Categories : Academic items

1.Arab Diaspora Conference 2020: “Reclaiming the Public Narrative, Voices of the Middle East“, University of Ottawa, 24 February 2020

This is a unique gathering that brings together around 30 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) human rights and democracy defenders from the MENA region. Defenders will present on public panels with participants invited from the public sector, academia, civil society and activist communities in Canada.

Information and registration: https://uocal.uottawa.ca/en/node/24419

 

 

 

 

2. Conference: “Acts of Excommunication in the Late Antique and Early Islamicate Middle East”, University of Leiden, 12-13 March 2020

This conference aims to bring together both senior and junior scholars to present research which illuminates the dynamics implicit in the act of excommunication and associated practices: ostracism, anathema, and other forms of religio-social exclusion, among the major religious communities of the Islamicate world, 600-1200 CE: including various Christian and Jewish denominations, Sunni, Shiʿi, ‘Khārijī’ and other groups within Islam; Zoroastrians and other relevant groups.

Information: https://emco.hcommons.org/events/event/cfp-acts-of-excommunication-in-the-late-antique-and-early-islamicate-middle-east-march-12-13-2020-leiden-university/

 

 

 

 

3. 3^rd Islamicate Digital Humanities Conference (Online Conference) of the Islamicate Digital Humanities Network (IDHN), 29 April 2020

We are calling for contributions from scholars employing digital methods in their research within the Islamicate Studies and related fields in the Humanities, as well as from our colleagues in Linguistics and Computer Science. We will have 4-6 presentations of 20 minutes each in which you can introduce your project and share your expertise and questions with the network.

To contribute, send an email to info@idhn.org with a description of your presentation. Information https://idhn.org/conferences/ and join the network at https://idhn.org/contact/.

 

 

 

 

4. 10 Postgraduate Bursaries for the MA Programme at the Centre for Islamic and West Asian Studies, Royal Holloway University of London

The bursaries will reduce tuition fees by between £500 and £5000.

Deadline for application: 30 March 2020.

Information: https://bit.ly/37tQgFh; contact: ciwas@rhul.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

5. GTOT Grant for Innovative Projects by Young Scholars – Funding Period: 2020, Society for Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies

All proposals aiming at supporting young scholars and/or Turkology as a study program will be considered.

Extended deadline: 21 February 2020.

Information: http://www.gtot.org/news/gtot-call/?lang=en

 

 

 

 

6. Intensive Ottoman Summer Program, Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), Istanbul, 6 July-14 August 2020

The program aims to develop the students’ reading and comprehension skills and expertise on a variety of Ottoman sources including archival documents, manuscripts, and epigraphic material. The material will accordingly present a wide array of content and narrative types.

Deadline for application: 9 March 2020.

Information: https://anamed.ku.edu.tr/en/summer-programs/ottoman-summer-program/

 

 

 

7. CFP: Ceramics from Islamic Lands – V&A, Dec. 3-5

International conference:

Ceramics from Islamic Lands

 

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

3 to 5 December 2020

 

Organised by Mariam Rosser-Owen (V&A) and Leslee Michelsen (Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art)

 

The V&A proposes to hold a conference on the theme of ceramics from Islamic lands. Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers on any theme, including but not limited to: significant bodies of archaeological material, ceramic imports into the Islamic world, trade with China, Europe and the Americas, ceramics produced in South and South-East Asia under Muslim rule, object-focused and art historical studies, studies in conservation or restoration, scientific analysis, technology and technique, architecture, epigraphy, historicism and revival (in particular within the region), the formation of private and public collections from the 19th century to today, continuity and change under colonialism, modernism, contemporary artistic practice, and contemporary craft traditions.

 

Please send abstracts of 250 words to ceramicsfromislamiclands@gmail.com by 30th April 2020. We aim to contact those selected to participate by the end of June. We plan to cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs for the duration of the conference. We also hope to provide fellowships to support the travel of a limited number of colleagues and students from under-represented institutions and countries who wish to attend the conference. Further information on these will be announced later in the year.

 

This conference is being organised to coincide with two exhibitions taking place at the V&A this autumn: Epic Iran (17 October 2020-3 May 2021) and Contemporary Ceramics from the Middle East (8 June 2020-31 January 2021). The backdrop to the conference will be one of the greatest collections of ceramics in the world. The V&A’s holdings include examples of the earliest type of glazed wares made in the Middle East as well as pieces from the 19th century, and they range across all the geographies encompassed within the discipline of ‘Islamic art’, with particularly large and significant groups of ceramics from medieval and Safavid Iran and the Ottoman world. The Museum also holds important European material inspired by Islamic designs. Today its curators are actively bringing these collections into the 20th and 21st centuries.

 

For further information, please contact the organisers on the above email address.

 

 

 

8. Aga Khan Museum Collection Online

The Aga Khan Museum is proud to announce that 500 artworks in our collection are now available online, where they can be studied by researchers and enjoyed by the general public.

The Museum launched this digitization project in 2017, three years after opening. At the outset of the project, we focused on digitizing the majority of our Shahnameh paintings, most of them dispersed; our Tiraz textiles; and our Iranian ceramics from different eras. In 2018, we turned our attention to manuscripts, other paintings, and drawings; and last year, artworks in different media were our primary focus.

