Categories : Academic items
Shii News – Academic Items
1. SOAS: Bahman Maghsoudlou Film Festival
Daryush Mehrjui: Making The Cow
4.00pm, Sunday 16 June 2024
This is the eighth session in the Bahman Maghsoudlou Film Festival at SOAS.
This feature documentary examines the making of The Cow (1968) and how it became regarded as one of the most important films of the Iranian New Wave, and its impact on Iranian films before and after Iran’s 1979 revolution. The film was smuggled to Venice and won FIPRESCI Prize (1971).
This documentary was shot by twelve different cinematographers in eight cities (Tehran, Rome, London, Paris, Toronto, New York, Denver, Washington DC) in six countries from 2002 to 2022. s
2. SOAS: Abbas Kiarostami: A report
4.00pm, Saturday 22 June 2024
For the penultimate screening in the Bahman Maghsoudlou Film Festival director, writer and executive producer Dr Maghsoudlou himself will join us. Following the film, there will be a Q&A session and an opportunity to engage in a conversation with him.
An analysis of the style and vision of Abbas Kiarostami, the world’s most iconic Iranian filmmaker, through the lens of his earliest work, including his first short film (Bread & Alley, 1970) and, particularly, his first feature, The Report. This early example of Kiarostami’s work gives insight into his poetic, humanistic tendencies, combining allegorical storytelling with a documentary, neo-realist sensibility, and often exploring the very nature of film as fiction, that have pervaded his work ever since, including such recent international sensations as A Taste of Cherry and Certified Copy.
3. SOAS: Razor’s Edge: The Legacy of Iranian Actresses
3.00pm, Sunday 23 June 2024
In the final session of this Film Festival Dr Bahman Maghsoudlou, the director, writer and executive producer will join us for this screening. Following the film, there will be a Q&A session and an opportunity to engage in a conversation with him.
The culture and art of Iran, like those of nations throughout history, have always been inextricably tied to its societal problems, including its attitudes and treatment of women. Its cinema was not an exception.
In a traditional, religious and male-dominated society, actresses dared to assert themselves within the relatively new art form, sacrificing to force acceptance of their presence in the cinema and subsequently bring modernity to the culture.
This documentary approaches its subject on four levels: the biographical, the historical, the socio-political and the theoretical. Through interviews with many leading actresses of the time and unprecedented access to rare film clips of their work, filmmaker Bahman Maghsoudlou sheds a light on the important and controversial role women played in the development of Iranian cinema during the secular period from the 1930s right up to the Islamic revolution of 1979, examining the evolution of women’s roles, the difficulty of making films that broke from the patriarchal mode and the darkness that descended upon the arts when a new fanaticism began to take hold of the nation.
4. SOAS : Book Launch
Translating Ulysses into Persian: Pleasure or pain, is it?
6.30pm, Friday 21 June 2024
Launching the fourth volume of Ulysses in Persian, Chapters 13-14. This edition of Ulysses is translated by Akram Pedramnia into Persian and published by Nogaam publishing in London. This project is a combination of research and translation presented in six volumes supported by Literature Ireland. The first volume was released in May 2019, the second volume was published in November 2020 and the third volume in June 2022. This project will be completed by the end of 2026.
Please note that this event’s proceedings will be held in Persian language.
5. Treasure of Persian Ceramics | The Hague Municipal Museum
(Photo & Video):
https://persiandutch.com/2018/12/12/persian-ceramics-treasure-of-the-hague-municipal-museum/
6. AKU-ISMC: 19 June 2024 Virtual Open Day
Join AKU-ISMC students, staff and academics online for a Virtual Open Day at 12:00 -13:00 (London Time) to explore educational study options at AKU-ISMC (Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations) and discover the various opportunities we have to offer.
Any queries should be directed to: ismc.marketing@aku.edu
The Aga Khan University Institute’s for the Study of Muslim Civilisations
Handyside Street
London, | N1C 4DN United Kingdom
7. New article on the classification of the sciences in the Islamicate world
“Classification of the sciences in Islamic cultures” is now available online at
https://www.isko.org/cyclo/islamic (ISKO Encyclopedia of Knowledge Organization). It currently includes the description of about 50 Arabic, Persian and Turkish classifications.
This article is a sort of companion to M-Classi, the digital tool recently created to store, catalogue, search, and visualize the classifications of science in the Islamicate world. M-Classi is freely available at: https://www.m-classi.eu/.
To get access, send an email to:
gdecallataycontacts@listes.uclouvain.be
8. The Materiality of Pious Texts: The Qur’an and Devotional Manuscripts
EuQu: The European Qur’an
Alya KARAME, Umberto BONGIANINO
24 June 2024
Part 1 at 9am
Part 2 at 11am
Information at:
https://euqu.eu/2024/05/14/the-materiality-of-pious-texts-the-quran-and-devotional-manuscripts/
9. Sanabel Abdelrahman: Palestinian Magical Realism as Resistance Literature, Monday, 17 June, 6:15 pm (CEST)
Institut für Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft, Universität Münster
Schlaunstr. 2, 2nd floor, RS 225
For online attendance via Zoom, please contact Barbara Winckler (barbara.winckler@uni-muenster.de).
[https://www.uni-muenster.de/ArabistikIslam/aktuelles/aktuelles.html]
10. HYBRID “Three Mohamed Ali Foundation Fellowship Lectures”, Durham University, 20 June 2024, 13:00 – 16:00 BST
Lectures: “Finance, Technology, and Politics in Egyptian Railways during the Reign of Abbas Hilmi II” by Dr Xiaoyue Li. – “Egypt’s Borders and Their Crossers, 1875-1937: A History of Mobility, State, and Society” by Prof. Lucia Carminati. – “Mohamed Ali Pasha’s Waqfiyyah and His Endowment as a Testimony to His Indissoluble Bond with His Motherland Kavala” by Dr Dimitrios Lamprakis.
Information and registration:
https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EXldlUPjTUqxQLSJ6hEZ8g#/registration
11. Articles for the Journal “YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies 6 (2024)”
The Journal is accepting submissions of original research articles, opinion pieces and visual essays (Meclis), book and exhibition reviews in Turkish or English, by researchers working on any period of the city through the lens of history, history of art and architecture, archaeology, sociology, anthropology, geography, urban planning, urban studies, and other related disciplines in humanities or social sciences.
Deadline for submissions: 24 June 2024.
Information: https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20032371/yillik-annual-istanbul-studies-6-2024-and-7-2025-call-papers
- June 15, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Evolution of Kurdish Nationalism in the Middle East
Part of the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) Social Justice Lecture Series
2024-2025 season, Lives in the Margins: Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the Middle East
June 26th, 2024, 12:00 PM EST, 11:00 AM CST.
Register here:https://bit.ly/3Xeeb8X
2. HYBRID Workshop “Reflections on Digital Data Collection Methods in the MENA Region” by Marion Breteau (CEFREPA), Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin, 10 June 2024, 9:45 am – 4:30 pm CEST
New technologies of communication have induced significant shifts in contemporary Arab societies. The purpose of this workshop is to explore from a methodological perspective how new technology systems, web access, content creators’ cultures, and online forms of entertainment can be addressed in regard to more digital-inclusive approaches.
Information and registration:
https://www.zmo.de/veranstaltungen/reflections-on-digital-data-collection-methods-in-the-mena-region
3. ONLINE Roundtable Discussion “Reorienting Islamic Studies in Asia”, Leiden University, 13 June 2024, 15.00 – 17:00 CEST
Asian Islam tends to be overlooked, excluded, or considered derivative of a supposedly normative and authentic Islam, defined as Middle Eastern or Arabian. Speakers will discuss and evaluate these dynamics through the launch of “Centering Islamic Studies in Asia“, a recently published special issue of the “Inter-national Issue of Islam in Asia”.
Information and registration: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2024/02/roundtable-discussion-reorienting-islamic-studies-in-asia
4. HYBRID Book Launch “Nafssiya, or Edward Said’s Affective Phenomenology of Racism” by Norman Saadi Nikro (ZMO), Discussant Smaran Dayal (Stevens Institute of Technology New York), Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 17 June 2024, 5:00 pm CEST
This book adapts the Arabic term “nafsiyya” to trace the phenomenological contours of Edward Said’s analysis of the affective dimensions of colonial and imperial racism. Reflecting on what he called his “colonial education,” Said rendered his Palestinian/Arab background and experience of racism an enabling component of his academic work. The argument focuses on his “personal dimension” section in his introduction to his famous volume Orientalism.
