Categories : Academic items
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Publication – Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam – volumes 41-42
Tables of contents available at: www.jsai.huji.ac.il
2. New Open Access Journal: Estudios Iranios y Turanios
“The second issue of the Estudios Iranios y Turanios, which was launched last year by the Sociedad de Estudios Iranios y Turanios, has been published. This issue of the journal, entitled Homenaje a Éric Pirart en su 65º aniversario, collects a number of philological discussions in honour of Éric Pirart’s 65th birthday. ”
Publisher: Girona Sociedad de Estudios Iranios y Turanios 2014-
ISSN: 2386-7833
Language note: In Spanish or English; abstracts in English.
3. Conference: “Islam and the Construction of New Economic Moralities: Divergence, Convergence and Competing Futures”, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, University of California-Berkeley, 24-26 June 2016
The conference aims to (re-)examine the key axioms and moral claims of Islamic economy both in theory and as practiced; explore the economic, social and political dynamics underpinning the various sectors, scales and sites of the Islamic economy; and interrogate the extent to which the Islamic economy provides a substantive alternative to mainstream economic activity with a special emphasis on the Islamic finance sector.
Deadline for abstracts: 18 January 2016. Information: https://sase.org/2016—berkeley/mini-conferences_fr_232.html#MC8
4. Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University – www.vcujobs.com/postings/48138
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University – https://jobs.princeton.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=67571
5. IPS Program for Arab Countries, German Bundestag, Berlin, 1-30 September 2016
The Bundestag is offering a scholarship program for politically engaged young Arab graduates who are interested in the German parliamentary system and play an active role in promoting core democratic values in their home countries. The German Bundestag offers the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of the German parliamentary system during an intensive four-week program. Accommodation will be provided free of charge and the costs of travel to and from Berlin covered.
Deadline for applications: 31 January 2016. Information: www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/bundestag/international/exchange/ips/arabian/250618
6. 2 Postdoctoral Fellowships, Humboldt University Berlin
As part of Sharon Macdonald’s Alexander von Humboldt Prize, two Postdoctoral Fellowships are offered to work on one or other of the following themes: “Transforming the Ethnographic” or “Representing Islam”. Fellowships are available to begin as soon as possible and to run until 30 October 2020.
Deadline for application: 8 January 2016. Information: www.euroethno.hu-berlin.de/de/perspektiven/stellenangebote/2015-12-04-english
7. Postdoctoral Fellowship: “Confessional Dynamics in Islamic Legal Thought and Practice in the Ottoman Empire, 15th-18th Centuries”, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul
This fellowship is one of the positions associated with the ERC project entitled “The Fashioning of a Sunni Orthodoxy and the Entangled Histories of Confession Building in the Ottoman Empire, 15th-17th Centuries”. The applicant has a PhD degree in history, Islamic Studies, or a related field, a good command of Ottoman Turkish and Arabic, as well as written and spoken proficiency in English.
Deadline for application: 30 January 2016. Information: Dr. Derin Terzioglu (derint@boun.edu.tr )
8. Post-Docs, PhD and Visiting PhD fellowships, History of the Mongol Empire (including the Middle East), Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The ERC project “Mobility, Empire and Cross-Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia” is offering Post-Docs, PhDs and Visiting PhD’s fellowships for outstanding candidates fluent in Chinese, Arabic and Persian (at least one of the above) and with a sound knowledge of the history of the Mongol Empire.
Deadline for application: 15 March 2016. Information: http://mongol.huji.ac.il/fellowships-and-funding-opportunities
9. Articles on “Political Humor in the Arab Uprisings” for Edited Book
Based on a conference held at Cologne University, we are editing a book on the role of political humor and satire in cultural and media production of the Arab uprisings. In order to enlarge the regional scope, we invite further contributions on the Arab Gulf States, the Maghreb and Iraq.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2016. Information: Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf (s.damir-geilsdorf@uni-koeln.de), Dr. Stephan Milich (smilich@uni-koeln.de)
10. Latest News from Islamic Reformulations:
- Islam, Law and the State: Research Seminar and Public Lecture by Professor Mohammad Fadel – programme available. This research seminar, to be held the January 2016 at the University of Exeter, will examine the relationship between Islam, Muslims and Law, covering subjects from conception of Law in the Muslim tradition, and how Muslims are framed by current UK legislation. Following the seminar, Professor Mohammad Fadel will give a lecture titled, “Islamic Constitutionalism as an Alternative Approach to Islamic Legal Reform”.
- Visiting researchers, January-February 2016: We are pleased to announce 5 visiting scholars to Exeter under the auspices of the Islamic Reformulations project. Each of the researchers will participate in the project’s activities, present their research and participate in a series of sandpit workshops. They are Drs David Warren (US), Ryan Rittenberg (US), Bianka Speidl (Hungary), Mohammed Eissa (Germany) and Samer El-Karanshawy (Egypt).
- Reformulation and Hermeneutics: Researching the History of Islamic Legal Theory, Istanbul, 21st-24th February 2016 – programme available. This conference, a collaboration of the Islamic Reformulations project (University of Exeter) and the Faculty of Theology (Istanbul University) will examine the intellectual history of Islamic legal interpretation, with a focus on legal theory.
- Recent Presentations: Robert Gleave was a panel member at the launch of the new journal Re-Orient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies, held at SOAS on 2nd December 2015, alongside Salman Sayyid, Ruth Mas, Brian Klug and chaired by Samia Bano. Details for the journal can be found here. Robert Gleave also gave a presentation entitled “Muck and Brass: Some further thoughts on early Imami legal hadith” at the Islam@250 conference in memory of the great G.H.A. Juynboll (a former member of the Exeter University staff), held in Leiden, 3rd-5th December 2015. Details of the conference can be found here.
Details at www.islamicreformulations.net
Exeter’s two professorship vacancies (one in Arabic Studies and one Islamic Studies) have a closing date of 6th January 2016. Details can be found at:
11. 15 December 2015
4,000 Arabic manuscripts by the River Niger
12. Call for Papers:
Midwest Association for Middle East and Islamic Studies (MAMEIS)
2016 Annual Conference
“Geography and the Environment in MENA”
Islamic Studies Program, University of Nebraska at Omaha
April 29 – May 1, 2016
The Midwest Association for Middle East and Islamic Studies (MAMEIS) and the Islamic Studies Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha are pleased to issue this call for papers for the MAMEIS 2016 Annual Conference to be held in Omaha, NE, April 29 – May 1, 2016. We welcome individual papers and pre-arranged panels from scholars based in the greater Midwest, particularly those related to this year’s theme “Geography and the Environment in MENA.” Geographical and environmental approaches allow us to look at familiar issues and sources in creative new ways by drawing out the underlying structural forces behind human social, economic, and political organization. Responses to, and depictions of, the natural world have also been a significant, but often overlooked, element of social, cultural and intellectual movements. This is a multi-disciplinary field of study which is strengthened by collaboration and exchange. We welcome papers and panels from a variety of disciplines, including, but not limited to: Geography, History, Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, Comparative Literature, Religious Studies, and Cultural Studies. As the central goal of this conference is to promote Middle East and Islamic Studies in the greater Midwest, pre-arranged panels on other topics will also be given full consideration.
MAMEIS – the Midwest Association for Middle East and Islamic Studies – is a nonprofit organization which promotes and fosters community among the many scholars of Middle East and Islamic Studies based at institutions throughout the Midwest. MAMEIS is concerned with promoting the study of the Middle East and Islamic world and does not subscribe to any particular religious or political viewpoints or agenda. Our aim is to develop an open forum for discussion of scholarly issues, share news and information about regional events, and support collegial ties among our members.
Please submit a 250 word abstract along with your name, title, and affiliation by February 1, 2016 to:
Dr. James M. Gustafson
President, MAMEIS
Prof. James M. Gustafson
President, MAMEIS
Dept of History – 621 Chestnut St.
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809
13. CfP: The Mercantile Effect: On art and exchange in the Islamicate world during 17th – 18th centuries
The Courtauld Institute of Art − Pera Museum − Gingko Library Conference
18-19 November 2016 Istanbul and London
Convened by Dr Sussan Babaie, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London; Dr Melanie Gibson, Editor of the Gingko Library Arts Series; Dr Barbara Schwepcke, Gingko Library
From Agra to Aleppo, Bandar Abbas to Marseilles, Cairo to Canton, Goa to Zanzibar; peoples as diverse as Armenians, Chinese, Arabs, Persians and Europeans, traversed long distances along land and maritime trade routes moving art things and their attendant ideas, ideals, and technologies. The development of mercantile networks and global trade routes in the early modern period relied on the emergence of new institutional and cultural methods of exchange. The formulation of diverse collective ventures was organized through the Dutch, English and French East India companies and additionally by the establishment of a colonial presence in the New World by the Dutch and Portuguese, ensuring a territorial sphere of power and increased influence through trade. Material culture – including building ideas – connected aspirations towards prestigious foreign and exotic objects, new luxuries in manufactured textiles, inlaid metalwork, paper products, glazed ceramic and painted porcelain vessels.
This conference invites papers that take a trans-disciplinary approach, looking at the specifics of art objects and ideas. The focus will be on those regions where Islam was the religion of the majority and informed the cultural position, but did not necessarily impose a religious mandate for action in the making and exchange of goods. We ask for reflections through art things and material culture on the mechanisms of exchange and transmission of ideas and their effects on the cultural spaces between local histories and global networks within the Islamicate world in the 17th and 18th centuries. The conference takes place in Istanbul, a city whose long history as a nexus of trade and cultural exchange embodies many of the possibilities of this intellectual inquiry.
Abstracts for papers should be submitted by Friday 5th February 2016 to Aran Byrne (contact details below). Papers should present original research, which expands the boundaries of knowledge and which the scholars would like considered for publication. Proposals should be no more than 300 words long. Speakers will be given 15-20 minutes to present their papers at the conference.
Key dates:
5 February 2016: Deadline for submission of abstracts and panel proposals
15 April 2016: Accepted papers and panels announced
16 September 2016: Deadline for paper submission
18-19 November 2016: Conference dates
20 January 2017: Deadline for submission of revised papers for peer-review and inclusion in conference publication
Autumn/Fall 2017: Publication of conference proceedings
For further details please contact:
Aran Byrne
Gingko Library
London SW1X 9AH
aran@gingkolibrary.com
The Gingko conference series brings together scholars from the East and the West. The Gingko conferences are designed to complement the Gingko Library, a project to publish one hundred books over the next ten years that present the latest work in all languages and across the full range of humanities, social sciences and sciences relating to the MENA region.
The conference will include a gala reception on the evening of Friday 17 November. Hosted by Professor Baha Tanman; the gala will launch the first title to be published in the Gingko Library Art Series, Art, Trade, and Culture in the Near East and India: From the Fatimids to the Mughals, to which Professor Tanman has contributed. A literary event on the evening of Saturday 18 November on the theme of ‘From the West-östlicher Divan to the Payam-e- Mashriq’ will conclude the conference.
The presentations and discussions will be recorded and live-streamed to an audience at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and online to reach the widest possible audience.
Funding opportunities to cover travel and accommodation are available for scholars selected to speak at the conference.
Selected papers delivered at the conference will be published together in a volume in the Gingko Library, following peer review. Speakers at the conference may also develop their papers into book-length proposals to be submitted to the Gingko Library.
The Courtauld Institute of Art is the world’s leading centre for the study of art history, conservation and curating.
The Gingko Library is a registered charity (no. 1158548). It is committed to fostering intercultural dialogue and better understanding between the West and the MENA region.
The Pera Museum is a private museum founded by the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation with the aim of offering an outstanding range of diverse high quality culture and art services. The Pera Museum has evolved to become a leading and distinguished cultural center in one of the liveliest quarters of Istanbul.
- December 16, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Conference: “Religions and Human Rights”, University of Padua, Italy, 14-15 April 2016
The aim of the international conference is to take stock of the complex connections between religion and human rights, emphasizing that both the definition and the application of these two concepts are influenced by the different social and cultural contexts within which they are placed.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2016. Information: http://unipd-centrodirittiumani.it/en/attivita/Call-for-Papers-International-conference-Religions-and-Human-Rights-Padua-Italy-April-14-15-2016/1051
2. 50th Seminar for Arabian Studies, British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (BFSA), London, 29-31 July 2016
The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international forum that meets annually for the presentation of the latest academic research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula from the earliest times to the present day or, in the case of political and social history, to the end of the Ottoman Empire.
Deadline for abstracts: 28 February 2016. Information: www.thebfsa.org/content/about-the-seminar
3. Associate Professor/Assistant Professor of Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
Strong candidates in all disciplinary fields will be given serious consideration. The geographic area of specialization is open. Knowledge of Arabic and/or Persian or other regional research language(s) is preferred. The successful candidate will have an international reputation with a strong publication record and extensive teaching experience, preferably at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Deadline for application: 15 January 2016. Information: www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=52161
4. Funded PhD Studentship Commencing Oct 2016, School of Humanities (History), University of Glasgow, Scotland
We are happy to announce a PhD studentship in history/archive studies, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, investigating the capture, transfer, and reconstitution of Iraqi archives in the USA.
Information: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/arts/graduateschool/fundingopportunities/leverhulmetrustscholarships
5. Two-Year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Modern Turkish Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
The fellowship will run from September 2016 to August 2018. The salary is $55,000. In addition, the Fellow is eligible for $5,000 per year to fund research and conference travel, and up to $2,000 in reimbursement for allowable relocation expenses in the first year. This is a full-time, benefits-eligible position. Applicants must have received their Ph.D. between January 2011 and August 2016.
Deadline for application: 1 February 2016. Information: http://buffett.northwestern.edu/programs/turkish-studies/postdoc.html
6. Call for Articles for Edited Book “The Quest for Humanity – Contemporary Muslim approaches to the notion of human dignity in the context of Qurʾānic anthropology”
The volume focuses on the question of how Islamic anthropology can contribute to cultivation and perfection of the individual self as well as to social ‘humanisation’. Its specific aim is to bring together contemporary Muslim and non-Muslim approaches to (and readings of) human dignity, with reference to the Islamic tradition in general and the anthropology of the Qurʾān in particular.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 January 2016. Information: www.theologie.uni-erlangen.de/lehrstuhl-fuer-religions-und-missionswissenschaft/cfp.html
7. Articles on “Gender, Islam and Human Rights” for Special Issue of Journal “Muslim World Journal of Human Rights”
Muslim World Journal of Human Rights invites submission of articles focusing either on the human rights of women in Muslim majority or human rights of Muslim women in Muslim minority countries.
Deadline for submission: 31 March 2016. Information: www.degruyter.com/view/j/mwjhr
8. Articles on “Culture” for Issue of Journal “Middle East – Topics & Arguments” (META)
This issue aims to critically engage with the various, often contradictory concepts of culture as used in the field of Middle Eastern Studies. What we want to discuss by inviting scholars to contribute to this issue is the quality of the term itself, its ambiguity and complexity, and its implications and dangers in public and academic discourse.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2016. Information: http://meta-journal.net/announcement/view/12
9. Perso-Indica Workshop
Female Characters in Śukasaptati and its Persian Versions
December 14th 2015, 16.00-18.30
Program
16.00: Fabrizio Speziale, Introduction to the First Perso-Indica Workshop
16.15: Iran Farkhondeh, « “As long as You Know the Answer”- Women Characters in the Śukasaptati: Their Wits and Behaviours »
16.35: Discussion
16.45: Pegah Shahbaz, « Women Characters and Their Roles in Jawāhir al-asmār »
17.05: Discussion
17.15: Coffee-break
17.30: Syed Akhtar Hussain, « Thus Spake the Tūtī »
17.50 Discussion
18.00: Conclusion
Place: Salle des Placques, INALCO, 2 Rue de Lille, 75007, Paris.
Organisation and contact: Pegah Shahbaz,pegah.shahbaz@univ-paris3.fr
Iran Farkhondeh (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Mondes iranien et indien), « “As long as you know the answer”- Women characters in the Śukasaptati: their wits and behaviours »
To introduce the Śukasaptati, we will first give a sketch of the frame story. We will present in the main lines the elements of Indian civilization that are necessary to understand the whys and therefores of women’s behaviors in the Sanskrit text. We will suggest a typology of women’s characters in the book. Finally we will try to delineate the aims of the author. Is he of the opinion that, as long as a woman has the wits to get herself out of trouble, she could behave according to her wishes?
Pegah Shahbaz (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Mondes iranien et indien), «Women Characters and Their Roles in Jawāhir al-asmār »
Jawāhir al-asmār (Jewels of Stories) is the earliest Persian translation, known thus far, of Śukasaptati (Seventy tales of the parrot) realized in 713-715 H. /1313-1315 A.D. by a secretary named ‘Imād ibn Muḥammad Ṯaġarī at the court of ‘Alā al-Dīn Ḫaljī (r. 1290-1316).Jawāhir al-asmār could be the same Persian verbose rendering that Ẓiyā’ al-Dīn Naḫšabī (d. around 751/1350-51) mentions in the introduction to his popular Ṭūṭī-nāma, as the most prominent source he used for preparing his Persian version of the tales of the parrot. This presentation will focus on female characters in Ṯaġarī’s translation. Women’s inherent role in tales and their noteworthy strategies for overcoming the norms of male-dominated societies will be studied in detail. By means of concrete examples, we’ll discover how the use/misuse of imaginary by women could appear as a defensive tool for and against them in narratives.
Syed Akhtar Hussain (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), « Thus Spake the Tūtī »
Since the translation of Kalīla wa Dimna into Pahlavi, Arabic and Persian, Indian Classics began to impact literature in the Middle East. Sanskrit texts namely the Panchatantra and Śhukasaptati enriched Persian literature both in form and contents. The Ṭūṭī-Nāma, among others, is not only a translation of Śukasaptati but also a gem of Perso-Indic literature. Its translator Zia Naḫšabī presents the wisdom of India in a more impressive and elegant manner than it appears in the Sanskrit text. The Ṭūṭī-Nāma develops“Katha” into pure Persian literature and swells more in size and gives a full size picture of the Perso-Indic world where in Prabhavati and Madan Vinod transform into Ḫujaste and Maymūn.Śukasaptati’s narratives reproduced with a twist here and a turn there in the Ṭūṭī-Nāma but however it transpires that the Indian threads are deftly woven in the Persian tapestry of the Ṭūṭī-Nāma.
Pegah SHAHBAZ
Post-doctorante ANR
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
Sorbonne Paris Cité
13 rue Santeuil
75231 Paris Cedex 05
Monde iranien et indien (UMR 7528)
CNRS – Sorbonne Nouvelle – INALCO – EPHE
27, rue Paul Bert
94204, Ivry – sur – Seine
10. “Pearls on a String: Artists, Patrons and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts.”
For a description, please see http://thewalters.org/exhibitions/pearls-on-a-string/
11. Lectures & Workshops – Islamic Geometric Design (Istanbul 28-30 Jan 2016)
by Eric Broug
A 3 day event (28-30 January), with lectures and workshops by Eric Broug. Suitable for all, no experience needed. Tickets can be bought for individual events or for all events
28 Jan at 19:00 Lecture: An Introduction to Ottoman and Seljuk Geometric Design (35TRY)
29 Jan 09:30 to 16:30 Workshop: An Introduction to Islamic Geometric Design (95TRY)
30 Jan 09:30 to 16:30 Workshop: Advanced Islamic Geometric Design (95TRY)
30 Jan at 19:30 Lecture: What Architects and Designers Can Learn from Islamic Geometric Design (45TRY)
Ticket for all events: 225TRY
Location: MEF International School, Ulus Beskitas, Istanbul
For more information and to book tickets: http://broug.eventbrite.co.uk
Organised by the School of Islamic Geometric Design (www.sigd.org)
12. Call for Papers
31st Annual Middle East History and Theory Conference
The University of Chicago
May 6–7, 2016
We are pleased to invite graduate students, affiliated faculty, and independent scholars from a broad range of disciplines to submit proposals on any topic concerning the Middle East and Islamic world from the advent of Islam to the present day. Disciplinary focuses include but are not limited to: history, sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, literature, philosophy, art history, cinema and media studies, gender studies, and diaspora studies.
Submissions should be sent electronically to mehat.conference@uchicago.edu no later than Friday, February 12, 2016. You may submit as individuals or as prearranged panels, with the latter strongly encourage. Please include each presenter’s name, institution, and position, and attach a 250-word abstract with a tentative title. Abstracts will be evaluated anonymously, so please do not include any identifying information. Selection results will be announced in the middle of March 2016.