I would like to acknowledge and thank all of you—including more than 30 scholars worldwide and Aga Khan Museum staff—who have devoted time and expertise to this ambitious endeavour. The digitization of the collection is an ongoing project, and, in time, we aim to provide free online access to our entire collection.

Please visit us at agakhanmuseum.org to explore our collection. To view a selection of published artworks, see AKM165, AKM673, AKM289, AKM646, AKM386,AKM809.

 

 

 

 

9. Call for Applicants – An Introduction to Islamic Manuscript Culture Workshop, University of Michigan Library – 28-29 Oct.

 

An Introduction to Islamic Manuscript Culture

 

Workshop with curator and manuscript specialist, Evyn Kropf

28-29 October 2020, Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan Library

Offered in conjunction with the HIAA 2020 Biennial Symposium “Regime Change” at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, this intensive workshop will provide participants with a broad introduction to the study of Islamic manuscript cultures and will feature exemplars from the Islamic Manuscripts Collection preserved in the University of Michigan Library.

The workshop will be structured around lectures interspersed with hands-on sessions presenting fundamental elements of Islamic manuscript studies with a focus on codicology & palaeography. The following topics will be covered:

-An introduction to codicological studies
-Writing material: parchment and paper
-Structures: the codex & beyond
-Bindings
-Layout / ruling, media and ornament
-Scripts & hands
-Paratexts, annotations, marks of ownership, etc
-Overview of describing manuscripts

Attendance will be capped at fifteen participants. Priority will be given to graduate student attendees of the symposium, but applications from postdocs and established scholars will also be considered.

Through generous grants from the U-M History of Art Department and University Library, fees will be waived, and selected participants will be offered two nights’ accommodation (Tuesday 27 October and Wednesday 28 October) as well as refreshments and lunch each of the workshop days. Participants will be expected to cover their own travel and dinners.

Interested applicants should submit this form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1qDF0JlNSRQkg6ZOo5YiXqvXRBlqGmF3xzl_IEYtzzsUTJA/viewform) and email a copy of their CV to ekropf@umich.edu.
Applications will remain open until 15 March 2020.
Selected participants will be notified by 15 April 2020.
Feel free to contact ekropf@umich.edu with any questions.

 

 

 

 

10. Umayyad Art Re-examined: A New Attitude to Images and Discourse in Visuality

with Dr Valerie Gonzalez, Research Associate, SOAS

on Thursday 27 February 2020 from 5.30 pm to 7 pm

SOAS, 10 Thornhaugh St, Bloomsbury, London WC1H 0XG Room 4426 (4th floor, Main Building)

Convenor: Professor Anna Contadini

This seminar will re-examine the established scholarly findings of Umayyad art as a transitional production essentially anchored in the Western and Eastern Late Antique traditions that have inspired it. It will be argued instead that the Umayyads brought about an aesthetic revolution laying out the fundaments of what has become known as ‘Islamic ornament’, a predominantly aniconic form of visual expression. For beyond the adaptive borrowing of pre-existing forms, the Umayyads redefined the art’s condition of meaning based on an unprecedented attitude to images and visual discourse informed by Islamic ontotheology and metaphysics.

For further inquiries, contact Dr Tanja Tolar on tt30@soas.ac.uk.

 

 

1.The Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law & Practice (formerly the Journal of Islamic State Practices in International Law) is pleased to announce the call for papers and book reviews for its 2020 Issue.

 

MJTILP is a peer reviewed journal and can be accessed on HeinOnline. The journal welcomes submission of articles that meet its objectives for consideration with a view to publication. The journal comprises of three sections: (1) Articles, (2) Recent Developments, and (3) Book Reviews. The normal word length for articles is between 5000-8000 words (10000 including footnotes). The journal also welcomes shorter contributions (between 2000 to 3000 words) for its ‘Recent Developments’ section.

 

The MJTILP is not restricted to any specific field of law and aims to cover a wide range of subjects relevant to Islamic law and practice. Topics of particular interest include: transnational forms of Islamic law; constitutional developments, law reform and application of international law in the Muslim world; application of Shariah in Muslim or non-Muslim States; accommodation of Muslims in non-Muslim State; comparative practices of Muslim majority States; and intersections between Islamic law and international law or other religious and secular legal systems.

The deadline for submissions for the 2020 Issue is June 30th, 2020. The Issue will be published by the end of October 2020.

 

Please get in touch with the Editor-in-Chief Dr Ahmad Ghouri (a.a.ghouri@sussex.ac.uk ) if you have any questions with regards to MJTILP or would like to discuss your paper submission.

 

 

2. The Graduate Student Group of Northwestern University’s Middle East and North African Studies Program is pleased to announce a one-day graduate student symposium, “Locating the Field: New Directions in Middle East and North African Studies,” on Friday, May 22nd in Evanston, Illinois. We welcome contributions from graduate students across the humanities and social sciences.

Symposium Theme:

Recent scholarship has challenged canonical geographical, political, and sociocultural constructions of the Middle East and North Africa, detailing otherwise silenced histories, and theorizing possible future directions for the field. This symposium welcomes papers that challenge, expand, or dismantle the physical and symbolic boundaries of MENA–both as place and as discipline–through critical, interdisciplinary scholarship. Given recent and ongoing developments throughout MENA, there is a heightened need to further our understanding of the relationships between people, the spaces they inhabit, and the places they move through. Through this symposium, we will explore several topics and provide different lenses for locating and (re)imagining MENA. We hope to generate debate across universities about the troubled legacies and potential futures of area studies in the context of ongoing movement and change.

Possible topics for submissions:

We are looking for papers that include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Incorporating diasporic communities and their ongoing circulations: How does the movement of people and the circulation of commodities and ideas reframe our understanding of the region? What role do diasporic communities, transnational migrants, and refugees of various conflicts play in shaping home- and host-lands? How are migrant lives shaped by labor demands, institutional pressures, and state policies? In turn, do migrants’ day-to-day practices and movements disrupt academic categorizations? And what about internal migration?
• Frustrated uprisings, derailed revolutions: In the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings, how does MENA fit within/diverge from global resistance? Are emergent patterns around counter-revolutionary effort and the securitization of governance rooted within and/or beyond MENA? How do we address the interrelations of militarized police forces, securitized governance, the global arms industry, and the proliferation of conflict zones – territorial and transborder?

• MENA and the environment: What are locally grounded visions for social, cultural, political sustainability, and where does environmental sustainability figure? How do the legacies of resource extraction, expansionary capitalism, and the lack of sustainability efforts affect communities in the present moment, and in the near and distant future? Are we seeing new efforts or old patterns in indigenous and minority populations’ advocacy for land rights and sustainable development?
• MENA and the production of knowledge: How have recent developments in the field changed the relations between academics and their sites of study? Where have scholars located MENA within studies of the global (world history, international studies, world literature)? How can MENA studies respond to calls to decolonize knowledge production? In what ways can postcolonial, feminist, queer, Marxist, or other critical theoretical approaches contribute to this process?

Logistics:

To submit a paper proposal, please send a title and an abstract of ~250 words to northwesternmena@gmail.com by March 15th. All applicants will be notified about the status of their submission by early April. Accepted applicants will submit a full paper (8-10pp) in mid-May for the symposium. We can help coordinate the pairing of presenters for hotel or other accommodation upon request, though the program cannot cover travel to, or lodging at Northwestern. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be provided for all presenters on the day of the symposium. Attendees will also have a chance to engage with Northwestern’s MENA faculty and will receive substantial feedback from graduate student respondents on their submitted papers.

Please direct any questions to the emails provided below. We look forward to hosting you on the banks of Lake Michigan!

Northwestern MENA Graduate Group Co-Presidents: Nicholas Bascuñan-Wiley: nickbw@u.northwestern.edu

Matthew Randle-Bent: matthewbent@u.northwestern.edu

 

1.Séminaire « Altérités religieuses en questions : chrétienté(s) et islam(s) : du moyen âge jusqu’à l’époque coloniale », l’Université de Nantes, 20 février 2020

Programme : https://www.univ-nantes.fr/colloques-journees-d-etude-seminaires/seminaire-alterites-religieuses-en-questions-chretiente-s-et-islam-s-du-moyen-age-jusqu-a-l-epoque-coloniale–2557154.kjsp

 

 

 

 

2. International Conference: “Hermeneutics of Quranic Norm Change“, University of Erlangen, 15-16 April 2020

See program at https://www.dirs.phil.fau.de/files/2020/01/Korankonferenz_4S_web.pdf. For registration contact Hadil Lababidi (hadil.lababidi@fau.de).

 

 

 

 

3. International Doctoral Conference in Religious Studies: “Resistance to Order and Authority in Religion“, Central European University, Budapest, 25-27 June 2020

The conference invites contributions studying the conceptualization, management and instrumentalization of religious ideas and beliefs with regard to past and contemporary resistance movements.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 March 2020.

Information: https://religion.ceu.edu/crs-elte-masaryk-phd-conference-25-27-june-2020

 

 

 

 

4. Joint Chair in Area Studies (Middle East Studies), University of Exeter and Tsinghua University

The holder of the post will be based at the University of Exeter but will spend one semester of every year at Tsinghua University. The position is primarily research-focused. Qualifications: the successful candidate should have a research profile concentrated in the anthropology, history, social sciences or cultures of the Middle East with a particular preference for expertise in Palestine Studies, Gulf Studies, or the Politics and International Relations of the Middle East.

Deadline for applications: 27 February 2020. Information: https://jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=860223RifK&WVID=3817591jNg&LANG=USA

 

 

 

 

5. Book Award Competition 2020, the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS)

Nominations are accepted for any book published in 2019 on women, gender, sexuality and feminism in the Middle East, North Africa, and among diasporic communities from the MENA.

Submission deadline: 15 May 2020. Information: https://amews.org/amews-book-award/

 

 

 

 

6. Graduate Student Workshop: “Networking and Mentoring Workshop in the Humanities and Social Sciences for at-Risk Ph.D. Students”, University of Leipzig, 14-15 May 2020

We invite current and prospective Ph.D. students who have experienced difficulties in pursuing or continuing their dissertations due to political reasons and who have therefore left their country of origin, or are considering doing so. A group of senior academics will offer participants an opportunity to think about future academic possibilities. Travel and accommodation expenses for invited participants will be covered.

Deadline for applications: 29 February 2020. Information: https://www.uni-leipzig.de/veranstaltungsdetail/artikel/networking-and-mentoring-workshop-in-the-humanities-and-social-sciences-for-at-risk-ph-d-students/

 

 

 

 

7. Graduate Workshop on Diversity in the Medieval Middle East, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK: 18-22 May 2020)

This workshop invites early graduate students to discuss the place of medieval diversity in the region and consider topics which cross the communal and linguistic boundaries imposed on premodern history by graduate-level specialization in single medieval languages or subfields.

Deadline for application: 15 February 2020. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/call-for-participation-graduate-workshop-on-diversity-in-the-medieval-middle-east-stillwater-ok-18-22-may?e=82aeb6c61d

 

 

 

 

8. Intensive Seminar: “Venice, Cyprus and Trade with the Mamlukes“, Nicosia, 29 June – 1 July 2020

This course will survey a wide range of Venetian sources related to maritime trade in the Mamluk sultanate and to the role of Cyprus in this regard. It will be conducted by Professor Benjamin Arbel of Tel Aviv University.

Deadline for applications: 15 March 2020. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/seminar-venice-cyprus-and-trade-with-the-mamlukes-nicosia-29-june-1-july?e=82aeb6c61d

 

 

 

9. Culture Made in Arabia

The Arabian Peninsula as a new major player on the Arab cultural scene
International Conference
CEFAS / Sorbonne Abu Dhabi / New York University Abu Dhabi
Conveners : Laure Assaf, Clio Chaveneau, Frédéric Lagrange October 31st – November 1st, 2020

Since the turn of the 21st century, the Arabian Peninsula has been both a major producer of cultural goods and a hub of cultural presentation, exchange and commerce. From book fairs to highly coveted literary and translation prizes, from upscale art galleries to ground-breaking museums, from literature to music and poetry, from “starchitecture” to the preservation of traditional material and intangible heritage, culture has become an asset and a stake in the growing influence of the Arabian Peninsula in the Arabic speaking world. State-sponsored as well as private sector and individually driven endeavors have moved the Arabian Peninsula from the margins of contemporary Arabic culture towards the center, where it competes for prestige and soft power with the traditional beacons of urban cultural hegemony, such as Egypt and the Levant. With the help of considerable capital and heavy investment in education and multimedia platforms, cultural productions are not only showcased for local consumption but also exported throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Works of literary fiction, poetry, theater, music, cinema, television programs and fine arts, from high-end productions to commercial pop culture, thus shape a Khaleeji identity in contemporary Arabic culture. This conference aims to stimulate discussion of the Arabian Peninsula as a new contender on the regional cultural scene, from state-led cultural policies to the development of a Khaleeji “pop culture”, understood both as commercial entertainment and as the grassroots cultural forms produced by local youth and by diverse migrant communities. Papers are welcome on all aspects of cultural production and policy in the Arabian Peninsula. Topics may fall under (but are not limited to) one of the following axes:• Cultural policies between nation-branding, regional ambitions, and global pursuits:As countries of the Arabian Peninsula seek to forge a cultural identity that will put them on the global map, papers might examine how they navigate the interplay between local concerns for the preservation of the region’s oral history and craftsmanship, and globalized standards of cultural legitimacy such as universal museums, arthouse cinemas, and iconoclastic artworks. How do they reconcile modes of cultural production and exhibition formed elsewhere with local cultural practices?Contributors might also address the regional and international ambitions of these policies. How are these cultural policies received by competing centers of Arab culture? How is the shaping of a cultural identity informed by economic, diplomatic, and political dynamics?• Production, reception and meanings of an Arabian “pop” culture:Are we witnessing the birth of a new “pop culture” in the Arabian Peninsula? As cultural productions made in Arabia take the front stage, contributors are invited to explore the relation between the fields of entertainment, mass consumption, and the media, in a region where the latter is often state-owned. Is pop culture merely a mass product channeling commercial strategies and dominant representations, or does it have the potential to challenge cultural hegemony? In short, is there a possibility for a “counterculture” in the Arabian Peninsula?Papers might also examine the relationship between contemporary pop culture and traditional local “popular cultures” in the folkloric sense. What does the multiplication of TV shows, artworks, or clothing that repackage the national lore in a parodic and desirable version tell us of the relationship between pop and popular culture, and between local youths and national or regional identity? • Social, ethnic, and gender identities of cultural producers and consumers in the Arabian Peninsula:As this regions’ states are some of the most diverse in the world, papers may look at the respective roles of nationals and immigrants in the cultural industry. Papers will pay a specific attention to the way social, gender, and ethnic perspectives inform the production and reception of cultural goods. Who produces and consumes the contemporary culture of the Arabian Peninsula? How do these productions address the Khaleeji self and its various others?Papers may also question the potential of these cultural productions to forge various communities along ethnic of generational lines. As these productions circulate along migration routes and through diverse media, can they become shared references across the Arabic-speaking world and in neighboring countries whose immigrants form the bulk of foreign residents? Does the inherently referential nature of culture contribute to form a common identity among generations who share a same set of cultural codes? At a time when cultural actors and goods in the Arabian Peninsula are leaving the margin to become mainstream cultural elements of the 21st century, this conference seeks to gather scholars, cultural entrepreneurs, and practitioners, to analyze cultural policy and the emergence of new cultural productions in the region.

Proposals should be between 250 and 350 words and sent to : Laure Assaf (lsa6@nyu.edu), Clio Chaveneau (clio.chaveneau@psuad.ac.ae), Frédéric Lagrange (frederic.lagrange@psuad.ac.ae)
The deadline for proposals is April 15, 2020.

 

 

10. Bugis flower power: a compendium of floral designs

The collection of Bugis and Makassar manuscripts in the British Library, which has now been fully digitised, covers a wide range of genres from court diaries to literature, treatises on a range of sciences, and religious works on Islamic law and Sufism.  Most of the manuscripts are sober textual documents, carefully and neatly written in Bugis/Makassar (lontaraq) or Arabic script, but – save for one compendium of poems – with few formal decorative elements.  On the other hand, many manuscripts also contain notes, calligraphic pen trials and doodles, which often include sketches, primarily of a floral nature.  This text-light but picture-heavy blog post has brought together all the floral drawings discovered in these manuscripts from south Sulawesi, presented here as a sourcebook for Bugis floral designs in the late 18th century.  In each case, the manuscript shelfmarks are hyperlinked to the full digitised manuscript page, so that the sketches can be seen in context.

1.The French National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations (Inalco, Paris) organises its first Summer School of Arabic and Kurdish Dialects (June 2nd – July 10th 2020).

Inalco, the university of world languages has a two century long experience in teaching more than a hundred languages as well as social sciences. Our professional instructors will accompany you throughout your journey and help you develop all language skills, whether you are a beginner or already well-versed in Arabic or Sorani. All courses are credited (ECTS).

Paris is a historical and vibrant center of Maghreb culture with a large Arabic-speaking community.
The Inalco Campus is located in downtown Paris.

Doing fieldwork in the Arab world requires a good command of colloquial Arabic.
Come and develop your proficiency in one of the Arabic dialects people speak in the following countries:

Morocco • Algeria • Libya • Egypt • Syria / Lebanon (Levantine)

Interested in Kurdistan and Kurdish studies? Curious to know more about the Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and / or Iran? Come and learn Sorani or Kurmandji at Inalco!

Kurmandji: Turkey, Syria
Sorani: Iran, Irak

The Summer School includes 20 contact hours a week, 5 hours alternative language activities: movies, music and online learning, conferences and cultural activities. 10 students per class.

For more information:

http://www.inalco.fr/en/study/summer-school/arabic-dialects/kurdish

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Zahid Ali Fellowship 2020
Award Amount: £5,000
Application Deadline: 1 April 2020

The Institute of Ismaili Studies is pleased to invite applications for the Zahid Ali Fellowship 2020.

The Zahid Ali Fellowship is awarded every 5 years to an internationally renowned scholar working in the field of Classical Arabic Literature who will use the award to publish research on a topic of relevance to Ismaili Studies.

Click here to see a list of previous recipients.

To apply, please submit the following to scholarships@iis.ac.uk:

1. Covering Letter
2. CV
3. Writing Sample (preferably a publication)
4. Research Proposal (max. 2000 words)

 

The Zahid ‘Ali Fellowship was established in 1997 by the Institute of Ismaili Studies in the name of Professor Zahid ‘Ali (1888-1958), a pioneer of modern Ismaili Studies, at the bequest of Professor Zahid ‘Ali’s son, the late Professor Abid ‘Ali, and his family.

Belonging to a prominent Bohra Ismaili family of India, Professor Zahid Ali was educated at Oxford University, and later taught at the Nizam College in Hyderabad. He produced the first modern studies of Ismaili history and Ismaili doctrines, based on primary Ismaili sources; these works were published in Urdu in 1948 and 1954.

Professor Zahid Ali had also inherited an important collection of Ismaili manuscripts, which had been acquired by several generations of his ancestors. This collection was also bequeathed to the Institute by the late Professor Abid ‘Ali and his family.

The Zahid ‘Ali Fellowship, in the amount of £5000, is awarded once every five years to an internationally renowned scholar working in the field of Classical Arabic Literature who will use the award to publish research on a topic of relevance to Ismaili Studies.

 

 

 

3. The recently published A Literary History of Medicine: The ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah. Edited and translated by Emilie Savage-Smith, Simon Swain and Geert Jan van Gelder, with Ignacio Sánchez, N. Peter Joosse, Alasdair Watson, Bruce Inksetter, and Franak Hilloowala. [Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 1, The Near and Middle East, Vol. 134] Leiden: Brill, 2020.    (3 in 5 volumes)

Is now available through the Open Access portal of Brill Publishing, at the following address:

 https://brill.com/view/db/lhom

 

 

 

4. The University of Edinburgh: Teaching Fellow in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. 

https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=051334.

 

The successful applicant will be required to teach within the framework of the School’s courses in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching duties in the department. At undergraduate level, this will include, among other duties, the large core survey course “Islamic History”, which covers the history of the Middle East from 500-1100 CE. The post holder will also course organise other relevant history courses. At postgraduate level, this will include, among other duties, the joint-taught Critical Readings MSc core course, which provides a seminar-based introduction to Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies for MSc Students.

The successful candidate will have experience in the design and delivery of teaching units within the higher education sector, and the ability to deliver courses at high level. They will be also expected to contribute to the administration of the subject area, including course organisation.

Closing date: 5.00pm (GMT) on 20th February 2020.

Interviews will be held on 18th March 2020.

1.Conference: “The Concept of Good, and the Concept of Evil, in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”, Chair of Oriental Philology and Islamic Studies, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, 12-14 February 2020

See program at https://www.kcid.fau.de/die-forschungsstelle/aktuelles-und-ankuendigungen/. Registration: katja.thoerner@fau.de

 

 

 

2. Annual Meeting of the “International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA 2020)“, Boston, MA, 20-23 November 2020

Program Units include: The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism; Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur`anic Corpus; The Societal Qur`an; Qur`anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics; etc.

Deadline for abstracts: 11 March 2020.

Information: https://iqsaweb.wordpress.com/call-for-papers-iqsa-annual-meeting-2020/

 

 

 

 

3. Conference: “Authors as Readers in the Mamlūk Period and Beyond. Al-Ṣafadī and his Pairs”, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, 10-12 December 2020

At the end of a research project on al-Ṣafadī’s working method, his scholarly network, his habits as a reader and as a scholar in the extremely rich context of the beginning of the Mamluk period the conference will broaden the scope by confronting these results to other situations: other authors, other periods, other places.

Deadline for abstracts: 31 March 2020.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/user/login?destination=node/5782352

 

 

 

 

4. Graduate Assistant in Studies of Islam in South Asia, University of Lausanne

Start date: 1 August 2020. Length of contract: maximum 5 years. Work rate: 80%. Profile: M.A. in Language and Cultures of South Asia or a related discipline. Interest to write a doctoral thesis in the cultural, social, and political histories of Muslim societies in South Asia. Knowledge of Urdu is necessary. A good knowledge of French and Persian will be an advantage.

Deadline for applications: 1 May 2020. Information: https://career5.successfactors.eu/career?career_ns=job_listing&company=universitdP&navBarLevel=JOB_SEARCH&rcm_site_locale=fr_FR&career_job_req_id=15317&selected_lang=fr_FR&jobAlertController_jobAlertId=&jobAlertController_jobAlertName=&_s.crb=6lIl/EOPiPI94hnrY7In+JKHNjE=

 

 

 

 

5. Doctoral Scholarships in Research Project “The European Qur’an: Islamic Scripture in European Culture and Religion (1150-1850)”, University of Kent

The project studies the ways in which the Islamic Holy Book is embedded in the intellectual, religious and cultural history of Medieval and Early Modern European Christians, Jews, freethinkers, atheists and Muslims. Candidates should have a recent master’s degree (or equivalent) in the humanities, with a specialisation related to the themes of EuQu. They should have a high level of competence in the necessary languages (in particular Arabic or Latin, depending on the thesis topic).

Deadline for applications: 1 March 2020. Information: https://research.kent.ac.uk/euqu/wp-content/uploads/sites/829/2019/12/2020-EuQu-PhD-call-for-candidates.pdf

 

 

 

 

6. Post-doctoral Positions in Research Project “The European Qur’an: Islamic Scripture in European Culture and Religion (1150-1850)”, University of Kent

The project studies the ways in which the Islamic Holy Book is embedded in the intellectual, religious and cultural history of Medieval and Early Modern European Christians, Jews, freethinkers, atheists and Muslims. Applicants should have a PhD in a discipline in the humanities by the time of application, or at least strong assurance that they will obtain the PhD by August 2020. Candidates should be fluent in English and have strong skills in other languages appropriate to their research topics.

Deadline for applications: 1 March 2020. Information: https://research.kent.ac.uk/euqu/wp-content/uploads/sites/829/2019/12/2020-EuQu-postdocs-call-for-candidates.pdf

 

 

 

 

7. Workshop: “Introduction to Arabic Manuscript Studies“, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1-5 June 2020

The course will provide basic introduction to paleography, codicology and philological practices; engage with printed and digital scholarly tools for the study of Arabic manuscripts; introduce participants to a range of Arabic manuscripts from West Africa and the Middle East, both Islamic and Christian.

Deadline for applications: 1 April 2020.

Information: http://hmml.org/hmml-offers-intro-arabic-manuscript-studies-course/

 

 

 

8. Cambridge Centre of Islamic Studies

Current Vacancies

Teaching and Outreach Associate

We are looking for an experienced professional to plan and deliver the Centre’s teaching programmes – namely, Arabic language courses for university students and modules on Islam for primary and secondary schools and other organisations. The deadline for applications is 24 February 2020.

 

Closing date – 24 February!

 

 

Research and Outreach Associate (Fixed Term)

The University of Cambridge is seeking to appoint a Research and Outreach Associate in the Centre of Islamic Studies, to begin in September 2020. The post is a three-year, fixed-term position.

 

Research Associate. Islamic Art (Fixed Term)

The University of Cambridge is seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Research and Outreach Associate to design and conduct original research into Islamic art, aesthetics and/or material culture in the Centre of Islamic Studies, to begin in September 2020. The post is a three-year, fixed-term position.

 

The closing date for these two roles in 19 April 2020.

 

 

 

9. Indigenousing Islam: Changing Dynamics of Islamic Authority in the West

4 March 2020
Masooda Bano, University of Oxford

Time and Venue
Wednesday 4 March 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.

 

 

 

10. THE AGA KHAN PROGRAM FOR ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE (AKPIA) AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE ITS POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP/ASSOCIATESHIP PROGRAM FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2020-2021.

APPLICATION DEADLINE IS APRIL 1, 2020.

The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture is pleased to invite applications for Harvard-funded Fellowships as well as self-supported (unfunded) Associateships, to conduct advanced historical research in Islamic art, architecture, material culture, and archaeology at Harvard University. AKPIA Fellowships and Associateships are intended preferably, but not exclusively, for overseas scholars from Muslim countries. Our program positions do not support professional design, conservation, or urban development projects, nor are they intended for research travel. AKPIA Fellows and Associates are expected to be in residence, except for one or two short research-related trips. Please note—we offer unfunded Associate positions, and a limited number of fully funded (or partially funded) Fellowships. We will consider applications of scholars who can provide partial funding, or who have no other outside funding.  Application proposals may be for up to an entire academic year in duration (9 months), with a minimum of one semester (3 months).

AKPIA Fellowship and Associateship positions are full-time, immersion research appointments, to result in a lecture delivered to the AKPIA community, and a submission to the journal Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World (published by Brill). AKPIA Fellows and Associates are expected to meet with the Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, to discuss their research and to consider potential submission topics for publication. We do not allow scholars to take on any other major responsibilities during their time at Harvard, including any teaching jobs. AKPIA Fellows and Associates are expected to be active participants in the academic life of our program at Harvard University. They are encouraged to attend lectures hosted by AKPIA and HAA (History of Art and Architecture department), and to meet with faculty, students and other visiting scholars.

We welcome applications both from senior scholars and from recent graduates. AKPIA Fellows and Associates have an affiliation with Harvard University’s Department of History of Art and Architecture (HAA). They are free to pursue their own research; they are expected to present a public lecture on their research project as part of the AKPIA lecture series A Forum for Islamic Art and Architecture; they are also expected to submit an article based on their research at Harvard for consideration by the editor for publication in Muqarnas. AKPIA Fellows and Associates have access to all Harvard University libraries, museums, and facilities; they are also welcome to audit Harvard seminars or lecture courses, if they so choose.

 

Click here for a list of previous visiting Fellows and Associates and their topics of research.

 

For more information, visit the website.

 

Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture

Harvard University

Sackler 415

485 Broadway

Cambridge, MA 02138

 

1.CfP: Rethinking Narratives of China and the Middle East. The Silk Roads and Beyond

Where: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

When: April 8th-10th, 2021

The conference examines the relationship between China and the Middle East, ​both ​ ancient and modern. Papers that incorporate additional regions, such as Europe, Central Asia, or South/Southeast Asia are also encouraged, provided they are also incorporate both China and a country in the Middle East, broadly construed.

Please send abstracts (350 word limit) and a 1-page CV to

mec-conference@sas.upenn.edu

Deadline: 11:59 PM EST Monday, February 24th, 2020

(deadline extended0

 

 

2. Open Access Newspaper Archive: Baghdad News (1964-1967)

https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/mena/?a=p&p=publication&sp=bagh

 

 

 

3. Columbia University Summer Persian Program – May 26 – Aug 14, 2020

Apply Now: https://summer.sps.columbia.edu/courses/summer-courses/middle-eastern-south-asian-and-african-studies

 

 

 

4. Open Access Materials/newspapers

Akhbar (الأخبار) (Beirut, Lebanon)

https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/mena/?a=p&p=publication&sp=akle

1958-72

 

Al-Iqbal (الإقبال) (Beirut, Lebanon)

https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/mena/?a=p&p=publication&sp=aliq&e=——-en-25–1–img-txIN——–

1909-09

 

 

 

 

5. The Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre (ONGC) offers visiting fellowships for research into the history, languages and cultures of Azerbaijan, the Caucasus and Central Asia at the University of Oxford. Applicants should hold a doctorate or equivalent qualification and should not be members of the University of Oxford or ordinarily resident in Oxford or its vicinity. Upcoming deadlines for applications: 20 February 2020, 28 May 2020

https://www.rees.ox.ac.uk/article/ongc-visiting-fellowships-and-grants

http://link.orinst.ox.ac.uk/ongcvisitingfellowship?fbclid=IwAR0OuHVJ1RbDFefdpcOFf7oFjANx9ZVSyQUV1LW3tbnUU-Lp0qezeQSc-hs

 

 

 

 

6. The Central Asian Roots of Islamic Intellectual Traditions – Conference

Call for Papers

The Institute of Ismaili Studies is delighted to invite proposals for individual papers, or whole panels, for its forthcoming international conference The Central Asian Roots of Islamic Intellectual Traditions. Papers and panels may be proposed by senior and junior scholars.

 

Important Dates

Conference Dates: 24 – 26 February 2021

Conference Venue: Aga Khan Centre, London, UK

Abstracts Submissions: 30 April 2020 (midnight GMT)

Acceptance Decisions: 30 June 2020

 

Further info at: https://iis.ac.uk/events/central-asian-roots-islamic-intellectual-traditions

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):

https://digitalmodernlanguages.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/wednesday-5-february-sarah-bowen-savant-aga-khan-university-digital-humanities-for-arabic-book-history-first-work-on-models-by-the-kitab-project/

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, 1^st 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.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/5215869/cfp-grad-conference-decolonial-histories-w-keynote-speaker

 

 

 

 

7. 6^th 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. 4^th 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.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/5171851/applications-now-open-ihu-summer-school-languages-program-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.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/5595959/muqarnas-annual-visual-cultures-islamic-world-invites-submissions

 

 

 

 

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 15^th, 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:

 

• Photoportraits of the Prophet Mohammad and Saints as visual devotional devices in funerary chambers and shrines,
• The role of photoportraits of Muslim martyrs of contemporary conflicts in the construction of mortuary landscapes, sacred sites and material religion: shrines, memorials, cemeteries, and tombstones,
• The usage of photoportraits of martyrs in the creation and the development of the culture of death and dying among Muslim communities: funerary art objects and devotional devices, pilgrimage souvenirs, etc.,
• The usage of photoportraits of the deceased and martyrs in the creation of temporary and secondary shrines in private (homes, military spaces, etc.) and public places (museums, exhibitions, memorials, warfronts, etc.).

 

Please submit a title, an abstract of no more than 500 words presenting your topic (including five keywords), and your academic affiliation by Feb. 15^th, 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:

• Outstanding master thesis (MA, Master, M.phil., and similar) on a topic situated within the research fields of History of Islamic Art and Architecture, Islamic Archeology, or Historical Building Research on Islamic Architecture.
• The thesis must have been written and supervised at a European university within the last two years (since January 1, 2018, date of official review/evaluation or acceptance).
• Accepted languages of the thesis are: German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Application procedure:

• Applicants are proposed by the supervisor of the MA thesis.
• Applications include 1) the complete MA thesis as it was submitted, as a PDF document; 2) a summary in English (3 pages); 3) a letter of recommendation in English by the proposing supervisor; and 4) the original official review/evaluation of the thesis for/by the university, at which it was submitted.

Review Procedure:

• The review procedure is jointly organized by the award and steering committees and the advisory board of the Ernst Herzfeld Society.
• Proposing supervisors are excluded from the review procedure and the peer-review.
• Applications fulfilling the criteria of eligibility will go through a double-blind peer-review by the joint committees and by external reviewers.

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:

• Object viewing appointments (excluding textiles and fashion): 27 September 2020
• Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion: 18 December 2020
• Archive & Library Study Room (including Theatre & Performance collections and the Archive of Art & Design): 18 December 2020

 

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 10^th 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:

1. a) First prize – ($10,000) Ten Thousand US dollars.
   b) Second prize – ($7,000) Seven Thousand US dollars.
   c) Third prize – ($5,000) Five Thousand US dollars.
   d) Three (3) Incentive awards of ($2,000 Two thousand US dollars) each would be
   awarded to participants selected by a Jury Committee.

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: 

• 1-year MA in Late Antique, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (10 months, 12-14 students admitted / year)

• 2-year MA in Comparative History: Late Antique, Medieval and Renaissance Studies in collaboration with the Department of History (20 months, 10-12 students/year)

• 2-year MA in Cultural Heritage Studies (20 months, 8-10 students/year)
• PhD in Late Antique, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (3 to 6 years, 5-6 students / year)

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:

• Archaeology
• Art history
• Environmental and landscape studies
• Hagiography and religious studies
• Late Antique and Byzantine studies
• Manuscript studies and palaeography
• Material culture
• Medieval Judaism
• Ottoman studies
• Philosophy and theology
• Political history and political thought
• Social and economic history
• Urban history

 

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: 

• An electronic copy of your thesis
• A letter of nomination from your supervisor

 

 

 

9. 20^th 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.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/5674199/intensive-summer-school-ottoman-history-and-paleography-rethymno

 

 

 

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 6^thannual Islamic Archaeology Day co-hosted by SOAS and UCL and held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on Saturday February 1^st 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 10^th; registration after the 10^th 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 1^st 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)

4. 4:15 The two mosques of Baydha: The Islamic Baydha Project in Petra and its first results

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.

Information: https://www.area-studies.ox.ac.uk/article/call-for-papers-western-intervention-in-the-wake-of-the-arab-uprisings-political-containment

 

 

 

 

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