Information and registration:
https://www.zmo.de/en/events/nafssiya-or-edward-saids-affective-phenomenology-of-racism
5. ONLINE Conference “Philosophy Between the Islamicate and Latin American Traditions: Civilizational Perspectives on Alienation/Ghayriyya in the Knowing/Being”, University of Sevilla, 22-24 June 2024
Given the centrality and fruitfulness of the concepts of “alienation” and “ghayriyya” (otherness), this is an opportunity to investigate how it can serve as a framework for future dialogue within and across cultural spheres. Lecturers and everyone attending are encouraged to explore, independently of “Western” model of explanation per se.
Information and registration: https://wp.me/pfeP2i-k
6. HYBRID Lecture “Imam/Merchant/King: Floating Sovereignty and the Indian Ocean World” by Taushif Kara (King’s College London), Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 24 June 2024, 5:00 pm CEST
This lecture explores the question of de-territorialized sovereignty through the history of one of the Indian Ocean world’s itinerant Muslim merchant communities: the Khojas from Gujarat who came to dominate oceanic trade during the colonial period. The lecture considers the relationship of the Khojas to their imam, the Aga Khan, and argues that his person came to function as a unique figuration of their otherwise “invisible” sovereignty.
Information and registration: https://www.zmo.de/en/events/imammerchantking-floating-sovereignty-and-the-indian-ocean-world
7. International Congress of the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO), University of Goettingen, 26-28 September 2024
Proposals are particularly welcome for the following thematic sections: Law – Philosophy and History of Ideas – Theology and Religious Practice – Economics, Politics and Society – Islam in Europe – Language and Culture – Education and Knowledge Transfer – Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 June 2024.
Information: https://gesellschaften-im-wandel30.de/frontend/index.php?folder_id=8397&page_id=
8. Conference “Disasters in and of the Middle East: Event, Place, Intensity”, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, 29-30 March 2025
Potential themes: Disaster imperialism in the Middle East. – Intersections of “natural” disaster & war (e.g, conflict ecology, compound crises). – Disaster, disability and debility. – Disaster and work/labor. – Historical approaches to disaster management. – Disaster vis-à-vis the projects of Enlightenment and modernity. –Ruination and memory. – Disasters, nonhuman beings and the more-than-human experiences.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2024.
Information: https://networks.h-net.org/system/files/attachments/cfpdisastersmiddleeastharvard2025.pdf
9. ONLINE Mediterranean Skills Seminar “Reading Arabic Manuscripts”, 24-27 June 2024
The Course will build participants’ ability to read handwritten Arabic manuscripts and documents, primarily those written before the twentieth century. It is designed with academics in mind, particularly graduate students, postdocs, and professors working in disciplines such as history, literature, and religious studies. All interested parties with at least two years of Arabic language training are welcome to apply.
Extended Deadline for applications: 18 June 2024.
Information: https://www.mediterraneanseminar.org/overview-reading-arabic-manuscripts-2024
- June 11, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Call for articles for CLCWEB special issue on “Cineture: Cultural Negotiation between Iran and the US through Intermediality and Transmediality”.
More information on how to apply can be found here. The extended deadlines are as follows:
Deadline for Abstracts: June 15, 2024.
Notification about proposals until July 15, 2024.
Deadline for the full article is October 31, 2024.
2. Interactions Between Iranian and American Literatures
Strange Affinity
N Esmaeilpour
T&F, 2024
3. CALL FOR PAPERS
Iranian Masculinities Across Time: Historical Perspectives
University of California, Santa Barbara
2025
This projected volume explores the diverse experiences, performances, and discourses involving men and masculinities in Iranian society and culture over a broad span of time, from antiquity to the present day. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Mapping historical and/or modern masculinities and institutions and various definitions of masculinities.
- Outsiders’ perceptions, stereotypes, and experiences of Iranian masculinity from the ancient Greeks to the modern period.
- How media ideals and ideologies of masculinity have changed through the 19th-21st centuries.
- Hegemonic and non-hegemonic masculinities; marginalized masculinities, outcast/pariah/abject masculinities; resistant masculinities; ethnic / non-urban / regional/ racialized/class-based masculinities.
- Masculinity and religion; religious and divine masculinities.
- Patriarchy and law.
- Man-making practices, places, and things; passages into manhood; masculine life stages: boyhood, manhood, fatherhood, etc. and life roles (work, volunteerism, parenthood, and more)
- Masculinity and the body; the manly/masculine body; masculinity and sports; masculinity and disability, sexual dysfunction, bodily non-normativity, and/or physical impairment
- Masculinity, same sex desire, and sexual orientation
- Challenges of studying Iranian men and masculinities
- Masculinities in sociopolitical movements
- Masculinities in the arts (including graphic arts, cartoons, cinema), architecture, material culture.
- Masculinities and musical performances
- Masculinities in children’s literature
- The effects of patriarchy on men and boys; the roles of men and boys in bringing about gender equality
- The unmanly; masculinity and women / the feminine
- Masculinity, violence, and emotions
- Male Advocates of Women’s Rights and Gender Equity in Modern Iranian history.
- newly emergent forms of masculinities for a more democratic Iranian society
Proposals/abstracts from all disciplines and all fields are welcomed. They may focus on Iran, the Iranian plateau and neighboring regions, or the Iranian diaspora, and may examine any period from the second millennium BCE up to the present.
Please send your proposal/abstract of no more than 300 words by July 10, 2024 to both Janet Afary (jafary@ucsb.edu) and John W. I. Lee (jwilee@history.ucsb.edu).
Individuals whose proposals/abstracts are accepted are invited to submit a paper (20-25 pages) by December 15, 2024. A conference celebrating the authors and exploring the key themes of the projected volume will be held at UCSB in 2025.
4. ‘The Status of Music in Islamic Law: Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī’s (d. 974/1567) Treatise Against Recreation in its Polemical Context’
F Morrissey
Islamic Law and Society, 2024
5. Muslims Making British Media
Popular Culture, Performance and Public Religion
C Morris
Bloomsbury, 2024
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/muslims-making-british-media-9781350265394/
6. ‘Reading Sources in Area Studies: Privacy Uncovered: Daily Life in the Turco-Iranian World through Archival Documents, 8th-18th Centuries’
12/06/2024 9 h 30 – 18 h 00
Lire les sources en études aréales – Dévoiler le privé : le quotidien à travers les documents d’archives du monde turco-iranien, VIIIe-XVIIIe siècle
3rd Research and Training Workshop / 3e Atelier de recherche et de formation
Wednesday 12 June 2024 / Mercredi 12 juin 2024
PARIS and ONLINE
Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne nouvelle
4 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris
Salle Athéna, 09:30 – 18:00
To attend ONLINE, please contact Simon Berger (simon.berger@cnrs.fr )
More informations: https://cermi.cnrs.fr/reading-sources-in-area-studies-privacy-uncovered-daily-life-in-the-turco-iranian-world-through-archival-documents-8th-18th-centuries/
7. 2024 Rethinking History: Return to Archives and Documents
‘(Re-)discovering the Firuzkuh Documents from Afghanistan, 12th-13th century’ with Nabi Saqee, University of Oxford
Thursday, 13 June 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvd-GvqjgoGdM0BEPAFqUSCvO6E-…
8. Travellers in Ottoman Lands CFP.
CFP for the Travellers in Ottoman Lands Conference scheduled to occur in Istanbul next April.
- June 08, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Panel Ethno-history of the Middle East and Central Asia: “How Can We Write Ethno-histories in the 21st Century?” Chair: Fakhri Haghani, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Commission on Anthropology of the Middle East, Institut Francais d’Etudes Anatolienne, Istanbul, 4-6 September 2024.
How cultural productions such as artworks, street protests, performances, and slogans, and religious practices, along with political gestures and stands, lawlessness of situations, mobilization of civilians, expression of anger, trauma, and love have contributed to alternative forms of historical records? Can this analysis shift the methodological process, sources, and even literal terminology of what is defined as “history?”
Deadline for abstracts and a short bio: 15 June 2024. To be sent to Fakhri Haghani, the.fakhrih@gmail.com
Information: http://iuaes.ir/
2. International Congress on “Gender and Contemporary Arab Artistic Creation Khalaqat”, ADHUC Universitat de Barcelona, 14-15 November 2024
Academics are invited to share current ideas, theories, and research addressing Arab artistic creation from a gender perspective. Participants are encouraged to explore different forms of artistic and creative expression, engaging with new and interdisciplinary methodologies. Proposals for artistic projects and artist presentations are highly valued.