For updates and announcements, please see the MEHAT website and Facebook page. For specific inquiries, please write to mehat.conference@uchicago.edu.
- December 11, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Open Access Journal: Middle East – Topics & Arguments
Middle East – Topics & Arguments is a unique platform for innovative research on the Middle East combining disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. Articles critically reevaluate established scholarly traditions and think beyond entrenched disciplinary boundaries. By bringing together well-known academics and young scholars with international backgrounds, a broad range of perspectives will ensure lively debates.
Middle East – Topics and Arguments wants to encourage interdisciplinary discussion on two levels: Firstly, between social sciences and humanities in the field of Middle Eastern studies, and secondly, between Middle Eastern studies and the systematic disciplines. We thereby aim at integrating regional academic discourse into a global setting. We hope to ensure trans-regional comparability, thus leaving behind the notion of cultural and religious exceptionalism which has for a long been connected with Middle Eastern studies.
Each issue of Middle East – Topics & Arguments focuses on one main topic. This allows for perspectives from different disciplines, such as:
cultural studies
literary studies
linguistics
history
political science
sociology
anthropology
economics
ancient studies
2. Call for Papers
Pahlavi Iran, 1941-1979:
A Global History Workshop
London School of Economics and Political Science
19 May 2016
Sponsored by the LSE Kuwait Programme and the British Institute of Persian Studies
The LSE Middle East Centre invites submissions for a one-day workshop on the global history of Pahlavi Iran at the London School of Economics on 19 May 2016.
In the four decades that passed between the Allied wartime occupation of Iran in 1941 and the fall of the Pahlavi monarchy in 1979, Iran was slowly transformed from a battleground of Cold War competition to a major regional and global actor. The Pahlavi state and Iranian society both witnessed profound social, cultural, and economic changes as rising oil revenues fuelled the developmental goals of the White Revolution, while global movements of ideas and activism shaped the growing opposition to the rule of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The roots of contemporary Iran, and the challenges and opportunities it presents, lie in those formative four decades that culminated in the political and social earthquake of the Iranian Revolution.
We seek applications from advanced graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and non-tenured faculty working on all aspects of Iran’s global history in the Pahlavi era from 1941 to 1979. Papers could examine Iran’s place and impact in the world, or the impact of global forces within Iran itself. We welcome submissions on a variety of topics spanning the cultural, diplomatic, intellectual, political, and social history of late Pahlavi Iran, with a common focus on global issues, forces and questions that transcended Iran’s borders. We particularly welcome submissions in three broad areas: 1) the international and transnational relations of Pahlavi Iran; 2) oil, development, and modernisation in Pahlavi Iran; and 3) ideas, culture, and dissent in Pahlavi Iran. Workshop participants will receive feedback at the closed-door workshop from three commentators: Roham Alvandi, Associate Professor of International History at the LSE; Houchang Chehabi, Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University; and Cyrus Schayegh, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
Applicants should submit a 300-word abstract and CV by email to the workshop convenor, Dr Roham Alvandi <r.alvandi@lse.ac.uk>, by 1 February 2016. Abstracts should indicate what sources your paper will draw on, as well as the global dimensions of your research. We anticipate selecting nine workshop participants, each of whom will receive funding for return economy air or train travel to London, and one night’s hotel accommodation. Participants will be asked to submit an 8,000-word working paper ahead of the workshop in London. Following the workshop, having received feedback on their work, participants will be invited to revise and resubmit their papers for publication as an edited collection.
For further information, please see: http://www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/vacancies/Pahlavi-Iran-workshop-.aspx
3. Publication – Mirjam Shatanawi, “Islam at the Tropenmuseum”
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce my most recent book Islam at the Tropenmuseum (Arnhem: LM Publishers).
From the publishers website:
This beautifully illustrated book presents for the first time the rich Islamic collections of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. Highlighting over a hundred artworks and everyday objects, the author demonstrates how Muslims, from the beginning of Islam to the present day, have expressed their faith in art and culture. The book features a wide variety of artefacts from different regions of the world, from Southeast Asia of the Middle East, from West Africa to the Caribbean.
The Tropenmuseum Islamic collections are wide ranging including everyday household objects and popular art, colonial-period artefacts and contemporary art. The book presents the multiple histories of how these objects were collected and displayed, beginning in the 19th century with the founding of the Colonial Museum in Haarlem. It explores the changing ways in which the idea of Islam, as a religion, and as a set of practices, has been understood throughout time and how these changing ideas influenced the museum’s collections. This is the fifth volume of a series of ten books that discuss the collections of the Tropenmuseum and the histories and stories that accompany them.
For more information please visit:
https://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/SHAISL.html
The book is also available at a considerable discount from major sellers.
Best regards,
Mirjam Shatanawi
Curator Middle Eastern and North African collections
Tropenmuseum, Afrika Museum and Museum Volkenkunde
The Netherlands
E-mail: mirjam.shatanawi@nmvw.nl
4. Freie Universität Berlin Lecture Series Winter semester 2015/2016
“Engaging with Contemporary Philosophy in the Middle East and Muslim South Asia: Themes, Approaches, and New Perspectives”
Iran related lecture, Thursday Dec. 10, 2015, 6-8 pm. For details: http://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/en/dates/lecture_2015_gheissari.html
For details on the entire series: http://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/en/events/lecture_series/lecture_series_2015_2016/index.html
Place:
Freie Universität Berlin
Fabeckstr. 23-25, 14195 Berlin,
Seminarraum 2.2058 , 2. OG)
5. The 2016 Indiana University Summer Language Workshop (June 6-July 29, 2016) is accepting applications for intensive study of Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS), Chinese, Estonian, Hungarian, Kurdish (Sorani), Latvian, Lithuanian, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Ukrainian.
The program features 20 contact hours weekly; twice-weekly language tables; films; food tastings; student-run graduate research groups and other culturally rich extracurricular programming. The Workshop is well-suited for graduate students and professionals preparing for field research, offering opportunities to present papers and research to the Indiana University community.
- All students pay in-state tuition
- Competitive funding available to qualified students:
- Project GO scholarships for undergraduate students in ROTC in Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Russian, or Turkish
- Title VIII fellowships for graduate students and area studies scholars in Azerbaijani, BCS, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mongolian, Russian, or Ukrainian
- FLAS funding available for Arabic, Azerbaijani, BCS, Estonian, Hungarian, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mongolian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, and Ukrainian
- Classes held June 6 – July 29, 2016
- All levels of Arabic begin May 31, 2016
- 4-week option available for Russian (ending on July 1)
- Students earn 4-8 credits
Priority application deadline: February 1, 2016.
See http://www.indiana.edu/~swseel for more information and to apply.
Questions? Please contact swseel@indiana.edu or 812-855-2889.
6. Dear colleagues,
This is to inform you of a Call for Publication for a special issue of Geopolitica that I am going to co-edit with prof. Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti. I would be grateful if you could circulate the call and why not submit an essay.
Best wishes,
Raffaele
GEOPOLITICA. Rivista dell’Istituto in Alti Studi di Geopolitica e Scienze Ausiliarie is accepting submissions for its second 2016 issue (July-December).
The volume’s subject matter is: Empire, Shi‘ism and Iranism: Iran After the Sanctions (editors: Prof. Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti and Prof. Raffaele Mauriello).
Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2015
Deadline for articles: 15 March 2016
*********************************************************
Raffaele MAURIELLO, Ph.D.
Research Fellow
Faculty of World Studies
University of Tehran (Northern Campus)
North Kargar Avenue
Office: (+98) 021 61119275
Mobile Iran: (+98) 09102112665
Mobile Italy: (+39) 339755665
7. Three PhD studentships and additional scholarships available at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK
8. International Conference: “Anti-Muslim Racism and Anti-Islamic Hostility in Germany and Europe – Problem-Situation, Solution Approaches, and Counter-Strategies”, Institute of Islamic Theology, Osnabrueck University, Germany, 14 – 16 January 2016
This conference aims to provide information about anti-Muslim racism and its threat for Europe and Germany. It focuses on anti-Islamic hospitality ranging from anti-Muslim racism within the German society to counter-strategies, anti-Islamic tendencies in schools, the refugee situation, anti-Muslim racism according to gender, safety discourses, and finally Islam in the media.
Information and program: www.islamische-theologie.uni-osnabrueck.de/fileadmin/documents/public/Tagung_-_Antimuslimischer_Rassismus_Stand_-_Flyer.pdf
9. Conference: “Islam in International Affairs: Politics and Paradigms”, European International Studies Association’s (EISA), Yaşar University, Izmir, Turkey, 7-10 September 2016
The section seeks to explore theoretical approaches and empirical experiences of the Islamic civilization by referring to both classical and modern sources, the worldview of prominent thinkers, statecraft experiences, current transnational movements, and case studies on the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) phenomenon.
Deadline for proposals: 8 January 2016. Information: www.coiris.org/islam-in-international-affairs-politics-and-paradigms/.
10. Research Assistant in the DFG-research Project “Diversity, Power, and Justice: Transcultural Perspectives”, University of Kassel
The Research Assistant (EG 13 TV-H) will conduct independent research within the sub-project “Justice and the Critique of Occidentalism within Contemporary Political Theory in the Maghreb” with the objective of graduating with a PhD. The applicant has completed a Masters degree in the field of Political Sciences or Philosophy with a major focus on Arabo-Islamic Philosophy. A very good command of Arabic, French and English or German is required. Commencement of job: 1 January 2016.
Deadline for application: 14 December 2015. Information: www.uni-kassel.de/intranet/aktuelles/stellenangebote/stellenausschreibung-details/tx_ukstellenausschreibung/27009.html
11. AUB Summer Arabic Programs in Modern Standard Arabic & Colloquial Lebanese Arabic
June 22 – August 10, 2016
The Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut will offer two intensive Arabic programs in the summer of 2016: one in Modern Standard Arabic and one in Colloquial Lebanese Arabic.
The program in Modern Standard Arabic provides intensive instruction at eight levels: Introductory, High Introductory, Low Intermediate, Intermediate, High Intermediate, Advanced, High Advanced and Superior. The total of 186 classroom hours is equivalent to 9 credit hours earned at AUB which may be transferred to other universities. The typical daily workload includes five hours of MSA and one hour of Lebanese dialect, followed by lectures, field trips, clubs and movies which are integrated into the program. Students should also expect at least four hours of homework each day. The program uses the Georgetown Arabic language textbooks by Brustad, al-Batal, and al-Tonsi and other supplementary materials.
The program in Colloquial Lebanese Arabic provides intensive instruction at the intermediate level. This program is designed for students who already have some knowledge of Levantine dialect and wish to reach a higher level. Students applying to this level must have studied Modern Standard Arabic for at least two semesters. The course consists of 120 contact hours, equivalent to 6 credit hours earned at AUB, which may be transferred to other universities. The typical daily workload includes four hours of colloquial Lebanese Arabic followed by lectures, field trips, clubs and movies which are integrated into the program. Students should also expect at least four hours of homework each day. The program uses teaching materials developed by CAMES as well as Lebanese films, songs, and other audiovisual materials.
The deadline for regular admission in both programs is April 15, 2016. Students who apply by April 15 will receive a response by the first week of May. Applications for both programs may be downloaded from: http://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cames/sap/Pages/sap_application.aspx or http://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cames/sap/Pages/ColloquialLebaneseArabic.aspx
For further information, please email cames@aub.edu.lb or check these links:
http://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cames/sap/Pages/arabic_program.aspx or http://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cames/sap/Pages/ColloquialLebaneseArabic.aspx
12. School of Modern Languages and Institute of Iranian Studies
University of St Andrews
Call for Conference Papers
‘Culture and Cultural Production in Iran: Past and Present’
(17th, 18th and 19th June 2016)
Convener: Dr Saeed Talajooy <st83@st-andrews.ac.uk>
This conference aspires to encourage the application of the evolving approaches to the study of culture to the history of artistic production in Iran. The unifying element of the conference, therefore, is artistic cultural production and the spaces in which it has occurred as an aesthetic, economic, socio-political phenomenon in Iran, particularly during the last two hundred years. We welcome a variety of submissions: from those that offer overviews of a particular form in a given period, to very specific studies of individual artists, works, practices, or material culture. We are also interested in the role these cultural products have played in the expansion of the concept of art and ‘the redistribution of the sensible’— what can be seen and heard in society due to the machination of political, cultural and religious aesthetics that confine these sounds and images in a hierarchical system of values. Of particular interest are also those papers that explore the theoretical aspects of the meaning and functions of art in Iran by studying specific topics. The conference, thus aims to encourage analytical and theoretical discussions on the multiplicity of locations that art (literature, cinema, theatre, music, dance, visual arts, architecture, etc.) occupies in Iranian discourse on modernity and post-industrial contemporaneity.
The following is a tentative list of general themes that speakers may choose to address while researching specific topics, but other subjects or approaches will also be welcomed:
v What is ‘Farhang’? Is there a divide between a popular and an elite culture? Who possesses culture?
v What is art? Where does it occur? How has it been received and promoted in Iran since the 1800s?
v Visual arts and the transformation and idealization of the body;
v The museum as a space and as an art form; collecting and buying art products;
v Cultural production and royal/clerical modernity in the late Qajar, Pahlavi and post-revolution era;
v What is ‘the contemporary’ and when did it begin in its Iranian context? What is contemporary art (literature, music, drama, dance, visual arts, architecture, etc.)?
v Mimicry, theatricality and theatrical politics: theatre, cinema, and their socio-political doubles;
v Music, dance and the rise of public space; music, dance, and culture; women on the stage;
v Transformation of the concept of art as a prerequisite for modernity;
v The art of subversion through historicist, cross-cultural, and folkloric reformulation and adaptation;
v Art as a public space for socio-political inquiry; and history writing as an art form;
v The birth of the new concept of ‘the individual’ in Iranian art;
v The rebirth of Tehran as a modern/Islamic modern/contemporary metropolis: immigrants, minorities, marginality, coups, foreign occupation, Islamic transformations and artistic production;
v The expansion of the public space through architecture, theatre, cinema, opera, ballet, concerts, night club dance and performance, reformulated religious rituals, marketing and religious murals, etc.;
v Marxism, art and modernity; Islamism, art and modernity; Existentialism, art and modernity; Capitalism, consumerism and art; Nation, nation-building and nationalism in Iranian art;
v Comparative studies of Iranian and non-Iranian art (fiction, music, dance, poetry, drama, visual arts, architecture, etc.) with a focus on the meaning of the modern or the contemporary;
v Publication, distribution , canonization and festivals and their roles in the reformulation of the culture;
v Transformation of family, individual and society in cultural products,
v Women as the subject and producers of Iranian art;
v Modern history and art as a secular space to display cosmopolitanism;
v Rereading history, religion or myth in Iranian art;
v Revolution as performance; streets and homes, indoor and outdoor, social control and metamorphosis;
v Indigenous artistic traditions and negotiating the relationship between the past and the present.
Confirmed Speakers include:
Bahram Beyzaie (Cinema)
Ahmad Karimi Hakkak (Literature)
Mohamad Tavakoli Targhi (History)
Hamid Amjad (Theatre)
Jila Esamailian (Publication)
Naghmeh Samini (Television)
Hooman Asadi (Music)
Performance
Mojdeh Shamsaie
Please submit abstracts of between 250 and 300 words by 25th January 2016. Authors will have 20 minutes to present their papers. A selection of papers will be chosen for further expansion and publication in an edited volume on Culture and Cultural Production in Iran. The abstracts must be electronically submitted to Saeed Talajooy <st83@st-andrews.ac.uk>.
13. http://www.biblioiranica.info/
“Bibliographia Iranica is a collective effort, continuing the work that Arash Zeini started at his blog over at www.arashzeini.com. This new website and connected social media share and distribute information on recent publications and events in Iranian Studies, understanding the field in its broadest sense from antiquity through to late antiquity and the early Islamic era with occasional excursions into neighbouring disciplines, geographies and eras.”
- December 08, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. CFP: Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies (Vol. 1, No. 2, July-December 2016)
Emotions, Humans and Animals
We invite submissions for the second issue of Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies (Vol. 1, No. 2, July-December 2016), a peer-reviewed, semi-annual research journal published by Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN, USA). The theme for this issue is “Emotions, Humans and Animals”. We are interested in articles that explore the emotional relationships between humans and animals in any region and period. The issue is concerned with but not limited to the study of emotions reflected in social and cultural construction of animals in human societies; the use of animal signs for characterising human experiences and metaphysical and religious ideas; the association and disassociation of humans with animals in agrarian and industrialised societies; and innovative theoretical and methodological approaches for studying the emotions involved in human-animal relationships. We are also interested in works exploring the post-humanist approaches which historicize the emotional behaviour among animals by moving beyond constructionism.
1 June 2016 is the deadline for submitting research articles, review articles and book reviews.
To submit a manuscript for consideration, an account with the journal is required. Please use the following link for registering an account or log-in to your existing account and then click the ‘new submission’ link:
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/pjhs
For more information and queries, send an email to pjhs@khaldunia.org (and cc to tahirkamran_gcu@yahoo.com; hak@khaldunia.org)
Thank you
Hussain Ahmad Khan
Associate Editor, Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies,
Email: hak@khaldunia.org
2. Call for Papers
Roshangar: the Roshan Undergraduate Persian Studies Journal
Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, University of Maryland
We are currently accepting submissions for the first edition of Roshangar, to be
published electronically in January 2016. We are seeking rigorous undergraduate
research papers (1,500-2,500 words) related to Persianate societies. We are especially
interested in work with an interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial approach.
Roshangar is a peer-reviewed journal working with an academic advisory board from the
Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, University of Maryland. The journal serves to
inspire new and original research as well as to promote a broader interest in Persian
Studies within the academic community.
The deadline for paper submissions is December 22 (11:59 pm).
Please include in your application:
- Title page: Name of author and undergraduate institution
- 250 word abstract
- Electronic editable version of paper with bibliography, references, or works cited
list in MLA format
For submissions and additional information, please contact the editorial team
3. The Middle East and North Africa Graduate Student Organization at the University of Arizona Presents:
16th Annual Southwest Graduate Conference in Middle Eastern and North African Studies
Re-envisioning Boundaries: Navigating Society, Culture, and Sovereignties
Call for Abstracts
The Middle East and North Africa Graduate Student Organization (MENA), the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), and the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies (MENAS) at the University of Arizona cordially invite you to participate in the 16th Annual Southwest Graduate Conference in Middle Eastern and North African Studies to be held from Thursday, April 7th 2016 to Saturday, April 9th 2016 in Tucson, Arizona, USA
Objectives
This conference aims to strengthen ties between academic disciplines by providing a platform for graduate students to present their research projects, exchange ideas, and create a network of emerging scholars spanning a variety of fields. This year’s conference is focused on the idea of mobility and sharing concepts related to the Middle East across fields with boundaries being redefined on various levels. We encourage abstract submissions not only from students within Middle Eastern and North African Studies programs, but also from Linguistics, Literature, Law and LGBT/Queer Studies, Journalism , Gender and Women Studies, Philosophy, political Science, Public health, Religious Studies, Sociology, Translation, Anthropology, Economic, Education, Geography, History, Music, and other studies related to the study of the Middle East and North Africa.
Submission Guidelines:
Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals for individual papers and pre-organized panels. Submissions are due December 11th for International students and January 15th for domestic students. Individual paper abstracts must be 250 words and submitted as a Microsoft Word or PDF file. In the body of email, please include author’s name, paper title, school and department affiliation, phone number, and email address. A panel organizer must submit an anonymous panel proposal that includes the description of the panel and an abstract for each paper it contains. Abstracts and proposals must be emailed to uamena@gmail.com. For further information, please visit http://menas.arizona.edu/mena-conference or submit your inquiries to uamena@gmail.com . Selected papers will be published in the academic peer-reviewed online journal Zaytoon.
Keynote Speaker
We are also pleased to announce that Dr. Asef Bayat will give this year’s keynote address. Dr. Bayat is the Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His current research focuses on the Arab Spring, particularly the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.
4. Open Access Journal
CfP: Hadīth and Sīra Studies
http://magazine.hadithandsira.info/
The mission to understand Prophet Muhammad and present his message to the world based on primary sources, which Meridyen Association began in 2007 with the launch of the LastProphet.info web portal, is now expanding to a new field.
A peer-reviewed academic journal, Hadīth and Sīra Studies, is the next step in a line of academic activities that include “The Hadīth and Sīra Research Awards”, “Sīra Workshop” and “International Sīra Studies Symposium” conducted under the Lastprophet.info project. With the focus of gathering academic research of the Prophet Muhammad’s life to reveal universal guiding principles applicable to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, this biannual journal seeks to make a meaningful contribution to the field of hadīth and sīra studies.
Hadīth and Sīra Studies recognizes the rigorous intellectual standards set by Western academia and aims to adhere to them from its first issue as part of its long-term goal to become a leading international publication. In line with its interdisciplinary perspective, Hadīth and Sīra Studies welcomes contributions from diverse fields of research.
How primary Islamic sources have been understood and interpreted throughout history shapes the way they are understood by the present generation. It is therefore necessary to both convey the Islamic tradition through a re-evaluation and analysis of the literature written during previous centuries, and to make it relevant to contemporary problems. The critical and philosophical ideas voiced since the 18th century in both the East and West cannot be ignored and must be engaged with by hadīth and sīra studies. Classical Islamic texts should be reread and at the same time rediscovered in light of these intellectual developments. In tackling these significant issues, the importance of adopting both an international and interdisciplinary approach becomes clear. At this current time, Hadīth and Sīra Studies intends to publish articles in Arabic, English, German and French in addition to Turkish.
We welcome your academic contributions addressing the separate or common issues of hadīth and sīra studies, as well as those connecting them to relevant disciplines, for our second issue which will be published in May 2016.
Deadline for submissions: 15th March 2016
5. Spolia Reincarnated: Second Life of Spaces, Materials, Objects in Anatolia from Antiquity to the Ottoman Period
10th RCAC (Koc University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations-Istanbul) Annual Symposium, 5-6 December 2015.
The symposium focuses on various forms and types of reuse in the cultures that developed in Anatolia and Eastern Mediterranean from Antiquity up to the Ottoman period. Through a diverse range of presentations, emerging from the current research in spolia studies, the symposium intends to discuss the reuse of architectural elements, decoration and sculpture, reuse of space and buildings, as well as the reuse of objects (from metal objects to textiles). By bringing together archaeologists, art historians, historians of architecture and landscape, the aim is not only to show the abundance and variety of examples but also to question how, through the process of reuse, space, materials and objects were reworked and changed to fit into their new contexts.
Symposium organizers: Ivana Jevtic and Suzan Yalman (Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Koc University-Istanbul).
Saturday 05/12/2015
10.00-10:40 Finbarr Barry Flood, New York University
Keynote Lecture:
Seeing Time: Alteration, Cumulation and the Palimpsest Artwork
Session I:
“Setting the Stage”: Going Back to the Origins of the Term and the Concept of Spolia
11:15 – 11:40 Inge Uytterhoeven, Koc University
‘Spolia, -iorum, (n): From Spoils of War to Re-Used Building Materials. The History of a Latin Term
11:40-12:05 Philipp Niewohner, German Archaeological Institute, Berlin
Varietas and Spolia in East and West: The Origins of an Aesthetic Concept and Its Application to the Re-Use of Marbles in Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine Period
Session II:
Revival or Survival: Spolia, Memory and Legitimacy
13:40 – 14:05 Elif Keser Kayaalp, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir
Spolia and Classicism in the Mosques of Diyarbakır (Amid) and Silvan (Mayyafariqin)
14:05 – 14:30 Livia Bevilacqua, Universita Ca’ Foscari, Venice
Spolia on City Gates in the Thirteenth Century: Byzantium and Italy
14:30 – 14:55 Scott Redford, SOAS, London
Seljuk Spolia
Session III:
Spolia and Ideology: Modes and Motives of Re-Use
15:50 – 16:15 Suna Cagaptay, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul
On the Beaks of the Double-Headed Eagle: Spolia in Re and Appropriation in Medieval Anatolia and Beyond
16:15 – 16:40 Maria Kiprovska, University of Sofia
Plunder and Appropriation at the Borderland: Representation, Legitimacy and Ideological Use of Spolia by Members of the Ottoman Frontier Nobility
16:40 – 17:05 Tugba Tanyeri Erdemir, Middle East Technical University, Ankara
Remains of the Day: Converted Anatolian Churches
17:05-17:30 Summary and Discussion
Sunday 06/12/2015
Session IV:
Spolia and Imperial Agenda: Transformation of Monuments and the Image of the City
10:10 – 10:50 Alessandra Guiglia, Claudia Barsanti, University of Sapienza, Rome
Spolia in Saint Sophia in Constantinople from Justinian to the Ottoman Period: The Phenomenon of Multilayered Re-Use
11:05 – 11:30 Nicholas Melvani, Koc University Stavros Niarchos Center for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Istanbul
Late, Middle, and Early Byzantine Sculpture in Palaiologan Constantinople
11:30 – 11:55 Unver Rustem, Johns Hopkins University and University of Cambridge
Byzantine Legacies and the Ottoman Baroque: Architectural Consciousness in Eighteenth Century Istanbul
Session V:
Second Life of Objects: Portable Items as Spolia
14:10 – 14:35 Konstantina Karterouli, The Catholic University of America, Washington DC
Re-Use of the Byzantine Object in the West c. 1200: Assimilation or Appropriation?
14:35 – 15:00 Elena Papastavrou, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and Nikolas Vryzidis, British School at Athens
“Sacred Patchwork”: The Greek Church’s Patterns of Textile Re-Use During the Ottoman Era
15:15 – 15:40 Pagona Papadopoulou, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki
The Afterlife of Coins: The Re-Use of Late Antique and Medieval Coins for Apotropaic, Religious and Ideological Purposes
16:10-16:50 Paul Magdalino, University of Saint Andrews, Scotland
Concluding Remarks
16:50-17:15 Ivana Jevtic, Koc University
General Discussion and Closing Remarks
[Added by H-Islamart Editor: The symposium is open to the public and simultaneous English-Turkish translation will be provided. For more information contact: Şeyda Çetin (seydacetin@ku.edu.tr)]
Reference / Quellennachweis:
CONF: Spolia Reincarnated (Istanbul, 5-6 December 15). In: H-ArtHist,
Nov 28, 2015. <http://arthist.net/archive/11575>
6. International Conference: “Resistance & Empire: New Approaches and Comparisons”, University of Lisbon, 26-29 June 2016
The conference invites students of French, British, Portuguese, German, and other European colonialisms to analytically address the multiple expressions of “resistance” in colonial history by engaging with empirical material and theoretical explorations.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2015. Information: www.ics.ul.pt/rdonweb-recursos/events/2015-12/2015-12-31.pdf
7. W3-Professorship in Oriental Studies (Arabic and Islamic Studies), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
The expected focus of research and teaching activities is the early modern and modern developments of the culture, history, and religion of the Arab and Islamic worlds, combined with experience in working with sociological and anthropological approaches to these fields. Several years of study and research experience in Arab countries and/or other countries of the Islamic world, as well as a second regional field of specialization, are equally desirable. The appointment begins April 1, 2016.
Deadline for application: 2 January 2016. Information: www.stellenwerk-bochum.de/jobs-finden/hochschulinterne-angebote/details/anzeige/bo-2015-11-10-14.html
8. Three LSE Middle East Centre Emirates Master’s Scholarship 2016/17
The LSE Middle East Centre Emirates Scholarship offers financial support for students from Arab states studying for a Master’s degree at LSE and who intend to focus their studies on the Middle East. The scholarship has a value of £30,000 which will cover full tuition fees with the remainder available to support living expenses in London.
Deadline for applications: 29 April 2016. Information: www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/scholarships/Masters/apply.aspx?utm_source=Mailing+List&utm_campaign=e976985226-Masters+2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_79ca332e34-e976985226-318654609
9. Call for Applicants and Scholarships for a Doctoral Program “The Asian Sphere”, University of Haifa and the Hebrew University
The Asian Sphere offers a unique opportunity for outstanding candidates, at the MA and PhD level, to enroll in a multidisciplinary and inter-university graduate program that deals with the Asian continent. Subject Fields: Asian Studies, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Art History, Archaeology, Geography, Political Science, International Relations, Cultural Studies, History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, and more.
Deadline for application: 31 January 2016. Information: http://asian-sphere.huji.ac.il
10. M.A. in Middle East and Islamic Studies at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
The aim of this degree program is to reposition the study of the Middle East and Islam within a global context to help students better analyze particular issues in light of current events and shifting historical paradigms. The program’s core classes provide a solid background in both fields of study; however students can choose to focus their coursework on either Middle East Studies or Islamic Studies.
Deadline for applications for the Fall/Spring 2016-2017 academic year: 15 February 2016. Information: http://meis.gmu.edu/
|
How to apply
Email completed paper and panel proposal forms (downloadable below) before the deadline. Please limit your abstracts to 250 words.
Deadline for proposals: 19 February 2016, 5pm.
Panel Proposal Form | Paper Proposal Form | Conference Website
Within the overall theme of ‘Networks: Connecting the Middle East through Time, Space and Cyber Space’, papers and panels addressing historical or contemporary aspects of the following subthemes are particularly invited:
- Trade, transport and financial networks: ancient and modern economic collaborations and enterprises.
- Geographical networks in urban, regional and international contexts.
- Political and social networks: ruling elites, structures of government, networking in minority and majority contexts, diaspora communities and social movements.
- Migration networks: migrants’ routes, communications and integration.
- Cultural networks: connections within art, architecture, literature, film and music.
- Linguistics and etymological connections and language development.
- Virtual networks: social media, gaming and global communications networks.
- Networks within religion: religious communities (ancient and modern), interfaith connections, religious authority and evolving theological interpretations.
- Networks in radicalisation and counter-radicalisation.
Proposals for complete panel sessions are particularly welcome.
12. ESRC MSc/PhD studentships
ESRC Scottish Doctoral Training Centre MSc + PhD studentships for 2016 are available for students of Language-Based Area Studies at the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), University of Edinburgh. Starting date September 2016.
CASAW, Edinburgh, invites applicants under three routes: first, its 2+3 model, which entails a two-year Masters in Arab World Studies (to become Middle Eastern Studies with Arabic), including intensive Arabic, followed by three years of PhD funding; second, its 1+3 model, which entails a one-year Masters in Advanced Arabic or in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, followed by three years of PhD funding; third, its +3 model, which entails three years of PhD funding.
Application Process, 2+3, 1+3 (MSc with Arabic training + PhD)
Applicants for study at CASAW 2+3 or 1+3 funding should send a CV, a 1,000-word outline of the proposed PhD research topic, and the names of two referees no later than Friday 22 January 2016, to Dr Anthony Gorman:
Applicants for 2+3 or 1+3 study at CASAW will also need complete an application to the relevant Masters degree, available at:
Arab World Studies on the Postgraduate Degree Finder
Advanced Arabic on the Postgraduate Degree Finder
Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies on the Postgraduate Degree Finder
For further details about Masters degrees in Language-Based Area Studies of the Middle East at Edinburgh, see:
Application Process, +3 (PhD only)
Applicants for +3 (PhD only) study at CASAW should apply in the first instance for a PhD place at Edinburgh:
They should also write separately to Dr Anthony Gorman indicating their intention to apply for an ESRC LBAS scholarship, attaching their CV, PhD research proposal (c. 2,000-5,000 words) and the names of two referees:
Notification and registration with the Scottish Graduate School, 2+3, 1+3 and +3
Applicants to be put forward for an LBAS scholarship by the University of Edinburgh will then be notified of this on or before1 February 2015, at which point they should then register separately for the scholarship competition. For further details of the Scottish Doctoral Training Centre ESRC scholarships, including eligibility criteria see:
http://www.socsciscotland.ac.uk/studentships/how_to_apply
13. Simon Fraser University – Comparative Muslim Societies and Cultures Associate Professor/Assistant Professor
- December 01, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.MSc in Advanced Arabic
Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh is proud to announce the re-launch of its MSc in Advanced Arabic, which is now open for applications for the 2016-17 academic year. I was hoping that colleagues might be interested in knowing about the programme, with a view to mentioning it to any of your students who might be considering taking their studies in Arabic further.
The programme is intended for students who have an undergraduate degree in Arabic or skills in the language at a similar level, but who wish to build on these to the point where they can function with confidence and fluency in all professional and academic settings. Taught using communicative methods and including a wide range of literary, media and real-world materials, it is particularly aimed at students wishing to work in translation, interpreting, academia, Arabic teaching, business and government or NGO roles.
Teaching staff on the MSc include world leaders in developing pedagogical methods for Arabic teaching, as well as specialised researchers in various aspects of Arabic literature, language and culture. Students also benefit from hands-on workshops with visiting academics and professionals.
Full information on the Advanced Arabic MSc is available on the Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies website:
and online applications, along with information on funding opportunities and scholarships, can be found at:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees/index.php?r=site/view&id=813
The Advanced Arabic MSc is a one-year programme which, alongside two semesters in Edinburgh, includes a period of study and research in Cairo or Amman. Edinburgh itself is famous for its history and culture, and at the University we pride ourselves on our ability to deliver access to a global top 30 institution at a very competitive cost compared to North American colleges.
Overall, we believe that the Advanced Arabic MSc is a rare – if not unique – opportunity for students to enhance their existing Arabic language skills for use in a range of professional and academic settings, and in an attractive and cost-effective environment.
If you would like to know more about the Advanced Arabic MSc, or about any of our other postgraduate programmes in Arabic, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Jonathan Featherstone, Senior Teaching Fellow, on jonathan.featherstone@ed.ac.uk, or Dr Anthony Gorman, Programme Director, on anthony.gorman@ed.ac.uk.
2. On behalf of the Editor and the editorial team, I am delighted to announce publication of the first issue of
ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
and to invite you all to join us for the
Journal Launch and Panel Discussion
Date: 2nd December 2015
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Venue: Room B102, Brunei Gallery,
SOAS, University of London
Speakers
S.Sayyid, University of Leeds, Editor of ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
Samia Bano, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Rob Gleave, Director of the Islamic Reformulations Project, University of Exeter
Ruth Mas, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies,
Brian Klug, St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford
ReOrient is a new peer reviewed, international and interdisciplinary journal. It is a platform for a sustained collective thought experiment that seeks to explore the consequences of producing knowledge that is no longer organized around the axis of West and non-West.
ReOrient is published by Pluto Journals and distributed internationally by JSTOR. For more information please go to http://www.jstor.org/journal/reorient
Kindly RSVP: By 30 November 2015
Email: reorient@leeds.ac.uk
ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
First Issue Autumn 2015
Contents
ReOrient: A Forum for Critical Muslim Studies 5
read here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/reorient.1.issue-1
The Editorial Board
Articles
The Other Siege of Vienna and the Ottoman Threat: An Essay in Counter-Factual History 11
Richard W. Bulliet
Exchanges: With Gil Anidjar 23
The Forgetting of Christianity 27
Gil Anidjar
The “Problem” of Religion, Christianity, and the Capacity of Community 37
Ananda Abeysekara
Christianity’s Forgetting 43
Sîan Melvill Hawthorne
The Red Thread of Christianity 51
Ruth Mas
Fawlty Logic: The Cracks in Cameron’s 2011 Munich Speech 61
Brian Klug
Muhammad Iqbal on Muslim Orthodoxy and Transgression: A Response to Nehru 78
Teena Purohit
Book Reviews
Colonial Wars, Postcolonial States: A Debate on the War on Terror 93
Warren Chin
Mayanthi L. Fernando’s The Republic Unsettled 108
Roshan A. Jahangeer
Kecia Ali’s The Lives of Muhammad 112
Kamran Bashir
Mohammad Siddique Seddon’s The Last of the Lascars 116
Shamim Miah
Abstracts: http://www.plutojournals.com/reorient-contents-and-abstracts/
3. Séminaire ‘Sociétés, politiques et cultures
du monde iranien’
Séance du 3 decembre 2015, 17h-18h30
Alessandra Fiorentini, doctorante, EHESS, Paris
Le « folklore en tant que vision du monde » : l’exemple d’un rituel féminin en Iran, Tadjikistan et Afghanistan
Le sujet de cette intervention concerne l’étude d’un rituel votif féminin appelé sofreh dans la région historique du « Grand Khorasan » qui s’étends sur différents pays limitrophes dont l’Iran, le Tadjikistan et l’Afghanistan, lieux privilégiés de ma recherche de terrain. Le rituel du sofreh est un rituel féminin collectif. Il consiste en des réunions réservées exclusivement et strictement aux femmes qui demandent secours à un être surnaturel, la « Bîbî-Seshanbeh » et « Bîbî Moshkilkosha » (en darî Dame du Mardi, La dame qui résout les problèmes). En effet, la phase la plus importante du rituel est la narration de l’histoire mythique de l’être surnaturel. C’est cette performance de récitation qui donne validité au rituel. Mon étude se fonde à la fois sur un travail ethnographique et sur le recueil de sources écrites des différentes versions du récit mythique.
Tout d’abord à travers une analyse de la littérature existante, je questionne le vocabulaire analytique, conceptuel et politique à travers lequel on a souvent analysé le rapport entre genre et religion comme les notions clés telles que la dichotomie « religion/magie », « orthodoxie/pratique populaire», et une tentative de redéfinir la notion de « agency ». À travers une analyse anthropologique et historique du rituel et de son récit, cette recherche veut démontrer l’importance d’utiliser le genre comme catégorie d’analyse pour élucider, au travers de l’étude des activités rituelles féminines, des processus socioculturels et politiques plus larges. Il examine comment les femmes construisent quotidiennement leur genre à travers les pratiques du rituel en conformité avec les réalités sociales et politiques dans lesquelles elles vivent. Cela pour expliquer que le genre est un produit de l’activité rituelle plutôt que sa cause.
Par ailleurs, l’analyse des sources écrites primaires et la réalisation de différentes enquêtes de terrain, montrent que le rituel du sofreh est présent dans plusieurs pays, notamment en Afghanistan, au Tadjikistan, en Iran, en Ouzbékistan, mais aussi auprès des communautés en diaspora à Londres et en Israël. Ce rituel est en outre pratiqué par des communautés religieuses différentes telles que la communauté juive, zoroastrienne et musulmane. Le caractère transnational et transculturel de la pratique rituelle m’a porté à réfléchir sur la question de l’autorité féminine et sur l’hypothèse de l’existence de réseaux de solidarité entre femmes (sororité), dont certains aboutissent aussi à des revendications politiques se réclamant du féminisme.
Lieu : Université Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris 3, centre Censier, 13 rue de Santeuil, salle D21, bâtiment D (le bâtiment D est situé sur le parvis du Campus Censier, 2e étage), 75005, Paris.
Organisateurs :
Matteo De Chiara (INaLCO), Denis Hermann (CNRS), Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3), Julien Thorez (CNRS).
4. http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/518770.html
The Faculty of Humanities at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen invites applications for a level W3 professorship for Iranian Studies, starting 01.04.2016.
The successful applicant for the professorship in Iranian Studies should represent this field in the broadest sense possible. He/She should cover teaching and research in the fields of Iranian religions, cultural history, literatures and media while taking aspects of the pre-Islamic era as well as issues of modern times into account. The applicant is expected to document proficiency in modern and classical Persian. The new professor will be involved in the initiative of interdisciplinary religious studies at the Göttingen Research Campus and cooperate in the field of transregional studies.
The ideal applicant will exhibit an interdisciplinary orientation and should reveal a profound knowledge of theories and methodology. The successful applicant should participate actively in the research clusters of the Philosophical Faculty and in inter-faculty research activities and clusters. The new professor is responsible for the study programs of Iranian Studies. It is expected that he/she will make efforts to increase the Iranian studies program’s attraction by teaching cooperation within the Göttingen Research Campus and/or by inter-university initiatives. The active participation in administration tasks is required.
Further information can be found under http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/518770.html
The formal requirements for an appointment are in accordance with the legislation of the State of Lower Saxony (§§ 25 Niedersächsisches Hochschulgesetz). Please contact us for further details.
Applications of disabled persons will be given preferential treatment over other candidates with equal qualifications.
The University of Göttingen is an equal opportunity employer. Women are strongly encouraged to apply and will receive preferential treatment when having equal qualifications.
We explicitly welcome applications from abroad. Part-time employment is negotiable.
Applications should be submitted within six weeks after the publication of this advertisement and should be accompanied by a curriculum vitae, a list of publications and courses taught, and should be addressed to the
Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Göttingen University, Humboldtallee 17, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
Please send your application as PDF via e-mail to marina.glemnitz@zvw.uni-goettingen.de
5. Seventh Annual Graduate Student Conference in Translation Studies
Call for Papers: Translation and the Arts
The graduate students of the School of Translation at Glendon College, York University, are pleased to announce the Seventh Annual Graduate Student Conference in Translation Studies to be held on Saturday, March 5, 2016 at Glendon College in Toronto, Canada.
Translation is a site for creative activity that operates within dynamic fields of linguistic and cultural contact. This site opens roads into inquiries on how translation operates within the arts and how the arts operate within translation. Translators and interpreters can be viewed as playing the role of artists, while artists themselves embody many of the singularities that characterize the translator’s task. Within the shifting multimedia landscape of the digital age and an era of highly globalized cultural production it is of value to question the interplay between the human imagination and our diverse forms of cultural expression.
We invite students, scholars, translators, artists and critics to join us in sharing ideas that explore the interdependence of translation and the arts; how this relationship has manifested itself throughout history; and how it is developing in an age of rapid globalization, technological innovation and values that celebrate cultural diversity. The questions we put forward to spark this discussion include the following: how are forms of artistic expression, ranging from the literary, musical, visual, and performance influenced and shaped by translation? How does translation figure in the creative process and within the mediums of artistic productions? In what capacities do translators engage with art and do artists engage with translation? Where do critical theories from both domains intersect and how can they serve one another?
Topics for papers and posters can include, but are not limited to the following:
- The translator’s subjectivity, subconscious and the role imagination plays in his or her work.
- Reflections on translation as an on-going creative thinking process e.g. autoethnography, retranslation, self-translation.
- Approaches to the translation of artistic works —poetry, songs, plays, films, comics and even video games.
- Artistic and fictional representations of translation, translators and interpreters.
- Innovative manifestations of translation in creative digital and social mediums.
- Trends in subtitling and surtitling, simultaneous interpreting, audio description and other translational mediums as applied to the arts.
- Linguistic and sensorial accessibility at artistic venues.
- The relationship between translation theory and criticism.
- Ongoing debates in the study of world/comparative literature, music, film, and performance.
These and other related issues will be addressed at this one-day multilingual event, which will include a series of individual presentations (20 minutes each) and other related activities. Interested persons are invited to submit proposals of 250-300 words in English, French or Spanish by Monday, January 4, 2016 to transconf@glendon.yorku.ca. Please ensure that you include the title of your submission, your name, affiliation if appropriate, email address and any tech requests. Selected papers will be considered for publication. We may be able to provide simultaneous interpretation to and from Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish at the conference.
6. Latest News from Islamic Reformulations:
Islam, Law and the State: Workshop and Public Lecture by Professor Mohammad Fadel, 7th January 2016, University of Exeter. How have Muslims conceived of “law” and how has law framed Islam and Muslims? This interdisciplinary workshop will examine this two sides of the relationship between Islam and the law from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The workshop will end with a lecture by Mohammad Fadel (Toronto) entitled “Islamic Constitutionalism as an Alternative Approach to Islamic Legal Reform”. A programme will be posted here in early December.
Reformulation and Hermeneutics: Researching the History of Islamic Legal Theory, Istanbul, 21st-24th February 2016. This conference, a collaboration of the Islamic Reformulations project (University of Exeter) and the Faculty of Theology (Istanbul University) will examine the intellectual history of Islamic legal interpretation, with a focus on legal theory.
Publications news: Robert Gleave and Istvan Kristo-Nagy (formerly the LIVIT Research Fellow) both have contributions to the recently published volume Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A diachronic perspective on takfīr (Leiden, 2015), edited by C. Adang, H. Ansari, M. Fierro and S. Schmidtke. Rob’s contribution is titled “Abandoning Prayer and the Declaration of Unbelief in Imāmī Jurispdudence” (pp.244-272); and Istvan’s is “Denouncing the Damned Zindīq! Struggle and Interaction between Monotheism and Dualism” (pp.56-81
Conference news: Robert Gleave spoke on “Securitising Area Studies: Recent Developments in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies” at the Area Studies in the 21st Century conference, 9th November, at University College London. Mustafa Baig, formerly our Research Fellow (now Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Cardiff), spoke at the inaugural event of the GW4 URL” Religion and Law project, giving a paper entitled “The Anti-Sharia Movement in the Light of Islamic Jurisprudence”, 10th November at the University of Bath.
7. The University of Oslo, Norway, is pleased to announce its new
2-year interdisciplinary MA in Middle East Studies
The programme, which is taught in English, offers students the opportunity to expand their overall competence in contemporary Middle East studies while developing a more specific research focus within the fields of politics, social, religious and cultural affairs, anthropology, history, language and literature. The programme emphasises comparative and theory-oriented approaches as well as the active use of written and oral sources in the main languages of the region (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew/Semitic).
For more information and how to apply, see
http://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/research/center/islamic-and-middle-east-studies/studies/
Ongoing research projects:
http://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/research/center/islamic-and-middle-east-studies/projects/
Teachers involved with the programme:
http://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/research/center/islamic-and-middle-east-studies/researchers/
NB: Please note the following deadlines:
1 Dec 2015: for applicants from outside the European Union / European Economic Area
1 Mar 2016: for EU/EEA/Swiss citizens
15 Apr 2016: for Nordic citizens or those with renewable residence permit in Norway
8. School of Politics, International Studies & Philosophy
Queens University Belfast
Funded PhD Studentships Commencing Sept. 2016
The School of Politics, International Studies & Philosophy at Queen’s University Belfast is pleased to announce a number of funding opportunities for PhD students beginning September 2016. We welcome student proposals in a wide range of scholarly areas, with particular emphasis on the following:
| · Security, Borders and Migration
· Terrorism & Conflict · EU Governance · Comparative Politics / Political Behaviour and Parties |
· Middle Eastern Politics & Islam
· Ethics & Public Policy · Political Economy of Risk · Contemporary Irish History and Politics
|
We have the following funding opportunities for prospective PhD students:
DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND LEARNING (DEL) AWARDS:
The Faculty Of Arts, Humanities & Social Science invites applications for PhD Studentship Awards, funded by Northern Ireland’s Department of Employment and Learning (DEL), available for full-time PhD research commencing in autumn 2016. A total of 36 PhD studentships are available and they will be awarded on a competitive basis to outstanding applicants who have: an excellent undergraduate degree; a Master’s degree in a relevant subject completed, or are due to complete by September 2016; an original and exciting research proposal that will contribute to the further enhancement of areas of research strength in the Faculty. The studentships are available to UK and other EU and EEA nationals, however specific eligibility criteria apply. For example, for UK Based students, each award will cover approved tuition fees and maintenance payments for three years, whereas EU and EEA students are eligible for fees only. Those wishing to be considered for a DEL PhD studentship should complete the online postgraduate application here, registering your application against the home School of your proposed primary supervisor. Please note that the deadline for these applications is 29th January, 2016.
AHRC NORTHERN BRIDGE DOCTORAL AWARDS:
As part of the Northern Bridge Consortium which includes Newcastle University and Durham University, Queen’s is part of a programme of funding that will offer up to 50 fully funded PhD positions across these three institutions. These are specific opportunities for ‘Humanities Facing’ subject areas within the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy which include, but are not limited to, Philosophy, Political Theory, Political History, Diplomatic History, Cultural Studies and Aesthetics and Politics. Further Information on this funding scheme can be found here Northern Bridge Scholarships: Please note that the deadline for this competition is 11th January 2016
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
Queen’s has a number of other relevant schemes for PhD funding including awards from specific national governments (e.g. China Council Studentships), the British Council, and other specific regions (e.g. Commonwealth Scholarships). Eligibility and deadlines vary for each of these studentships. For further information on other possible funding opportunities, please click here.
Further information on all these funding opportunities can be found on our webpages here.
Likewise, you can contact Dr. Debbie Lisle for more information: D.Lisle@qub.ac.uk
9. University of Arizona – Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
of the Middle East and North Africa
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=52130
10. Open Access E-book: Censorship in Lebanon: Law and Practice
11. CfP: Borders and beyond in the Middle Eastsince 1914: legacies, changes, continuities.
venue: York St John University, York, UK date : 17-18 June 2016
(associated social and cultural events on 16th and 19th June)
Keynote Speakers: include Priya Satia (Stanford University): more to be confirmed.
This international interdisciplinary conference will examine the effects of World War 1 and the post-war settlement in the Middle East, especially those which are still felt today e.g. state borders, migrations, secular and religious ideologies and movements, and struggles over power.
The centenary of the 1916 “Sykes-Picot agreement”, which fed into the post-1918 politics of the region, provides a prompt to reflect on these themes, but does not limit the range of topics for discussion.
With its associated exhibitions and cultural events, the conference will provide a timely opportunity to re-examine the history of this period from many different perspectives and consider the extent of its consequences for the present, and implications for the future. It will also be an opportunity for scholarly work on the Middle East over the last century to be heard and discussed by a wider audience, and for participants to share non-academic as well as academic perspectives on past, present and future in the Middle East.
The conference will encourage the exploration of:-
* issues such as gender politics, oil, imperialism, borders, mandates and state formation, local, national, and international elites, and local, national and communal histories of the region
* the impact of early twentieth century developments on subsequent histories and perceptions of ethnic, religious, social and communal diversity in the region
* cultural, political, and ideological aspects of these topics within and beyond the Middle East.
* histories and/or contemporary experiences of York/Yorkshire connections with the Middle East
Potential contributions to the conference may thus come from many disciplines: these might include geography, cartography, ethnography/anthropology, political science, war and peace studies, international relations, archaeology, science and/or engineering, religious and philosophical studies, the arts, cultural, media, and literary studies, statistics.
The conference will include both plenary sessions and panels: all sessions will be designed to give ample time to discuss presentations with a common theme. Proposals for papers or other forms of presentation are invited from all disciplines and areas. Selected papers will be considered for inclusion in an edited volume of conference proceedings.
Paper proposals should be for presentations of no more than 15 minutes; we are happy to consider proposals for contributions in other formats. Panel proposals should be for 2/3papers dealing with common themes.
Proposals, which should provide [1] a title, [2] an abstract of no more than 250 words, [3] the proposer’s name and contact details, should be sent to i.horwood@yorksj.ac.uk by Friday 23 January at latest: proposers will be informed of decisions about their proposal by early March .
Further details about the conference, including registration fees, concessions, etc. will be available shortly.
organising committee: John Bibby, Joanna de Groot, Ian Horwood
sponsors: York St John University; Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past, History Department, University of York: also associated with the York Festival of Ideas
12. Perso-Indica Workshop
Female Characters in Śukasaptatī and its Persian Versions
December 14th 2015, 16.00-18.30
Place: Salle des Placques, INALCO, 2 Rue de Lille, 75007, Paris.
Organisation and contact: Pegah Shahbaz, pegah.shahbaz@univ-paris3.fr
Program
16.00: Fabrizio Speziale, Introduction
16.15: Iran Farkhonde, « “As long as You Know the Answer”- Women Characters in the Śukasaptatī: Their Wits and Behaviours »
16.35: Discussion
16.45: Pegah Shahbaz, « Women Characters and Their Roles in Jawāhir al-asmār »
17.05: Discussion
17.15: Coffee-break
17.30: Syed Akhtar Hussain, « Thus Spake the Tuti »
17.50 Discussion
18.00: Conclusion
Iran Farkhonde (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Mondes iranien et indien), « “As long as you know the answer”- Women characters in the Śukasaptatī: their wits and behaviours »
To introduce the Śukasaptatī, we will first give a sketch of the frame story. We will present in the main lines the elements of Indian civilization that are necessary to understand the whys and therefores of women’s behaviors in the Sanskrit text. We will suggest a typology of women’s characters in the book. Finally we will try to delineate the aims of the author. Is he of the opinion that, as long as a woman has the wits to get herself out of trouble, she could behave according to her wishes?
Pegah Shahbaz (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Mondes iranien et indien), «Women Characters and Their Roles in Jawāhir al-asmār »
Jawāhir al-asmār (Jewels of Stories) is the earliest Persian translation, known thus far, of Śukasaptatī (Seventy tales of the parrot) realized in 713-715 H. /1313-1315 A.D. by a secretary named ‘Imād ibn Muḥammad Ṯaġarī at the court of ‘Alā al-Dīn Ḫaljī (r. 1290-1316). Jawāhir al-asmār could be the same Persian verbose rendering that Ẓiyā’ al-Dīn Naḫšabī (d. around 751/1350-51) mentions in the introduction to his popular Ṭūṭī-nāma, as the most prominent source he used for preparing his Persian version of the tales of the parrot. This presentation will focus on female characters in Ṯaġarī’s translation. Women’s inherent role in tales and their noteworthy strategies for overcoming the norms of male-dominated societies will be studied in detail. By means of concrete examples, we’ll discover how the use/misuse of imaginary by women could appear as a defensive tool for and against them in narratives.
Syed Akhtar Hussain (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), « Thus Spake the Tūtī »
Since the translation of Kalīla wa Dimna into Pahlavi, Arabic and Persian, Indian Classics began to impact literature in the Middle East. Sanskrit texts namely the Panchatantra and Śhukasaptatī enriched Persian literature both in form and contents. The Ṭūṭī-Nāma, among others, is not only a translation of Śhukasaptatī but also a gem of Perso-Indic literature. Its translator Zia Naḫšabī presents the wisdom of India in a more impressive and elegant manner than it appears in the Sanskrit text. The Ṭūṭī-Nāma develops“Katha” into pure Persian literature and swells more in size and gives a full size picture of the Perso-Indic world wherein Prabhavati and Madan Vinod transform into Ḫujaste and Maymūn. Śhukasaptatī’s narratives reproduced with a twist here and a turn there in the Ṭūṭī-Nāma but however it transpires that the Indian threads are deftly woven in the Persian tapestry of the Ṭūṭī-Nāma.
Pegah SHAHBAZ
Post-doctorante ANR
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
Sorbonne Paris Cité
13 rue Santeuil
75231 Paris Cedex 05
Monde iranien et indien (UMR 7528)
CNRS – Sorbonne Nouvelle – INALCO – EPHE
27, rue Paul Bert
94204, Ivry – sur – Seine
13. The “Early Islamic Empire at Work” project team based at the University of Hamburg are delighted to announce the establishment of the Early Islamic Empire Working Paper Series. The first paper, “ʿAbbāsid Administrative Legacy in the Seljuq World” by Prof. Dr Jürgen Paul, is now available for download from our website: https://www.islamic-empire.uni-hamburg.de/en/publications-tools/publications/working-paper-series.html
Working papers will be published on an irregular schedule. For further information about our project as well as forthcoming events and publications, see our website at https://www.islamic-empire.uni-hamburg.de/en.html
With best wishes,
The Early Islamic Empire team
- November 27, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. CFP: Arab Cinema (edited collection)
Essay contributions are sought for an edited collection on cinema of the Arab world that is presently under favorable consideration by the editors of an appropriate series at a major academic publisher.
Whereas the Arab world continues to be a central focus of Western media attention, relatively little scholarly work has been produced on Arab cinema. This forthcoming scholarly collection aims to explore and analyze the current state of cinematic and media production in the Arab world, drawing upon the expertise of scholars and practitioners, including but not limited to those who hail from or are based in the region itself. The volume will adopt a contemporary perspective, covering specific aspects and attributes of the Arab world as a whole and integrating an array of topics and theoretical approaches representing current developments in Arab filmmaking and studies. Recognizing the field’s interdisciplinary breadth, the collection seeks intellectual inclusiveness and welcomes essays from diverse academic and national locations. Its aim is to (re)situate Arab cinema and its scholarly pursuit, both recent and historical, on the map of international cultural studies, by soliciting critical work in areas including but not limited to:
- Political conditions of filmmaking in the Arab world / reflections on the Arab Uprisings / co-optations of revolt / the refugee crisis
- Arab(ic) filmmaking outside the region (“beur” cinema, exilic and diasporic filmmaking)
- Comparative analyses of trends or films in (specific) Arab cinemas and those from non-Arab regions
- Revision preoccupation with Islam and “terrorism”
- Films concerning Palestine/Israel, Zionism, and the Arab-Israeli struggle
- Censorship and propaganda
- Classical industry films revisited / popular cinema / genres / star system
- New directors / auteurism
- The persistence and future of national cinemas
- Animation / digital media / experimental / avant-garde
- Documentary traditions and transformations
- Commercially successful political comedies
- The relationship of literary theory and theories of visual art to film analysis
- Politics of distribution / film festivals / “world” cinema / transnational networks / collectives
- Economics of Arab filmmaking / sources of funding within and beyond the region
- Class politics / anti-colonial and postcolonial tendencies / returns to Marx
- Feminism and women’s cinema / queer theory / masculinities
- Cinema studies as a discipline in the Arab world
Deadline for electronic submission of 350-word abstracts (to include brief biographical statement and sample 5-item bibliography): March 1, 2016.
E-mail abstracts to: Terri Ginsberg, Assistant Professor of Film (The American University in Cairo) – terri.ginsberg@aucegypt.edu
AND
Chris Lippard, Associate Professor of Film & Media (University of Utah) – c.lippard@utah.edu
Commissioned papers should not exceed 5000 words (20 pages) and must be completed by January 15, 2017. While the collection will be published in English, papers submitted in Arabic are also acceptable and will be translated.
2. Opportunities – Grabar Travel Grant and Post-Doctoral Fellowship (deadline Dec. 15, 2015)
The Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA) has established a permanent fund in memory of Professor Oleg Grabar and in support of the annual award of Grabar Grants and Fellowships. These competitive grants and fellowships are intended to encourage and further the professional development of Ph.D. students and post-doctoral scholars in the history of Islamic art, architecture and archaeology, and are open to all nationalities.
All applicants must be HIAA members at the time of application. Membership status will be verified by the HIAA Secretary, as necessary.
Applicants from outside the United States are responsible for meeting the requirements for and obtaining any visas necessary for visits to or residence and research in the United States. Upon request, HIAA will supply documentation of the grant and/or fellowship award, the dates of the award, and financial support.
The Grabar Grants and Fellowships are administered by HIAA’s Grants and Fellowships Committee, chaired by Prof. Avinoam Shalem, Columbia University, New York.
The next deadline for the Grabar Travel Grant and Post-Doctoral Fellowship is December 15, 2015.
GRABAR TRAVEL GRANT
This competition is open to doctoral students who have been invited or accepted as participants in a scholarly conference or other professional meeting for the purpose of presenting papers, chairing sessions or moderating discussions.
The maximum amount of the award is $700 US.
GRABAR POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP
The Grabar Post-doctoral Fellowship is intended to support post-doctoral scholars at early stage of their careers in advancing their research. Fellowship funds may be used in one of two ways:
- To spend up to two months in residence as a visiting professor or fellow/research scholar at a university, museum, research institute or similar institution outside their usual country of residence or employment.
- To support additional research to aid in preparing the dissertation for publication. The Grabar Post-Doctoral Fellowship will provide up to $2000 US per month, for a maximum of two months. An additional $1000 may be requested for travel or for supplies.
Applicants should have completed their PhD within the last five years or have submitted their dissertations by the start of the fellowship. The fellowship is open to scholars of all nationalities; however, applicants are responsible for obtaining required visas for residence and research in the country specified in their application.
3. Foundation for Iranian Studies
Announcement of the Recipient of Award
For The Best Ph.D. Dissertation on a Topic of Iranian Studies, 2015
November 20, 2015
The Foundation for Iranian Studies is pleased to announce that the Committee on Selection of the Best Ph.D. Dissertation of the Year on a Topic of Iranian Studies of the Foundation for Iranian Studies has chosen Daniel Beben’s dissertation “The Legendary Biographies of Nâsir-i Khusraw: Memory and Textualization in Early Modern Persian Ismâ`îlism,” submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Indiana University, as the recipient of the Foundation’s annual Ph.D. dissertation award for the academic year 2014-2015.
In making its decision, the Committee, following the criteria established by the Foundation’s Board of Directors, noted that Daniel Beben has made an “exceptional contribution to the field of Iranian and Central Asian Studies” by, among other achievements, “stating clearly the study’s problematic… constructing an adequate and efficient theoretical framework…developing and employing successfully a rigorous methodology to bring together a significant array of primary and secondary sources in Europe and Central Asia, including critical information secured through interviews judiciously conducted in the field in Tajikistan and elsewhere to support an innovative approach to the study of Nâsir-i Khusraw’s intellectual and religious influence on the form and force of the Isma`ili da`wa… methodically connecting data, text, and speech to construct a credible framework for evaluating the effect of chanced confluence of ideas, values, socio-political tensions, and time on the evolution of Ismâ`ili organization and faith in Central Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere and, by extension, potential applicability of the lessons derived to studies of other historically relevant events … excellent organization of the work.”
The Committee also cited Seyyed Ahmad Hashemi’s dissertation “The Question of Freedom within the Horizon of the Iranian Constitutional Movement, 1906-1921” submitted to the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, and Keenan Baca-Winters’ dissertation “From Rome to Iran: Identity and Xusro II” submitted to the Graduate Division of the University of California, Irvine, with honorable mention for superior scholarship, originality, clarity, and significant contribution to Iranian Studies.
Notice of the awards will appear in the Foundation’s interactive web, in Iran Nameh, MESA and ISIS journals, and in various Persian and English language academic publications.
Gholam Reza Afkhami
Chair
Ph.D. Dissertation Awards Committee
Foundation for Iranian Studies
4. Cultures of Resistance Scholarship at SOAS is open to students from war-torn areas, including countries in the Middle East, for the 2016-17 academic year.
There will be two scholarships available for students studying a range of full-time Masters’ programmes. The students will benefit from a full award which covers their tuition fees, living costs and accommodation at International Students’ House. Please see full information and criteria for the scholarship here.
The deadline for submissions is 24 February 2016 and the student must have an offer to study at SOAS in order to apply.
The Cultures of Resistance Scholarship programme has already provided opportunities for some exceptional students to study at SOAS. Here is a link to a video of one of this year’s recipients, Anmoy Chakma Kiron, speaking at a SOAS Scholars’ event about how much the award means to him.
Any further questions should be directed to:
Alice Green
Development Officer
Directorate of Development, Alumni and External Engagement
SOAS, University of London
http://www.soas.ac.uk/registry/scholarships/the-cultures-of-resistance-scholarships.html
5. Middle Eastern and/or South Asian film at the rank of Assistant Professor
The Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
at the University of Virginia seeks to hire a scholar of Middle Eastern
and/or South Asian film at the rank of Assistant Professor. We seek a
colleague with expertise in the fictional and/or documentary cinematic
traditions of at least one Middle Eastern or South Asian region and an
interest in engaging comparatively with other cinemas of the regions.
Applicants’ scholarship should centrally address
the movement of images, techniques, and narratives across our regions,
and into other geographical areas and/or disciplinary fields. Specific
areas of cinematic focus are open, but preference will be given to
candidates whose research and teaching suggest connections among Middle
Eastern and South Asian cinemas and can complement the strengths of our
department.
This colleague will join, and foster connections among vibrant
inter-disciplinary programs at the University of Virginia in regional
studies, media studies, and film studies. Required Qualifications:
Candidates must have an ongoing program of research and publication with
a focus on a relevant regional cinema that integrates in-depth analysis
of cinematic texts with broader inter-disciplinary engagements with
issues of nation, identity, or spatial location in the modern world.
They must also have a commitment to excellence in teaching and an
ability to teach courses across the Middle East and South Asia. This
position’s start date is August 25, 2016, and applicants must hold a PhD
by the time of appointment.
Preferred Qualifications: Preference will be given to candidates who
bring training in at least one of the regions’ languages or literatures.
To apply, please submit a Candidate Profile to posting # 0617740 through
Jobs@UVA (https://jobs.virginia.edu) and attach the following: CV, cover
letter describing qualifications and research trajectory, contact
information for three references, and two writing samples:
(1) an article-length sample of written work (attach to “Writing Sample
1” in Jobs@UVA), and
(2) the front matter [table of contents, acknowledgments, and
introduction] of your dissertation or, if appropriate, book (attach to
“Writing Sample 2” in Jobs@UVA).
Review of applications will begin January 15, 2016, and will continue
until the position is filled. The committee anticipates conducting
on-campus interviews in February, 2016. A letter of invitation will be
provided to candidates who are selected for an interview.
Questions regarding the application process for Jobs@UVa should be
directed to:
Cameron Clayton
Administrative Coordinator
MESALC
rcc8k@eservices.virginia.edu
For additional information contact:
Daniel Lefkowitz, Chair
MESALC Film Studies Search Committee
dl2h@virginia.edu
The University will perform background checks on all new faculty hires
prior to making a final offer of employment.
The University of Virginia is an equal opportunity/affirmative action
employer. Women, minorities, veterans and persons with disabilities are
encouraged to apply.
6. 26th Annual Conference of ASEN: “Nationalism, Migration and Population Change”, London School of Economics and Political Science, 19-21 April 2016
Applicants are asked to consider the interplay between nationalism and population changes such as migration, differences in population growth rates and urbanization. We welcome both historical and contemporary perspectives from a wide array of disciplines.
Deadline for abstracts: 5 January 2015. Information: http://asen.ac.uk/conference/call-for-papers/
7. W3-Professorship in Oriental Studies (Arabic and Islamic Studies), Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
The successful candidate will be expected to have research and teaching expertise in the discipline of Oriental Studies, especially in the early modern and modern developments of the culture, history, and religion of the Arab and Islamic worlds, combined with experience in working with sociological and anthropological approaches to these fields. Candidates should be familiar with German to the extent that they are able to teach in that language within a year’s time. The appointment begins April 1, 2016.
Deadline for application: 2 January 2016. Information: http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/jobs/jobDetails/34044376
8. University of Exeter
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences with reference to the Middle East, University of Exeter
You will hold a PhD or equivalent in Middle East Studies, Politics, Sociology, Anthropology, Gender Studies or related fields, and have an independent, internationally-recognised research programme in an active field of Social Science and Gender Studies research related or complementary to existing Exeter strengths.
Deadline for application: 6 January 2016. For information contact Prof Christine Allison at C.Allison@exeter.ac.uk.
Two Al-Qasimi Chairs in Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
The area of specialism sought for the two chairs is broadly conceived: all areas in the study of Islam using different disciplinary approaches and interdisciplinary methods. For both chairs, excellent mastery of the uses of Arabic is expected, and proficiency in other relevant languages (Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Kurdish, Indonesian) highly desirable.
Deadline for applications: 6 January 2016. Information: https://jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=843651DajS&WVID=3817591jNg&LANG=USA
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies with reference to the Middle East and Islam, University of Exeter
You will hold a PhD or equivalent in Middle East Studies, Politics, Sociology, Anthropology, Gender Studies or related fields, and have an independent, internationally-recognised research programme in an active field of Social Science and Gender Studies research related or complementary to existing Exeter strengths.
Deadline for applications: 6 January 2016. Information: https://jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=670875DaQc&WVID=3817591jNg&LANG=USA
9. Visiting Faculty Teaching on the Arab World and the Gulf Region, Kuwait Program at the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, 2016-2017
KSP is offering one-semester teaching opportunities. Selected visiting faculty will teach one graduate course in English, during one semester. This opportunity is open to both professors and practitioners. Applications from all social sciences and the humanities are welcome. Individuals from all nationalities may apply.
Application deadline: 31 January 2016. Information
www.sciencespo.fr/psia/sites/sciencespo.fr.psia/files/KSP_Visiting_Faculty_2016-2017.pdf
10. Hartwell and Sheikh Zayed MPhil Studentship for Starting Graduate Islamic Studies in October 2016, University of Cambridge
The studentship is available for those studying Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Divinity on the MPhil in Theology and Religious Studies. The sum awarded will cover the costs of fees and maintenance at either Home or Overseas rate following University guidelines, and may be offered to students undertaking study at MPhil level.
Deadline for applications: 2 December 2015. Information: www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/administration/grants/index.html#sheikhzayed
11. Articles for Journal “Zeitschrift für Recht und Islam”, edited by GAIR; Association for Arabic and Islamic Law
The journal is covering theoretical legal debate as well as the practical application of both secular and Islamic laws. The journal gives space to a wide range of perspectives and takes regard of the historical development as well as the interaction of “secular” and Islamic laws in different contexts.
Contributions can be submitted in German and English until 29 February 2016. Information: www.gair.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CfP-ZRI-2016-English.pdf.
- November 23, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.PhD Scholarship in Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies at Edinburgh
The Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh is delighted to invite applications for a fees only PhD scholarship in any area within its expertise.
The scholarship will be funded by IMES and will cover tuition fees at the Home/EU rate (currently £3,996 p.a. for 2015-2016).
Applications for both the Scholarship and the PhD must be made by 1st February 2016.
Applications for the PhD can be made via the online admissions portal at the url address given below.
Informal enquiries are welcome and should be directed to Dr Nacim Pak-Shiraz:
Award
The award will cover:
- the UK/EU rate of tuition fee
- A successful non-EU/overseas applicant will be liable for the difference between the UK/EU and overseas tuition fee rate each year.
- Subject to satisfactory progress, the scholarship will be awarded for a maximum of three years.
Eligibility
The award is open to UK, EU and overseas students commencing a PhD degree in the academic year 2016-2017.
Only applications to year one of a PhD programme of study will be considered.
Among the areas of supervision we cover are:
- Shiism, pre-modern Islamic and Iranian history, history of Islamic science.
- The history and historiography of late antiquity, early Islam, and the early medieval Mediterranean.
- The biography of Muhammad; the Quranic exegesis, and the Hadith
- Middle Eastern and especially Iranian Cinema; cinematic representations of gender and religious themes; Persian literature
- Modern history of the Middle East and especially Egypt; Cosmopolitan societies: Greeks of the Middle East
- Politics of eastern Arab countries; civil wars in the Arab world; the politics and sociology of modern Islam.
- Gender and sexuality in contemporary Middle Eastern media
Applying
The deadline for the application is 1 February 2016.
PhD Scholarship in IMES Application Form (40.5 KB)
Applications should be emailed to:
LLC Postgraduate Admissions
- Work: +44 (0)131 650 4465
- Email: llc.pgadmissions@ed.ac.uk
Related Links
2. Report for the Middle East Library Partnership Project :
http://melib.web.unc.edu/files/2015/10/Kurzman_Mellon_Project_Report_2015_10_16.pdf
The survey reports on the 237 respondents in Arab countries, plus an additional 20 respondents in North America responding to challenges and opportunities for collaboration between libraries in Arab countries and the United States.
The Middle East Library Partnership Project grew out of the Task Force on Global Dimensions of Scholarship and Research Libraries, convened by Duke University and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and supported by the Mellon Foundation.
3. Call for Papers for the Zeitschrift für Recht und Islam (ZRI, previously: GAIR-Mitteilungen) of the Gesellschaft für Arabisches und Islamisches Recht (GAIR, Association for Arabic and Islamic Law).
GAIR is a non-profit scientific association established in 1997. Its aim is the furthering of mutual understanding of law, legal systems and legal practice between European scholars and those of the Arabic and wider Islamic region. The annual scientific journal contributes to this aim by publishing contributions on the legal developments in this field, covering theoretical legal debate as well as the practical application of both secular and Islamic laws. The journal gives space to a wide range of perspectives and takes regard of the historical development as well as the interaction of “secular” and Islamic laws in different contexts. Its analyses and debates go beyond the basic principles and outlines of those legal systems, but also address the actual developments, both in aspiration and reality. In addition, it covers key phenomena affecting – or even determining – scientific discourse, legislation and legal practice in the relevant states. This focus does however not confine itself to topics of specific or general regional interest, but also addresses the influence of global developments and tendencies, as well as the legal relations among states.
Accordingly, we invite well-known and junior scholars as well as practitioners to help furthering this mutual understanding and dialogue by submitting publishable manuscripts. In view of implementing the aims of our association in a full and broad manner, the editors welcome contributions from specific disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary contributions that address the aspects above. We highly welcome the submission of articles, reports and reviews as well as case reports and comments on cases and legislation to the editorial double peer review process. Submissions must, however, not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
The editors accept submissions in German and English. Please send your contributions:
until 29 February 2016 to zri@gair.de
enclosing a brief personal description (no detailed curriculum vitae required). We kindly ask you to provide your submissions in the following format:
_Font size: 12pt;
_Line spacing: single;
_Font: Times New Roman, Times, Arial Unicode MS, Gentium;
_Length: maximum 15 pages;
_References: footnotes, but no separate literature list.
Quotes from the Arabic language that go beyond technical terms or short phrases should, in addition to the Arabic original, be provided in transcribed form (using an accepted scientific transcription system such as DMG or Encyclopaedia of Islam) and in translation.
Each submission will be subject to a double peer review procedure by two anonymous colleagues in the relevant area. Once their reports on a submission have been received, the authors will be notified whether their submission is accepted, accepted subject to changes, or rejected. The editors will be overseeing this process and make the final decision on publication. All authors will receive their contribution with editorial changes for a final review prior to publication.
For any queries please contact Sina Nikolajew from the editorial team (mitteilungen@gair.de ), as well as the editors Beate Backe (beate.backe@googlemail.com ), Hatem Elliesie (hatem.elliesie@gmail.com ), Kai Kreutzberger (kai.kreutzberger@gmail.com ) and Prof Dr Dr Peter Scholz (peter.scholz@fu-berlin.de ).
4. Collection of the non-hoard numismatic material in the Egyptian National Library
is now on-line.
Enl.numismatics.org
Our catalog of 6,500 numismatic pieces – coins, glass weights, dies, medals, etc.
– is the third major catalog of Islamic numismatic material held in the Egyptian
National Library, formerly the Khedivial Library, Egypt’s most important library.
Our catalog differs from its predecessors in a number of ways. First, it is a new
catalog in that we had to read the inscriptions from the digital images which were
taken under difficult and rushed conditions and not from the actual objects for
reasons which are explained in the section entitled Introduction. Second, we
included in this electronic catalog inscriptions in Arabic as Dr. Sherif Anwar
read them, which was never possible in the previous studies because of costs.
Inscriptions in European languages and references are the work of Dr. Norman D.
Nicol from the 1982 catalog of the collection.
Third, images of every piece are part of this catalog, which was financially
impossible when the earlier catalogues were published. Fourth, the images are in
color which modern technology permits at no additional cost. On the other hand the
Egyptian National Library required that all images used on this webpage carry a
watermark. Images without watermarks of specific items can be acquired by
contacting the Egyptian National Library citing the 1982 catalog number, which is
the last number in the title listing for each item. Fifth, whenever a mint was
named and could be located, an accompanying map is included on the webpage.
Finally, as far as possible, all the data and search tools are available in both
Arabic and English for the first time in a catalog. Electronic searches in Arabic
and English can by undertaken by going to the category “browse” and then using the
various lists to narrow the search. In order to find a specific piece based upon
its 1982 catalog number go to the heading “search” and under “keyword” go to “recordId” and type in the
appropriate number.
This project is a result of the cooperation of the Egyptian National Library and
Archives and the American Numismatic Society with funding from USAID through the
American Research Center in Egypt. This electronic catalog is made available under
the Open Database License. It is powered by Numishare and numismatic concepts
defined on Nomisma.org.
For more information, please contact:
Jere L. Bacharach Sherif Anwar
Department of History College of Archaeology
University of Washington Cairo University
Seattle, WA USA Cairo, Egypt
jere@uw.edu sherifcoins@yahoo.com
5. Research Grants by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Herndon, VA
IIIT invites applications for short-term research grants (maximum $2,500) for Spring 2016. The grants are meant to support research and writing by individual scholars. Grants could include funding for travel, research support, publication and dissemination of results.
Deadline for application: 7 December 2015. Information: http://iiit.org/Research/ResearchGrants/CallforGrantApplications/tabid/400/Default.aspx
6. Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought ht in Africa (ISITA) and the Program of African Studies, Northwestern University Center for African Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Call for Papers
Sacred Word:
The Changing Meanings in Textual Cultures of Islamic Africa
A Symposium dedicated to the memory of Professor John O. Hunwick (1936-2015)
Sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA) and the Program of African Studies (PAS) at Northwestern University and the Center for African Studies (CAS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this symposium will take place at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) from April 21-22, 2016.
This meeting is the first in a series of collaborative programs on Islam in Africa organized under the auspices of the newly established Illinois-Northwestern Consortium for African Studies (funded by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant). It is being planned in anticipation of the ISITA-led workshops, projected for summer 2017 in Evanston and Africa, on aspects of the codicology of West African Arabic manuscripts, and also in preparation for PAS and CAS’s collaboration with the University of Birmingham on its 2016 Thirteenth Cadbury Workshop on “Bodies of Text: Learning to be Muslim in West Africa.”
A special evening reception Thursday April 21st is planned to honor Professor John O. Hunwick, in whose memory the conference is dedicated. This will involve members of his family, his students, and additional community friends and associates in a time for remembering his many contributions.
For full information, see:
http://www.isita.northwestern.edu/documents/CFP%20Sacred%20Word%20ISITA%202016%20symposium.pdf
7. Open Access Journal
The Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin (ISSN 2410-0951, since 2015) has succeeded the Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Newsletter as the main organ of the European network in Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies.
It is a biannual peer-reviewed international journal, published on-line (under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license) and on paper as print-on-demand.
It is dedicated to the vast variety of issues concerned with the research into the oriental manuscript traditions, from instrumental analysis, to codicology and palaeography, to critical text editing, to manuscript preservation, to the application of digital tools to manuscript research. The geographical focus is the Mediterranean Near East, with its wide array of language traditions including, though not limiting to, Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Caucasian Albanian, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Slavonic, Syriac, and Turkish.
http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/COMST/bulletin.html
8. University of California – Irvine – Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=52094
9. Societas Iranologica Europaea
Outstanding European PhD in Iranian Studies
Award Winners 2015
In 2015 the prize was divided in equal parts between Agnès Lenepveu-Hotz and Arash Zeini.
Agnès Lenepveu-Hotz, Étude diachronique du système verbal persan (Xe-XVIe siècles): d’un équilibre à l’autre (EPHE, Paris 2012).
The dissertation of Agnès Lenepveu-Hotz on “Étude diachronique du système verbal persan (Xe-XVIe siècles): d’un équilibre à l’autre” was carried out at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris) under the supervision of Professor Philip Huyse and submitted in 2012.
The work, which was published as a volume of the Collection linguistique de la Société de Linguistique de Paris (Peeters Press, Leuven) in 2014, is a diachronic study of the Persian verbal system and traces its development from Middle to New Persian. Based on ten texts representative for the different chronological stages between the 10th and 16th century, the work provides a minute and philologically sound study of representative text material, including early Judeo-Persian.
This precise, comprehensive and systematic analysis of certain well-known phenomena and forms is a great step forward towards a better understanding of the diachronic development of New Persian and will be an important and very useful reference work.
Arash Zeini, The Pahlavi Version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti (SOAS, London 2014).
The work of Arash Zeini is a dissertation on ” The Pahlavi Version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti” under the supervision of Almut Hintze, for which he was awarded a PhD in 2014 at SOAS, University of London.
In this excellent work on a very complicated Sasanian religious text, the author displays masterful knowledge of Book Pahlavi and other relevant languages, and has produced a very careful and thorough critical text edition with an extensive commentary. The work also includes important studies of Zoroastrian exegetical literature and scholastics, and of fire worship in Gathas, displaying profound knowledge of modern theoretical literature. Zeini sees the PYH as a text in its own right, and substantiates this view with considerable implications for the study of Zoroastrianism in particular and religion in general.
Read more on http://www.societasiranologicaeu.org/content/sie_award.html
10. HISTORIANS OF ISLAMIC ART ASSOCIATION
2016 Biennial Conference
The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
October 20-22, 2016
Regionality: looking for the local in the arts of Islam
The Fifth Biennial Conference of the Historians of Islamic Art Association will take
place at The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, from October 20th to
October 22nd, 2016. The Courtauld Institute of Art is one of the world’s preeminent
centres for the study of art history and conservation. The introduction in 2013 of a
dedicated teaching position for Islamic art history marks the enormous strides taken in
our field in recent decades, and recognizes the fact that the study of the arts of Islam have
become an integral part of the broader art historical discipline and have made important
contributions to cross-cultural studies, trans-disciplinary approaches, and the general
widening of the scope of art history.
The London venue celebrates the European ‘roots’ of the study of the arts that fall under
the cultural umbrella of Islam, and the formation of the important early collections and
exhibitions that launched its scholarship. Those early, mostly connoisseurial categories of
regional types and styles – the “Moresque”, Persian painting, Turkish tiles, Indian
decorative arts – formed the foundations from which universalizing narratives of
“Islamic” arts emerged, especially in the period after the Second World War. Some fifty
years later, we are witnessing a resurgence of the study of regional specificities,
augmented with deeper research into the diverse facets of any given locality or artistic
form, and a greater commitment to the linguistic and cultural particularities that shaped
the arts, architecture and archaeology in a specific locale. Rigorous application of trans-
disciplinary research strategies have contributed to the deepening of our understanding of
the arts of Islam in local terms, and have allowed us to embrace broader historical
trajectories to include the modern and contemporary in our field.
The conference organizers believe that this is a time to celebrate the diversity within
HIAA’s specialist remit and to take stock of our field’s capacity for extending beyond
nationalistic formulations of history, and for breaking out of Euro-centred identities and
perspectives. As such we invite proposals for papers and pre-organized panels that take
regionality as their principal theme, that complicate simplistic assumptions about ethno-
national labels, and that highlight the local. Paper proposals from all parts of the field,
from the late antique to the contemporary, from Spain to Southeast Asia, are welcome.
The conference program will feature guided object-handling sessions at the Victoria and
Albert Museum and the British Museum, allowing direct access to a wide range of media
from these two remarkable survey collections. On October 19th, there will be an
opportunity to preview the exhibition Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the
Supernatural, at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford (travel to
Oxford not provided). On October 23rd, the Sarikhani Collection of Persian Art in
Oxfordshire has generously invited conference participants to a daylong visit to the
collection (travel by coach will be provided).
Graduate students and early career scholars will be considered for travel and lodging
grants. We urge our senior colleagues to seek funding in their home institutions.
The conference schedule will be finalized by August 2016. There will be three keynote
talks marking each day of the conference and a special dinner on October 22nd for all
speakers, session chairs and discussants. Tea, coffee, and some lunches will be provided.
The guided handling sessions – in small groups and focused by media – take place on the
morning of Friday 21st October at the V&A and British Museum. Advance registration
required. Details forthcoming.
Abstracts and Panel Proposals
Proposals may be submitted either for individual papers or for pre-arranged panels.
Paper proposals should include your name, contact information, affiliated institution,
professional/academic position, paper title, and the abstract.
Panel proposals should include a panel description of no more than 300 words and the
names, contacts, and proposal abstracts of all participants.
The abstracts should be no longer than 300 words and should indicate the original
contribution of the paper and/or panel.
Proposals should be submitted by Monday 4th January 2016 to Sussan Babaie, HIAA
President-elect, at HIAABiennial2016@gmail.com.
Selected speakers will be given 20 minutes for their presentation followed by a short
Q&A. Time will be allotted for panel discussions at the end of each panel.
All Symposium participants must be HIAA members in good standing. To join or renew
your membership in HIAA, please follow the instructions on the HIAA website:
http://www.historiansofislamicart.org
Program Committee for HIAA Biennial 2016:
Mariam Rosser-Owen, Victoria and Albert Museum
Scott Redford, SOAS, University of London
Sussan Babaie, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
Key dates:
Deadline for submission of abstracts and panel proposals: 4 January 2016
Accepted papers and panels announced via email: 28 February 2016
Deadline for draft paper submission: 1 September 2016
Conference dates: 20-22 October 2016
For further details please contact Sussan Babaie at HIAABiennial2016@gmail.com
11. POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP IN ISLAMIC STUDIES
The Alwaleed Centre at the University of Edinburgh (www.alwaleed.ed.ac.uk) seeks to appoint a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, on a fixed-term non-renewable three-year basis, to assist the development of its interdisciplinary research and teaching activities, to commence on 1st February 2016 or as soon as possible thereafter. The successful candidate will have expertise in any aspect of Islamic Studies (broadly understood, so that it could include such sub-disciplines as Art, Ethics, Law, Philosophy, Science or Theology). Applications would be particularly welcome from candidates with expertise on Christian-Muslim Relations.
Closing date: 5 pm on Tuesday 15 December 2015
Further details: https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=034833 or
or http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AML229/post-doctoral-research-fellow-in-islamic-studies/
12. Research Associate
The University of Manchester – School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
| Location: | Manchester |
| Salary: | £30,738 to £37,768 per annum |
| Hours: | Full Time |
| Contract Type: | Contract / Temporary |
| Placed on: | 19th November 2015 |
| Closes: | 20th December 2015 |
| Job Ref: | HUM-07417 |
| ★ View Employer Profile | |
Closing date : 20/12/2015
Reference : HUM-07417
Faculty / Organisational unit : Humanities
School / Directorate : School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
Division : –
Employment type : Fixed Term
Duration : From 1 February 2016 until 31 January 2017
Location : Oxford Road, Manchester
Salary : £30,738 to £37,768 per annum
Hours per week : Full time
The Hippocratic Aphorisms have exerted a singular influence over generations of physicians both in the East and in the West. Galen (d. c. 216) produced an extensive commentary on this text, as did other medical authors writing in Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew. The Arabic tradition is particularly rich, with more than a dozen commentaries extant in over a hundred manuscripts. The present project breaks new ground by conducting an in-depth study of this tradition through a highly innovative methodology: it approaches the available evidence as a corpus, to be consulted electronically, and to be analysed in an interdisciplinary way. Professor Peter E Pormann has obtained €1.5m from the European Research Council, and he will be the project head.
Your main tasks will be to edit and proof the corpus of Arabic commentaries on the HippocraticAphorisms; to conduct high-level research on it, aided by a variety of IT tools.
You will have a good command of classical Arabic, a Doctorate on a topic related to the project and previous research experience involving either medieval Arabic manuscripts or Graeco-Arabic studies. In addition, we expect you to be able to transcribe medieval Arabic manuscripts from a wide variety of origins and scripts (eg nasḫ, maġrībī, nasta’līq) and be familiar with standard IT packages, with a willingness to work with Macs and Mellel.
As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons. However, as black and minority ethnic (BME) candidates are currently under-represented at this level in this area, we would particularly welcome applications from BME applicants. All appointments will be made on merit.
Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:
Professor Peter E Pormann, Director of the John Rylands Research Institute and Professor of Classics and Graeco-Arabic Studies
Email: peter.pormann@manchester.ac.uk
General enquiries:
Email: hrservices@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: 0161 275 4499
Technical support:
Email: universityofmanchester@helpmeapply.co.uk
Tel: 01565 818 234
This vacancy will close for applications at midnight on the closing date.
- November 19, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.The European University Institute* is now accepting applications *for its Doctoral Programme <http://www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>.
Our fully funded four-year Ph.D. programme is an excellent opportunity
for master students and other young scholars interested in pursuing
doctoral studies in economics, law, history and the social sciences, and
I hope you will share this information with your students.
The European University Institute:
* Offers one of the *largest and most prestigious doctoral and
postdoctoral programmes* in the social sciences in Europe.
* Has been*fully focused on postgraduate studies *for more than*40
years*.
* Hosts an intellectual community of more than *900 scholars* *from
over 60 countries*.
* Has an *excellent record in job placement*: 69% of EUI Alumni are
employed in academic positions, 19% in the private sector or in national
governments, 12% in international organisations and EU institutions.
* *Offers 150 grants for a fully funded Ph.D. programme *for the next
academic year.
* *Is located*in beautiful historic buildings in the scenic hills of
*Florence, Italy*.
The four departments offer a clearly structured doctoral programme with
close academic supervision. Researchers get access to high-level
research, and their independent research is supported by excellent
on-site facilities, missions and exchange programmes. Academic life at
the EUI is deeply international, dynamic and inter-disciplinary, and the
research networks formed by our members are enduring and of global
scope. Most of our graduates go on to become faculty members in
universities, both in their country of origin and around the world.
Placing your students in the EUI’s prestigious doctoral programme will
reflect well on you as an academic teacher and your institution.
I thank you in advance for forwarding this information about our
Doctoral Programme
<http://www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>
to your students and hope that you will also share it among your colleagues.
The call for applications for the academic year 2016/2017 will close on
*31 January 2016.*
For information on research themes, application requirements, grants and
eligibility:
* http://www.eui.eu/Phd
<http://www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>
* applyres@eui.eu <mailto:applyres@eui.eu>
* +39 055 4685 373
Sincerely yours,
Rainer Bauböck
Dean of Graduate Studies
European University Institute
<http://www.eui.eu/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>
San Domenico di Fiesole, Florence – Italy
2. The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University invites applications for a postdoctoral position in the contemporary politics, economics or diplomacy of natural resource extraction in Iran and the Gulf region, or a closely related subject of research, starting in September 2016. This twelve month position may be renewed for up to three years, subject to satisfactory performance. The Center pursues a comprehensively interdisciplinary approach to advancing understanding of Iran and the Persian Gulf, with special attention to the region’s role and significance in the contemporary world. The goal of the program is to support outstanding scholars of Iran and the wider Iranian world at an early stage of their careers and thus to strengthen the field of Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies in the United States and abroad.
Candidates are required to apply online at https://jobs.princeton.edu (Requisition#1500901) and submit the following documents: (1) cover letter with title and summary (200 words) of proposed research project; (2) research proposal (max. 1600 words), including description of project, bibliography, timetable, explicit goals, and the reason it is proposed to be pursued at Princeton; (3) curriculum vitae and list of publications; (4) sample chapter (in English) of dissertation or other recent work; (5) contact information for three references.
DEADLINE: All materials, including letters, must be received by January 31st, 2016 for full consideration. Applications will continue to be reviewed until the position is filled. Preferred start date is September 1, 2016. This position is subject to the University’s background check policy.
The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University invites applications for a postdoctoral position in the medieval history of Iran in the period ca. 100-1000 CE, preferably with a focus on the history, sources and language(s) of the Sasanian period, starting in September 2016. This twelve month position may be renewed for up to three years, subject to satisfactory performance. The Center pursues a comprehensively interdisciplinary approach to advancing understanding of Iran and the Persian Gulf, with special attention to the region’s role and significance in the contemporary world, but with a keen awareness of the importance of the history of the region. The goal of the program is to support outstanding scholars of Iran and the wider Iranian world at an early stage of their careers and thus to strengthen the field of Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies in the United States and abroad.
Candidates are required to apply online at https://jobs.princeton.edu (Requisition #1500905) and submit the following documents: (1) cover letter with title and summary (200 words) of proposed research project; (2) research proposal (max. 1600 words), including description of project, bibliography, timetable, explicit goals, and the reason it is proposed to be pursued at Princeton; (3) curriculum vitae and list of publications; (4) sample chapter (in English) of dissertation or other recent work; (5) contact information for three references.
DEADLINE: All materials, including letters, must be received by January 31st, 2016 for full consideration. Applications will continue to be reviewed until the position is filled. Preferred start date is September 1, 2016. This position is subject to the University’s background check policy.
3. CALL FOR PAPERS | THE ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT ASSOCIATION
SUFISM AND ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT CULTURE – THE ELEVENTH ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT CONFERENCE
Hosted by the University of Cambridge, UK, 13–15 September 2016
***CFP Deadline: 23 November 2015***
Sufis have written litanies, panegyrics, didactic works in verse and prose, hagiographies, discourses, exegetical works, and metaphysical treatises made into manuscripts both humble and lavish. Sufi lodges have housed libraries and manuscript ateliers, and Sufi networks have disseminated manuscripts across the Muslim World. This conference seeks to present current international research trends on the relationship between Sufism and Islamic manuscript culture and generate discussion and study in this field. Possible topics for papers include but are not limited to:
- Apotropaic uses of Sufi and non-Sufi manuscripts by Sufis
- The arts of the book and Sufi artists and patrons
- Bibliophilia and bibliophobia in Sufism
- Cataloguing manuscripts on Sufism
- Collection care programmes for collections of Sufi manuscripts
- Conservation treatments on Sufi manuscripts
- Diagrams and illustrations in manuscripts on Sufism
- Digital humanities and the study of manuscripts on Sufism
- The effects of recent conflicts in the Muslim World on collections of Sufi manuscripts
- The history of Sufi libraries
- Paratexts in manuscripts on Sufism
- Preparing printed and digital editions of manuscripts on Sufism
- The production of manuscripts by Sufi lodge ateliers
- Publication programmes or series of editions or facsimiles of manuscripts on Sufism
- Dissemination of texts and manuscripts through Sufi networks
- The use of manuscripts in Sufi rituals
SUBMISSIONS
This call for papers is open to members and non-members of the Association. The languages of the Conference will be Arabic and English, and submissions will be accepted in both languages. The duration of each conference paper will be 20 minutes, followed by ten minutes of questions and answers. The Association will pay for round-trip economy-class travel to Cambridge, accommodation, and meals for individuals whose papers are accepted. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 10.00 GMT on Monday, 23 November 2015. For further guidance, see our website.
MORE INFORMATION
The Islamic Manuscript Association is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting Islamic manuscript collections and supporting those who work with them. Our conferences have been held at the University of Cambridge every summer since 2005 and themes have included topics as diverse as ‘Manuscripts and Conflict’ (2014), ‘The Science of Manuscripts’ (2012), ‘Central Asian Islamic Manuscripts’ (2010), ‘West African Islamic Manuscripts’ (2008), and ‘Conservation, Cataloguing, Accessibility, Copyright and Digitisation’ (2005).
For the call for papers in full, see our website: http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/biennialconference/2016conference.aspx
SPONSORS
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation and the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge.
——
Armin Yavari
Assistant Director
The Islamic Manuscript Association
℅ 33 Trumpington Street
Cambridge CB2 1QY
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)1223 303 177
F: +44 (0)1223 302 218
E: armin@islamicmanuscript.org
W: www.islamicmanuscript.org
4. The Bodleian Libraries Visiting Fellows Programme 2016-2017
Bahari Visiting Fellowships in the Persian Arts of the Book
Applications are invited for Fellowships of up to 6 months in duration, for research into the Persian Arts of the Book. Research areas may include but are not limited to studies in Art History, Codicology, Calligraphy, Miniature Painting, the History of Islamic Book Production and Scribal Practices, Manuscript Cataloguing, and the Editing and Translation of Texts.
Academics or university staff of at least post-doctoral level or equivalent, with a current institutional affiliation, are welcome to apply. The main focus of any research proposal should be on an aspect or aspects of the Bodleian’s Persian and Islamic Collections. Applications should include details of the Collections to be consulted and of the larger project that the research visit will support, including planned outcomes.
The Bodleian’s Persian collections date back to the very beginning of the 17th century and consist of around 2,500 manuscript codices containing about 5,000 works in all classical disciplines. Particularly well represented are Histories, Biographies, and Classical Persian Poetry. The collection of illustrated manuscripts containing miniatures is world class.
For information on how to apply, please click here
For a glimpse into the collections based on a previous exhibition, please visit: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/whats-on/online/love-and-devotion.
Basic records of a large part of the Bodleian’s Islamic Manuscript Collections may also be found here: www.fihrist.org.uk.
5. American Research Institute in Turkey
The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) is pleased to announce
2016-2017 fellowship programs for U.S.-based students and scholars:
ARIT / National Endowment for the Humanities Advanced Fellowships for
Research in Turkey cover all fields of the humanities, including
prehistory, history, art, archaeology, literature, and linguistics as
well as interdisciplinary aspects of cultural history for applicants who
have completed their academic training. The fellowships may be held for
terms ranging from four months to a full year. Stipend per month is $4,200.
ARIT Fellowships for Research in Turkeyare offered for research in
ancient, medieval, or modern times, in any field of the humanities and
social sciences. Post-doctoral and advanced doctoral fellowships may be
held for various terms, for terms from one month up to one academic
year. Stipends range from $2,500 to $15,500.
Applications for ARIT fellowships must be submitted to ARIT by November
1, 2015. The fellowship committee will notify applicants by late
January, 2016.
ARIT Summer Fellowships for Intensive Advanced Turkish Language at
Bogazici University, Istanbul, summer 2016. The program supports
intensive study of advanced Turkish language at Bogazici University in
Istanbul, Turkey, including air fare, tuition, and stipend. The
application deadline is February 5.
For further information please see the ARIT webpage
at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ARIT/FellowshipPrograms.html
6. Call for papers- Open session on Islamic Art at MAHS, Chicago, April 7-9
The annual conference of the Midwest Art History Society (MAHS) will be held in Chicago, April 7-9, 2016. Paper proposals are requested for an open session on Islamic art and architecture that I will be chairing. Please send an abstract and a two-page CV to bilha.moor@northwestern.edu by December 1.
For additional information on the MAHS conference please see:
http://files.ctctcdn.com/8bc01baa001/ed6c3a64-9d4f-4cb9-8622-21dbe5fc0872.pdf
Bilha Moor
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral fellow of Islamic art and architecture
Department of Art History
Northwestern University
7. Two Research Officers at the Middle East Centre and Department of Media & Communications, London School of Economics
a) Applications are invited from outstanding candidates in the fields of Media and Communications, Sociology, Middle East Studies or Cultural Studies. Candidates will join a multi-country LSE Media and Communications and Middle East Centre collaboration project with the American University of Sharjah, and at field sites in Morocco, Jordan, UAE and Tunisia.
b) The Centre seeks a Research Officer to contribute to research activities on the historical sociology of the Middle East and to produce independent research.
Deadline for application: 30 November 2015. Information: www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/vacancies/home.aspx
c) Academic Coordinator II – Vice Chair – Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley; https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF00885
d) Visiting Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies, University of Pittsburgh; www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/visitingprofessor
8. 150 Ph.D. Scholarships at the European University Institute (near Florence in Italy) for the 2016-17 Academic Year
The European University Institute offers one of the largest and most prestigious doctoral and postdoctoral programmes in the social sciences in Europe.
Application deadline: 31 January 2016. Information: www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016
9. Spring School: “Environmental Methods in Mamluk and Islamic Studies”, Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg, Bonn, 14-18 March 2016
In this year’s Spring School, we are interested in the physical environmental in all of its forms – climate, landscape, agriculture and pasturelands, water systems, natural resources, urban green spaces, and food and feeding the people. The course will combine seminars (readings of Arabic texts) with “hands-on” work in a lab-like environment.
Deadline for registration; 21 December 2015. Information: www.mamluk.uni-bonn.de/mamluk-events
10. CFP – Muslims in Africa and African Muslims in the Diaspora (Acta Islamica)
by Siendou Konate
ACTA ISLAMICA : REVUE D’ETUDES ISLAMIQUES/ ISLAMIC STUDIES REVIEW
Late Ali Mazrui stated a while back that the African continent inherited three religious traditions; namely African Traditional Religion (ATR), Christianity and Islam. The last two made substantial inroads into the heartlands of Africa. During the first encounters between Africa’s peoples and Arab merchants as well as slave traders that were associated with the Western imperial and colonial powers, these traditions gradually became part of the African identity along with ATR.
As a result of these developments, Africa’s diverse societies across the continent demonstrate their religious allegiance to each of these religious traditions. Apart from Christianity, social scientists have commented upon Islam’s status as a fast growing religion after Christianity. According to available statistics, more than 50 % of Africa’s inhabitants claim Islam as their religion. Whilst this is the case, it does not necessarily mean that all of them practice Islam in the same way. Since Africa’s Muslims are socio-linguistically and culturally diverse, they were/are kept together by their beliefs and practices. Interestingly, the huge diversity that characterizes these societies awaits social scientists and others to analyze them; they do so in order to comprehend the ways in which African communities’ values, norms and cultures have been shaped through their interaction and socialization with Muslims. Thus, this inaugural issue of Acta Islamica : Revue d’études islamiques/ Islamic Studies Review based at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny University in West Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire aims to understand the socio-historical and current processes of Islam’s establishment as a religious tradition on and beyond Africa’s continent. It essentially hopes to assess the consequences thereof.
Below are suggestions for this thematic focus; its focus includes but is not limited to the following:
- “Islam africain” (Muslim Africa or Africa’s Muslims)
- Effects of the global age on Islam
- Internet and Islam among Africa’s Muslim diaspora
- Non-Muslim media coverage of Islam in Africa
- Interactions between African Muslim communities and those who hail from other parts of the world
- African Muslim minorities in the West
- The role of Islam in African politics
- Citizenship in African states and Islam.
8000-word submissions will normally be in English or French. All submissions should include a cover sheet, not attached to the paper that includes the author’s name, title of paper, contact and institutional information, and a brief (50 words or less) biographical statement. We expect abstracts from interested contributors by November 20, 2015 and finalized contributions by December 20, 2015 to actaislamica@gmail.com and/or siendouk@gmail.com.
11.Theoretical linguistics and language resources
The case of Iranian Languages
International Workshop
“Mondes iranien et indien” (CNRS, Sorbonne nouvelle, EPHE, Inalco)
&
Labex “Empirical Foundations of Linguistics”
25 November 2015
Les Salons de l’Inalco
2, rue de Lille
75007 – Paris
Program
9:30-10:00 Languages resources and theoretical linguistics: the case of Persian Complex Predicates
Pollet Samvelian and Pegah Faghiri, Sorbonne nouvelle & “Mondes iranien et indien” (France)
10:00-10:35 A Descriptive and Theoretical Analysis of Complex predicates in Iranian languages: Outline of the project
Simin Karimi, Mohsen Mahdavi and Ryan Smith, University of Arizona (USA)
10:35-11:05 Compound verbs and light verb constructions in Pashto
Matteo De Chiara (Inalco & Mondes iranien et indien)
11:05-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12:05 Complex Predicates again: Asymmetry as origin of light verb distribution Agnes Korn, CNRS , “Mondes iranien et indien” (France)
12:05-12:40 T.B.A.
12:40-14:30 Lunch break
14:30-15:05 An Innovative Annotation Style in Treebanking Persian
Mojgan Seraji, Uppsala Universitet (Sweden)
15:05-15:40 An Overview of the Development of the Persian Dependency Treebank
Manouchehr Kouhestani, Tarbiat Modarres University (Iran)
15:40-16:15 FarsNet: the combination of Persian WordNet and VerbNet
Mehrnoush Shamsfard, Shahid Beheshti University (Iran)
16:15-16:45 Coffee break
16:45-17:20 Academy of Persian Language and Literature, its activities in term formation and using compound verbs
Nasrin Parvizi, Academy of Persian Language and Literature (Iran) & Université Sorbonne nouvelle (France)
17:30-18:30 Introducing PersPred Website
Welcome speech: Christian Puech, Sorbonne nouvelle, Chair of the Labex EFL
Website demo: Pollet Samvelian and Pegah Faghiri
18:30 – Cocktail
Abstracts
Compound verbs and light verb constructions in Pashto
- Di Chiara
The Pashto verbal system distinguishes between simple verbs (ex. likə́l ‘to write’) and compound verbs (ex. xabərawə́l ‘to inform’ and xabəredə́l ‘to be informed’), but only few simple verbs are really used. To these two classes we can add a third category: the light verb constructions (ex. pux̌tə́na kawə́l ‘to ask’ and lā́mbo wahə́l ‘to swim’). In this manner, contrariwise to the other Iranian languages, where generally only two kinds of verbs can be identified, i.e. simple verbs and light verb constructions, in Pashto, verbs belong to three classes. An analysis of these as well as a general presentation of the Pashto verbal system will allow us to show some particularities of Pashto verbal morphology, between archaism and innovation.
A Descriptive and Theoretical Analysis of Complex predicates in Iranian languages: Outline of the project
Simin Karimi, Mohsen Mahdavi and Ryan Smith
This project will develop an extensive investigation and classification of complex predicates in twenty Iranian languages and dialects. The classification of the complex predicate constructions in these languages will be a descriptive as well as theoretical project, with the goal of illuminating the specific contributions of each component of the complex construction to the predicate.
One of our major research questions concerns the nature of complex predicates in human language. Are they formed in the lexicon since they are word-like? Or are they composed in syntax since each component reveals independent properties? Furthermore, issues related to various syntactic constructions involving complex predicates, such as scrambling, passive, ellipsis, and resultative constructions, among others, will be investigated for the better understanding of these complex elements. This study will be the first to investigate the microparametric variations in complex predicates across Iranian languages and dialects. Our hope is that such microparametric comparison will break new ground in our understanding of the underpinnings of complex predicate formation in human language.
The data will be collected in two ways: by interviewing native speaker consultants and by asking linguists who are native speakers of one of these languages to provide detailed answers to extensive questionnaires. The collected data will be transcribed, catalogued and entered into a database. All the interlinear textual material that forms the basis for the descriptive analysis and pedagogical material will be stored in an accessible format, and will be made publicly available for further study. For each language, a short description of the major properties of that language, in addition to relevant geographical and cultural information, will be provided. Finally, we will use the collected data to develop content for Wikipedia pages on each language, accessible to all interested parties. In this presentation, we will briefly expand on all issues mentioned above.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation in the States.
(Project team: S. Karimi, A. Carnie, H. Harley, M. Mahdavi, R. Smith, R. Nabors)
Complex Predicates again: Asymmetry as origin of light verb distribution
Agnes Korn
In many contemporary Ir. languages, complex predicates come in pairs, with one member functioning as active or transitive member (in Persian with kardan, zadan, etc.), the other one as its passive or intransitive counterpart (with šodan, xwordan, etc.). While many studies have looked at the matter from a theoretical perspective, studies of its historical development are rare. This paper thus proposes at possible origins and logics of the distribution of light verbs.
An Overview of the Development of the Persian Dependency Treebank
Manouchehr Kouhestani and Amirsaid Moloodi
This talk will be an overview of how the Persian Dependency Treebank evolved. The speaker(s) will begin with an introduction to the ideas and needs leading to the conception of the Treebank. Afterwards, the Syntactic Valency Lexicon for Persian Verbs, a by-product of the project, will be introduced with a brief discussion of its specifications. The next part of the talk will deal with a few linguistic properties of the Persian language noticed during the development of the Treebank as an advantage of corpus-driven linguistic research. At the end of the talk, a demo of the Syntactic Valency Lexicon for Persian Verbs and Dadegan website hosting an online version of the Treebank will be provided.
The Persian Academy, its activities in term formation and using compound verbs
Nasrin Parvizi
Reconstructing Persian as a scientific language is one of the aims of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (APLL). This talk provides a short history of the Academies of Persian language during the past decades in Iran, focusing on APLL, in particular, its Terminology department. The main task of the latter is to select and coin equivalents for foreign term. The talk will discuss difficulties encountered by the team through this process. Compound verb formation is an important issue in Persian term-formation. For decades, the number of compound verbs has been increasing, while simplex verbs are not construed except for in some special areas. When coining equivalents to foreign terms in Persian, several points must be taken into account: the length of coined word, its structure (i.e. simplex, compound or multiword expression).
There are difficulties with compound verbs in coining the terms. We cannot use the complete form of the verb, so we assume the nominal element or the lexical identity as a present stem in order to construct derivations from it. We are also doing a research in which we have extracted all the compound verbs and phrasal verbs and also all the simple verbs and we have semantically categorized them to help us in term formation. The project is explained in brief in this paper.
Languages resources and theoretical linguistics: the case of Persian Complex Predicates
Pollet Samvelian and Pegah Faghiri
The purpose of this talk is twofold: 1) to discuss the way the theoretical view of Persian complex predicates developed in recent research by Samvelian (2012) has contributed to the design of a language resource, namely the PersPred database. 2) to show how in return the latter can be used not only as a lexical tool for various applications, but also as a robust collection of data which can be used to elaborate new hypotheses or to test existing approaches on complex predicate formation in Persian.
An Innovative Annotation Style in Treebanking Persian
Mojgan Seraji
During the past years, various types of language resources have been developed for different languages including syntactically annotated corpora, treebanks. Treebanks play an important role in developing applications involving natural language parsing as well as in empirical linguistic studies.
In this talk I present a treebank for Persian, which is a syntactically annotated corpus of contemporary Persian based on dependency structure using the Stanford Typed Dependencies scheme. The treebank was released in 2013 and consists of 6,000 annotated and validated sentences and 151,671 tokens. My goal in creating the treebank was to develop a dependency parser for Persian. More specifically, I wanted to automatically model the dependency structure of the language by training a data-driven dependency parser on the syntactically annotated data set. Therefore, I made sure that the annotated corpus serves the needs of practical language technology when applied to user-generated texts, given the lack of a common standard for Persian orthography. This means that I had to adapt the Persian grammar to fit the needs of automatic text analysis. In pursuing this goal, I employed an innovative annotation style for handling the language-specific challenges in Persian facing automatic processing. The result of this effort is the development of the Uppsala Persian Dependency Treebank (UPDT).
FarsNet: the combination of Persian WordNet and VerbNet
Mehrnoush Shamsfard
FarsNet2.0 is a combination of WordNet and VerbNet for Persian. It is developed semi-automatically and is used in many NLP applications as an important lexico-semantic resource for Persian language. FarsNet 2.0 includes more than 30,000 lexical entries arranged in about 20,000 synsets with about 18000 mappings to Princeton WordNet synsets. There are about 43000 relations between synsets and senses in FarsNet 2.0. It includes verb frames in two levels (syntactic and thematic) for about 200 simple Persian verbs. This talk introduces FarsNet, its features and its development process.
12. Dear Colleagues,
You are invited to access a new resource on the website of The International Society for Iranian Studies. The ISIS Academy http://www.iranianstudies.com/academy is intended as a repository for articles and videos which members have published but are not readily available to colleagues. While only ISIS members will be able to download their academic papers and lecture videos, these materials can be viewed by anyone who accesses the page. We sincerely hope this depository will benefit students and young scholars as well as members of our society and all those interested in the field of Iranian Studies.
Touraj Atabaki
13. VCUQatar Art History Lectures
Dr. Lisa Golombek, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
“China’s Challenge to the Safavid Potter: Imitate or Innovate”
18 November 2015, 18:00hrs VCUQatar Atrium
Ever since the 9th century the Persian potter looked to China for inspiration, but only for the standout features, such as the white body. With the expansion of global trade around 1600, particularly when the English and Dutch East Indies Companies took over, Iran’s ceramic industry had counter the influx of the highly sought after Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Could the local potters compete? The results of fifteen years of multi-disciplinary research by a team from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, will be used to illustrate how the potters met this challenge (the research was published in 2014 by Brill and the ROM). This work continues the approach used in the Timurid Ceramics Project, combining traditional art historical methodology, historical research, and scientific analysis to come up with new attributions to workshops and a new chronology .
Lisa Golombek received her B.A. in Middle East Studies from Barnard College in 1962, and her PhD in Islamic Art from the University of Michigan in 1968. Her dissertation on the architecture of shrines took her to Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia. She joined the curatorial staff of the Royal Ontario Museum in 1967 and retired as a Curator Emeritus in 2005. At the ROM she installed new galleries, expanded the collection, and carried out research projects on the textiles and ceramics collections. At the University of Toronto as a cross-appointed Full Professor, she taught both undergraduates and graduates. Her publications in both academic and popular journals cover a wide range of fields: Islamic architecture, gardens, urban history, painting, ceramics, and calligraphy. She has published five books and over 60 journal articles, mostly on Iranian art and architecture. Her book on Persian architecture was been published by Princeton University Press (1988) and is the chief reference work for the architecture of the Timurid period (15th c.). Lisa has returned to Iran several times during the past two decades to research the topic of her new book. It takes up where her previous book, “Tamerlane’s Tableware,” left off. That book, written in collaboration with Rob Mason and Gauvin Bailey dealt with Persian pottery of the 15th century. The new book brings us to the pre-modern age, the 16th and 17th centuries.
14. Lecture – Christiane Gruber, ‘Muhammad Among the Great Men of the World: Enlightenment, Nationhood, & Early 20th-Century Iranian Carpets’ (Cambridge, UK, 19 Nov)
Cambridge Lectures in Islamic Art:
‘Muhammad Among the Great Men of the World: Enlightenment, Nationhood, and Early 20th-Century Iranian Carpets’
Professor Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan)
Thursday, 19 November 2015, 5.30 pm
Nihon Room, Pembroke College, Cambridge
- November 12, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Persianate Subalterns:
The first workshop of the Persianate Subalterns project – on pre-Safavid subalterns – will take place on 7-8 November, 2015 in Edinburgh, UK.
To register for free live-streaming of this event, and for further information, and information on our Twitter feed, please visit:
2. The second Ethnographic Film and Media Program of the Middle East and Central Eurasia (Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists)
We are pleased to announce the second Ethnographic Film and Media Program of the Middle East and Central Eurasia, which will be held annually in conjunction with the Anthropology of the Middle East and Central Eurasia Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).
Our second program will be held with the collaboration of the Department of Sociology of the University of Nantes and Institut du Pluralisme Religieux et de l’Athéisme – IPRA/MSHG (Nantes) during 19th and 20th November 2015 (University of Nantes, Nantes, France).
http://easaonline.org/networks/amce/film.shtml
Curator and organiser: Dr. P. Khosronejad (Institut du Pluralisme Religieux et de l’Athéisme – IPRA/MSHG, Nantes, France)
Contact : Pedram.khosronejad(AT)univ-nantes.fr
3. The IU Libraries Area Studies Department is excited to announce the return of our Area and International Studies Librarianship course in an all-new format. This Spring we will be offering the course online, which means that we will be able to enroll students beyond the boundaries of Indiana University. If you know librarians, library students, or others interested in Area Studies Librarianship would you kindly help us spread the word? This course is team-taught by the entire department, who collectively have global subject expertise. Additionally, we will bring in other relevant experts in our discipline. You will find more details about the course in the attached flyer. International students are welcome; all non-IU students, please see the attached form for enrollment information. If you have any questions about the class, please feel free to contact Marion Frank-Wilson at mfrankwi@indiana.edu
4. Research Methods in Islamic Studies: A Beginners Guide
The Centre for Islamic Shi’a Studies would like to invite you to attend our second in a series of workshops on research methods and techniques within academic and seminarian studies of Islamic studies.
The workshop will run as a full day workshop on the 14th and 15th of November 2015 from 10am to 5pm. It will be led by Dr. Ahab Bdaiwi, a lecturer and researcher in Islamic intellectual and religious history at the University of Saint Andrews with vast experience in the many research methods in Islamic Studies. The workshop shall cover topics such as how to read classical Arabic texts, research methodology, practical skills and techniques within academia and much more.
There will be a charge of £75 per person in order to cover the costs of running the workshop. This must be paid on registration.
Location: Brunei Gallery, Room B104, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG.
Refreshments will be provided.
Places are limited.
In order to register for attendance please contact: h.alkhateeb@shiastudies.org
Amir F. M. Bahrululoom
Alsalam Foundation
247 High Road, Willesden, London
United Kingdom, NW10 2RY
Tel: (+44) 2084513322 | Mob: (+44) 7816518699
www.salamf.org
5. Ethnomusicology grants
Three grants made available for students or young people interested to join in a short term study of ethnomusicology in Iran for a period of three months. The grant made available by Golnoosh Zolfonoon, the daughter of one the outstanding Iranian Setar player Maestro Zolfonoon (whom passed away a few years ago). The course take place in Khaneh Honarmandan (The Great National House of Iranian Artists). Grants cover complete fees (please note that traveling and living costs are not covered in grants). Course presented in Persian language (although you may find several volunteer students and young scholars willing to help you with Persian there).
Please do let your students and interested people know by distributing this announcement. For farther detail about the course please visit following link or contact the course conductor
Prof. Mohammad R. Azadehfar (azadehfar -at- art.ac.ir):
6. The 14th Arabic Papyrology Webclass: Documents on Marriage and Divorce
Layout: Women in Muslim societies not only showed presence in the labor
market and as foundation founders, but also in courts while claiming
their personal rights. Therewith, legal evidence set up by scholars
provide information on the legal framework and give information of the
then legal discourse. Yet, these sources pay little attention to
gendered marital conditions and are devoid of the immediacy provided by
documentary evidence. We will read both marriage contracts and divorce
documents, and complement this by letters written by and to women.
Mode: This is an on-line webclass. We will read both published and
unpublished documents. A scan of the document to be discussed will be
sent to you in advance. Communication will be in English.
Time: 16 November 2015 – 15 February 2016, Monday, 6-8 pm CET.
Further Information: www.naher-osten.lmu.de/apw.
Register until: 11 November 2015.
—
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kaplony
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten
Veterinärstrasse 1, Zimmer 209, D-80539 München
Tel. 0(049)89-2180-2352, 2436
www.naher-osten.lmu.de
7. Leiden University: Assistant Professor in Arabic Philosophy
Only applications received before 30 November 2015 can be considered.
8. Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum
Friday 27th November 2015
Convened by the Music Department at City University London and Music Department, SOAS in conjunction with the Institute of Musical Research
Venue: City University London, Music Department, Room AG09, College Building, St John Street, London EC1V 4BP
All welcome and admission is free but advance registration is requested for planning purposes.
http://www.city.ac.uk/events/2016/november/middle-east-and-central-asia-music-forum
Registration from 9.30am
9.45am Welcome
Session 1, 10-11.30am
Tamara Turner (King’s College, London)
‘Algerian Diwan of Sidi Blel: Moving and Musicking the Affective Community’
Rachel Beckles Willson and Salvatore Morra (Royal Holloway, University of London)
‘Al Kindi,Villoteau and the North African oud: The Case of the Horniman Museum in London’
11.30-12 Tea/Coffee
Session 2, 12-12.45pm
Owen Wright (SOAS)
‘A Safavid Theoretical Text’
12.45 – 2.15pm Lunch (not provided)
Session 3, 2.15-3.45pm
Louis Brehony (King’s College, London)
‘Mohammed Assaf: Arab Idol and the Zionist occupation of Palestine’.
Ruth Davis (University of Cambridge)
Title tbc
3.45-4.15pm Tea/Coffee
Session 4, 4.15-5pm
Saeid Kord Mafi (SOAS)
‘Broadening Practice Horizons Through Theory: A Study of Some Modal Capacities in Persian Classical Music’
Film screening (tbc), 5 – 6.30pm followed by Q&A
6.45pm onwards, a local restaurant will be booked for anyone who would like to end the day with a shared meal.
The Middle East and Central Asia Music forum has been running since 2007 and is open to researchers, students and anyone interested in the music and culture of the region. In the spirit of fostering dialogue and interdisciplinarity, we hope that the issues discussed at the forum will be of interest to a broad audience, including musicologists, ethnomusicologists and other researchers in the arts, humanities and social sciences. In addition, we welcome those working on other aspects of Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture broadly speaking (dance, visual arts, media, film, literature, etc.)
The Forum is convened by Dr Laudan Nooshin, City University London (l.nooshin@city.ac.uk) and Dr Rachel Harris, SOAS (rh@soas.ac.uk)
9. The American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) announces its funding opportunities for 2015-16.
ARISC Graduate Fellowships
The American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) announces the availability of US graduate fellowships in support of research in the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and/or Georgia). Awards will be made for a maximum of $1500 each. Projects in all fields in the social sciences, humanities and related sciences are eligible. Proposals will be judged on their quality and on the potential of the research to strengthen scholarship on the South Caucasus. The purpose of the fellowship is to help cover travel and/or living expenses in the South Caucasus. During his/her stay in the South Caucasus, the fellow is expected to give an ARISC-sponsored presentation on a subject related to his/her research. The fellow will acknowledge ARISC in any publication that emerges from the research carried out during the fellowship.
Application requirements: Please send a complete application including the application form, a project statement of not more than 3 pages, work schedule, budget, and curriculum vitae, by Friday, December 18, 2015, to info@arisc.org. Two letters of recommendation must also be submitted. All information must be received by Friday, December 18, 2015, in order for the applicant to be considered for the fellowship, as well as in any presentations of the research results.
For details, eligibility, and to download the application form, please visit http://arisc.org/?page_id=70#Grad
ARISC Junior Research Fellowship
The American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) announces the availability of US graduate student, postdoctoral and junior scholar fellowships in support of research and mentoring activities in the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and/or Georgia). The goals of the fellowship are 1) to support research in and the study of the South Caucasus; 2) to select, recognize and financially support individuals early in their careers who demonstrate high potential to contribute to research in this region; 3) to support a mentoring relationship that will both develop the academic skills of the mentee and strengthen ties between the US and host country. Projects in all fields in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences are eligible, but all projects must include one or more undergraduate and/or graduate students from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and/or Georgia as research assistants/participants. Research awards will be made for a maximum of $4000 each to help cover travel, living, and research expenses in the South Caucasus. For ARISC grant purposes, mentoring is understood to involve integrating a local scholar into a research project in a fundamental way that involves cultivating skills and knowledge of methods that will contribute to the professional development of the local scholar. Proposals will be judged on their quality and on the potential of the research to strengthen scholarship on the South Caucasus.
Application requirements: Please send a complete application including the application form, a project statement of not more than 1500 words, work schedule, budget, and curriculum vitae, by Wednesday, December 23, 2015, to info “at” arisc.org. Three letters of recommendation must also be submitted. Letters of recommendation should be sent directly from your referee via email to info “at” arisc.org. All information must be received by Wednesday, December 23, 2015, in order for the applicant to be considered for the fellowship.
This fellowship is supported with a grant from the US Department of Education.
For details, eligibility, and to download the application form, please visit http://arisc.org/?page_id=70#ResFlw
ARISC Collaborative Heritage Management in Armenia Grant
Date Due: December 18, 2015
The American Research Institute of the South Caucasus invites proposals from collaborative teams in support of the preservation and conservation of the Republic of Armenia’s archaeological and historical heritage. This ARISC program, generously funded by Project Discovery!, seeks to foster joint work between American and Armenian scholars and institutions dedicated to the proper curation and preservation of heritage materials such as artifacts, sites, and manuscripts. Successful applications will demonstrate substantive collaborations that not only contribute to heritage conservation but also demonstrate efforts to build capacity and enhance local knowledge of current techniques and approaches to heritage management. These grants require active participation of both American and Armenian principal investigators in all aspects of the collaborative project.
Examples of potential projects include:
• Restoration of threatened archaeological remains
• Stabilization of historical resources
• Long-term protection for archaeological sites or historical monuments
• Curation and permanent exhibition of heritage materials
• Cataloging and recording of collections
• Digitization of heritage materials for wider public access
• Enhancement of conservation lab facilities
• Advanced training for specialists
Given the level of funding, these awards can also be used as seed grants to demonstrate the feasibility of a pilot program and/or in concert with funds from parallel sources.
Grantees will be required to either give a talk or run a workshop pertinent to the subject of the grant while in Armenia.
For details, eligibility, and to download the application form, please visit http://arisc.org/?page_id=70#CHM
ARISC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, physical or mental disability, medical condition, ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, or status as a covered veteran.
10. Second Annual Conference: “Academia and Social Justice”, Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship / Arab Studies Institute, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 11-13 March 2016 X
This conference aims to query aspects of this relationship between academia and social justice in the Arab region and internationally. What are the debates and paradigms that define this engagement given the trends towards market-place economics, corporatization, and political orthodoxy?
Deadline: 30 November 2015. Information: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/2706fba83081d638f41bab041/files/AI_ASI_2016_Call_4_Papers_E.pdf
11. Islamic World History, Eastern Connecticut State University – www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51918
Postdoctoral Fellow in Islamic Art, Washington University in St. Louis – www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51902
Assistant Professor of World History, Georgian Court University – www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51932
12. Master’s and Doctoral Scholarships for Syrian Students in Social Sciences, Humanities, Human Rights, Law and Legal History, Economic History / Studies at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
The University is offering a number of full scholarship packages for the Academic Year 2016/2017. Application deadline: 4 February 2016. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/90564/cfa-graduate-scholarships-syrian-students
New evidence for the style of the “Fraser artist” in Delhi: Portraits of Afghans 1808-10
One of the earliest European scientific accounts of Afghanistan is Mountstuart Elphinstone’s An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India, which was first published by Longman, Rees, & Co in London in 1815 and went through several different editions in the 19th century.
14. CfP: The Third Annual Conference of British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) is taking place in London on 11th and 12th April 2016 and the organisers particularly encourage panel proposals on any aspect or sub-discipline of Islamic Studies. For full details on how to submit papers or panels please visit our website:
http://www.brais.ac.uk/conferences/brais-conference-2016/brais-2016-call-for-papers
Completed submission forms must be submitted via e-mail attachment to conference2016@brais.ac.uk by 5pm (UK time) on Monday 30th November 2015.
- November 03, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.The first workshop of the Persianate Subalterns project – on pre-Safavid subalterns – will take place on 7-8 November, 2015 in Edinburgh, UK. To register for free live-streaming of this event, and for further information, and information on our Twitter feed, please visit:
2. Lecture – Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani, “Persian Fire and Steel: Historical Firearms of Iran” (London, 6 Nov)
by Pradines Aga
Persian Fire and Steel: Historical Firearms of Iran
By Dr Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani
Friday 6 November 2015, 17:30– 19:00
Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations
210 Euston Road
London NW1 2DA
Abstract
The first part of the lecture will introduce a series of Persian manuscripts on production and typology of historical firearms in Iran, including the earliest known Persian manuscript on firearms from the Safavid period.
The second part will show a selection of 100 unique examples of Persian firearms from the Military Museum of Tehran, which belonged to the personal royal collection of Nāsser al-Din Shāh Qājār. These include matchlock, flintlock and percussion cap muskets, pistols, cannons and other items which had been collected from the early Safavid period. Persian cannons, howitzers and mortars from the Artillery Museum of St. Petersburg will also be shown.
Speaker
Dr. Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani is a specialist in Persian/Iranian arms and armor. He has written five books, co-authored four books and published 147 print articles in different journals across the world. He won the prestigious awards of the Book Prize of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2009 and 2012.
Chair
Dr. Stephane Pradines
Registration
The event is free but tickets are limited. To attend in person, please book your place here.
The event will be also broadcast online. Please register your attendance to the webinar here.
3. Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici – Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
MPI, November 5 – 07, 2015
Collecting and Empires
The Impact of the Creation and Dissolution of Empires on Collections
and Museums from Antiquity to the Present
Venue
5 – 6 November LdM Church Auditorium (San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini),
via Faenza 43, 50123 Florence
7 November Kunsthistorisches Institut – Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai,
via dei Servi 51, 50122 Florence
PROGRAMME
Thursday 5 November
Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici – San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, via Faenza
43, 50123 Florence
8:30
Welcome and Opening Remarks – Rappresentanti degli enti coinvolti
Royal Collections in the Ancient World
Chair: Maia Wellington Gahtan
9.00
Zainab Bahrani (Columbia University, New York)
The biopolitics of collecting: Empires of Mesopotamia
10:00
Alain Schnapp (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris)
The idea of collecting from Mesopotamia to the classical world,
convergences and divergences
Coffee/ Tea
11:30
Carrie Vout (University of Cambridge, Cambridge)
Collecting like Caesar: the pornography and paideia of amassing
artefacts in the Roman Empire
12:30
Michèle Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens (École pratique des Hautes Études, Paris)
Princely treasures and imperial expansion in Western Han China (2nd-1st
c. BCE)
Collections and questions of national identity
Chair: Daniel J. Sherman
15:00
Enrique Florescano (Conaculta, México)
The Mexica Empire: Memory, Identity, And Collectionism
16:00
Dominique Poulot (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris)
Empire and Museums: the case of Napoleon I
Coffee/ Tea
17:30
Christoph Zuschlag (Universität Koblenz-Landau, Landau)
Looted Art, Booty Art, Degenerate Art – Aspects of Art Collecting in
the Third Reich
18:30
Katia Dianina (University of Virginia, Charlottesville)
The Dispersal of the Russian Art Empire
Friday, 6 November
Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici – San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, via Faenza
43, 50123 Florence
Expanding empires – morning session
Chair: Eva Maria Troelenberg
9:00
Gerhard Wolf (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence)
Material versus Visual culture: Collecting, Dispersing and Display in
Imperial Dynamics (400 – 1600)
10:00
Catarina Schmidt Arcangeli (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence)
Collecting in Venice and Creating a Myth
Coffee/ Tea
11:30
Hannah Baader (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence)
– title to be confirmed-
12:30
Michael North (Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität Greifswald, Greifswald)
Collecting European and Asian Art Objects in the Dutch Colonial Empire,
17th and 18th Centuries
Lunch
Expanding empires – afternoon session
Chair: Francesca Baldry
15:00
Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann (Princeton University, Princeton)
Habsburg Imperial Collecting
16:00
Ebba Koch (Universität Wien, Vienna)
The Mughal emperors as collectors: Jahangir (rul. 1605-27) and Shah
Jahan (rul. 1628-58)
Coffee/ Tea
17:30
Tapati Guha-Thakurta (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta)
The Object Flows of Empire: Cross-Cultural Collecting in Early Colonial
India
18:30
Ruth B. Phillips (Carleton University, Ottawa)
Imperfect Translations: Indigenous Gifts and Royal Collecting in
Victorian Canada
Aperitivo
21:00
Concert
Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini – Sala del Buonumore, Piazza delle Belle
Arti 2, 50122 Florence
L’Ensemble Marâghî – Ottoman Classical Music
Music of the Habsburg Empire, directed by Maestra Daniela De Santis
Saturday, 7 November
Kunsthistorisches Institut – Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai, via dei
Servi 51, 50122 Florence
Late and Post-Empire, De-Colonization and Museums
Chair: Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann
9:00
Edhem Eldem (Bogaziçi University, Istanbul)
Ottoman Imperial Collections in the Nineteenth Century: A Critical
Reassessment
10:00
Eva Maria Troelenberg (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence)
Collecting Big: Monumentality and the Berlin Museum Island as a “World
Museum” between the Imperial and Post-Imperial Age
Coffee/ Tea
11:30
Daniel J. Sherman (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel
Hill)
The (De) Colonized Object: Museums and the Other in France since 1960
12:30
Wendy Shaw (Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin)
Islam and the Legacies of Empire: Ownership of Islam in 21st-Century
Museums
15:00
Roundtable
Moderated by Krzysztof Pomian (Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, Torun;
Ecole des hautes Études)
For more information, contact Myra Stals, myra.stals@lorenzodemedici.it
—-
The creation and dissolution of empires has been a constant feature of
human history from ancient times through the present day, especially if
one passes from a historical to a theoretical definition of empire as
an open expanding global frontier. Establishing new identities and new
power relationships to coincide with changing political boundaries and
cultural reaches, empires also destroyed and/or irrevocably altered
social structures and the material culture on which those social
structures were partly based. The political activities of empires—both
formal and informal to use Doyle’s definition—find their material
reflection in the creation of new art forms and the reevaluation of old
art forms which often involved the movement of objects from periphery
to center (and vice versa) and promoted the formation of new
collections. New mentalities and new social relationships were
represented by those collections but they were (and are) also fostered
through them.
In recent decades such issues surrounding objects and empire have
become important components of our understanding of British
colonialism, and to a lesser extent of anthropological approaches to
colonial studies more broadly conceived. Concurrent with these
developments, comparative studies of the political forms of empires
have also appeared, though the baseline for such comparisons is
invariably the Roman Empire, from whose imperium we derive our word,
but which is ill-suited to describe post-WW-II hegemonies or even Asian
historical examples. This conference seeks to cast a wider net
temporally, spatially and conceptually by exploring the impact of the
expansion and contraction of empires on collecting, collections, and
collateral phenomena such as cultural exchange in a selection of the
greatest empires the world has known from Han China to Hellenistic
Greece to Aztec Mexico to the Third Reich without privileging
particular political models and always with an eye to how these
historical situations invite comparisons not only with each other but
also with contemporary imperial tendencies.
While some scholars would argue that the term empire no longer applies
to today’s global and transnational environment, others have redefined
‘empire’ in terms of contemporary capitalism and a developing
post-modern global order. Exclusively based on political and economic
concerns (including identity politics) and for the most part
distressingly Eurocentric, these analyses of empire or its evolution
into something else yet to be defined, also neglect the impact of
material culture, even though material culture studies have made great
strides in recent decades by addressing issues of the migration of
objects and people for both political and non-political reasons.
Therefore by investigating empires and imperialism in a comparative
manner through the lens of collecting practices, museum archetypes and
museums proper, it is hoped that this conference workshop will help
shape our understanding of what is indeed imperial about our own
approach to material culture.
Contribution to Scholarship: While individual empires have been studied
extensively, it is only in recent decades that they have been examined
from comparative political, social and cultural perspectives. It is
also only recently that scholarship in history of collecting and
anthropology has begun to address the role imperial expansion on
collecting and museums in reference to European and particularly
British colonialism. Still there is very little written on the history
of collecting from any perspective outside of the European tradition or
from before the Renaissance. This conference would—for the first
time—approach the subject of collecting and empires from a global and
inclusive comparative perspective, from which it is hoped that
significant conclusions may be drawn about the social, cultural and
political impact of collecting and display across the centuries and
down to present times.
Reference / Quellennachweis:
CONF: Collecting and Empires (Florenz, 5-7 Nov 15). In: H-ArtHist, Oct
23, 2015. <http://arthist.net/archive/11289>.
4. 13th Annual Duke-UNC Islamic Studies Graduate Student Workshop on “Global Muslim Modernities and the Post-Secular”, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27-28 February 2016
The concepts of “modernity” and “secularism” have received renewed attention within academic literature on Muslim societies and Islamic studies. This year’s conference aspires to create a forum for those exploring innovative engagements with this material from an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on critical theory and global approaches. Ph.D. students are especially encouraged to apply.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 December 2015. Information: DUKEUNCconf@gmail.com
5. Graduate Student Conference “Islam and the Modern State”, Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, 7-8 April 2016
The conference will examine how modern states exist in tension with the practices, institutions, and sensibilities associated with Islam. This interdisciplinary conference will draw together advanced graduate students and senior scholars to probe the enduring entanglement of religion and modernity.
Deadline for abstracts: 9 November 2015. Information: http://buffett.northwestern.edu/programs/grad-conference/index.html
6. MENA Workshop Program for PhD Students in Beirut (May 2016) and Cairo (September 2016)
The American Political Science Association (APSA) is now accepting applications for this two-part workshop program. This is a unique opportunity to network with colleagues from across the MENA region and develop current research related to civil society in the Arab region and the changing state-society dynamics engendered by the Arab Uprisings post-2010.
Deadline for applications: 2 December 2015. Information: www.apsanet.org/menaworkshops
7. Professor/Associate Professor in Modern Gulf History, Centre for Gulf Studies, Qatar University
Qualifications: A doctorate in History with specialization in the Gulf, with significant record of; relevant and evidence of superior teaching experience, etc.
Deadline for application: 30 November 2015. Information: https://careers.qu.edu.qa/OA_HTML/OA.jsp?OAFunc=IRC_EID_VIS_INTG_GATEWAY&p_action=viewPosting&p_svid=9016&p_spid=440135&p_srid=239166
8. Associate Professor of Literature and Culture in the Gulf, Qatar University
Qualifications: A doctorate in Literature and Culture with specialization in Identity, Gender, Literature and Culture in the Gulf, with significant record of publications in this field; superior teaching experience; fluency in Arabic and English.
Deadline for application: 30 November 2015. Information: https://careers.qu.edu.qa/OA_HTML/OA.jsp?OAFunc=IRC_EID_VIS_INTG_GATEWAY&p_action=viewPosting&p_svid=4346&p_spid=202145&p_srid=111182
9. Post-doctoral, Visiting Research and Sabbatical Fellowships, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore
MEI is offering up to two Visiting Sabbatical Fellowships for 2016-1017 and one or two post-doctoral Fellowships for two years, ideally from 1 August 2016 to 31 July 2018. The fellowships are for recent Ph.D. recipients in the social sciences or humanities working on anthropological, cultural, economic, historical, political, religious, or sociological topics in the greater Middle East region, especially on contemporary studies of the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf, Iran, and Turkey.
Information: https://mei.nus.edu.sg/index.php/web/new-job-opening
10. Jeffrey H. Aronson Chair in Middle East Politics, Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University – http://apply.interfolio.com/31675
Aga Khan Chair in Islamic Humanities, Brown University – www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51860
Visiting Scholar in Islamic Studies, California State University, Fresno – www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51858
Assistant Professor in Islamic Middle Eastern History University of West Georgia – www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51866
Assistant Professor, Islamic Middle Eastern History; University of West Georgia – www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51866
11. The third Conference of the School of Mamlūk Studies will take place in Chicago, 23-25 June, 2016
Panel proposal “Authors as Readers”
Call for papers
Before composing a book, any author reads. In the Mamluk period—an example in terms of intellectual vivacity—scholars and books travel easily, ideas are extensively discussed and shared, scholars’ life is intense and prolific… How to compose a book in such a context of information overload? We are lucky enough to have at our disposal very precise sources about scholars’ biography, consisting in biographical notes, exceptional documents such as personal notebooks and reading journals, or paratexts in manuscripts attesting of their reading/borrowing/purchasing… These provide us with a more intimate insight of the scholars’ tastes and reading activity.
Many fascinating questions can be approached thanks to these sources. What did scholars like to read? How often and how much did they read? How did they use their readings for their works? What do we know of their note-taking strategies? Did Mamluk scholars use special devices to remember what they read/listen to? How did they gain access to books?
These are only a few questions that could be dealt with in the frame of this panel. The goal of the panel is to show authors as readers in the context of the Mamluk period, a rich and age-old tradition.
Please submit your paper abstract (300 words max) and a one-page CV for consideration before November 20, 2015 to elise.franssen@ulg.ac.be.
Participants whose proposal is accepted will be notified by November 27, 2015.
Please have a look at the following page for practical information regarding the Third SMS Conference: http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/school-of-mamluk-studies.html.
Élise Franssen, post-doc
University of Liège (ULg), Belgium
elise.franssen@ulg.ac.be
12. ANN: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past (New York,
26 Oct 15-17 Jan 16)
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, 15 East 84th St. New
York, NY 10028, October 26, 2015 – January 17, 2016
Lecture Series: The Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court Photography and the
Persian Past
Each will have a reception to follow and RSVP is required. RSVP
212.992.7800 or isaw.nyu.edu/rsvp
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Nasseredin Shah and his 84 Wives
Beate Petersen, Film Director and Producer
Film Screening, 6 pm
In 1842 the 11 year-old heir to the Persian throne received a camera
from Queen Victoria of England. The young heir fell in love with the
magical contraption. In the following decades he documented his life,
revealing to the public eye, what it was never supposed to see.
“Nasseredin Shah and his 84 Wives” is based on the photos taken by the
Shah himself, as well as by his court. With the addition of animated
sequences, it tells the story of the rivalry and intrigues within the
harem, the murders, the corruption, the political power struggle, the
murders, and of Persia’s troubled relation to Europe. The documentary
focuses on an aspect that is all too often overlooked: that is, the
influential role played by women in the origins of modern Iran.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
The Discursive Spaces of Qajar Photography
Mirjam Brusius, University of Oxford
Public Lecture, 6 pm
When the mid-19th Century European travellers documented Persia’s
heritage with a photographic camera, many compiled albums that came to
have ubiquitous aesthetic and political functions. Consequently, in the
20th century, some of the albums ended up in different discursive
spaces: some can be found in state archives as diplomatic gifts
compiled by the Shah, some became indispensable tools for
archaeologists, others were admired by Islamic art curators in museums
for their lacquerwork bindings. This lecture explores some of the
fascinating biographies of these albums, including the impact they
still have today.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Qajar Photography and Contemporary Iranian Art
Layla S. Diba, Independent Scholar and Art Advisor
Public Lecture, 6 pm
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Ancient Persianisms: Persepolitan Motifs in 19th Century Qajar Persia
Judith A. Lerner, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
Public Lecture, 6 pm
Pre-Islamic imagery – specifically that of the Achaemenid (c. 550-330
BCE) and Sasanian (224-651 CE) dynasties – had remained strong in the
art of Islamic Iran (post-651 CE); the major pictorial themes of razm
u bazm (fighting and feasting), along with hunting and enthronement,
continued through successive Islamic dynasties in painting, metalwork,
ceramics and textiles, all artistic media that were prominent in
pre-Islamic Iran. But one medium of the pre-Islamic period had all
but disappeared: monumental relief sculpture carved into living rock.
This ancient artistic medium had been dormant for more than a
millennium when it was revived under the second Qajar ruler, Fath ‘Ali
Shah (r. 1797-1834). During his reign all but one of the eight known
Qajar rock reliefs were carved; after his reign – except for one relief
executed in 1878 by his great-grandson, Naser al-Din Shah (r.
1848-1896) – monumental sculptured reliefs were no longer made.
Instead, relief carving on a much smaller scale was used for
embellishing the stone foundations of Qajar buildings. The stylistic
and iconographic contrasts between these two modes of sculptural
expression is striking: the earlier Qajar reliefs draw upon those of
the Sasanians, the last Persian dynasty before the Muslim conquest, and
feature enthronement and hunting scenes, while the later ones quote
those of the earlier Achaemenids, specifically images from their
capital city, Persepolis. What brought about this change? In this talk
I offer some reasons for this shift from Sasanian to Achaemenid imagery
and propose that it stemmed, in great part, from the desire in Iran to
forge a modern national identity that drew upon Iran’s imperial
pre-Islamic past. Select photographic examples of these reliefs and
monuments which provided the inspiration for the Qajar pieces, and
which form part of ISAW’s exhibition, Eye of the Shah: Royal Court
Photography and the Persian Past, will be discussed in the context of
“Persianisms.”
The Series is part of the exhibition ‘The Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court
Photography and the Persian Past’, which presents some 200 photographic
prints, a number of vintage photographic albums, and memorabilia that
utilized formal portraiture of the shah, the exhibition shows how
photographers – many of them engaged by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r.
1848-1896), the longest reigning Shah of the Qajar Dynasty (1785-1925)
– ultimately created a portrait of the country’s ancient and recent
past. Most of the photographs in the exhibition have never been
publicly displayed.
Further details: http://isaw.nyu.edu/exhibitions/shah
Reference / Quellennachweis:
ANN: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past (New York, 26 Oct
15-17 Jan 16). In: H-ArtHist, Oct 27, 2015.
<http://arthist.net/archive/11358>.
- October 28, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment