develop a new, more constructive agenda for Middle East studies which recognises the region’s evolving characteristics and challenges, but also sees these in the wider context of international dynamics and interactions. We encourage participants to re-think and re-imagine the epistemologies, directions and agendas of our field.
Deadline for Submission – 16 JAN 2020
More info at: https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/mec
2. 11th Gulf Research Meeting
July 21-23, 2020, University of Cambridge
We are soliciting paper proposals for Gulf Research Meeting workshop titled Nationalization of GCC Labor Markets: The Changing Role of Higher Education in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution to be held at the University of Cambridge on July 21-23.
The aim of this workshop is to compare and contrast: the outcomes of investment in human capital on nationalization of GCC labor markets in the last decades, the current state of the labor markets with a special focus on the educational preparedness, i.e. employability, of the GCC nationals to enter the fourth industrial revolution; and future prognoses related to the labor market evolution and human capital development. The latter is based on qualitative education, training, knowledge, technology and innovation; and encompasses a breadth of non-tangible skills that a population possesses such as organization, leadership, work habits, initiative, problem solving, confidence, trustworthiness, etc. (Abdullah, 2010).
While the region’s young people have attained higher education levels than their parents, they have not been able to translate their education attainment to greater income opportunities. Furthermore, the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution offers new opportunities but also presents new challenges. The potential for technology to disrupt the GCC labor market is powerful. According to the World Government Summit 2019, 45% of existing work activities in the GCC labor market are potentially automatable today which cuts across both public and private sector. This automation potential could translate into significant economic value, but it also places pressures on education systems to produce graduates with a new set of skills which is beyond academic attainment. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value Report 2019, the shortage of skilled workers by 2030 is expected to reach more than 85 million workers globally. Today the half-life of a learned skill is expected to be five years and even shorter for technical skills. Skills required today take longer to learn because of the focus on behavioral skills and soft skills. Other new technology related skills also take more time as they are highly technical and changing rapidly. The role of education is primordial to prepare graduates to fit in within these new labor market conditions. As the region moves into the 4th Industrial Revolution, the workshop will investigate the intersections of policy making, education and technology in the region.
Full description of the workshop can be found here http://grm.grc.net/grm2020-call-for-papers/pdf/ws7.pdf
and the application form is available here http://grm.grc.net/grm2020-call-for-papers/pdf/GRM2020-application-form.pdf
Deadline: 15 February 2020
1.CFP – Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World invites submissions for the forthcoming volume 38, to be published in 2021.
Muqarnas is a scholarly journal that publishes articles on art, architectural history, and archaeology, as well as all aspects of Islamic visual and material cultures, historical and contemporary. Full-length articles are accompanied by shorter submissions grouped under a separate section titled “Notes and Sources,” for which we particularly welcome studies that introduce textual and visual primary sources.
Deadline for submissions: March 1, 2020.
Manuscripts should be submitted by email to the Managing Editor of Muqarnas at muqarnas@fas.harvard.edu.
A complete submission includes five elements:
Any submission that does not include these five elements will be returned to the author, as will articles that do not conform to the Muqarnas style sheet.
Articles must present original research that has not been published in any language previously. Authors must properly credit previous scholarship on the subject and cite the source of each quotation, with full bibliographic details given in the endnotes (no additional bibliography is required).
All articles are subject to review by the Editorial Committee and anonymous external readers, whose comments will be sent to the author only if the article is accepted for publication. Authors may be expected to make revisions based on the feedback of the readers and editors.
Muqarnas follows the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. For further specifications on preparing text and images for publication, see the Muqarnas style sheet (available to download from our website: https://agakhan.fas.harvard.edu/submission-guidelines).
2. Annual Conference of the Academy in Exile on “Dire Times: Critical Thinking Then and Now“, Freie Universität Berlin, 16-17 January 2020
Academy in Exile is a fellowship program for displaced and exiled scholars located at Universität Duisburg-Essen and Freie Universität Berlin. It offers scholars who are threatened in their home countries because of their academic or civic engagement the opportunity to resume their research abroad. The conference assembles international experts and fellows of Academy in Exile to jointly reflect on perspectives for critical thinking in contemporary academia.
For program and registration contact academy-in-exile@fu-berlin.de
3. Symposium: “Making Home Away: Displacement, Migration, and Resettlement”, University of Reading, 12 June 2020
Inviting academic, practical, political, and personal response to the many challenges faced by refugees in losing and making homes, this symposium intends to cultivate both renewed research efforts and policy action. Funded by the British Academy’s “Tackling the UKs International Challenges” grant scheme, this symposium will focus on the complex ways in which refugees move across regions and nations in pursuit of ‘home’, and asks how attention to refugee experiences might shape and enhance our understandings of migration.
Deadline for abstracts: 2 January 2020.
4. Conference: “Knowledge Systems and Ottoman-European Encounters: Spatial and Social Dynamics” 21-23 January 2021, University of Zurich
The conference will focus on knowledge from or about the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period, addressing two questions: from a spatial perspective, how can the Ottoman Empire be included into a European history of knowledge? From a social viewpoint: how was knowledge inside or about the Ottoman Empire organized and what kind of social functions can there be distinguished?
Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2020.
5. Post-Doctoral Fellowship Position in the Project “Striking from the Margins: From Disintegration to Reconstitution of State and Religion in the Middle East”, Central European University, Budapest
Applications are invited from researchers whose work falls under this thematic field from any of the following disciplines: comparative gender, policy studies, sociology, anthropology and religious studies. Required qualifications: Eligible applicants should have held a doctoral degree for a period of less than five years, and have a demonstrable record of achievement and promise in a relevant thematic field and discipline; etc.
Deadline for applications: 15 January 2020.
Information: https://www.ceu.edu/job/post-doctoral-fellowship
6. Three Vacancies in the Project ‘”Source of Life: Water Management in the Premodern Middle East (7th-15th Century)”, Radboud University Nijmegen
This project studies the interrelationship between water installations, governance, and legal and cultural frameworks in five Middle Eastern cities (Basra, Baghdad, Mosul, Damascus and Cairo) from the first Arab conquests to Ottoman rule (7th-15th c).
* A four-year PhD project: History of Middle Eastern Water Management, subproject 1, Cairo; full details: https://www.ru.nl/werken-bij/vacature/details-vacature/?recid=1069298&doel=embed&taal=nl
* A four-year PhD project: History of Middle Eastern Water Management, subproject 2, Damascus; full details: https://www.ru.nl/werken-bij/vacature/details-vacature/?recid=1069326&doel=embed&taal=nl
* A four-year postdoctoral project: History of Middle Eastern Water Management, subproject 3, Basra, Baghdad and Mosul; full details: https://www.ru.nl/werken-bij/vacature/details-vacature/?recid=1069343&doel=embed&taal=nl
Deadline for application: 9 January 2020. Information: Maaike van Berkel (m.vanberkel@let.ru.nl)
1.Short-term fellowships at the LSE’s Kuwait Programme
http://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/research/kuwait-programme/fellowships.
The application deadline is 2 January 2020, with the successful candidates undertaking their fellowship at the LSE any time between June 2020 and May 2021.
2. EU-Middle East Jean Monnet Network (EUMENIA) Conference on EU Middle East Relations, University of Jordan, Amman
We particularly encourage early career researchers and young scholars to submit an abstract. This interdisciplinary conference will involve different fields and sub-fields, including Middle Eastern Studies, European Studies, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Geography, Economics, Law and Political Science. Suggested topics: pedagogical issues such as the decolonisation of the curricula and the decentring agenda; EU-Middle East relations; etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2020. Information: http://eumenia.eu/2019/12/call-for-papers-eumenia-conference-on-eu-middle-east-relations-21-april-2020/
3. Professor (W3) for Iranian Studies, Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS), Universität Marburg
We expect an emphasis on modern Iran and a research focus in one of the following areas: literature, media, or language; society and history; shia, religious minorities, or gender. Experience in the successful acquisition of third-party funds is required.
Deadline for applications: 31 January 2020.
4. Assistant or Associate Professor in Modern Islam and Liberal Democracy, University of Virginia
We welcome candidates whose research interests include religious, social, and political thought in the contemporary Muslim world; Islam’s interactions with various political economies and cultures; and the relationships between Islam, politics, and democracy.
Contact: Jean Blackwell (jb8yf@virginia.edu)
Information: https://uva.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UVAJobs (#R0012413)
5. Professorship of Armenian History and Civilization, Columbia University
The department seeks a candidate with a distinguished record in Armenian Studies who will also contribute to the larger intellectual mission of the department.
Review of applications will continue until the position is filled.
Information: https://socioloxy.com/professorship-of-armenian-history-and-civilization,i6133.html
1.PhD Scholarship in Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies at Edinburgh
The Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh is delighted to invite applications for one PhD scholarship in any area within its expertise.
The scholarship will be funded by IMES and will cover tuition fees for the PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
Applications for both the Scholarship and the PhD must be made by 14th February 2020.
2. The Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian
Movements (CenSAMM) 2020 conference will be held at the University of
Bedfordshire UK (Bedford Campus) 29-30 June 2020.
The theme of the conference is: “The Study of Apocalyptic and
Millenarian Movements: Critical and Interdisciplinary Approaches.”
The aim of the conference is to facilitate critical and
interdisciplinary discussion of apocalypticism, millenarianism and
associated movements across time, place, and culture. The
interdisciplinary scope is broadly understood to include methodologies,
comparative approaches, and showcasing of research more specific to
individual fields of expertise.
Speakers include:
Prof. Catherine Wessinger (Loyola University, New Orleans)
Prof. Douglas Davies (Durham University, UK)
Prof. Linda Woodhead (Lancaster University, UK)
We invite individual paper proposals from scholars at all stages of
their career, including postgraduates, and we welcome suggestions for
group panels.
Please submit proposals to the Academic Directors Prof James Crossley
(St Mary’s University, Twickenham) and Dr Alastair Lockhart (University
of Cambridge) at conference@censamm.org. Submissions for papers should
include a 300-word abstract and short CV.
Deadline for proposals: 31 March 2020.
For more information, please see
https://censamm.org/conferences/SAMM-2020
3. REMINDER: CALL FOR PAPERS
Eighth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies
June 15-17, 2020
Proposal Deadline: December 31, 2019
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis, Missouri
This is a reminder that the deadline for proposal submissions for the Eighth Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (June 15-17, 2020) is fast approaching, so get your abstracts ready! We invite proposals for papers, complete sessions, and roundtables. Any topics regarding the scholarly investigation of the medieval and early modern world are welcome. Papers are normally twenty minutes each and sessions are scheduled for ninety minutes. Scholarly organizations are especially encouraged to sponsor proposals for complete sessions. The goal of the Symposium is to promote serious scholarly investigation into all topics and in all disciplines of medieval and early modern studies. The Symposium is also host to the 47th Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, the longest-running annual conference in North America. Opportunities for undergraduate submissions are also available via the Tirones Mediaevales sessions – see the website for more details.
The plenary speakers for this year will be David Abulafia, of Cambridge University, and Barbara Rosenwein, of Loyola University, Chicago.
The deadline for all submissions is December 31, 2019. Late submissions will be considered if space is available. Decisions will be made in January and the final program will be published in February.
For more information or to submit your proposal online go to: https://www.smrs-slu.org/
4. Borders, Belonging and Exclusion:
Afghans in Pakistan
By Sanaa Alimia
Pluralism and Plurality in Islamic Cultures
The fourth in a series of eight public events on Pluralism and Plurality in Islamic Cultures, co-produced by Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, the Aga Khan Museum and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture Education Programme and held in the iconic Aga Khan Centre.
Walls. Fences. Checkpoints. These are the images that spring to mind today when we think about the border. South Asia is also playing a central role in this trend. But today it is not the famous India-Pakistan border, home to military confrontation and Bollywood epics, that is the focus. Now attention is on the borders between India and Bangladesh and Pakistan and Afghanistan. Drawing from ten years of fieldwork in Pakistan, as well as Europe and Turkey, Sanaa Alimia’s lecture discusses the case of “border-making” between Pakistan and Afghanistan and how it relates to regional and global trends. Alongside, analysing the infrastructure and technologies that are a part of this story, she also pays attention the people involved: Afghans in Pakistan. By doing so, she reveals a tension between how the state tries to perform the border “from above” and how this is resisted “from below.”
Speaker
Dr Sanaa Alimia is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations at the Aga Khan University International (London).
Time and Venue
Thursday16 January 2020, 18.00-19.30
Atrium Conference Room,
Aga Khan Centre,
10 Handyside Street,
London N1C 4DN
Booking
This event is free but booking is essential. Reserve your ticket here
Unable to join us in London? Log on to our webinar using this link
5. Instructional Professor (open rank) in Modern Arabic:
The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the College of the University of Chicago seek to add to the University’s existing program in modern Arabic language. We invite applications for appointment as Instructional Professor (open rank) in modern Arabic. Start date of the appointment will be September 1, 2020. Appointment will be made at the rank of Assistant Instructional Professor, Associate Instructional Professor, or Instructional Professor, depending on qualifications and educational background. The initial appointment will be for one year, with review and progression schedule determined by a collective bargaining agreement between the University and the Service Employees International Union.
Responsibilities include both teaching and service duties. Teaching consists of six courses in Arabic language across three quarters, at all levels of the language, in Modern Standard Arabic and potentially in a colloquial Arabic. Service duties may include assistance with student placement, programmatic assessment, coordination of the Arabic Language Circle, Conversation Table, or other program-specific duties. Instructional Professors of all ranks are required to engage in regular professional development
details here: https://apply.interfolio.com/72606
To apply for this position, please submit your application through the University of Chicago’s Academic Recruitment website at http://apply.interfolio.com/72606 An application must include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, teaching statement, one sample syllabus for elementary or intermediate modern Arabic, and three letters of recommendation. Shortlisted candidates may be asked to submit a video demonstrating classroom teaching,
Application deadline: All applicant materials must be received by January 20, 2020. To ensure sufficient time for recommenders to submit letters, applicants are encouraged to request letters of recommendation through the Interfolio system before submitting the complete application.
This position is contingent upon budgetary approval. The terms and conditions of employment for this position are covered by a collective bargaining agreement between the University and the Service Employees International Union. For information on the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, please go to https://nelc.uchicago.edu. For questions about the position, please contact Amanda Young at amanday@uchicago.edu.
1.The Routledge Studies in Islam and Human Rights series publishes scholarly monographs that examine the rich and complex intellectual and institutional legacy of Islam relevant to human rights and social (in)justice since the formative period of Islam (7th century CE). The Series aims to integrate knowledge from a variety of disciplines employing new and established methodological and theoretical approaches in human rights research, taking into consideration the consequential legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and globalism on Muslim-majority countries in the modern era as well as the impact of Islam, as an idea and event, on indigenous peoples during the rise and expansion of the Islamic civilization. While acknowledging the fact that the human rights discourse is primarily political, the Series is committed to providing space to critical analysis, advocacy-oriented, and public policy research in an accessible form to students, professors, human rights professionals, and publicly-engaged scholars. The Series welcomes works dealing specifically with the topic of human rights theories as well as discoveries that connect human rights to social issues, institutions, themes, ideas, and events.
For more information, please see the series editor’s website.
Contact Info:
Ahmed E. Souaiaia, Series Editor
University of Iowa
ahmed-souaiaia@uiowa.edu
Yoko Nakamura, Assistant to the Editor
yoko-nakamura@uiowa.edu
Contact Email:
URL:
https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Islam-and-Human-Rights/book-series/RIHR
2. Formal opening (opens Dec 15-closes Feb. 20, 2020 ) of the application for the Azar Hatefi Graduate Fellowship for Iranian Diaspora Studies at SFSU which will be awarded in AY 2020-2021.Two awards in the amount of $10,000 will be given to support two incoming graduate students at SFSU in 2020-2021. NOTE: this is for a terminal master’s program only.
Announcement and criteria:
This $10,000 award is renewable after one year for a total of two years and is open to those interested in programs and disciplines at SFSU in arts and humanities, social sciences, as well as within the College of Ethnic Studies. Students must provide two letters of reference, as well as identify the names of two SFSU faculty with whom they intend to conduct research; applications must include a personal statement, as well as a proposal and timeline for the research project. Applicants can apply to this fellowship simultaneously with the application to the graduate program.
Deadline: 02/20/2020
Contact:
Persis M. Karim, Ph.D.
Neda Nobari Distinguished Chair
Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies
San Francisco State University
415 338-1500
3. International Workshop: “Nature and the Supernatural in Ottoman Culture”, Istanbul, 14-15 December 2019
See program at https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/5533934/international-workshop-nature-and-supernatural-ottoman-culture
4. Conference: „The Intercultural Roots Early Scholasticism: Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Latin“, London, 23-24 January 2020
Registration closes 9 January 2020. See program at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-intercultural-roots-early-scholasticism-greek-hebrew-arabic-latin-tickets-80013698125
5. International Workshop: “Media Representations of Law and Justice: Middle Eastern Perspectives”, Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Leipzig, 12–13 March 2020
We invite contributions on Arabic-language cinematic and television formats screening legal system in either contemporary or historical perspective and papers on legal dramas from neighboring countries in the ‘Greater Middle East’, as well as comparative studies to allow for broader transnational perspectives.
Deadline for abstracts: 8 January 2020. Information: https://tinyurl.com/vbqxrvo
6. 2nd International Congress on “Women and Politics in a Global World”, Altinbas University, Istanbul, 17-18 April 2020
The conference will assess the place and significance of women within the spheres of family, law, science, art, politics, culture and socio-economy throughout the ages in context of interdisciplinary studies involving women in throughout Turkey and the world.
Deadline for abstracts: 27 December 2019. Information: http://www.altinbas.edu.tr/wpgw/en/
7. 35th Annual Middle East History and Theory Conference: “Theorizing Gender and Sexuality in the Historic and Contemporary Middle East”, University of Chicago, 1-3 May 2020
Proposals are invited on the Middle East and spanning the sixth century c.e. to the present day. Topics include history, political science, anthropology, religious studies, geography, literary studies, philosophy, art history, and media studies.
Deadline for abstracts: 7 February 2020. Information: https://mehat2020.wixsite.com/mehat
8. 42nd Annual Conference of Middle East Librarians (MELCom International), University of Marburg, 26-28 May 2020
The local convenor will be Dr Susanne Saker. Papers are invited on: Librarianship, collection development and acquisition policies of Middle Eastern collections as sources for area studies; Cataloguing policies and practices; Current issues in information studies on the Middle East, etc. An excursion will also take place on 29 May.
Deadline for abstracts and pre-registration: 17 January 2020.
Information: http://www.melcominternational.org/wp-content/content/docs/MI_2020_CIRCUL_1_EN.pdf
9. International Conference of The Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII): “From Ancient to Modern: The Current State of Research on Iraq“, Washington, DC, 9 October 2020
This conference will bring together American, Iraqi, and international scholars to present their findings and exchange their ideas in any subject area.
Deadline for abstracts: 28 February 2020. Information: https://www.tarii.org/conferences
10. Assistant Professor in Political History (Focus Middle East/Mediterranean), Universiteit Utrecht
Applicants specialised in modern or contemporary European political history, ideally with a focus on the relationship between gender and politics; the history of colonialism or imperialism; Middle East; (post) colonial states.
Deadline for applications: 15 February 2020.
Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=59640
11. Fellowships of the Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII) for Research on Iraq
Proposals are invited from U.S. scholars for feasible research on Iraq-related topics to be conducted outside of Iraq and from post-doctoral and advanced pre-doctoral Iraqi researchers living in Iraq for fellowships to conduct research related to Iraq in any field of the humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences.
Deadline for applications: 30 April 2020. Information: https://www.tarii.org/fellowships
12. Faculty Leave Fellowship for Scholars of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University
The fellowship is open to all disciplines, particularly politics, economics, history, religion, sociology, or anthropology for the 2020-2021 academic year. Successful applicants must be tenure track or tenured professors (or equivalent) with a well-established publication record.
Application Deadline: 1 January 2020. Information: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/15024
13. MA Islamic Intellectual History (1 Year), MA Islamic Intellectual History & Intensive Language (2 Years), SOAS University of London
Based at the School of History, Religions and Philosophies, this is a programme on historical Islamic studies, which offers in-depth study of the intellectual, religious and cultural history of the Islamic world, past and present, and of wider socio-political contexts. Intensive language programmes include Arabic, Persian, Turkish, South East Asian Languages and Swahili. Convenors: Dr James Caron (james.caron@soas.ac.uk) and Dr Ayman Shihadeh (a.shihadeh@soas.ac.uk)
Now open for applications. Information: https://www.soas.ac.uk/religions-and-philosophies/programmes/ma-islamic-intellectual-history/; https://www.soas.ac.uk/religions-and-philosophies/programmes/ma-islamic-intellectual-history-intensive-language/
14. Special Issue of History and Theory: Studies in the Philosophy of History
Volume 58, Issue 4, December 2019
Islamic Pasts: Histories, Concepts, Interventions
See https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14682303