Deadline for abstracts: 20 June 2024.
Information: https://www.ub.edu/adhuc/en/node/5998
3. Conference “Endgame of Empires: Post-Imperial Transitions, Incomplete Transformations and Imperial Legacies”, New York University Abu Dhabi, 21 April 2025
Main themes: What were the legacies of the Russian and Ottoman empires in the immediate aftermath of imperial collapse? – How did the transition transform the lives of workers, peasants, migrants, and revolutionaries? – What were some of the long-term institutional legacies of empire across Soviet and post-Ottoman space? – How was the transition from imperial to post-imperial statecraft reflected in the new sciences that emerged in Soviet and post-Ottoman states?
Deadline for abstracts: 30 August 2024.
Information: https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20034780/cfp-endgame-empires-post-imperial-transitions-incomplete
4. Research Assistant at the Institute for Islamic Studies (50%, Praedoc, 4 Years), Freie Universität Berlin
Job description: Participation in teaching and research in the subject area of “Classical Islam”; administrative work at the institute, and assistance in the preparation of third-party funding applications. The position provides the holder with the opportunity to improve their level of academic qualification. Requirements: Completed university degree (MA level) in Islamic Studies or a closely related discipline.
Deadline for applications: 24 June 2024.
Information:
https://www.fu-berlin.de/universitaet/beruf-karriere/jobs/english/GK-WiMi_Praedoc_10-2024_CM.html
5. Articles on “Religious Conversions. Believing and Doing on the Move in the Mediterranean Area” for a Special Issue of the Journal “L´Année du Maghreb” (34|2, décembre 2025)
This issue looks at religion in terms of its ability to mobilise institutions, groups and individuals around plural dynamics that contribute to the redefinition of the religious field itself. Main themes: Media coverage. The stakes, politics and discourse of conversion. – Investing in the cultural field. Production, promotion, mediation. – Everyday life. Local, family and intimate scales.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2024.
Information: https://journals.openedition.org/anneemaghreb/13128#tocfrom1n5
6. Articles on “China’s Policy Toward the Middle East Including Iran and Turkey and the Maghreb from Zhou Enlai to the Present Day” for a Special Issue of the Journal “The Maghreb Review”
Themes: China’s new approach towards the Middle East and North Africa region. – China’s Diplomatic relations with the Middle East and North Africa since Zhou Enlai. – Chinese economic involvement in the region through loans, investments, and trade. – Tacit Alliance: The Political Economy of Chinese-Iranian Relations– China-U.S. Rivalry in the Middle East and North Africa. – China’s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Etc.
Deadline for papers: 30 June 2024.
Information: https://www.maghrebreview.com/en/authors.html
7. M.A. in Kurdish Studies: Applications Open for Fall 2024
Zahra Institute is delighted to announce the opening of applications for our M.A. Program in Kurdish Studies. The deadline for applications for Fall semester is 15 July 2024. The online, two-year M.A. program consists of 31 credits and welcomes full-time and part-time students.
The Master of Arts in Kurdish Studies at Zahra Institute is the first of its kind in the United States. Our courses offer insights into the lives and cultures of the Kurds, a Middle Eastern people living in Kurdistan and beyond, spread across the borders of several modern states and linguistic and cultural zones.
For the 2024 Fall semester courses, Zahra Institute offers the following: Approaches to Kurdish Studies, Introduction to Linguistics and Kurdish Studies, History and Literature of the Kurds, and Kurmanji and Sorani Kurdish language courses.
The M.A. Program provides excellent background preparation for a doctoral degree in any field related to the Middle East and for those interested in pursuing careers in media, government, and international organizations. Our liberal arts approach to Kurdish Studies is based on rigorous academic standards and a strong commitment to scholarly freedom.
We offer both M.A. and Certificate in Kurdish Studies. Kurdish language courses are offered as electives in the M.A. program, or as standalone courses. For application information, visit our website: www.zahrainstitute.org .
Zahra Institute, a research center and graduate school located in Chicago, intends to provide an open, collaborative environment for learning, teaching, and scholarship in the fields of Kurdish Studies and Critical Muslim Studies.
8. Hybrid: Cambridge: Afghanistan: A Neglected Reality
Fri 7 Jun 2024 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM (Time zone: London)
https://teamup.com/event/show/id/dezZPnC1p9xqXffpoNcMNYnkQb5RLj
9. Pop Islam, Seeing American Muslims in Popular Media
Rosemary Pennington
Indiana, 2024
https://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/9780253069375/pop-islam/
10. ONLINE Webinar: ‘The New Persian Romance in a Global Middle Ages’,
with Cameron Cross
British Institute of Persian Studies, 17 July 2024, 5PM (UK time).
On Zoom.
In the early tenth century CE, a remarkable literary event took place, in which well-known stories of lovers were recast by court-affiliated poets as independent versified works in the emergent New Persian language.
With a focus on the remarkable story of Vis & Ramin, this talk seeks to situate that event in the broader context of the entangled literary histories of southwestern Afro-Eurasia from late antiquity to the medieval period, showing how the Persian corpus plays a crucial role in the history of romance writing at large.
Register at:
https://www.bips.ac.uk/event/persian-romance/
11. Eighth European Congress on Universal and Global History
Critical Global Histories: Methodological Reflections and Thematic Expansions
Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden, 10−12 September 2025
Since its foundation in 2002, the European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH) has emerged as the leading international association for research and teaching in world and global history. Following seven successful congresses in Leipzig, Dresden, London, Paris, Budapest, Turku, and The Hague, the next ENIUGH congress will be held at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. The congress will be on site only, although panel chairs may in exceptional cases allow participants to present their papers remotely.
Under the overall theme of “Critical Global Histories” we aim to further discussion, self-reflection, and the exploration of new avenues in global history. Over the past decade, global history has expanded internally (quantitatively and thematically, as well as methodologically and theoretically) and has, in doing so, influenced many other fields of research in the humanities and social sciences. At the same time, the expansion has led to debate and criticism, not least within the field. Objections have been raised against global history’s alleged macro-historical emphasis, connectivity bias, Eurocentrism, Anglophone dominance, and lack of attention to gender perspectives and Indigenous methodologies. Global history has also been accused of being imbued with neo-imperial, teleological, globalizing, exoticizing and neoliberal leanings. In recent years, decoloniality as a research practice and method has raised further questions regarding the situatedness of knowledge and the role of local sources for global history. At the same time, a current nationalist backlash in many countries has led to calls for a return to national history, thereby challenging the fundamental premises of global history.
At the Eighth ENIUGH Congress, we aim to pick up on these discussions and take a step forward by opening a space of dialogue, both between global historians and between global historians and their colleagues in other disciplines who are involved in the study of the global human pasts or who work with transnational, transregional, transcultural approaches in their respective fields. The Eighth ENIUGH-Congress will be a meeting place for scholars from all of the fields that go beyond methodological nationalism and Eurocentrism. We believe that critical thinking – both in the sense of impartial and intellectually disciplined thinking and in the sense of an augmented awareness of the many pitfalls associated with global history – can provide some of the means by which the field can evolve and retain its intellectual vigour and contemporary relevance. By framing the theme in terms of “global histories” in the plural, we aim to promote the inclusion of a broad range of voices, perspectives and orientations within the field, while forcefully rejecting the possibility of insisting on a single, dominating story or grand narrative of global history. The overall theme of the congress will be explored in a series of keynote events, roundtables, and panel discussions and in several of the regular panels and presentations at the congress.
Aside from the events related to the overall theme of the congress, we expect the congress to reflect the entire span of current research in global history, and we look forward to welcoming to Växjö scholars from all over world working on global and world history and related fields of study. Proposals can include a wide range of topics related to global, entangled, and transnational historical processes and phenomena, with no geographic or chronological limitations. While we expect most of the congress delegates to be historians, we also welcome scholars from other disciplines engaged in the study of humanity’s global pasts.
We invite contributions consisting of presentations of original research and empirically grounded work in progress, as well as theoretical, methodological, ethical, and historiographical reflections. We particularly encourage contributions that reflect on how critical thinking can be applied in global historical investigations. Although the main language of the congress will be English, individual presentations and panels in other languages can be accommodated (see further below).
In particular, we welcome contributions (both panels and individual papers) tailored to one of the following themes:
- Temporalities and periodizations in global history
- Ethical aspects of doing global history
- Expanding the global archive
- Multivocality in global history
- Global history and decoloniality
- Transdisciplinary approaches
- Indigenous perspectives and methodologies
- Challenging modernity from the perspective of global history
- National history, nationalist backlash, and identity politics
- Global environmental history
- Nordic colonialism
In addition to the main conference themes we also invite proposals dealing with relations, transfers and entanglements between states, peoples, communities and individuals located in or spanning different parts and regions of the world.
Proposals
We invite proposals for panels, double panels, roundtables, and individual papers. Papers and presentations may be in any language, but abstracts for all panels, roundtables, and papers must be provided in English. Panel chairs must ensure the openness, accessibility, and coherence of their panel, and it is recommended that Q&A sessions be held in English regardless of the language of the presentations. All congress delegates are expected to participate on site in Växjö. In exceptional circumstances, panel chairs may allow a minority of presentations to be held remotely.
Panels may comprise up to four presentations, and double panels may comprise up to eight presentations, in addition to commentators and chairs. Panels must consist of scholars representing at least two different institutions in at least two different countries. Double panels must include participants from at least three different institutions in at least three different countries.
Roundtables may include up to five participants, in addition to commentators and chairs. Like double panels, roundtables must include scholars from at least three different institutions in at least three different countries.
We also welcome proposals for individual papers, which, if accepted, will be assigned to a panel by the steering committee of ENIUGH. Papers that speak to one or several of the themes listed above are particularly welcome, and the theme of most relevance to the proposal should be indicated in the submission form.
Submissions:
All abstracts for panels and papers must be submitted by October 15 via the congress website: https://research.uni-leipzig.de/~eniugh/congress/. Please note that all speakers of a panel must submit their papers individually in addition to the collective panel submission.
Abstracts for panels should be 250 – 300 words long and should indicate all panellists, their institutional affiliations as well as their paper titles. Additionally, panel abstracts should be pertaining to one of the conference themes.
Abstracts for papers should be 200 – 250 words long and indicate whether the paper is submitted as an individual paper or as part of a panel. In the latter case the abstract should name the panel title as well as the convenor’s name.
All abstracts should be in English. If the presentation is in a language other than English, please state this in the abstract. (Papers are selected solely on the basis of content, not linguistic criteria.)
Abstracts should also indicate whether you plan to participate in person or online. Please note that the convenor and a majority of participants in each panel must participate on site.
Selected panels and papers will be notified in December 2024.
Kind regards from the Organizing Committee,
Stefan Eklöf Amirell (Professor of Global History, Director, Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies
Birgit Tremml-Werner (Stockholm University, affiliated researcher at Linnaeus University)
Katrin Köster (Leipzig University)
Contact: congress@eniugh.org
Website: https://research.uni-leipzig.de/~eniugh/congress/
12. The Heidi Marx Prize: Call for Submissions
Submissions will open on 1 July for the inaugural Heidi Marx Prize.
We have established this prize, in recognition of Heidi Marx’s ongoing scholarly contributions, not least her co-founding of ReMeDHe, to be awarded annually for the best article on medicine, health, and healing in the ancient Mediterranean. Articles published within the last three years are welcome, and the winner will receive $250 toward books of their choosing as well as recognition on the ReMeDHe website.
Nominations and self-nominations are all welcome, with a final deadline of 1 March 2025 for an announcement in June 2025.
Full details, including eligibility, selection criteria, and instructions, are available on the ReMeDHe website. Inquiries and questions can be sent to Kristi Upson-Saia (upsonsaia@oxy.edu) or Jonathan Zecher (jonathan.zecher@acu.edu.au).
- June 04, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.HIAA Call for Online Workshop Proposals
HIAA is again pleased to announce a call for Online Workshop proposals on diverse topics pertaining to our field, encompassing scholarship, teaching, and professional development. These workshops will provide excellent opportunities for members to engage in conversations on pressing issues that have bearing on the study of Islamic art and contribute to the advancement of the discipline and our community. HIAA will assist the workshop organizers in designing, staging, and promoting the event. Any current HIAA member in good standing may submit a proposal. The workshops will be held online. Proposals may encompass conventional panel-style workshops, but we also encourage our members to propose workshops in alternative formats allowing for an interactive and engaging conversation.
Deadline:
July 15, 2024
Required Documents:
- Title & Description: A 200-word description outlining the workshop’s content, objective and format.
- Potential Discussants (when relevant to the format): A list of 4-5 potential discussants
- Curriculum Vitae: A 2-page cv of the organizer
Please submit your proposal to HIAA Secretary Emily Neumeier at sec.hiaa@gmail.com
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Additionally, some follow-up resources that have been produced after our two HIAA Online Workshops this academic year (“Researching and Publishing the Provenance Histories of Islamic Art” and “Career Diversity Resources”) have now been published on the HIAA website: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/resources-and-pubs/Onile-Workshops-Resources
Please note that you need to log in to the website in order to access this section. The materials include video recordings, bibliographies, and lists of resources both for those seeking a diversity of careers after the Islamic Art Ph.D. as well as their graduate advisors.
2. Nokhostineh chāp-hā-ye Iran, Persian Incunabula (Tehran: Pouyā-namā, 2024).
The book, Nokhostineh chāp-hā-ye Iran, Persian Incunabula, offers an exhaustive study of Persian incunabula, with a focus on books printed with movable type in Iran from 1233 AH/1818 AD to 1275 AH/1858 AD. The book is organized into four primary chapters and is supplemented by seven appendices. The opening chapter presents a historical survey of printing with movable type in Iran, drawing from a rich array of previous sources, research, and new discoveries. Following chapters delve into the specifics of the printing houses that produced these books, categorized by their city of operation. This section examines various facets of the printing process, including size, page layout, typeface, catchword and page counter, array (signs and headings), image, and watermark. The “Subjects” chapter scrutinizes the topics and authors of the books, while the “Appearance Characteristics” chapter discusses the images, decorations, and typefaces used in these prints. The appendices encompass a “Bibliography,” “First and last pages of the book,” “Images,” “Chapter Headings,” “Quran clichés 1265 AH,” “Typefaces,” and “Watermarks.” The book was published to mark the 200th anniversary of book publication in Tehran.
This book will be available in the Tehran Book Fair or those interested from abroad can contact the author (Ali Boozari ) or publisher.
3. CFP – ‘Interaction vs. Isolation: Development of Settlements in the Mediterranean Basin’, SAH 2025
CFP for “Interaction vs. Isolation. Development of Settlements in the Mediterranean Basin,” a proposed panel for the 2025 Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians to be held April 30th–May 4th in Atlanta, Georgia.
Proposals are due on 5 June.
Abstract:
The Mediterranean region has been a historical hub of trade and cultural exchange for millennia, and settlements have often been impacted by the circulation of people and goods. This panel considers the degree of connectivity between human habitats has molded both urban and rural spaces.
Experts in archaeology, history, and geography have studied how interaction or isolation influenced the cultural, economic, social, and political development of these communities. Those located along trade routes or coastal areas are most likely to be transformed by incorporating external influences, fostering cosmopolitan societies. In contrast, remote regions less frequently came into contact with different cultures, and sometimes faced challenges such as the scarcity of resources. Though not entirely insulated, remote settlements have proven more likely to maintain distinct local cultures.
Analysis of the interplay of internal and external forces—climate change, resource availability, trade networks—reveals complex factors shaping settlement growth and decline. This panel on the built environment of the Mediterranean offers insights into the development of settlements at different scales through isolation and circulation since the rise of Islam in the 7th century.
Focusing on architecture and material evidence from interdisciplinary approaches, contributions to this panel will enhance the understanding of Mediterranean settlements. Although the period we propose to consider begins with Islam’s arrival in the region, essays need not be limited to consideration of Islamic aspects.
Questions to be considered include, but are not limited to:
- Diversity within religious traditions and the interaction of those traditions with other cultures;
- How local and external markers of identity shaped the built environment;
- How building materials and techniques were shaped by the local environment, commerce, and interaction across long distances;
- Theological and cultural considerations shaping structures and communities;
- How a given area’s cultural and physical characteristics shaped settlements;
- How the interaction between broader social factors such as economics, demographics and local conditions has changed over time.
Session Chairs: Michael Toler, Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries; and Beniamino Polimeni, University of Hertfordshire
Submission guidelines: The deadline for abstract submission is June 1. Proposals must be submitted through the conference website.
Contact Information
Michael A. Toler, Archnet Digital Librarian
Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries
Contact Email
URL
https://www.sah.org/2025/call-for-papers
4. ONLINE Webinar: ‘Historiographical Controversies Involving the Rise of the Achaemenid Empire’
with Reza Zarghamee
British Institute of Persian Studies, 19 June 2024, 5PM (UK time).
On Zoom.
The political background to the rise of the Achaemenid Empire remains elusive and the subject of important shifts in scholarly consensus over the past four decades. Specifically, scholarly perceptions regarding the importance of the Medes as imperial predecessors of the Persians, the dynastic unity of Cyrus II and the Darius I, and the Iranian character of the pre-Darian kings have been called into question. This presentation provides an overview of the changing paradigms, and counter theories, along with a call for a more synthetic and less radical approach to the sources.
5. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library – Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Research Fellowships
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67227
6. Columbia University – Visiting Professor/Asst Professor/Lecturer (Armenian Studies)
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67220
7. Les Unités mixtes de recherche CeRMI et IREMAM, ont le plaisir de vous inviter au :
3rd Research and Training Workshop / 3e Atelier de recherche et de formation
Reading Sources in Area Studies / Lire les sources en études aréales
Privacy Uncovered: Daily Life in the Turco-Iranian World through Archival Documents, 8th-18th Centuries
Dévoiler le privé : le quotidien à travers les documents d’archives du monde turco-iranien, VIIIe-XVIIIe siècle
Wednesday 12 June 2024 / Mercredi 12 juin 2024
Maison de la Recherche de la Sorbonne nouvelle
4 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris
Salle Athéna, 9h30 – 18h
PhD candidate students and advanced MA students are invited to participate
Doctorants et étudiants de master sont encouragés à participer
Convenors/Responsables : Simon Berger (CNRS, CeRMI), Camille Rhoné-Quer (AMU, IREMAM) et Maria Szuppe (CNRS, CeRMI)
Détails et informations sur le site du CeRMI
Contacts: simon.berger@cnrs.fr
8. The Spiritual Vernacular of the Early Ottoman Frontier
The Yazıcıoğlu Family
Carlos Grenier
9. HYBRID Book Presentation and Panel Discussion “Seidener Handel (Silk Trade). Basel and the Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century” by Dr. Yiğit Topkaya (University of Zurich), Orient-Institut Istanbul, 6 June 2024, 19:00 h, Turkish Time
Basel, at the beginning of the 19th century the largest and most prosperous city in German-speaking Switzerland, owed its wealth primarily to the worldwide export of silk ribbons. The book tells the story of merchants, manufacturers, trading houses, agents and bankers and traces the transformation of urban living and trading spaces in the course of industrialization and urbanization.
Information and registration: https://www.maxweberstiftung.de/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/einzelansicht-veranstaltungen/detail/News/seidener-handel-silk-trade-basel-und-das-osmanische-reich-im-19-jahrhundert.html
10. ONLINE International Workshop “Digging Up the Past: Aspects of a Multi-Layered Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire from the Late 19th to the Early 20th Century”, Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, 6-7 June 2024
The aim of this workshop is to initiate an international dialogue on contentious provenances of antiquities in international museum collections, with a focus on historical excavation campaigns and the trade and export practices in place at the time. Furthermore, the workshop will offer an opportunity to discuss some of the ethodologies, challenges, and outcomes of provenance research on archaeological objects from the Ottoman Empire.
Information, programme and registration:
11. HYBRID International Conference “Modern Challenges to Islamic Law: Exploring New Pathways”, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg, 6-7 June 2024
This international conference in honour of Prof. Shaheen Sardar Ali (University of Warwick, UK) takes up the urgent issues of modernity that Islamic law is faced with in various ways, including Islamic constitutionalism, family law reform in the Muslim world, and the epistemology of Islamic law by looking at how Islamic law is
being taught.
Information and registration: https://www.mpipriv.de/1790969/6-7-june-2024-modern-challenges-to-islamic-law-exploring-new-pathways.html
12. Workshop “Race and Racialization in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Spaces”, Queen Mary University of London, 6-7 June 2024
This workshop aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines and from diverse geographical and thematic perspectives who are interested in questions of race and racialization in the Balkans, North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia from Ottoman to contemporary times.
Programme and abstracts of the presented papers:
https://networks.h-net.org/system/files/attachments/race-racialisation-workshop-program.pdf
- June 01, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Of Joy & Sorrow is a compilation of the unpublished travelogues of Doustali-Khan Moayer al-Mamalek (1876 – 1966) and Mirza Hassan Khan Mostowfi al-Mamalek (1871 – 1932) while accompanying Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar (1853 – 1907), the King of Persia (1896 – 1907), during his first journey to Europe to attend the 1900 Paris Expo.
Moezzi, Fatemeh and Khosronejad, Pedram. 2024. Of Joy & Sorrow.
2. 34th Exeter Gulf Conference “Life Worlds of Energy and Environment in the Gulf”, 27-28 June 2024
Information, programme and abstracts of papers:
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/centres/gulf/events/gulfconference/
3. Conference of the Commission on Anthropology of the Middle East: “Fortitude in Face of Turmoil”, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Institut Francais d’Etudes Anatolienne, Istanbul, 4-6 September 2024
Panels: Gift-Giving and Exchange: Perspectives from Cultural and Economic Anthropology. – Ethnographic Encounters with Nonhuman Actors in the Middle East. – Sports in the Middle East. – Food on the Move: Home, Belonging and Resilience. – Shifting Social Landscapes: Legacy of Migration in the Middle East. – Ethno-History of the Middle East and Central Asia. – Tourism and Tourists in the Middle East. – Gender, Religion, Sexuality and Identity. Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2024. Information: https://iuaes.ir/
4. Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS, Focus on Iran, Afghanistan etc.), Syracuse University , New York, 12-15 September 2024
Extended deadline for abstracts: 1 June 2024. Information: https://sendy.nomadit.co.uk/w/Muv8925H4nJPTnDqC0l92JOA/2eq3XPGlrllxNvUNWHpT9g/9w3VZV5cykiJkGDsceNBDw
5. Symposium on “The Natural Sciences in the Ottoman Empire: Scholars, Works, Problems”, Istanbul Center for Research and Education, 13-14 December 2024
This symposium aims to explore the rich history and development of the natural sciences within the Ottoman context. Travel expenses and accommodation for speakers with accepted papers will be fully covered
Deadline for abstracts: 15 June 2024.
Information: https://www.isar.org.tr/en/sempozyum-calistaylar/osmanlida-ulum-i-tabiiyye-2/home-24
6. Workshop “Policing the Prayer in Sectarian Islam: Spaces, Temporalities, Coercion (7th–15th Centuries)”, Università di Napoli L’Orientale, 27-28 February 2025
Particular attention should be paid to collective strategies elaborated by sectarian groups in the medieval period. In what context did scholars, religious authorities, the state, and people frame these strategies? How did these strategies evolve through time and space? To what extent did these strategies involve/have an impact on acts of worship such as prayer?
Deadline for abstracts: 15 July 2024.
Information: https://iismm.hypotheses.org/files/2024/05/CfP_Policing_Prayer.pdf
7. Alexander Key
The Novel in Adab: A Modern Genre in Conversation with al-Tanukhi and al-Tawhidi
Monday Majlis Online and in Person (IAIS LT1) on the 3rd of June, 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
Registration is required. Register please on this link:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEpdeyqrjwqE9bs2VxW1A5HfvsnOFHSuV6F
- May 28, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Symposium – “Aesthetic and Symbolic Dimensions of Arabic Writing – New Perspectives on Manuscripts, Epigraphy, and Numismatics”, Wolfson College, University of Oxford – July 4–5
As the disciplines of Islamic history and Arabic palaeography make steady progress, many questions concerning the aesthetic and symbolic dimensions of Arabic writing remain unanswered. This symposium will bring together fourteen scholars working on Arabic calligraphy, epigraphy, palaeography, numismatics, and diplomatics in different regions of Afro-Eurasia, from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries. The aim is to showcase brand new research on a wide range of artifacts (Qurʾanic manuscripts, chancery documents, monumental epigraphy, inscribed objects, coins…), grounded in material evidence but also engaged with textual sources (historiography, biographical dictionaries, philosophical treatises, fatwas and legal compendia, chancery manuals, adab…). Each contribution will shed light on previously unnoticed paradigms and practices, proposing new frameworks and approaches to Arabic writing that could be applied on a macro level, and unveiling the processes by which meaning was conveyed not just textually, but also visually. The symposium will lay the foundations for a methodological shift in the way we understand calligraphic and epigraphic styles, as it will mainly focus on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ such styles originated, developed, transformed, and became extinct, exposing or disproving their links with doctrinal notions, dynastic claims, aesthetic discourses, cultural identities, or the self-representation of distinct professional groups.
These are some of the questions that will be tackled: Why were specific scripts and layouts employed in some Arabic manuscripts, documents, and inscriptions on various media, instead of others? How did such scripts and layouts originate and develop, and how can the available literary sources help us understand these processes? Through what channels did calligraphic and epigraphic styles travel and spread? What role did different social groups (Quranic calligraphers, book copyists, chancery scribes, stone carvers, die engravers…) play in these processes, and to what extent did they affect each other’s work? What influence did certain patrons, intellectual elites, and religious scholars have on the adoption and canonisation of specific calligraphic and epigraphic styles? What meanings were conveyed by calligraphic diagrams, calligrams, or by epigraphy that followed distinctive configurations or colour schemes? How did contemporary viewers and users perceive calligraphy and epigraphy beyond their textual content? How did they engage with their visual properties and material qualities?
For further information and schedule: https://krc.web.ox.ac.uk/event/asdaw-symposium
2. LACISA’s 2024 Colloquium
Muslim Contributions to Civil Society and Philanthropy in the Caribbean
May 29-30, 2024 [ONLINE]
**REGISTER TODAY**
Research on both Muslim communities and their contributions to civil society in the Caribbean is expanding. What might we learn by putting the two into conversation?
In collaboration with the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative (MPI) at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), LACISA is hosting an online colloquium on Muslim contributions to civil society, philanthropy and activism in the Caribbean, May 29-30. 2024.
This colloquium brings together scholars and practitioners to conceptualize overarching patterns, offer case studies, and suggest possible avenues forward in the study of Muslim communities in the Caribbean.
Held over two days, each panel will consist of two presentations, one practitioner interview and time for Q&A and discussion. To register, click on the link below.
Day One (May 29) 11:00 am – 12:30 pm U.S. EST
- Ken Chitwood, Introduction and Moderation
- Anisur Rahman, “The Role of South Asian Muslim community in shaping the Caribbean society”
- An Interview with Sakina Bakharia from the Barbados Association of Muslim Ladies (BAML)
- Suleiman Bulbulia (with Sabir Nakhuda), “From Bengal to Barbados: Muslim contributions to Bajan society”
Day Two (May 30): 11:00 am – 12:30 pm U.S. EST
- Harini Kumar, Introduction and Moderation
- Azhar Goraya, “Humanity First in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean”
- Mina Sanz and Rolando Macias, “Humanity First: Serving Mankind and its work in the Caribbean”
- Muhammad Husayn, “The early roots of Shiiism in the Caribbean”
**Inquiries, and other communication related to the colloquium should be sent to lacisanews@gmail.com .**
3. Islamochristiana is the annual scientific journal of PISAI (Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d’Islamistica)dedicated to Muslim-Christian dialogue.
The journal publishes articles, documents and book reviews concerned with the theoretical and practical aspects of Christian-Muslim dialogue, both past and present. Members of BRISMES are able to access articles published in Islamochristiana Volume 49 (2023) through an exchange agreement with PISAI.
Download vol 49: https://mcusercontent.com/6f554375a2851024e355e1bbd/files/2842a6dd-357e-c2e2-042f-2ee01aa51d6b/islamo_49_2023.pdf
4. Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS) Master’s Scholarship
SOAS University of London
SOAS is pleased to announce the new Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS) Master’s Scholarship which is generously funded entirely through donations. There is one scholarship available for 2024/25 which has been established to support a student ordinarily resident in Palestine to study any taught master’s programme at SOAS.
Deadline | 7 June May 2024
More information
5. Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Politics and/or International Relations X2
SOAS University of London
Applications are invited for two Lecturer / Senior (T&R) Lecturer positions in Politics and/or International Relations starting in the Autumn of 2024. The role holder will be expected to contribute to—and shape—the Department’s research profile as well as the delivery of our undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
Deadline | 15 June 2024
More information
6. Call for Papers | Imagined Geographies: From Past to Future
Symposium, University of East Anglia, 2-3 October 2024
The New Area Studies Research Centre, the East Centre and the School of Global Development at the University of East Anglia are calling for papers between 5000-8000 words to be presented at a symposium on the topic of Imagined Geographies: from Past to Future. The organisers particularly welcome original, cross-disciplinary topics and approaches, showcasing innovation, evolving, or new methodologies.
Deadline | 1 June 2024
7. Call for Papers | Transregionalism in the Middle East and Northern Africa
Special Issue, Middle East Critique
Submissions are invited for a Special Issue of Middle East Critique edited by Estella Carpi and Luigi Achilli. This Special Issue aims to scrutinize the concept of transregionalism radiating from and revolving around the MENA as a result of migrations generated by conflict and disasters. Against this backdrop, it aims to explore how identities, solidarities, assistance, as well as fear and violence all transcend national borders, thereby reshaping both sending and receiving societies in profound ways.
Deadline | 30 July 2024
8. Prize for Arabic to English Translators
The Bait AlGhasham DarArab Translation Prize proudly invites translators and authors to participate in an enriching cultural exchange that celebrates Arabic literary heritage. This annual prize is designed to recognize and promote Arabic literature by facilitating its translation into English, thereby making these works accessible to a global audience.
Deadline | 31 July 2024
9. The Lure of the East: A Curator’s Fascinating Journey,
Marilyn Jenkins-Madina
Rodin, 2024
10. ONLINE Round Table “Women and Academy in the MENA Region: Comparing Experiences and Sharing Practices”, Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED), 27 May 2024, 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm CEST
The Round Table is organised in the framework of the project “WOMEDa – Promoting the overcoming of the Academic Gender Gap in the MENA region”. It will see the intervention of Academics from Italy and Tunisia discussing the current status of the Academic Gender Gap in the Mediterranean region and presenting practices and initiatives to promote the overcoming of this aspect.
Information and registration: https://www.uni-med.net/events/women-and-academy-in-the-mena-region-comparing-experiences-and-sharing-practices-online-round-table-27-may-2024/
11. ONLINE Webinar “The Threats of AI and Disinformation in Times of Global Crises”, Arab Center Washington DC, 29 May 2024, 11:00 am – 12:30 am EDT
Israel’s recent war on Gaza after October 7 has exposed the myriad methods of digital dehumanization and deception that can result in tech-driven atrocities and justifications for war crimes. Whether it is political influence operations, propaganda, deep fakes, biometric surveillance, predictive policing, or autonomous weapons, the threats of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and disinformation are far-reaching.
Information and registration:
https://arabcenterdc.org/event/the-threats-of-ai-and-disinformation-in-times-of-global-crises/
- May 25, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.HYBRID Panel Discussion on Book Launch “Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades” by Prof. Jodi Magness (UNC-Chapel Hill), W. F. Albright Institute, 10 June 2024, 16:00 CEST
For followers of the three Abrahamic faiths, Jerusalem is the place where the presence of the God of Israel dwells. The book explores how this belief came to be associated with the city by introducing readers to its complex and layered history, including the most recent archaeological discoveries. Each chapter focuses on a key moment of transition from Jerusalem’s beginnings to the Middle Ages, providing a vivid narrative of the city’s many transformations as it changed hands and populations.
Information and registration:
https://mailchi.mp/aiar/announcement-jodi-magness-book-launch?e=4b7f78b915
2. Conference of the “Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association (OTSA)”, Northwestern University, Evanston Campus, 25-27 October 2024
Proposals of papers and panels from any discipline in the humanities and the social sciences on themes dedicated to the study of the Ottoman Empire and modern/contemporary Turkey are welcome. We especially encourage proposals that address the state of the field of Ottoman and Turkish Studies, broadly construed.
Proposals from scholars at all levels of seniority are welcome.
Deadline for abstracts: 23 June 2024. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20034106/ottoman-and-turkish-studies-association-2024-conference-call
3. Workshop “Knowledge in the Islamic Court: Evidence, Proof, Procedure Symposium”, Netherlands Institute Morocco (NIMAR), Rabat, 14-15 May 2025
Themes: How do qadis evaluate various evidentiary forms, and to what extent does this relate to discursive Islamic legal traditions? How are evidentiary forms produced and made probative before the qadi? What is the role of sensory perception? Etc. – Co-organizers: Dr. Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif (University of Bergen) and Dr. Ari Schriber (Utrecht University)
Deadline for abstracts: 30 June 2024. Information: https://forms.gle/jk6unUFnTtEeVCNn8
4. Articles on “Transhumanism and Islam” for a Special Issue of the “Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies”
Themes: Philosophical reflections on the nature of humanity and enhancement within Islamic thought. – Theological perspectives on the ethical implications of transhumanism and biotechnologies in Kalam. – Islamic
legal perspectives on bioethical dilemmas and emerging biotechnologies. – Explorations of spirituality and
the human condition in relation to transhumanist aspirations. Etc.
Deadline for submissions: 1 December 2024.
Information: https://jeet.ieet.org/index.php/home/announcement/view/3
5. Legal Transformation in Muslim Societies, Volume 1 Issue 1 2024
https://revivalpress.co.uk/journal-issues
6. Hikmat International Institute (Qom)
The Tasnim Course is now open for registration. This intensive two-month, in-person program is designed for youths eager to explore various topics related to Islam, including principles of faith, faith in action, everyday ethics, and Islamic rulings (Ahkam).
Plus, participants will benefit from a special Tajweed program to enhance their Quran recitation skills.
For just $1500, enjoy over 100 sessions, accommodations, airport transfers, cultural activities, meetings with scholars, and visa assistance.
Course Dates: June 1 – July 31, 2024
Registration Deadline: May 31, 2024
https://hikmat-ins.com/tasnim-summer-course/
7. University of Idaho – Postdoctoral Fellow – International Relations
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67217
8. Zahra Mohaghegian, ‘The Qurʾān and Its Masculine God: A Historical Feminist Analysis’. Monday Majlis Online on the 27th of May, 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter.
Register please on this link: https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqduihpzkiE90GvS8Nmel8pGeLyHUyXQI6
- May 21, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.Pourdavoud Lecture Series Video Available: Elspeth Dusinberre
We are pleased to share with you the recorded lecture of Dr. Elspeth Dusinberre (University of Colorado-Boulder). She presented “The Collapse of Empire: Gordion’s Transition from the Achaemenid to the Hellenistic World” for the Pourdavoud Institute on February 21, 2024.
2. Call for Papers – Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiographies deadline 31st May 2024
Arabic Pasts is co-organized by Hugh Kennedy (SOAS), James McDougall (Oxford), Lorenz Nigst (AKU-ISMC), and Sarah Bowen Savant (AKU-ISMC)
Aga Khan Centre, London and online
3-5 October 2024 Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiographies
This annual exploratory and informal workshop offers the opportunity to reflect on methodologies, research agendas, and case studies for investigating history writing in Arabic in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond in any period from the seventh century to the present.
We are interested in papers that consider the practical and conceptual challenges of working on history writing in Arabic. Papers might elucidate the following sorts of questions:
How did adherents of different confessional or juristic traditions, men and women, and members of different social classes within societies that became “Islamic” imagine the shape and meaning of their specific societies’ own pasts, and their relation to the universal history of the Islamic community? Which ways of writing, remembering, or commemorating did they develop?
How can marginalised communities and varieties of Arabic be given due attention?
How can we broaden our scope beyond just textual historiography?
In what ways do educational institutions, museums, media organisations and proponents of heritage use history writing to shape loyalties and senses of belonging in society?
How can works of fiction contribute to our understanding of the past?
How is the past used in creative arts, re-enactment, games, and augmented reality?
How can we explore the past algorithmically? Can digital methods enhance our understanding of the past? Can they also limit or even alter it? Which new digital tools are being developed? What seem to be particularly promising approaches? What is lacking?
How does, or could, artificial intelligence alter historiographical work?
Contributions are invited from scholars at all career levels, addressing any period and any part of the Middle East and North Africa, broadly defined. This year we anticipate running the workshop from the Aga Khan Centre in London with the possibility to have an online component featuring participants who are unable to travel to the UK.
Arabic Pasts is co-convened by Hugh Kennedy (SOAS), James McDougall (Oxford), Lorenz Nigst (AKU-ISMC), and Sarah Bowen Savant (AKU-ISMC).
Please submit an abstract of 300 words or less in word document by Friday, 31 May 2024to ArabicPastsConf@aku.edu . Please specify whether you wish to participate in London or online.
The workshop dates: 3-5 October 2024. For more information, please click here.
The workshop is held in English.
3. “Wondrous intricacy: the place of ‘carpet pages’ in Islamic art” by Dr Umberto Bongianino
Time: 5.30pm – 7.30pm BST
Date: Wednesday, 22 May 2024
Venue: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 22A Old Court Place, W8 4PL, London
Register to attend in-person: https://Alfurqan-Bongianino-talk.eventbrite.co.uk
4. Journée d’étude “Panorama sur la littérature pashto contemporaine en exil” – 21 mai 2024 – Maison de la recherche de l’Inalco
Nous avons le plaisir de vous inviter à la journée d’étude “Panorama sur la littérature pashto contemporaine en exil“, qui se tiendra à la Maison de la recherche de l’INaLCO, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris (Salle LO.01), le 21 mai 2024 (10h-17h30).
Cette journée est organisée par :
- Sarah Hermann, doctorante en socio-anthropologie (INaLCO, UMR 8041 – CeRMI)
- Matteo De Chiara, Professeur de pashto, (INaLCO, UMR 8041 – CeRMI)
Avec le soutien de l’école doctorale de l’INaLCO et du projet ANR PLIC (Pashto Literature between Identity and Contact / La littérature pashto entre identité et contact)
Vous retrouverez le programme et les informations détaillées de la journée sur le site web du CeRMI :
https://cermi.cnrs.fr/journee-detudes-panorama-sur-la-litterature-pashto-contemporaine-en-exil/
Accès aux locaux
L’INaLCO a mis en place des mesures supplémentaires d’accès au bâtiment (voir les détails : http://www.inalco.fr/actualite/communique-inalco-passe-posture-vigipirate-urgence-attentat)
Toute personne extérieur à l’établissement, devra se munir d’une pièce d’identité valable, et présenter le programme imprimé de la journée à l’accueil si nécessaire.
5. The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies and the Invisible East Programme at the University of Oxford present a new series of monthly online seminars about archives and documents.
Convened by Arezou Azad and Mohamad Tavakoli, the seminars are held monthly online, via Zoom.
Register for the full series at this link.
https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvd-GvqjgoGdM0BEPAFqUSCvO6E-57kwAp#/registration
6. Christian C. Sahner, The Definitive Zoroastrian Critique of Islam, Monday Majlis Online, 20th of May, 17: 00-18:30 (UK time)
Christian C. Sahner
The Definitive Zoroastrian Critique of Islam
Monday Majlis Online on the 20th of May, 17: 00-18:30 (UK time)
Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter.
Register please on this link:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMude6urjooGN0CQOy5AXHdP5ucq6RcGx3Z
7. Course “Digital Analysis of Prosopographical Data”
On 16-20 September 2024, the School of Arabic Studies (EEA, CSIC) will host the course “Digital Analysis of Prosopographical Data (with the programming language R)”, organized by Mayte Penelas (EEA, CSIC) and Maxim Romanov (Universität Hamburg). Víctor Ropero (EEA, CSIC) is the secretary of the course. It will be taught by Maxim Romanov (Universität Hamburg), with the collaboration of Covadonga Baratech Soriano (ILC, CSIC), Alicia González Martínez (Universität Hamburg) and Hamid Reza Hakimi (Universität Hamburg).
This course is designed to provide a practical introduction to the R programming language, with a specific focus on analyzing prosopographical data for historians. The primary dataset we will study in this course is the Prosopografía de ulemas de al-Andalus (PUA) Project (https://www.eea.csic.es/pua/), which contains the most extensive information on Muslim scholars from al-Andalus. It is is organized within the framework of the projects Al-Andalus and the Magrib in the Islamic East: mobility, migration and memory, AMOI-II (PID2020-116680GB-I00, funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and The Evolution of Islamic Societies (c.600-1600 CE): Algorithmic Analysis into Social History (funded by the German Research Foundation [DFG] within the framework of the Emmy Noether Program).
For further information, please contact us at course.amoi-eis@eea.csic.es.
https://www.eea.csic.es/actividades-eea/course-digital-analysis-of-prosopographical-data/
https://www.csic.es/es/node/126208
8. Online: Please join the National Museum of Asian Art online on Tuesday, May 28, 12–1 pm EDT, for Ancient Yemen: Looking East and West.
Ancient Yemen was a cultural and economic hub that reached its height between the 1st millennium BCE and the turn of the CE. The ancient kingdoms that ruled in Yemen were key players in the establishment of the incense trade, which fostered economic as well as cultural exchanges between neighboring and distant regions.
This program looks at ancient Yemen’s relationship in a broader geographical context. In particular, it will discuss the recent research in Ethiopia that has shed light on the close relationship of Yemen with east Africa and will look at Yemen’s connection eastward with India.
Speakers Include:
Dr. Iris Gerlach, Head of the Sanaa Branch, German Archaeological Institute, Oriental Department, Germany
Dr. Alexia Pavan, University L’Orientale of Naples, Italy
Contact Information
Lizzie Stein, Scholarly Programs and Publications Specialist
National Museum of Asian Art
Contact Email
URL
https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/events/search/event:174268338/
9. Call for Papers: Translation and Multilingualism in the Premodern Islamic World(s), Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
focusing on the role of translation and multilingualism in the premodern Islamic world(s). The conference will be held in person from November 15th to 16th, 2024, at the Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. You can access the Call for Papers (CFP) through this link:
10. The Tenth Biennial Convention of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies
ASPS/Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies
August 12-16, 2025
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
CALL FOR PAPERS:
The Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) is pleased to announce
its Tenth Biennial Convention, to take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, August 12-16,
- The meeting will be hosted by Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies.
The Deadline for Submission of Abstracts is October 31, 2024.
https://www.persianatesocieties.org/abstracts_form/
11. ONLINE Table ronde « Actualités de la recherche en islamologie à l’IFEA », Institut Francais d`Etudes Anatoliennes (IFEA), Istanbul, 21 mai 2024, 9h00 – 11:00 CEST
L’objectif de cette table ronde est de présenter la jeune recherche en islamologie à l’IFEA, dont les sujets, les matériaux documentaires et les méthodes ne s’inscrivent pas nécessairement dans ce cadre. Il s’agira ainsi de mettre en dialogue des pratiques de l’islamologie, en revenant sur l’apport de chacune, en interrogeant les sources et les méthodes et en réfléchissant sur les frontières entre les disciplines.
Information et inscription : https://www.ifea-istanbul.net/index.php/fr/evenements/eve-hist/table-ronde-actualites-de-la-recherche-en-islamologie-a-l-ifea
12. Journée d’études “Normes et pratiques dans la documentation juridique islamique (II)”, CRH, Paris, 4 juin 2024, 9h30 – 17h30 CEST
La journée d’études, organisée par Naveen Kanalu Ramamurthy (CRH, Ladéhis-GEHM), a pour objectif d’analyser la relation entre les normes et les pratiques dans la documentation juridique islamique. Dans une perspective comparative, elle s’attachera à faire émerger et à expliciter tant les similarités que les divergences existantes entre les grandes puissances de la terre d ’Islam où prévalait le droit musulman.
Information et programme : http://crh.ehess.fr/index.php?9338
13. Stage intensif de langue arabe: “Option recherche sciences humaines et sociales”, IRMC Tunis, 19 juin – 16 juillet 2024
Ce cours comprend 100 heures de cours : 60 heures d’arabe littéral, 25 heures d’arabe dialectal et 15 heures de cours d’arabe appliqué aux SHS.
Inscription au plus tard le 31 mai 2024. Information : https://irmcmaghreb.org/stage-intensif-de-langue-arabe/
- May 18, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.ONLINE Book Talk Sinem Arcak Casale (University of Arizona), QhoD, Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Vienna, 23 May 2024, 18:00 h CEST
Sinem Erdoğan İşkorkutan will talk on her book: “The 1720 Imperial Circumcision Celebrations in Istanbul: Festivity and Representation in the Early Eighteenth Century”
Deadline for registration: 20 May 2024.
Information: https://qhod.net/context:qhod/sdef:Context/get?mode=activities&locale=en
2. HYBRID International Conference “Modern Challenges to Islamic Law: Exploring New Pathways”, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg, 6-7 June 2024
This international conference in honour of Prof. Shaheen Sardar Ali (University of Warwick, UK) takes up the urgent issues of modernity that Islamic law is faced with in various ways, including Islamic constitutionalism, family law reform in the Muslim world, and the epistemology of Islamic law by looking at how Islamic law is being taught.
Information and registration: https://www.mpipriv.de/1790969/6-7-june-2024-modern-challenges-to-islamic-law-exploring-new-pathways.html
3. PhD Position in the Project “ALiDiM – Arabic Linguistic Discourse in the Making”, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca` Foscari University of Venice
Applicants should hold a master’s degree in a field pertinent to the PhD program and possess a keen interest in Arabic linguistics and text analysis. A background in Arabic studies and knowledge of Arabic and English are essential, while additional experience in linguistics, philology and DH is advantageous. Candidates shall submit a proposal for research that they aim to pursue.
Deadline for applications: 23 May 2024.
Information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CaYKHHYNHlEhowl-BLfUozosaZWXbHE-/view
4. Postdoctoral Fellowship (1 Year) on “Primary Sources in Early Arabic Grammatical Texts”, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca` Foscari University of Venice
Using a text-based approach, the project will study key Arabic linguistic works from the 7th to the 10th century, considering both local Arab-Islamic frameworks and external influences. Ultimately, the project seeks to develop a new understanding of the origin and formation of the Arabic linguistic tradition, tracing origins and reception of the linguistic themes and identifying the factors that contributed to the process of language standardization of Classical Arabic.
Deadline for applications: 21 May 2024.
Information: https://apps.unive.it/common2/file/download/assegni_ricerca/662116de21adf
5. Prize for the best Dissertation on the Medieval Middle East (500-1500 CE), Middle East Medievalists (MEM)
Requirements: Dissertations must have been filed and defended between 1 June 2022 and 31 May 2024.
Applicants must be current members of Middle East Medievalists or should join MEM .
Deadline for applications: 30 June 2024.
6. Joint English-language M.A. Program in Ottoman History (2 Years), Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete/Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH
Students are required to complete: Five history courses (four in Ottoman History, and one in Medieval or Modern History); four Turkish language courses; four Ottoman language and palaeography courses. Furthermore, students are required to write an original M.A. thesis based on the critical analysis of Ottoman archival, epigraphic or narrative sources.
Deadline for applications: 20 May 2024.
7. Articles for a Special Issue of “Archiv orientální (ArOr) – The Journal of African and Asian Studies”
Archiv orientalní (http://aror.orient.cas.cz) is an indexed, peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the cultures and societies of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Deadline for abstracts: 19 May 2024.
Information: https://aror.orient.cas.cz/index.php/ArOr/announcement
8. The Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) will offer two seven-week intensive summer Arabic programs on AUB campus from June 19 to August 7, 2024.
The Arabic Language and Culture program is designed for students interested in developing overall proficiency in Arabic in both its Standard and Lebanese varieties. Emphasis is placed on the development of the various skills within a communicative, proficiency-based framework that perceives Arabic in all its varieties as “one language” and thus integrates standard Arabic and Lebanese colloquial within the same course, and that gives special attention to the development of intercultural competence in Arabic. The program provides instruction at different levels of proficiency from elementary to high advanced.
The Colloquial Lebanese Arabic program offers intensive instruction at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. The program is designed for learners who want to devote their attention to the development of proficiency in Lebanese Arabic and thus places heavy emphasis on the speaking and listening skills and on building/enhancing intercultural competence.
Both programs provide intensive instruction and immersion in the language and culture through a rigorous academic program that is complemented by an integrated series of films, lectures, clubs, field trips, and community service activities. Students receive 9 credit hours that they can transfer to their home institutions.
The application deadline is on June 7, 2024.
For detailed information about the academic content of the programs, how to apply, costs, and financial support, please visit our website: https://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cames/sap/Pages/default.aspx
- May 14, 2024
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment