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.

<http://www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>

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.

<http://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/Economics/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>

<http://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/HistoryAndCivilization/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>

<http://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/Law/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>

<http://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/PoliticalAndSocialSciences/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>

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

1. 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

 

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:

http://www.shii-news.imes.ed.ac.uk/the-subalterns-project/the-first-workshop-edinburgh-7-8-november-2015/

 

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):

https://www.academia.edu/7731885/An_Open_course_Introduction_to_Ethnomusicology_and_Anthropology_of_Music_

 

 

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

 

http://werkenbij.leidenuniv.nl/vacatures/wetenschappelijke-functies/15-360-vacature-universiteit-leiden-assistant-professor-in-arabic-philosophy.html

Only applications received before 30 November 2015 can be considered.

 

8. Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum

 

Friday 27^th 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

 

13. http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/asian-and-african/2015/11/new-evidence-for-the-style-of-the-fraser-artist-in-delhi-portraits-of-afghans-1808-10.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29

 

 

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 19^th 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.

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:

http://www.shii-news.imes.ed.ac.uk/the-subalterns-project/the-first-workshop-edinburgh-7-8-november-2015/

 

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>.

 

1. Duke University – Middle East & Islamic Studies Librarian
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51822

 
University of Toronto, St. George Campus – Tenure Stream Assistant Professor in Islam and Modernity {Department for the Study of Religion (60%) and the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations (40%)}
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51823

 

2. Open Access Book: Writing Self, Writing Empire Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary
Author: Kinra, Rajeev.
Published: California: University of California Press, 2015.
394 p.
ISBN: 9780520286467 (pbk. : alk. paper) 0520286464 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Chandar Bhan Brahman (d. ca. 1670), one of the great Indo-Persian poets and prose stylists of early modern South Asia. Chandar Bhan’s life spanned the reigns of four emperors: Akbar (1556–1605), Jahangir (1605–1627), Shah Jahan (1628–1658), and Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir (1658–1707), the last of the “Great Mughals” whose courts dominated the culture and politics of the subcontinent at the height of the empire’s power, territorial reach, and global influence.

Chandar Bhan was a high-caste Hindu who worked for a series of Muslim monarchs and other officials, forming powerful friendships along the way; his experience bears vivid testimony to the pluralistic atmosphere of the Mughal court, particularly during the reign of Shah Jahan, the celebrated builder of the Taj Mahal. But his widely circulated and emulated works also touch on a range of topics central to our understanding of the court’s literary, mystical, administrative, and ethical cultures, while his letters and autobiographical writings provide tantalizing examples of early modern Indo-Persian modes of self-fashioning. Chandar Bhan’s oeuvre is a valuable window onto a crucial, though surprisingly neglected, period of Mughal cultural and political history.

 

 

3.Open Access Journal: Journal of Georgetown University-Qatar Middle Eastern Studies Student Association

 

 

Open Access Bibliography: Albiblio – Bibliography of One Thousand and One Nights in Egypt

 

 

International Qur’anic Studies Association

 

 

4. Naples Qisas conference information now available online

Dear Colleagues,

Apologies for cross-postings. I have received a number of inquiries about the upcoming conference on qisas al-anbiya’ co-organized by Roberto Tottoli, Marianna Klar, and myself being held this week in Naples. The papers will eventually be published online, but for now we have made the full conference program with abstracts available here:

http://www.mizanproject.org/conference-islamic-stories-of-the-prophets/

Those seeking more information should contact us at qisasconference@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Michael Pregill

Interlocutor

Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations

Boston University

 

5. Panel Discussion – First Biennale of Contemporary Photography of the Arab World (London, 22 Oct)

The Image is Witness: panel discussion with curators Karin Adrian von Roques, Vali Mahlouji and Gabriel Bauret

22 October, 6-8pm, Institut Francais, London

This November the First Biennale of Photography from the Arab World will be held in Paris. Organised by the Institut du monde Arabe in partnership with la Maison européenne de la photographie, the biennale aims to bring to light the diverse and vibrant photographic output of the artists coming from the Middle East and North Africa. To celebrate the occasion and understand its timing and significance, this panel will bring curators Karin Adrian von Roques, Vali Mahlouji and curator of the biennale Gabriel Bauret, in a conversation aimed to take a closer look at the issues of representing, (re)framing and understanding Arab photography in the West today.
The talk will start at 6pm, and will be followed by drinks reception at the Institut Francais.

This panel is a part of a series of talks organsied by IESA UK for Nour Festival of Arts 2015, and will be followed in the next two weeks by four events at Leighton House on contemporary art from the MENA region as vehicle for cultural and civic engagement and community revitalisation.

To book and for further information, please click here or visit Nour Festival website.

Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Please contact Aliya Say if you have any questions.

 

6. AYVERDİ PRIZE FOR OTTOMAN TURKISH

AATT is pleased to announce an award ($500) for best translation of an Ottoman archival/historical or literary work by an undergraduate or graduate student in a semester length Ottoman course, during the academic year or during a summer progtram. To nominate a deserving student instructors should send AATTsecretariat@gmail.com a letter including the student’s name, status, department, a 5-10 page translation and a scanned copy of the Ottoman original by October 31, 2015. The award will be announced at the annual Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association meeting held in conjunction with the Middle East Studies Association Conference.

 

7. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford – Research Assistant, “Divination and Art in the Medieval and Early Islamic World” Project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust

The Ashmolean Museum is seeking to appoint a research assistant to join the team of the Leverhulme Trust-funded project “Divination and Art in the Medieval and Early Islamic World (1200-1800)” directed by Dr Francesca Leoni. The project examines the multiple roles of “licit” divinatory arts (i.e. astrology, geomancy, bibliomancy, dream interpretation, physiognomy and ‘ilm al-huruf) in the medieval and early modern Islamic world through their impact on visual and material culture. The post-holder will provide support to the project’s Principal Investigator and the core research team, undertake independent research and assist with a range of tasks and outcomes, including publications and the organisation of a large-scale exhibition.

Candidates should have a doctoral degree or equivalent knowledge or experience in a relevant area, specialist knowledge of Islamic Art and have demonstrated experience in the museum sector. The successful post-holder will also have a significant research and publication record and have good working knowledge of at least one language amongst Arabic, Turkish and Persian.

Applications for this vacancy are to be made online. You will be required to upload your CV, a supporting statement (max. 2 pages of A4) telling us how your skills, experience and knowledge meet our selection criteria, and a written sample of your published work (not to exceed 5,000 words) as part of your application. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

To apply for this role and for further details, including job description and selection criteria, please click on the link below:

https://www.recruit.ox.ac.uk/pls/hrisliverecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=120668

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 18 November 2015 at 12.00 noon.

Interviews will be held at the Ashmolean Museum on 25 November with a view to appointment starting in 4 January 2016.

8. new book

 

Publication – Aesthetic Hybridity in Mughal Painting, 1526-1658 (Valerie Gonzalez)

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to announce the publication of my book, Ashgate Publishing, series “Transculturalisms 1400-1700”. This two-part book is a critical-aesthetic study of early Mughal painting that also offers substantial essays on coeval Persian painting and pre-Mughal Sultanate book art. To be noted is the first part dedicated to methodology. This important section of the book examines variegated epistemological questions raised by the study of painting and art in Islam in general from the critical viewpoint, while providing an assessment of the scholarly literature on Mughal painting and its hybrid ontology. Overall, this book proposes a new way of researching and thinking about the pictorial traditions in Islam that should interest anyone seeking alternative paths to the current art historical practice.

The title’s description with further details can be accessed through these links: http://www.ashgate.com and http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?title_id=10078&edition_id=10391&page…

A book launch is planned on Friday November 27 2015, at the Nehru Center, London (http://www.nehrucentre.org.uk/). Reception at 6pm. Presentation lecture and book signing at 6.30pm. Address: 8 S Audley St, London W1K 1HF. Tel: 020 7491 3567.

9. Open Access Books from Brill Publishing

Childhood in the Late Ottoman Empire and After edited by Benjamin C. Fortna, SOAS, University of London

Series: OEH

Volume: 59

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9789004293120

Expected: November 2015

 

Muslims in Interwar Europe  Edited by Bekim Agai, Frankfurt University, Umar Ryad, Utrecht University, and Mehdi Sajid, Utrecht University

Series:  MUMI

Volume: 17

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9789004287839

E-ISBN: 9789004301979

 

Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions Edited by Christian Lange, University of Utrecht

Series: IHC

Volume: 119

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9789004301214

E-ISBN: 9789004301368

Publication date: September 2015

 

The Imagined and Real Jerusalem in Art and Architecture:Edited by Jeroen Goudeau, Mariëtte Verhoeven and Wouter Weijers, Radboud University, Nijmegen

Series:  RSH

Volume: 2

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9789004270824

E-ISBN: 9789004270855

Publication date: September 2014

 

Catalogue of Turkish Manuscripts in the Library of Leiden University and Other Collections in the Netherlands  Jan Schmidt, University of Leiden

Series: IMB

Volume: 3

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9789004221901

E-ISBN:  9789004221918

Publication date: July 2012

 

Islam and the Making of the Nation Chiara Formichi, City University of Hong Kong

Series: VKI

Volume: 282

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9789067183864

E-ISBN: 9789004260467

Publication date: June 2012

 

A Grammar of the Bedouin Dialects of Central and Southern Sinai Rudolf E. de Jong

Series: HO1

Volume: 101

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9789004201019

E-ISBN: 9789004201460

Publication date: April 2011

Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism Jon Hoover

Series: IPTS

Volume: 73

Format: Hardback

ISBN: 9789004158474

E-ISBN: 9789047420194

Publication date: May 2007

 

 

10. Wednesday 18 November, 5.00 pm – The Warburg Institute, in conjunction with the Bilderfahrzeuge Project

“Prophetic Products: The Prophet Muhammed in Contemporary Iranian Visual Culture”

Professor Christiane Gruber, Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan

Please note that this lecture starts at 5.00 pm

Attendance is free of charge and pre-registration is not required.

 

The Warburg Institute,

University of London,

School of Advanced Study;

Woburn Square, London

Tel. (020) 7862 8949

 

11. The Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College, Columbia University, is seeking a full-time teacher-scholar in Middle Eastern Cultures and Civilizations, starting September 1, 2016.

 

Rank open with strong preference for candidates with an established record of teaching and research.  Candidates should demonstrate a broad interest in the cultures and civilization of the Middle East; discipline and geographic area of specialization is open but knowledge of major languages and mastery of at least two, including Arabic and Persian, are preferred. Teaching will include undergraduate general education courses such as “Middle Eastern Civilizations” and “Asian Humanities: Colloquium on Major Texts of South Asia and the Middle East,” as well as more specialized and graduate courses.  Particular attention will be given to candidates with a record of diverse, innovative, and interdisciplinary research and teaching. The successful candidate will be responsible for helping to build an independent Program in Middle Eastern Studies at Barnard, and coordinating with MESAAS, Columbia University.  Ph.D. required.  Solid publications are expected. Application, including a complete curriculum vitae, a writing sample, and three references, to be sent directly to http://careers.barnard.edu/postings/1795.  Review of applications will begin on October 30, 2015 and continue until position is filled.  Barnard is an independent college of liberal arts and sciences for women that is affiliated with Columbia University.  Barnard College is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is actively committed to creating a diverse and inclusive community.  We especially encourage women and candidates from diverse backgrounds to apply.

 

12. International Society for Iranian Studies

ISIS Award Nominations Announcement

 

The Nominations are now open for:

 

The Saidi-Sirjani Book Award

The Ehsan Yarshater Book Award

THE RAHIM M. IRVANI DISSERTATION AWARD

THE MEHRDAD MASHAYEKHI DISSERTATION AWARD

The Latifeh Yarshater Award

 

Please consult the ISIS website for the details of each award and use the website  to submit your nomination: http://www.iranianstudies.com/awards

 

 

1.Global Challenges Fellowship

The School of Public Policy (SPP) and the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University (CEU IAS) in Budapest, and the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin are collaborating on a unique fellowship program that seeks to bridge policy theory and practice to generate mutually beneficial and groundbreaking exchanges between the two areas. The goal is to encourage fresh perspectives on some of the most pressing global public policy challenges by forging closer ties between policy practitioners and academics from Europe and outside the “established West.” See detailed information here.

Application deadline is 11:59 p.m. on November 23, 2015 (Central European Time, GMT+1).

Applicants must:

• be from Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, or Turkey; and be residents of these countries at the time of application.
• hold an academic degree in the social sciences, humanities, and/or law.
• have at least three years of demonstrated professional experience at the time of application. Those with at least 15 years of demonstrated policy-making experience or seven years of experience since earning their PhDs will be considered for the senior fellowship.
• be able to communicate fluently in English, the working language of the program.
• have a demonstrated record of policy engagement and submit an innovative research proposal.

See detailed information here.

Please send questions, including those regarding applications, to gcf@ceu.edu.

 

2. Lecturer in Persian Language – Department of Near Eastern Studies
https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF00880

Job #JPF00880
College of Letters & Science – Near Eastern Studies

RECRUITMENT PERIOD
Open date: October 5th, 2015
Next review date: February 16th, 2016
Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.
Final date: February 16th, 2016
Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

DESCRIPTION

The Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley seeks qualified applicants for a non-tenure track, temporary position as a full-time lecturer in Persian language. The appointment is full-time (teaching 3 courses each semester) and is renewable, based on need, funding and performance. The expected start date is July 1, 2016.

Minimum full-time annual salary is $49,012. Salary is commensurate with education and experience.

Basic Qualifications (by time of application): The successful candidate must have an M.A. or Ph.D. (or equivalent degree) in Persian language, linguistics, applied linguistics, or related field, and experience in teaching Persian at the college level.

Additional Qualifications (by start date): S/he must possess native or near-native competence in speaking, listening, writing, and reading Persian, and must have the capacity to employ up-to- date and effective methods of language pedagogy and testing.

Preferred Qualifications (by start date): Experience with computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is desirable.

Responsibilities include teaching first-, second-, and third- year Persian language courses; cooperating with the department’s language coordinators in planning and teaching the department’s Language Pedagogy course for teachers of Near Eastern languages; providing guidance, in consultation with ladder faculty in Persian language, to undergraduates in NES who wish to complete a minor or major in Persian; and, if relevant, providing preparatory guidance and materials for Graduate Students Instructors and lecturers teaching Persian during the summer session.

This recruitment is open until filled. Applicants should submit the following materials at https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF00880: an application letter that includes a brief statement of the candidate’s teaching philosophy; a curriculum vitae; and three confidential letters of recommendation. All letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality (http://apo.berkeley.edu/evalltr.html) prior to submitting their letters.

Applications must include a demonstration video of recent classroom instruction. The video should be no longer than 20 minutes and may be submitted via web link or DVD. (If submitting DVD, it needs to be sent to the Persian Language Lecturer Search, Department of Near Eastern Studies, 250 Barrows Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1940). The demonstration video may be from an elementary or intermediate Persian class, but should not be from the very early first-year Persian lessons.

Please direct all inquiries to: nes@berkeley.edu

The University and the Department are interested in candidates who will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education through their teaching. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California non- discrimination and affirmative action policy, see: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct.

REQUIREMENTS

DOCUMENTS

Curriculum Vitae

Application Letter – Application letter that includes a brief statement of the candidate’s teaching philosophy

Digital Video – Digital video – via either web link or DVD – of not more than twenty minutes of a recent class taught. The demonstration video may be from an elementary or intermediate Persian class, but should not be from the very early first-year Persian lessons.

REFERENCES

3 letters of reference required
HOW TO APPLY:

PLEASE USE THIS LINK: <https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF00880>.

 

3. CALL FOR APPLICATION | Conference: Interfaith Love: Love, Sex and Marriage in the Islamicate World from the Middle Ages to the Present | Deadline: 15 December 2015

From Wednesday 22 until Friday 24 June 2016, LUCIS organises in cooperation with the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ and the University of Salento an international conference entitled: Interfaith Love: Love, Sex and Marriage in the Islamicate World from the Middle Ages to the Present.

Theme

Interfaith love is a compelling topic in societies where faith is a decisive mark of identity, and culture is continuously shaped by interreligious coexistence and conflicts. In Medieval Islamic imagery the ‘religious other’, either boy or girl, has a prominent place in erotic poetry and love romances. The theme went through significant reshaping in the early modern period, when the confrontation between the Ottomans and Europe opened wide spaces for uncertain identities across contested frontiers. Eventually, it has taken on distinctive new forms in contemporary societies within the fragile framework of the Middle Eastern national identities but also in the West where issues related to interfaith love and marriages are increasingly part of the public debate.

This international conference seeks to explore, through a diachronic, interdisciplinary and comparative approach, how interfaith love is perceived and represented in historical, religious, legal, literary and artistic sources, both Islamic and non-Islamic. Relevant materials will be approached from multiple perspectives, and preferably in a comparative way, in order to bring out their historical, cultural and societal implications, and to analyse the way they shaped cultural representations both in the past and in the present. Narratives of interfaith love mirror a society’s understanding of cultural cross-influence, with its ‘dangers’ and ‘seductions’. As interfaith love concerns all the religious cultures involved in the process, the Islamic view will be complemented with that of other relevant cultures intertwined with Islam. This conference seeks to bring into focus the many facets of representation of this theme and trace its metamorphoses at turning points in history.

The main research questions we aim to address include:
– What are the different perceptions and representations of interfaith love in the various kinds of textual and visual sources produced both within and outside the Islamicate world?
– How social norms and boundaries shape and define the ‘performances’ of love affairs between the members of two different religious communities or two different sects within Islam (e.g. between Alevi and Sunni or Sunni and Shiite Muslims)?
– What are the gender implications of interfaith love and, in particular, how the representation of homoerotic love is intertwined with that of the ‘beloved infidel’?
– Why is the beloved in Islamic mystical-erotic poetry often of a different faith?

Organizing committee

Rosita D’Amora (University of Salento) Turkish Studies
Petra de Bruijn (Leiden University) Turkish Studies
Samuela Pagani (University of Salento) Arabic Studies
Monica Ruocco (Università L’Orientale of Naples) Arabic Studies
Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (Leiden University) Persian Studies

Call for application

Scholars, PhD candidates and advanced MA students doing research related to the subject of Interfaith Love are invited to apply for participation.

If application for participation has been successful, the following is granted:
– Participation in the complete programme, including lunches and the conference diner.
– Not included travel and accommodation expenses and the other meals.

To apply for participation, applications have to be sent to lucis@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

For more information please contact: Rosita D’Amora (rosita.damora@unisalento.it) and Asghar Seyed-Gohrab (A.A.Seyed-Gohrab@hum.leidenuniv.nl).

This application includes the following:
– a title and an abstract of 300 words (max.) of your presentation
– a short biography of 50 words (max.)

Deadline for application: Tuesday, 15 December  2015, 24.00 hrs (CET).

Applications that will reach us after this date will not be taken into consideration.

Programme

A provisional program will be available by the beginning of February.

 

 

4. Faculty Position in Arabic Studies: The Department of Arabic and
Translation Studies in the American University of Sharjah invites
applications for a faculty position in Arabic Studies at the rank of
Assistant or Associate professor beginning in the Fall 2016, subject to
budgetary approval.  A Ph.D. is required in Arabic studies with a focus on
classical Arabic literature The ability to teach entry level Arabic
heritage courses is essential. The successful candidate will have a native
or near-native proficiency in Arabic, while being able to teach in
English. The language of instruction at AUS is English, however,
candidates able to teach courses in both Arabic and English are preferred.
Strong scholarly record/potential and relevant teaching experience are
expected.

AUS is located in the emirate of Sharjah, adjacent to Dubai, UAE. Founded
in 1997 by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, AUS is
an independent, not-for-profit coeducational university in the Gulf,
serving some 6,000 students of 92 nationalities. The American University
of Sharjah (AUS) is accredited by the Commission of Higher Education of
the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Review of
applications will begin immediately.

Applicants should have experience in and/or familiarity with the North
American higher educational system, and experience in dealing with
cultural and educational needs of a linguistically and culturally diverse
student population. The ability to contribute to other courses offered by
the Department will be a distinct advantage.

Interested applicants should send a letter of application, curriculum
vitae, a statement of research, a statement of teaching philosophy, and a
list of at least three referees to: Dr Mahmoud Anabtawi, Dean, College of
Arts & Sciences, e-mail:  <about:blank>cashr@aus.edu
For full consideration, applications must be received before November 15,
2015.

For information about the American University of Sharjah (AUS), please
visit:  <http://www.aus.edu> www.aus.edu

 

 

5. Buddhist and Muslim Encounters in Premodern South Asia

12-13 October 2015

University of Lausanne (Switzerland), Building Amphimax, Room 414
The conference is open to the public. If you are interested in attending, please contact Kathrin Holz to confirm that space is available: kathrin.holz@unil.ch

 

The religious and cultural encounters between Buddhist and Muslim communities in South Asia bear a long history of interaction and exchange spanning the period of 711 CE and 1400 CE. With the rise of Islam in the 7th century and the subsequent expansion of Arab armies into Sind (modern-day southern Pakistan) and Northern Afghanistan in the early 8th century, Muslims came to rule regions deeply embedding in Buddhist culture. The rapidly expanding Arab empire led to heightened exchanges in an intensified sphere of cultural encounters. A second phase developed in the late 10th century with the rise of Turkic dynasties, particularly that of the Ghaznavid with its capital in Ghazna, Afghanistan. In the 13th century Mongol Il-khanid rulers extended their authority into Central Asia and across the Middle East. Il-khanid rulers had adopted aspects of Tibetan Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity until largely converting to Islam in the late 13th century. The diverse religious milieu established under their rule is an important example of the complex networks of politics and the negotiation of religious boundaries in the period. These encounters had a lasting impact on medieval systems of knowledge, literature, trade and travel, language, and cultural transmission. On the whole, the accelerated pace of exchange was accompanied by imperial projects to collect across cultures forms of knowledge. Authors such as al-Biruni and al-Yaqubi exemplify the movement to produce studies on Buddhist thought and practices. There are also a few Buddhist sources, e.g. the Kālacakratantra, which bear witness to Buddhist circles actively discussing the religious beliefs and practices of Muslims. The social, political and cultural effects of these events were felt over a period of more than six centuries and the historical memory of that past is alive today.

 

It is also a period that witnessed the decline of Buddhism and its eventual eclipse in South Asia. A key moment in the debates about the decline of Buddhism is the sacking of the Nalanda monastery complex in 1193 by Ikhtiyar al-din Muhammad b. Bakhtiyar Khalji. The destruction of this site and the decline of Buddhism has frequently been attributed to Islam and iconoclastic theology. However, in many regions in India, Buddhism declined without the pressure of any Muslim conquests. For this reason, it is equally important to explore regions that did not face direct contact with Muslim armies. Especially East India, where Buddhism remained active up to the 13th century AD, deserves special attention. Therefore, the issues of Islamic conquest and the waning of Buddhism in South Asia require further thought and revision.

This conference seeks to refine and contribute further to the understanding of the encounter between Buddhist and Muslim communities in South Asia during the medieval period. The complexity of approaching this history can be seen in the variety of sources that have to be addressed. The multitude of Indic languages and scripts, as well as a knowledge of Chinese, Arabic and Persian has left the study of the significant cross-cultural influences of this period neglected. Therefore, the organisers of this conference will bring together a variety of historians, languages specialists, art historians and archaeologists to address the subject. Due to the limited information that can be derived from written sources this interdisciplinary approach will help to further enhance the understanding of this complex period of South Asian history.

The primary questions that this conference wishes to address relate to the processes of the transmission of knowledge and inter-communal and religious perceptions. How did Muslim and Buddhist communities view each other? In what ways did their encounter lead to cultural, social and religious change of the period? What role did politics and economics play in the cross-cultural exchange?

 

A further goal of the conference is to produce an edited volume of articles on the topic of Buddhist and Muslim Encounters in South Asia.

 

Program

MONDAY 12th OCTOBER 2015

8.30-9.00 : Registration

9.00-9.30 : Welcome and Introduction

Theme 1 – Deconstructing Scholarship on Islamic/Buddhist Interactions

9.30-11.00 : Session 1

Audrey Truschke (Stanford) – “The Power of the Sword in Narrating Muslim and Buddhist Interactions”

Abhishek Amar (Hamilton College) – “Islamic State and Buddhist Monasteries in the Thirteenth Century Magadha”

André Wink (University of Wisconsin-Madison) – “Buddhism in Indian History”

11.00-11.30 : Break

Theme 2 – Cultural and Religious Exchanges

11.30-13.00 : Session 2

Abdul Samad (Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) – “Encounters between Buddhism and Islam in Gandhara: An Archaeological Perspective”

Zafar Paiman (Paris) – “L’utilisation de l’argile rouge dans les monastères bouddhiques, à Kaboul et sa region” (The Use of Red Clay in the Buddhist Monastaries in and around Kabul)

KTS Sarao (University of Delhi) – “Buddhist and Muslim Encounters in the Eighth Century Sind”

13.00-15.00 : Lunch

15.00-17.00 : Session 3

Finbarr Barry Flood (New York University) – “Islamicate Elements in Ladakhi Art: Buddhist Elites in Comparative Perspective”

Tamara Sears (Yale University) – “Wilderness Encounters: Diachronic Peregrinations and Architectural Environments in Precolonial Central India”

Suchandra Ghosh (University of Calcutta) – “Interface between Buddhism and Islam: View from Early Chittagong in Southeastern Bengal”

Persis Berlekamp (University of Chicago) – “Mongol period cultural exchange, South Asia, and manuscript illustration in the Ilkhanid realm”

19.00 : Dinner

 

TUESDAY 13th OCTOBER 2015

9.00-9.30 : Coffee

Theme 3 – Perceptions of the Other

9.30-11.00 : Session 4

Minoru Inaba (Kyoto University) – “On the Muslim Descriptions of the Bāmiyān Colossi”

Sara Cappelletti (University of Pisa) – “Muḥammad presented as an avatāra: the BuddhistKālachakra literature, the Ismaili traditions and the Ghaznavid empire”

Walter Slaje (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg) – “Buddhism and Islam in Kashmir according to the Rājataraṅgiṇīs”

11.00-11.30 : Break

Theme 4 – Transmission of Knowledge

11.30-13.00 : Session 5

Christopher Beckwith (Indiana University-Bloomington) – “The Law of Heaven and Early Central Asian Science”

Bart Dessein (Ghent University) – “Pyrrho of Elis and Medieval Western Europe: What Happened in Between?”

Heidrun Eichner (Universität Tübingen) – “Buddhism in the Works of Avicenna?”

13.00-15.00 : Lunch

Theme 5 – Politics, Trade and Economics

15.00-16.00 : Session 6

Annette Schmiedchen (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) – “Medieval Endowment Cultures in Western India: Buddhist and Muslim Encounters – Some Preliminary Observations”

Ranabir Chakravarti (Jawaharlal Nehru University) – “The Maritime Network of the Northern Konkan Coast: Meeting Ground of Buddhism and Islam (8th – 11th Centuries CE)”

16.00-16.30 : Session 7

Closing Discussion

19.00 : Dinner

 

6. Recent news from www.islamicreformlations.net

Thoughtcrimes: Politics, Communities and Security 1pm-5.15pm, 21st October 2015, jointly convened with the Department of History, University of Birmingham.  This seminar, the third in our series on the issues raised by recent counter-extremism legislation, will examine the practical implications of legislation in communities, in the workplace and in universities.  Presentations by Elizabeth Poole, Charlotte Heath-Kelly, Chris Allen and Rizwaan Sabir.  A programme is available here, together with details of how to register your attendance, and directions to the venue here.

Islamic Peace Ethics: Legitimate and Illegitimate Violence in Modern Islamic Thought, 15-17 October 2015: ITHF (Institute for Theology and Peace), Hamburg.  This workshop includes presentations by an international array of speakers, including three researchers associated with the LIVIT and Islamic Reformulations projects: Dr Sarah Elibiary (former Islamic Reformulations Research Fellow, now SOAS) on “In Quest for Legitimacy: Usul and furu’ in Modern Violent Discourses”; Dr Bianka Speidl (former LIVIT PhD student) on “The Rhetoric of Power in Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah’s al-Islam wa-mantiq al-quwwa“; Rob Gleave’s lecture will be on “Violence through Example: the use of Sunna in Shi’i and Salafi justifications for violent action”.

Conference: Reformulation and Hermeneutics: Researching the History of Islamic Legal Theory, Istanbul, 21st-24th February 2016. You can now register your interest in attending this event, through the instructions on the page here.  The conference is a collaboration between the Islamic Reformulations project and the Faculty of Theology, Istanbul University.  A first iteration of the conference programme will be available soon.

Uncovering the Divine Law in Islam: A workshop on Muslim Legal Theory 4-7th October 2015. This workshop was held in Exeter recently.  Many thanks to all involved.  A programme of the workshop is available here; the themes developed here will also be explored in the “Reformulation and Hermeneutics” conference in Istanbul in February 2015.

 

Though not directly connected to the project, the following might be of interest to colleagues on the list:

Islamic law and Ethics

8th Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies

Coinciding with the 6^th Annual Conference of

the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS)

6^th-8^th November 2015

Leiden University, The Netherlands

Programme and Details of how to register attendance:

http://isils.net/isils.net/conferences/Program2015

 

7. History of Medieval Iran

Princeton University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies invites applications for a tenure track position in the history of medieval Iran.  Research expertise may be in any period of the history of Iran and the Persian-speaking world between 1000 and 1800. The successful candidate will be expected to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in this field and to provide training to graduate students reading primary sources in the original Persian.

 

To apply, please complete an online application at https://jobs.princeton.edu. Applications must include a cover letter, curriculum vitae (including language proficiencies and teaching experience), statement of research interests, and a paper or chapter of published writing or work-in-progress. Applicants must supply the names of three referees and their contact information in their online application.  For any questions, please contact Karen Chirik (kchirik@princeton.edu).

 

The expected start date of the appointment is September 1, 2016. We will begin reviewing applications on November 2, 2015.  Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative action regulations. This position is subject to the University’s background check policy.

 

8. https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51611

 

MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position, at a rank of assistant, associate, or full professor. We seek an STS scholar with expertise in one of more of the following research areas: (1) science, technology, and society in Africa, Latin America, and/or Asia; (2) science, technology, and public policy and/or security.  Graduate and undergraduate teaching, and advising are expected.  Interest in establishing scholarly connections at MIT beyond the STS Program are desirable.

Candidates must hold a Ph.D by the start of employment.  The offer is contingent upon completion of the degree by the start date of employment.  Candidates must be able to demonstrate excellence in research and teaching.  The appointment is anticipated to begin in academic year 2016-2017.

 

9. International Colloquium: “Muslims, Sports and Physical Activity”, KU Leuven University, 7 December 2015

We would like to examine how Muslims make sense of religion and their religious identity in sportive activities and how public policies are organized vis-a-vis the needs of the Muslim populations in Europe. During this workshop we want to address a range of issues such as space, gender, social inclusion, multiculturalism, citizenship, politics of identity and secularism.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 October 2015. Information: http://gulenchair.com/articles/call-for-paper-muslim-and-sports

 

10. Conference: “How Do We See Each Other? The Abrahamic Religions and Interreligious Relations in the Past and Present”, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, Spain, 10-11 March 2016

This conference will consider interdisciplinary perspectives of how the Abrahamic religions perceive and relate to one another today, and how they have perceived and related to each other in the past.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 November 2015. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/88404/how-do-we-see-each-other-abrahamic-religions-and-interreligious

11. 2nd International Conference on Islamophobia: “From Orientalism to Islamophobia?”, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, 21-22 October 2016

Accommodation and subsistence expenses will be covered by the convenors; the participants will need to take of their own travel costs. The conference languages are English and German.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 January 2016. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/84922/cfp-2nd-international-conference-islamophobia-fribourg
 

12. 4 Two-years Postdoc Positions at New Research Priority Area: “The Making and Unmaking of the Religious”, Forum for Interdisciplinary Religious Studies, University of Göttingen, Germany

Studies will focus on discursive, institutional and materially mediated practices that constitute the religious field by (a) drawing boundaries of the religious; (b) constructing religious differences; and (c) shaping continuity and change of religious traditions. The positions are available from January 1, 2016. Applicants should be excellent researchers, holding a PhD in any relevant discipline and having a solid publication record in the study of religion. Fluency in English is required; proficiency in German is helpful but not mandatory.

Application deadline: 25 October 2015. For information contact cmeyer7@uni-goettingen.de

13. Arabic Instructor, Northwestern University, IL – www.mena.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/faculty-search.html#ArabicOpening

14. Graduate School Grants for 10 PhD Students at the “Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies”

The BGSMCS is funded by the German federal and state governments’ Excellence Initiative. It will admit up to fifteen PhD students to its doctoral programme, which is to begin on 1 October 2016. Up to ten of these candidates will receive a Graduate School grant; the other candidates will be supported in their search for funding.

Application deadline:  15 November 2015. Information: www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/en/studies/application/index.html
 

15. PhD Position in SNF-Research Project “Afterimages of Revolution and War. Trauma- and Memoryscapes in the Post-revolutionary Iranian Cinema”, Institute for Media Studies, University of Basel

The PhD position is to be filled at the intersection of Film Studies, Middle Eastern Cinema Studies and Cultural Memory Studies. It will start on February 1, 2016 for the duration of 3 years.

Deadline for applications: 31 October 2015. Information: http://direktlink.prospective.ch/?view=201D6E49-2FDD-4B43-932B102EEA87510F

1.Séminaire ‘Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien’

« Le soufisme et le salafisme au Kurdistan d’Iran : une discontinuité historique dans le discours religieux contemporain »

Séance du 8 octobre 2015, 17h-18h30

Hawzhin Baghali, doctorante, CETOBAC, EHESS, Paris

Dans cette présentation, nous nous intéressons au changement discursif religieux dans une région qui constitue de nos jours le Kurdistan d’Iran. L’histoire des régions périphériques tel que le Kurdistan  a généralement été ignoré au déterminent d’une histoire du centre. Sur la plan politique, l’Iran est connu peut être la capitale du monde chiite, tandis que la plupart de ses régions frontalières de pays sont sunnites, même que la plupart de la population kurde d’Iran. Cette dernière présente un visage sensiblement différent à par rapport à l’Iran chiite.

Les acteurs religieux dans la société kurde se présentent à travers deux discoures religieux. L’un repose sur le soufisme et l’autre sur l’islam politique. Aujourd’hui, les soufis sont considérablement marginalisés, moment où le Kurdistan était l’un des centres du soufisme depuisle  XIVe siècle jusqu’au milieu du XXe siècle. En fait l’islam soufiste représentait l’islam dominant  au Kurdistan. Mais à partir de cette date, l’islam politique émergé comme  discours dominant par une rupture historique.  Actuellement, il y’a trois groupes au Kurdistan sous la formes de groupe islamique ; Dawat va eslah-e Iran qui a  l’approche des frères musulman, Maktab-e Qoran qui veut présenter un islam kurde et les petites groupes salafistes.

Donc  en présentant de la situation de l’islam soufi et l’islam politique au Kurdistan nous nous demandons  que comment  l’islam politique a pris la place de soufisme au Kurdistan en tant que le discoures religieux dominant, de sorte que le soufisme se redéfini sous la forme du groupe politique aussi ?

Lieu : Université Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris 3, centre Censier, 13 rue de Santeuil, salle 410 (4e étage), 75005, Paris.

Organisateurs :

Matteo De Chiara (INaLCO), Denis Hermann (CNRS), Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3), Julien Thorez (CNRS).

 

2. Assistant Professor in Modern Middle East History, Murray State University – www.murraystatejobs.com/postings/4834

 

Project Director Middle East Forum, Washington – www.meforum.org/5530/job-announcement-washington-project-director
 

Assistant Professor in the History of the Modern Middle East/North Africa, Kansas State University – www.k-state.edu/hcs/jobs/openings/5609AsstProf.pdf
 

Assistant Professor in the History of the Islamic World, Furman University – https://jobs.furman.edu/postings/5290

 

Tenured or Tenure-Track (any level) Position on History of the Modern Middle East for Arab Crossroads Program, New York University, Abu Dhabi
The position is to begin in September 2016. Applicants must hold a Ph.D. by the time of appointment. Deadline for applications: 1 November 2015. Information: http://nyuad.nyu.edu/about/careers/faculty-positions.html

 

3. Summer School: “Critical Muslim Studies:  Decolonial Struggles, Theology of Liberation and Islamic Revival”, Granada, Spain, 23 May – 3 June 2016

The Center for the Study of Intercultural Dialogues is hosting this summer institute which is open to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, junior faculty as well as professionals and activists interested in any aspect of Critical Muslim Studies. This seminar is open to both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Application Deadline: 5 February 2016. Information www.dialogoglobal.com/granada
 

4. Articles on “Water Security/Sovereignty in the Middle East and North Africa” for Special Issues of “Middle East Law and Governance” (MELG)

MELG invites scholars to consider how water offers a fruitful analytic vehicle by which to reflect on and assess the governing processes and conditions between people, state agencies, and other institutions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Deadline for proposals: 30 November 2015. Information: http://pomeps.org/2015/09/24/call-for-papers-water-securitysovereignty-in-mena/
 

5. Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages

Associate Professor within Modern Iran: History, Society and Politics

Oslo

http://uio.easycruit.com/vacancy/1485798/62042?iso=no

Description

A permanent (tenure) position of Associate Professor in Modern Iran: History, Society and Politics is available at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo.

The holder of the position is expected to initiate and lead research related to historical, social and political developments in Iran in the period after 1900, to supervise PhD  and MA candidates, to participate in teaching, exam setting and evaluation at all levels, and to carry out administrative duties in accordance with the needs of the Department.  The successful candidate will play a central role in further development of high-quality research and teaching in Middle East Studies at the Department in collaboration with colleagues, and is expected to contribute to the activities at the Department’s Centre for Islamic and Middle East Studies.

Requirements

• PhD or equivalent academic qualifications with a specialization in the study of modern Iran
• The ability to use oral and written Persian language sources in research and in courses taught at all levels
• Pedagogical skills and a willingness to take active part in academic leadership and administration, see How to document your pedagogical skills 
• Personal suitability and motivation for the position

The following qualifications will be taken into account in the assessment of the applicants:

• Academic qualifications and academic production with a focus primarily on the study of modern Iran; with an emphasis on works published within the last 5 years. Originality and innovative thinking are preferred to quantity
• Ability to contribute to the teaching of courses in Persian language
• International peer-reviewed publications
• Potential to contribute to the long-term development of the academic and research environment at the department
• Positive results in external fund raising
• Pedagogical qualifications and ability to inspire students
• Interest, ability and/or experience in management and administration
• Collaborative skills and willingness to initiate joint projects
• Experience with collaboration across established academic disciplines, and ability to build international networks
• Communication and public outreach skills
• Candidates with sufficient knowledge of one of the languages of the Middle East (in addition to Persian) to be able to use it in research, may be preferred

In the assessment of the qualified candidates all criteria listed above will be explicitly addressed and assessed. The quality of published academic work, development potential and breadth of intellectual/academic interest will be prioritized in this order.

Applicants who at the time of appointment cannot document basic teaching qualifications will be required to obtain such qualifications within a two year period. The teaching language is normally Norwegian at the bachelor level, while the Master studies programme option in Middle East Studies is conducted in English. On the appointment of a candidate who is not fluent in Norwegian, Swedish or Danish, the appointee will be expected within two years to learn sufficient Norwegian to be able to participate actively in all functions the position may involve.

We offer

• salary level 60-68 (NOK 510 100 – 591 400, depending on level of expertise)
• the possibility to apply for promotion to full professorship at a later stage
• a professionally stimulating working environment
• pension agreement with Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• attractive welfare benefits

Submissions

Applicants must submit the following attachments with the electronic application form, in pdf format:

• Application letter describing qualifications
• Curriculum Vitae
• List of published and unpublished works
• Description of one or more research projects which may be relevant for the Department
• Proposed topics for MA theses (areas in which you feel qualified to supervise MA theses)

Applicants are asked to describe and exemplify the entire range of qualifications and criteria mentioned in the announcement of the post.

Selection procedure

As the first step in the evaluation process, a Selection Committee will assess all applications and invite the most qualified applicants to submit a portfolio of educational certificates and academic works (up to 10 publications, which should not exceed 500 pages in total) for further assessment by an Expert Committee. Applicants who are invited to submit academic works are asked to select three works, published within the last five years, to be considered as more relevant for the position. In longer publications (monographs), applicants may specify the relevant pages. Applicants are also asked to submit a portfolio that documents other qualifications (public outreach, teaching and supervision, and any experience with leadership and administration). The Expert Committee’s assessment shall constitute the basis for the further proceedings by the appointments board.

Finally, the most highly ranked candidates will be invited for an interview and a trial lecture.

Within his/her normal duties, and in accordance with his/her academic competence, the person appointed may also be asked to work outside his/her department. The appointment is made under the condition that the employer may change the subject area and assigned tasks according to the needs of the department.

See also Rules for appointments to Associate Professorships which includes a guide for applicants and evaluation committees.

According to the Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) § 25, Chapter 2, demographic information about the applicant may be used in the public list of applicants even if the applicant opts out of the entry in the public application list.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results.

The University of Oslo aims to achieve a balanced gender composition in the workforce and to recruit people with ethnic minority backgrounds.

If you have further questions, please contact:

• Head of Department/Professor Bjørn Olav Utvik, mailto:b.o.utvik@ikos.uio.no
• Professor Brynjar Lia, mailto:brynjar.lia@ikos.uio.no
• Senior Executive Officer Evian Nordstrand (questions on electronic application), mailto:evian.nordstrand@hf.uio.no

 

 

6. Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut – Research Collaborator (pre-doctoral, part-time)
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51737

University of Alabama – Huntsville – Assistant Professor, Non-Western
History
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51768

University of Central Florida – Assistant Professor, Tenure Track /
World Heritage
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51725

1.Manhattan College – Assistant Professor with Teaching Field in
African or Middle Eastern History
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51561

American University – Beirut – The Alfred H. Howell Endowed Chair in History and Archaeology
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51663

University of Massachusetts – Lowell – Assistant Professor of History
of the Middle East and the Islamic World
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51693

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Mellon Postdoctoral
Fellowship in the Humanities
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51694

Binghamton University – Assistant Professor, Ottoman History (c.
1300-1750)
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51664

University of Nevada, Reno – Assistant Professor, History of the
Middle East and Security Studies
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51661

 

2. Details for a session on “Social policy, Islam and Muslim Societies” at 24th World Congress of Political Science, Istanbul, 23-28 July 2016 (https://istanbul2016.ipsa.org/my-ipsa/events/istanbul2016/panel/social-policy-islam-and-muslim-societies). The deadline for submitting an abstract is the 7th of October 2015. Please submit your abstracts (250 words outlining the main question, method, findings, conclusion) through the dedicated ISA submission website (https://istanbul2016.ipsa.org/events/gateway?destination=my-ipsa/events/submit/paper).
24th World Congress of Political Science (RC30 Comparative Public Policy)

Session Title: Social policy, Islam and Muslim Societies

Organisers:

Dr. Rana Jawad, Lecturer in Social Policy, Director of Studies for MIPPA, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, United Kingdom (R.Jawad@bath.ac.uk)

Dr. Ali AkbarTajmazinani, Assistant Professor (Social Policy), Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran (atmazinani@yahoo.com)

 

With a total population of around two billion people, Muslims constitute the majority population in nearly 40 countries around the world from Morocco to Malaysia and also form a considerable part of other mixed societies. One of the most prominent features of Islamic social teachings revolves around social welfare concepts, principles, as well as strategies and solutions. However, it is not possible to portray a single picture of social policy in Muslim societies given the vast diversity of historical, political, and economic circumstances they have experienced as well as various cultural characteristics they possess. Despite these diversities, Muslim societies have to respond to more or less similar social problems with regard to family and gender issues, inequality and poverty, education and health, as well as juvenile delinquency and criminal justice. How do they deal with these issues and what is the status and role of Islamic teachings in such social policies? This session is aimed to address these broad questions and welcomes papers dealing inter alia with the following:

1. Variations in readings of Islamic social policy
2. The relation between state social policy as well as social welfare action in general and Islamic teachings
3. Historical developments of social policy in Muslim societies
4. Dominant social policy approaches in various policy domains
5. Emergent patterns of social policies as a consequence of the Arab Spring
6. Public attitudes toward social policies among Muslims

 

Dr. Ali AkbarTajmazinani

Assistant Professor (Social Policy), Faculty of Social Sciences

Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Telefax: 0098+21+22260055

Email: atmazinani@yahoo.com

Website: http://socialpolicy.ir

Webpage:http://www.atusocialscience.ir/taj%20mazinani.htm

 

3. The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Department of Asian Studies (http://asianstudies.unc.edu) invites applications for a tenure-track position in Persian studies with support from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute at the rank of Assistant Professor, to begin July 1, 2016. The Department seeks a promising scholar and teacher who will actively contribute to the intellectual mission of a research institution. Candidates must be able to teach Persian language courses at the advanced level and participate in the continued development of the Department’s program in Persian studies. Interest in developing public programs is desirable. PhD in hand or near completion in Persian studies, Persian language and literature, or related field is required. Native or near-native fluency in Persian and English and demonstrated potential for innovative scholarship are also required. Candidates whose research and teaching interests include fields such as language, literature, cultural studies, intellectual history, gender studies, visual studies, performance studies, and other related fields are encouraged to apply.  A candidate hired without PhD in hand by the date of appointment will be appointed as Instructor.

 

Qualified applicants should submit an online application at http://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/84569.    Application materials should include a detailed letter, CV, sample syllabi, and a writing sample. Paper or email applications will not be accepted.

 

Applicants will also be required to identify the names, titles, and email addresses of four professional references at the time of application.  Recommenders identified by the applicant will be contacted via email with instructions for uploading their letters of recommendation.

 

Inquiries may be sent to persiansearch@unc.edu.

 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a protected veteran.

 

Review of applications will begin November 15, 2015.  The search will remain open until the position is filled.

4. Call for Papers

Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture

ISSN: 2333-5904 (Print) 2333-5912 (Online)

Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture is a peer reviewed international scholarly journal. The journal is dedicated to the scholarly study of all aspects of Islam and of the Islamic world. Particular attention is paid to works dealing with history, geography, political science, economics, anthropology, sociology, law, literature, religion, philosophy, international relations, environmental and developmental issues, as well as ethical questions related to scientific research. The journal is committed to the publication of original research on Islam as culture and civilization. It particularly welcomes work of an interdisciplinary nature that brings together history, religion, politics, culture and law. The Journal has a special focus on Islam in Africa, and on contemporary Islamic Thought. Contributions that display theoretical rigor especially work that link the particularities of Islamic discourse to the enterprise of knowledge and critique in the humanities and social sciences, will find Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture to be receptive to such submissions.

The journal is published by the American Research Institute for Policy Development that serves as a focal point for academicians, professionals, graduate and undergraduate students, fellows, and associates pursuing research throughout the world.

The interested contributors are highly encouraged to submit their manuscripts/papers to the executive editor via e-mail at editor@aripd.org. Please indicate the name of the journal (Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture) in the cover letter or simply put ‘Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture’ in the subject box during submission via e-mail.

The journal is Abstracted/Indexed in CrossRef, CrossCheck, Cabell’s, Ulrich’s, Griffith Research Online, Google Scholar, Education.edu, Informatics, Universe Digital Library, Standard Periodical Directory, Gale, Open J-Gate, EBSCO, Journal Seek, DRJI, ProQuest, BASE, InfoBase Index, OCLC, IBSS, Academic Journal Databases, Scientific Index.

E-Publication First^TM

E-Publication First^TM is a feature offered through our journal platform. It allows PDF version of manuscripts that have been peer reviewed and accepted, to be hosted online prior to their inclusion in a final printed journal. Readers can freely access or cite the article. The accepted papers are published online within one week after the completion of all necessary publishing steps.

DOI^® number

Each paper published in Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture is assigned a DOI^® number, which appears beneath the author’s affiliation in the published paper.

JISC is inviting papers for Vol. 3, No. 2. The online publication date is December 31, 2015. Submission Deadline: November 30, 2015.

For any additional information, please contact with the executive editor at editor@aripd.org

Dr. Mohammad Reza Iravani, Azad University of Khomeinishahr & Islamic Azad University, Khomeinishahr branch, Khomeinishahr, Esfahan, Iran.

Editor-in-Chief

Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture

Website: www.jiscnet.com

________________

5. Comparative Islamic Studies,

Issue 9.1 (2013) table of contents

 

Special issue on Sufism, Pluralism and Democracy

Guest edited by Clinton Bennett and Sarwar Alam

http://equinoxpub.com/CIS

 

6. CFP – Eleventh Islamic Manuscript Conference: Sufism and Islamic Manuscript Culture (Cambridge UK)

 

The Islamic Manuscript Association—in cooperation with the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation and the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge—invites the submission of abstracts for the Eleventh Islamic Manuscript Conference, to be held from 13 to 15 September 2016 at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

 

The theme of the conference is Sufism and Islamic manuscript culture. 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

 

This invitation 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 in Magdalene College, and College-based meals for authors whose papers are accepted.

 

Papers should not have been presented or published previously. Selected papers will be considered for publication in the Association’s peer-reviewed Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, and speakers are expected to give the Journal the right of first refusal.

 

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 10.00 GMT on Monday, 23 November 2015. Please submit a cover sheet (downloadable here), an abstract of no more than 250 words, and a biographical statement (a personal statement of no more than 200 words detailing your current work, education, research interests, and previous publications or research projects in third-person prose form), to the email, fax, or postal address below. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

 

The Islamic Manuscript Association Ltd

c/o 33 Trumpington Street

Cambridge CB2 1QY

United Kingdom

Fax: +44 (0)1223 302 218

 

B. Davidson MacLaren

Executive Director, The Islamic Manuscript Association

c/o 33 Trumpington Street

Cambridge CB2 1QY

United Kingdom

E: davidson@islamicmanuscript.com

W: www.islamicmanuscript.org

 

7. The Politics of Dress and Identity in Eastern Mediterranean Societies, Past and Present

An international symposium organized by the Fitting in/Standing Out project (NWO), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the University of Salento (Lecce), and the Allard Pierson Museum (Amsterdam)

24-26 March 2016, Allard Pierson Museum (Amsterdam)

Dress plays an essential role in the presentation of the self and in the perception of the other. Clothing and headgear, as well as accessories, tattoos, and hair styles, overtly state and sometimes more subtly convey information about a person’s social standing, gender, ethnicity, regional background, affiliations, profession, or religious beliefs – in other words, about the particular position (s)he holds, or would like to show as having, at a certain moment in time within a certain group or society. Dress is also part of the negotiation of identity and status; it allows individuals to articulate, or conceal, different identities, whether these are individual or collective, imposed or chosen. Identificational changes – when entering a new phase of life or assuming a new status or role – are often marked by the rejection of certain dress codes and/or the acquisition of new ones. Similarly, transient identities can be expressed through a new or composite dress vocabulary. Although dress is usually perceived, understood, and represented as an unambiguous statement about one’s identity, it is in fact a source of many potential ambiguities. The meanings and symbolic values associated with dress are not only culturally situated; they are also dependent on the time and place, the wearer, and the audience. Moreover, they constantly change over time.

This international symposium takes an interdisciplinary, diachronic, and comparative approach to explore the interplay between dress and identity in the broader Mediterranean basin, with a special focus on Muslim societies and interconnected cultures, in both the past and present. It aims to bring together anthropologists, sociologists, historians, art historians, archaeologists, and scholars of other disciplines working on this subject, using a wide spectrum of methods – from textual to textile analysis. The study of dress and, in particular, of attempts to control the meanings of dress – whether in practice, depictions, or texts – not only has great potential for social and cultural history, but is also crucial to understand sartorial dynamics within contemporary societies. From the sumptuary laws issued in many ancient societies to the contemporary debate on veiling practices among Muslim women, dress is, and has always been, the site of competing discourses, where authority and resistance, and the interests of the community and those of the individual meet. By bridging the gap between different academic fields, this symposium aims to put perceptions of dress in the past and the present into a broader perspective.

The main themes we aim to discuss are:

• How is dress used to reify or challenge community boundaries? How do intersecting identities influence choices in dress?
• How is dress represented in visual and written sources? What is the relation between these and actual dress practices? How do these images and texts contribute to construct, reinforce, or subvert identity categories?
• How do actual garments, depictions of dress, or discourses on dress refer to the past (i.e. religious or cultural traditions) to legitimize the present?
• What role does dress play in the articulation of transient or multiple identities, for example in cases of conversion, migration, or the assumption of a new social status?
• How do political, economic, and cultural connections between the East and the West influence dress? How is exotic dress appropriated locally to negotiate status and identity?

Scholars, PhD candidates, and advanced MA students doing research related to the subject of dress and identity are invited to submit a proposal for the symposium. If application for participation has been successful the following is granted:

• Participation in the complete program, including lunches and the conference dinners;
• Not included:travel, accommodation expenses, and other meals.

The conference does not offer travel grants, but we can support applications for additional funding sought from third parties such as the Pasold Research Fund (www.pasold.co.uk)

To apply for participation applications should be send to the symposium organizers: Rosita D’Amora rosita.damora@unisalento.it or Tineke Rooijakkers c.t.rooijakkers@vu.nl

Deadline for application: Monday, 16 November 2015, 24.00 (CET)

This application includes the following:

• a title and an abstract of 300 words (max.)
• a short biography of 50 words (max.)

We intend to publish a selection of the papers presented at the symposium in an edited volume. The deadline for the submission of these articles is: Thursday, 15 September 2016.

The organizing committee: Rosita D’Amora, Tineke Rooijakkers, Bas ter Haar Romeny, Mat Immerzeel, Judith Kindinger, and Alexandra Pleşa

 

8. Workshop: “Diaspora Mobilization for Conflict and Post-conflict Reconstruction”, University of Warwick, 26-27 November 2015

 

Submission of papers is particularly welcome to provide insights about: 1) diasporic identities, 2) conditions providing political opportunity structures for transnational mobilization, 3) causal mechanisms concatenating in mobilization processes, 4) and transnational diaspora networks.

 

Deadline for abstracts: 30 September 2015.

Information:   www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/clusters/comparativepoliticsanddemocratisation/diasporas/news/

 

9. Workshop Proposals  for “7th Annual Gulf Research Meeting”, University of Cambridge, 16-19 August 2016

 

Deadline for applications: 30 September 2015. Information: http://grc.net/alerts/grm_2016.html

 

10. The University of Cambridge is seeking to appoint a University Lecturer in Modern Arabic Literature and Culture in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, to begin on 1st September, 2016. This appointment is tenure-track, subject to an initial probation period.

 

http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/faculty/jobs/arabic-literature-lecturer

11. Arizona State University seeks an instructor of advanced Persian (Farsi) to teach small groups in an intensive setting in the Washington, DC, area. Candidates must have a master’s degree or higher in second-language acquisition, linguistics, or a closely related field; possess native or near-native proficiency in Persian; be a U.S. citizen or authorized to work in the United States; and have documented experience teaching Persian to adults. Preference will go to candidates who have taught in intensive language programs and to candidates with experience teaching Persian above the intermediate level.  Salary competitive. Successful candidate will teach full time beginning no later than January 1, 2016 for remainder of federal fiscal year, with potential for renewal beyond FY2016
Applications must be received by November 2, 2015.

Candidates should send a letter in English explaining their interest in and qualifications for a short-term, intensive advanced Persian program; a CV; contact information for two references–one of whom should be able to comment on the applicant’s teaching experience; and student evaluation results, if available. Materials should be sent tomelikiancenter@asu.edu.

Background check is required for employment. Arizona State University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to excellence through diversity. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Please see ASU’s complete non-discrimination statement at: https://www.asu.edu/titleIX/.

 

1. Workshop – Armenian Manuscript Studies (Berlin, 14-18 March 2016)

We would like to inform you about our workshop on Armenian Manuscript Studies, to be held at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) from March 14th to 18th 2016. The workshop will be conducted by one of the leading specialists in the field, Prof. Dickran Kouymjian (California State University Fresno, Berberian Chair of Armenian Studies, emeritus). It is a cooperative working seminar between the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and the Martin-Luther-University Halle Wittenberg (Oriental Institute).

The participants will be introduced to the study of different codicological and paleographical aspects of Armenian manuscripts, including an overview on the history, collections and catalogues of Armenian manuscripts. Among the topics to be covered will be bindings, genres, mise-en-texte, mise-en-page, inks, illuminations and miniature paintings, colophons, scripts, periodization, provenance, etc. The theoretical part will be supplemented by hands-on sessions, in which the participants will have the unique opportunity to observe the features discussed among Armenian manuscripts in the collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

Applications, including a motivational letter, curriculum vitae, a summary of any current research project, should be sent to orientabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de or by regular mail to Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Orientabteilung, Potsdamer Straße 33, 10785 Berlin, by 15 October 2015.

14-18 March 2016, Berlin: Armenian Manuscript Studies. An Introduction (registration by 15 October 2015) http://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/fileadmin/user_upload/zentrale_Seiten/orientabteilung/pd…

 

2. Symposium – Friedrich Sarre and the Berlin Museums (Berlin, 23 Oct 2015)

Wie die islamische Kunst nach Berlin kam.

Der Sammler und Museumsdirektor Friedrich Sarre

Tagung 23. Oktober 2015

Archäologisches Zentrum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Brugsch-Pascha-Saal¸ Geschwister-Scholl-Str . 6,  D-10117  Berlin

9.30 – 10.00               Introduction

 

Friedrich Sarre und die Berliner Museen

Friedrich Sarre and the Berlin Museums

 

Chair: Stefan Weber (Berlin)

 

10.00-10.30                 Edhem Eldem (Boğaziçi University,  Istanbul)

Friedrich Sarre, Osman Hamdi Bey, Halil Edhem Bey and the Birth of the Evkaf Museum in Contantinople

10.30-11.00                 Gabriele Mietke (Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst,  Berlin)

Interests and Activities of the Royal Museums of Berlin in the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 19th century

 

11.00-11.30 Pause / Break

 

Friedrich Sarre und die Türkei

Friedrich Sarre and Turkey

 

Chair: Klaus Kreiser (Berlin)

 

11.30 -12.00                Malte Fuhrmann (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

That’s What Friends Are For: The Sarres, the Humanns, and Enver Pasha

12.00-12.30                 Patricia Blessing (Stanford University)

Friedrich Sarre and the Discovery of Seljuk Architecture in Anatolia

12.30-13.00                 Veit Veltzke (Preußenmuseum, Wesel)

“Persia – finally cleared for us”: Friedrich Sarre and the expedition Klein between the Persian lion and the Ottoman half-moon during WWI

 

13.00-14.30 Mittagessen / Lunch

 

Orientalismusmode in Berlin

Oriental Fashion in Berlin

 

Chair: Sven Kuhrau (Berlin)

 

14.30-15.00                 Anna Mc Sweeney (SOAS, London)

Arthur von Gwinner and the Alhambra Cupola

15.00-15.30                 Angelika Kaltenbach (Potsdam)

Orient meets Occident: the Aleppo-Room and the Oriental Room in the Villa Stauß

 

15.30-16.00 Pause / Break

 

Der Sammler Friedrich Sarre

Friedrich Sarre as collector

 

Chair: Barry Flood (New York/Berlin)

 

16.00-16.30                 Joachim Gierlichs (Qatar National Library, Doha)

Friedrich Sarre and his collection of Islamic Art

16.30-17.00                 Irina Khoshoridze (Georgian National Museum, Tiflis)

Collectors and Museums –Alexandre Roinashvili (Roinov) and his collection

17.30-18.00                 Eva Troelenberg (Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz)

The Masterpiece, the Golden Age and the Canon. Friedrich Sarre and the Introduction of Islamic Art History as Object-History.

 

3. University of Toronto – St. George – Assistant Professor, Islamic Art and Architecture Before 1800

http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51576

 

 

4. AUB Post: Faculty position in Modern Arabic Literature

American University of Beirut – Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages

The Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages at the American University of Beirut seeks applicants in the field of Modern Arabic Literature and Literary Theory (with special emphasis on prose genres)

The language of instruction in this department (and only in this department) is Modern Standard Arabic (fuṣḥā), but mastery of English is an essential requirement. Applicants should be well versed in both Arab and Western classical heritages, including Western literary theory. A reading knowledge of French and/or German is highly desirable, as is the ability to teach a second Semitic language or elementary Persian. Applicants must be able to teach, in Arabic, service courses in Arabic grammar and modern Arabic thought to native speakers of Arabic. Solid knowledge of the Arabic language and heritage and training in modern Western methodologies are essential.

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, a CV, and arrange for three letters of reference to be sent directly to:

Patrick McGreevy, Dean
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
American University of Beirut
c/o 3 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10017-2303, USA

Or

Patrick McGreevy, Dean
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
American University of Beirut
P.O. Box 11-0236, Riad El-Solh
Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon

Electronic submissions are highly encouraged and may be sent to: as_dean@aub.edu.lb

For best consideration, please submit all required credentials by the early deadline of 15 October 2015 and indicate whether you will be attending MESA. Applications accepted through 30 November 2015. Visiting scholars will be considered.

For more information on this position, please visit http://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/pages/academic-employment.aspx

5. Middlebury College: Program in Arabic

Tenure Track Position in Arabic

Location: Middlebury, Vermont

 

The Program in Arabic at Middlebury College announces an opening for one tenure track position at the Assistant Professor level, beginning the Fall semester of 2016. Superior language proficiency in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and English is required, and native or native-like proficiency in at least one Arabic dialect is strongly preferred. The area of specialization for the position is open.

 

The successful candidate will teach MSA courses at all levels, from beginning to advanced levels, and will also offer non-language courses in both MSA as well as in English in their disciplinary area. Candidates should hold a PhD in their area of specialization or should at least have an advanced ABD status with near-term plans for completion of a doctorate by the time of appointment. Candidates must have prior experience teaching MSA at the college level, preferably in a liberal arts college setting, and in accordance with the proficiency-based communicative approach to Arabic language pedagogy.

 

Applications for this position will be accepted starting September 18^th 2015. Review of applications will begin on November 1^st 2015, and will continue until the position is filled.

Middlebury College uses Interfolio to collect faculty job applications electronically. Email and paper applications will not be accepted. Through Interfolio, candidates should submit a letter of application addressed to the Arabic search committee. The letter should include a section addressing approaches to teaching as well as current and future research. In addition, applications should include: a curriculum vitae, graduate transcripts, and three current confidential letters of recommendation (at least two of which must speak to teaching ability/promise). Samples of written scholarship will be solicited from candidates invited for interviews.

 

Inquiries regarding this position should be directed to Usama Soltan, Associate Professor of Arabic, at usoltan@middlebury.edu. More information is available at http://apply.interfolio.com/31686.

 

Offers of employment are contingent on completion of a background check. More information regarding background checks may be found here: http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/administration/prospective_faculty/background_checks

6. CALL FOR PAPERS

International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA)

Special Issue on Imagining Localities of Antiquity in Islamicate Societies; Thematic volume planned for Summer 2017

In honor of the life of Dr. Khaled al-Asaad

Paper proposal deadline: 30 November 2015

The tragically familiar spectacles of cultural heritage destruction performed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq are frequently presented as barbaric, baffling, and far outside the bounds of what are imagined to be normative, “civilized” uses of the past. Often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism, analysis of these spectacles of heritage violence posits two things: that there is, fact, an “Islamic” manner of imagining the past – its architectural manifestations, its traces and localities – and that actions carried out at these localities, whether constructive or destructive, have moral or ethical consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In this reading, the iconoclastic actions of ISIS and similar groups, for example the Taliban or the Wahhabi monarchy in Saudi Arabia, are represented as one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically ongoing Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy localities in particular, and, more broadly, toward the idea of heritage and the uses to which it has been put by modern nationalism.

But long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, and perhaps as early as the rise of Islam itself, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. Ancient statuary were deployed as talismans, paintings were interpreted to foretell and reify the coming of Islam, and temples of ancient gods and churches devoted to holy saints were converted into mosques in ways that preserved their original meaning and, sometimes, even their architectural ornament and fabric. Often, such localities were valued simply as places that elicited a sense of awe and wonder, or of reflection on the present relevance of history and the greatness of past empires, a theme so prevalent it created distinct genres of Arabic and Persian literature (aja’ib, fada’il). Sites like Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Zoroastrian Sasanians, or the Temple Mount, where the Jewish temple had stood, were embraced by early companions of the Prophet Muhammad and incorporated into Islamic notions of the self. Furthermore, various Islamic interpretive communities as well as Jews and Christians often shared holy places and had similar haptic, sensorial, and ritual connections that enabled them to imagine place in similar ways. These engagements were often more dynamic and purposeful than conventional scholarly notions of “influence” and “transmission” can account for. And yet, Muslims also sometimes destroyed ancient places or powerfully reimagined them to serve their own purposes, as for example in the aftermath of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land or in the destruction, reuse and rebuilding of ancient Buddhist and Hindu sites in the Eastern Islamic lands and South Asia.

This special issue invites scholars from across disciplines to engage with a critical reassessment of imaginings of the past in Islamicate societies. Papers may draw on historical or contemporary examples to explore some aspect of the themes outlined here, but are not limited to them.

1. How are and were ancient place and locality used in Islamicate societies to create a sense of the past, and what are/were the routes, rituals, and performances by which the past is inscribed on the landscape?
2. How are holy sites, sites of memory, and sites of ancient heritage simultaneously construed as contemporary and situated in the present in Islamicate societies?
3. Although ISIS and other Wahhabi and Salafi groups are often said to be “medieval” in their methods and attitudes, should they in fact be envisioned as hyper-modern, both in their generation of spectacles of violence designed for viral sharing in the social media age, but also in the way they target imaginings of heritage as a cherished building block of the modern nation state and of globalized notions of “universal” values?
4. Is there a broader project of reshaping the meaning of heritage unfolding across the Islamic world? The actions of the Taliban, Wahhabi projects of destruction in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the devastation of heritage in Syria by Assad and rebel groups, and the depredations of Islamists in Mali are recent examples. Can they be considered acts of “iconoclasm” in the traditional sense? Are such acts in fact more closely related to other modern acts of heritage destruction aimed at erasing memory, for example during the Cultural Revolution in China or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia?
5. Analysis of ISIS’ destruction frequently seems to parrot the agenda of ISIS itself in ways that amplify and reinforce their message, whether through viral sharing of their slickly produced videos on social media or credulous academic and journalistic analysis that takes ISIS at its word. How can researchers analyze these hypermodern forms without re-producing and disseminating the very vision of violence that they crafted? How can we formulate an active response that goes beyond expressions of dismay and condemnation?
6. Although Islamicate societies often found ways to revere, venerate, and coexist with the considerable traces of antiquity in their midst, Muslims were also sometimes agents of destruction. What were the contexts in which Muslims destroyed localities of antiquity in the past? What meanings were claimed for such actions and how were they justified by their agents?
7. Is there an “Islamic” notion of heritage? Can the ways Muslims imagined and continue to imagine the past enable a critical interrogation of notions of universal heritage that are predominant in the broader international community?

Essays that focus on historical and theoretical analysis (DiT papers) should be a minimum of 5,000 words but no more than 8,000 words, and essays on design (DiP papers) can range from 3,000 to 4,500 words. Contributions from practitioners are welcome and should bear in mind the critical framework of the journal. Contributions from scholars of heritage history and preservation as well as scholars and critics of heritage in the broadest sense are also particularly welcome.

Please send a 400-word abstract with essay title to the guest editor, Stephennie Mulder, The University of Texas at Austin (smulder@austin.utexas.edu), by 30 November 2015. Those whose proposals are accepted will be contacted soon thereafter and requested to submit full papers to the journal by 1 June 2016. All papers will undergo full peer review.

For author instructions regarding paper guidelines, please consult:www.intellectbooks.com/ijia

 

7. TUFTS UNIVERSITY

THE ARABIC PROGRAM, and

THE INTERNATIONAL LITERARY AND VISUAL STUDIES PROGRAM

in the Department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literatures

The Arabic program and the interdepartmental program on International Literary and Visual Studies at Tufts University invite applicants for a tenure-track Mellon Bridge Assistant Professorship in Comparative Literature with a focus on Arabic literary, film, and/or visual studies of any period. The ideal candidate will provide evidence of excellent research and teaching in these topics, with a rigorously comparative and/or trans-regional emphasis. We are especially interested in candidates whose work engages comparatively with multiple languages and literatures, as well as candidates whose work develops connections between literary and/or cultural studies, understood broadly, and other disciplines or intellectual areas.

Responsibilities include teaching a variety of thematic courses for Arabic Studies, possibly in Arabic, and for the interdepartmental program on International Literary and Visual Studies. There are rich opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with other departments and programs including, Anthropology, Art History, Classics, Colonialism Studies, English, Film and Media Studies, History, International Relations, Middle Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, and Romance Languages.

This position is being supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation to promote scholarship and teaching that bridges different departments and programs in the humanities at Tufts. The successful candidate will receive an appointment as a fellow at the Center for the Humanities at Tufts (CHAT) for the duration of the pre-tenure probationary period. We seek candidates whose research and teaching has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and inclusion in higher education.

Requirements: PhD by starting date; experience and demonstrated excellence in teaching courses in relevant subjects at the university level. While this position has no language-teaching duties, a high degree of fluency in both Arabic and English is required. Fluency in a third language is a plus.

Letter of Application, CV, statements of research and teaching interests, two writing samples, and three confidential letters of recommendation should be sent via Interfolio at https://apply.interfolio.com/31867 . Further materials will be requested of short-listed applicants. The review of applications will begin on November 16, 2015, and continue until the position is filled. Questions about the search should be addressed to Professor Kamran Rastegar: kamran.rastegar@tufts.edu.

Tufts University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our faculty. Women and members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

 

8. CALL FOR PAPERS: Cambridge workshop 20-22 June 2016

 

 

St Andrews-Cambridge joint research initiative

Khamriyya as a World Poetic Genre:

Comparative Perspectives on Wine Poetry in Near and Middle Eastern Literatures.

 

 

After the success of the first Khamriyya workshop held in St Andrews in November 2014 and the Lecture Series supported by the Honeyman Foundation in St Andrews during the 2014-15 academic year, we are now launching the second workshop, to be held in Cambridge (UK) on 20-22 June 2016, supported by the Cambridge Soudavar Fund for Persian Studies and the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. The results of this collaborative research will be published in a dedicated volume or special issue of a specialised journal.

 

The organisors designed the two workshops to function as real “work”shops where shared and mutual critical assessment and open discussions will clarify the state of the question and open up new avenues of research. By opening up the participation to specialists across language and cultural boundaries, we hope to foster a better understanding of the phenomenon of wine-poetry across Near and Middle Eastern Literatures.

 

The initiative welcomes contributions exploring various aspects of wine poetry in comparative perspective of Near and Middle Eastern literatures with the focus on the following topics:

 

1. Recusancy and transgression: wine poetry challenging cultural, social and

religious norms of society,

2. Imagery and stylistics: aesthetic transformations in the history of wine poetry,
3. Adoption and transmission: wine poetry crossing linguistic and cultural borders.

 

 

In order to put together the Programme, we would be grateful if you could submit your paper abstract (400 words max) and CV by the deadline of 30^th November, 2015 at the following email address: cv223@cam.ac.uk. The organisation panel will consider the applications and respond by 15^th January 2015. The scientific committee might suggest further focusing of some of the topics in order to better serve the comparative perspective of the workshops. The language of the presentations and publication is English.

 

 

For further information please contact Dr Kirill Dimitriev: kd25@st-andrews.ac.uk

or Dr Christine van Ruymbeke: cv223@cam.ac.uk.

 

9. Séminaire ‘Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien’

 

Séance du 8 octobre 2015, 17h-18h30

 

 

Hawzhin Baghali, doctorante, CETOBAC, EHESS, Paris

 

« Le soufisme et le salafisme au Kurdistan d’Iran : une discontinuité historique dans le discours religieux contemporain »

 

Dans cette présentation, nous nous intéressons au changement discursif religieux dans une région qui constitue de nos jours le Kurdistan d’Iran. L’histoire des régions périphériques tel que le Kurdistan  a généralement été ignoré au déterminent d’une histoire du centre. Sur la plan politique, l’Iran est connu peut être la capitale du monde chiite, tandis que la plupart de ses régions frontalières de pays sont sunnites, même que la plupart de la population kurde d’Iran. Cette dernière présente un visage sensiblement différent à par rapport à l’Iran chiite.

Les acteurs religieux dans la société kurde se présentent à travers deux discoures religieux. L’un repose sur le soufisme et l’autre sur l’islam politique. Aujourd’hui, les soufis sont considérablement marginalisés, moment où le Kurdistan était l’un des centres du soufisme depuisle  XIVe siècle jusqu’au milieu du XXe siècle. En fait l’islam soufiste représentait l’islam dominant  au Kurdistan. Mais à partir de cette date, l’islam politique émergé comme  discours dominant par une rupture historique.  Actuellement, il y’a trois groupes au Kurdistan sous la formes de groupe islamique ; Dawat va eslah-e Iran qui a  l’approche des frères musulman, Maktab-e Qoran qui veut présenter un islam kurde et les petites groupes salafistes.

Donc  en présentant de la situation de l’islam soufi et l’islam politique au Kurdistan nous nous demandons  que comment  l’islam politique a pris la place de soufisme au Kurdistan en tant que le discoures religieux dominant, de sorte que le soufisme se redéfini sous la forme du groupe politique aussi ?

 

 

Lieu : Université Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris 3, centre Censier, 13 rue de Santeuil, salle 410 (4^e étage), 75005, Paris.

 

Organisateurs :

Matteo De Chiara (INaLCO), Denis Hermann (CNRS), Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3), Julien Thorez (CNRS).

 

1. CMES | The Yale Council on Middle East Studies

Iran Colloquium

Fall 2015

 

September 18                   Graduate Student Workshop

12PM                              Painting, poetry, photography: A conversation in Qajar art

Luce 203                          Shabnam Rahimi-Golkhandan, Graduate Student, Department of the History of Art, Yale University

 

 

October 2                        The Allure of the Female: Aesthetic Transformations in

12PM                               Early Modern Persianate Poetry and Painting

ISPS A001                       Sunil Sharma, Professor of Persianate & Comparative Literature, Boston University

Co-sponsored by the South Asian Studies Council

*Location change: ISPS, 77 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511 Room A001

 

 

October 16                       Self-Representation, Audience Response, and the Art of Poetry

12PM                              in the Signature Verses of Sa’eb Tabrizi

Luce 203                          Paul Losensky, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington

 

 

November 13                   From Persian nasta‘liq to Ottoman ta‘lik: Aesthetic

12PM                             dissemination and cultural appropriation of a script (1500-1700)

Luce 203                          Simon Rettig, Iran Heritage Foundation Curatorial Fellow, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

Co-sponsored by the Medieval-Renaissance Forum of the History of Art Department and The Çağatay Fund

 

 

December 4                      The Social World of “Polluted” Carpets

12PM                             Narges Erami, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Yale University
Luce 203

 

 

All lectures are in Luce Hall Room 203 unless stated otherwise. Light lunch available at all lectures.

 

The Yale Program in Iranian Studies

[Iranianstudies.macmillan.yale.edu]Iranianstudies.macmillan.yale.edu

 

Yale University Council on Middle East Studies at the MacMillan Center

Luce Hall

34 Hillhouse Avenue

New Haven, CT 06511

 

Sponsored by the Yale Program in Iranian Studies and the Council on Middle East Studies

Funded by a USDE Title VI National Resources grant

 

2. A position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Semitic Languages at Uppsala University, beginning in 2016 and with a maximum extent of four years is now open for applications. Application deadline is October 30 2015.

 

Subject area: Semitic languages, their philology, linguistics and literature have been studied and researched for over 400 years in Uppsala. Current research and teaching concentrates mostly on Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac as well as Assyriology. The diversity of the field of Semitic Languages studied in Uppsala at present means that the postdoctoral research fellow will be part of the leading hub for research and education in the subject in Sweden. Work duties: The vacancy is for a research position within the subject area Semitic Languages and includes teaching and supervision at different levels. Some administrative duties are also part of the job.  For more information, see links below.

 

Announcement in English:  Position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Semitic Languages  http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/join-us/details/?positionId=73523

 

Announcement in Swedish:  Forskarassistent i semitiska språk  http://www.uu.se/jobb/detaljsida/?positionId=73523

 

 

3.  The Birmingham Qur’an Manuscript

2-25 October 2015

Bramall Music Building, University of Birmingham

 

A Qur’an manuscript held by the University of Birmingham has been placed among the oldest in the world thanks to modern scientific methods. Radiocarbon analysis has dated the parchment on which the text is written to the period between 568 and 645 CE with 95.4% accuracy. Researchers conclude that the Birmingham manuscript is among the earliest fragments of the Islamic holy book known to survive.

 

The Birmingham Qur’an manuscript is on public display for a limited time only. The exhibition is ticketed and time slots will be allocated. For more information and to book your tickets, please visit www.birmingham.ac.uk/quran

 

Upcoming events accompanying the exhibition:

 

Unravelling the story behind the Birmingham Qur’an

Fri 16 Oct, 1-2pm

Nicolson Building, University of Birmingham

 

Explore the story behind the Birmingham Qur’an with curator Josefine Frank. Find out how the manuscript connects the 7th-century Muslim community in the Arabian Peninsula with Birmingham’s Quaker community in the 1930s. Free event, please register via http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/colleges/artslaw/events/bttf/2015/josefine-frank.aspx

 

 

4. London Middle East Institute: Forthcoming Events     To mark the start of the new academic year, we are pleased to announce the following special events which we hope will be of interest:   Friday 25 September, 5:30 pm: ISIS and the Crisis in the Middle East – A Year on Panel discussion with Professor Gilbert Achcar (SOAS), Professor Nadje Al-Ali (SOAS) and Ghias Aljundi (Syrian writer and human rights activist). Chair: Dr Hassan Hakimian (Director, London Middle East Institute). Organised by the LMEI jointly with the SOAS Students’ Union   Saturday 26 September, 7:30 pm: Live Concert by Reem Kelani The acclaimed Palestinian musician Reem Kelani performs live at SOAS   Monday 28 September, 6 pm: ISIS and the Caliphate: the uses and abuses of history Professor High Kennedy of SOAS examines how ISIS, in its periodical Dabiq, interprets early Islamic history to make its own propaganda and justify its own positions   The forthcoming October-November issue of the LMEI’s bi-monthly magazine ‘The Middle East in London’ is out at the end of the month. Featuring articles on the cultural, political, economic and other issues that affect Middle Eastern communities in London along with the most comprehensive guide to all events relating to the Middle East in London and across the UK the next issue of the magazine focuses on Endangered Languages in the Middle East. You can subscribe to ‘The Middle East in London’ magazine by becoming an Individual Affiliate of the LMEI.

 

5. Journée d’étude  – 17 octobre 2015

9h -17h30 – Galerie Colbert

Représentations des martyrs en mondes musulmans  

Fabrications des images – Présences dans l’espace public

 

Partant du constat largement partagé d’une exposition aussi nombreuse que diverse des figures de martyrs dans les espaces publics de pays musulmans, cette journée se consacre à l’étude des processus de fabrication (peintures, photographies, pochoirs, images numériques…),  des supports d’affichage (murs, musées, internet) ainsi qu’à la mise en rapport de ces productions par-delà les singularités des pays, des conflits et des mythologies, pour en interroger le sens et les évolutions.

 

Journée organisée par l’HiCSA – Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne en partenariat avec : CéSor, IIAC-LAU, IREMAM, Tehran Municipality

Adresse : Galerie Colbert – 2 rue Vivienne 75002 Paris

Entrée libre

www. hicsa.univ-paris1.fr

Contact : agnes.devictor@univ-paris1.fr.

 

6. Medical Manuscript Studies has grown, and we now have an editorial board that allows us to accept submissions from a broader area: manuscripts, papyri and early printed books in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Hebrew, Aramaic and German.

http://simonofgenoa.org/index.php?title=Medical_Manuscript_Studies

 

We accept submissions on a rolling basis. Our publications are peer reviewed.

 

We are happy to receive articles containing non-Latin alphabets, and we do not have any restrictions regarding colour photographs, tables and the like. We publish fast.

 

For all administrative intents and purposes, MMS is a normal journal. We have an ISSN, and we are being archived by the British Library. The only difference is that we don’t have a commercial publisher who makes a profit from our work. (Instead, I declared myself publisher, using my work address).

 

The main reason why I created this journal is that it is getting increasingly difficult to publish contributions that  relate to more than one subject area, e.g. ancient and medieval or Greek and Arabic. Moreover, some fields are somewhat disconnected from the history of medicine debate. Here, the prime example is Turkish.

 

Also, I wanted to create a platform that suited the needs and interests of academics, rather than the interests and abilities of some publishers. The journal appears under the simonofgenoa.org URL, which is a decent branding, as it reflects five years of solid open access research. We are Wellcome Trust funded as well.

 

Please feel free to get in touch with any further enquiries!

 

Best wishes,

 

7. Conference: “Islam in Russia”, Harvard University, 15-16 October 2015

The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies is hosting this conference. It is free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but is appreciated for planning purposes. Information: http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/events/conference-islam-russia

 

8. Lecturer in Arabic, Department of Religion and Classics, University of Rochester

This is a three-year position, subject to annual review and potentially renewable, to begin fall, 2016. Requirements: M.A. or equivalent, and native or near-native proficiency in Arabic. Ph.D. degree would be beneficial. Information: https://www.rochester.edu/faculty-recruiting/login

 

9. Director, Carnegie Middle East Center, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Beirut

Successful candidates will have recognized expertise on the Arab region; a Ph.D. in a field relevant to public policy and a distinguished publication record; proven team leadership and project management experience. Information: https://carnegieendowment.applicantpro.com/jobs/273952.html

 

10. Assistant Professor in Political Science (Focus on Middle East/North Africa), Bryn Mawr College, PA

The position will start on 1 August 2016. Deadline for applications: 7 October 2015. Information http://apply.interfolio.com/30357

_________________

 

11. Assistant Professor in Sociocultural Anthropology (Focus Middle East/Islamic World etc.), Haverford College, PA

Deadline for applications: 15 October 2015. Information: http://apply.interfolio.com/31066.

 

12. Associate or Full Professor, M.S. Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies, Ohio State University

The preferred field of specialization is pre-modern Arabic Islamic texts and traditions or classical Arabic language and literature. Information: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/6247

 

13. Research Project Coordinator of the  Islamic and Middle East Studies Centers of Duke University, Durham, NC

This positon will work with the directors of the two centers to design, develop, and carry out research projects that pull together faculty from across the university. MA or equivalent higher degree preferable; minimum 4 years experience. Information: www.hr.duke.edu/jobs/apply/external.php?pageid=search, Requisition Number 401003203.

 

14. Stipend for Doctoral Studies in the Field of History of Egypt in the Islamic Period (7 – 20th centuries), Yousef Jameel Scholarship Fund, Philipps-Universität Marburg

The Department of Islamic Studies which is part of the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) has a strong emphasis on socio-political and cultural issues but applications outside this field like Islamic Philosophy will be considered as well.

Deadline for application: 30 November2015. Information: www.uni-marburg.de/cnms/aktuelles/stellen/yousef-jameel-academic.pdf

 

15. Articles on “Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Muslim Thought” for “Journal of Islamic Thought & Civilization”

Deadline for full paper submission: 10 November 2015. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/announcements/83951/allama-muhammad-iqbal-and-muslim-thought

 

16. Palos Verdes Persian Heritage Foundation presents a two-day workshop for Persian instructors, tutors & parents:

This event has been sponsored in part by Farhang Foundation, USC Dornsife Middle East Studies-Iranian Studies Initiative, and Association of Professors & Scholars of Iranian Heritage.

 

Teaching Persian in the 21^st Century

Date: October 3-4, 2015

Time: 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM

Location: 25550 Hawthorn Blvd., Suite 300, Torrance, CA 90505

Deadline: September 21, 2015

Register at: http://www.pvphf.org or http://www.teachmepersian.com/pages/teachingpersian.php

 

To register for the workshop fill out the online application before September 21^st deadline. Please feel free to forward the announcement to interested individuals.

——————————–

 

17. The British Library: Persian and Turkish manuscripts on view in the Treasures Gallery

– See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/asian-and-african/2015/09/persian-and-turkish-manuscripts-on-view-in-the-treasures-gallery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29#sthash.UQmlDX5F.dpuf

 

1.American Councils for International Education (American Councils) is seeking Foreign Language Specialists in 10 critical languages (Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu) to assist in the development of online proficiency-based reading and listening comprehension tests in the ten target languages, across a variety of levels. We are currently looking for Passage Selectors and target language Reviewers for the project.

 

Foreign language specialist qualifications include:

1. Advanced High / ILR level 2+ or a native speaker of one of the following target languages: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu;
2. Good knowledge of English;
3. Familiarity with either ACTFL or ILR proficiency scales;
4. Experience in language proficiency testing or teaching;
5. Knowledge of proficiency considerations in teaching or research (desirable but not obligatory);
6. Demonstrates strong attention to details and thorough reviews;
7. Ability to complete assignments on time.

 

Please note that in order to participate in this project, language specialists will need to have authorization to work in the U.S. The work is part-time, contractual, and can be completed from your home computer.

 

Interested candidates should send an email message with a current resume or CV to Camelot Marshall, Ph.D. (itemwriting@americancouncils.org). All submissions will receive further information about the project, possible assignments, compensation and schedules.

 

Thank you in advance for your attention.

 

Holly Gerrity

Program Assistant, Assessment and Curriculum Development

American Councils for International Education

1828 L Street N.W., Suite 1200

Washington, D.C. 20036

T 202 833 7522

F 202 833 7523

www.americancouncils.org

 

2. The French website http://www.menestrel.froffers free academic on-line resources for the study of the Middle-Age. The section on Medieval Islam (http://www.menestrel.fr/spip.php?rubrique960&lang=fr) will soon host a page on the history of medieval Sufism and hagiographic literature. I am actually collecting all the academic (or-semi-academic) on-line projects related to Medieval Sufism. A first  first draft of my contribution can be consulted here: https://www.academia.edu/s/77d16e452d. All your feedbacks are welcome, I am especially interested in project in non-european languages.

 

Dr. Francesco Chiabotti

• University of Tübingen – Zentrum für islamische Theologie

Research Assistant

• University of Aix-Marseille – IREMAM

Associate Researcher

https://univ-amu.academia.edu/FrancescoChiabotti

francesco.chiabotti@gmail.com

 

3. 22nd International Congress of German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) combined with the 1st Section Conference of the Islamic Studies Section of the German Oriental Society (DMG), Ruhr University, Bochum, 24-26 September 2015

The conference will provide a forum for methodological exchange between the different disciplines of the humanities and the social sciences in their research on the historical and contemporary Middle East and the Islamic World. The PhD Conference offers PhD students the possibility to present and discuss their specific PhD projects with a regionally open and interdisciplinary audience.

Information: http://davo-iswidmg2015.de/en. Registration is still possible until 26 September 2015.

 

4. Conference: “Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiography 2015”, ISMC, Aga Khan University/SOAS, University of London, 25-26 September 2015

Information on the programme: www.academia.edu/15509430/Arabic_Pasts_Histories_and_Historiography_2015_programme

5. Conference: “Islam on the Prairies”, University of Saskatchewan and St. Thomas More College, Saskatoon, 13-14 May 2016

The conference aims to explore the growing presence of Islam on the prairies and in other Canadian provinces, implications of this process, and to provide a dynamic space for the presentations and discussions on issues related to Muslims in Canada.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 October 2015. Information: islam.prairies@usask.ca

6. Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

The position is to begin August 2016. Applicants are required to have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies or a related field at the time of appointment, show evidence of a strong potential for professional development as a scholar and teacher, and demonstrate a commitment to promoting diversity as a value in the department and college.

Deadline for applications: 1 October 2015. Information: https://jobs.uncc.edu/postings/5111

 

 

 

Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Arabic Language and Literature, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

The appointment will become effective July 1, 2016, with teaching duties beginning in September 2016. Candidates should have native or near-native proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic and English as well as a Ph.D in hand by the time of appointment. Area of specialty is open.

Review of applications will begin on 15 October 2015. Information: http://apply.interfolio.com/31166
 

Tenure-stream Position in Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Canada

Applications are welcome from scholars in all disciplines, who work on any aspect of the Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey, or Turkic Central Asia. Applicants whose research focuses on women, gender, and sexuality are especially encouraged to apply. Starting date: 1 August 2016.

Application deadline: 15 November 2015. Information: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/5975.

Tenure-track Position in Medieval History of the Mediterranean, Université du Québec, Montréal

Applications from Byzantinists or  Arabists  whose  research concerns the Mediterranean ambit are welcome. The position is to start on 1 June 2016.

Deadline for application: 2 October 2015. Information: http://humweb.ucsc.edu/mediterraneanseminar/news/index.php?id=507

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7. Summer School: “Reading Pleasure – Pleasure Reading: Medieval Approaches to Reading”, Swedish Research Institute, Istanbul, 23-28 May 2016

The aim is to engage with and develop specific approaches that will enable us to discuss medieval developments. Some possible themes include Persian, Arabic, Byzantine and Western literature; Middle Ages; reading and storytelling; translations; romance; drama; poetry; letters; chronography; court culture; book history; illuminations; gender studies. There is no cost for attending the Summer School.

Deadline for applications: 1 December 2015. Information: http://humweb.ucsc.edu/mediterraneanseminar/news/index.php?id=504
8. University of Toronto – Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellowship in

the humanities

http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51298

 

 

The Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies and the Gildenhorn
Institute for Israel Studies at the University of Maryland, College
Park, seek to appoint a tenure-track assistant professor who specializes
in the Jews of Muslim Lands/Mizrahi Jews in Israel. The position is open
to scholars trained either in History, the Social Sciences, Religious
Studies, or Cultural Studies, and it is part of a larger initiative to
strengthen Middle Eastern Studies on campus. The successful candidate
will have the opportunity to affiliate with other departments at the
University of Maryland, which values interdisciplinary research and
teaching. Position start date: August 16, 2016.

[more info:  https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/36553 ]

 

Columbia University – Richard Bulliet Professorship of Islamic History
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51487

 

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and modern Arabic Literature

The Department of Comparative Literature at Brown University seeks a scholar of Comparative Literature and modern Arabic literature at the rank of assistant professor (tenure track). The Ph.D. must be completed by the time of employment, and native or near-native fluency in Arabic and English is required. The field of specialization within the modern period is open. Candidates will outline their future research in Comparative Literature and modern Arabic literature, and they will also make suggestions for courses. Demonstrated excellence in both scholarship and teaching is esssential; an interest in translation theory and practice is also welcome. Please submit complete dossier, including cover letter, curriculum vitae, dissertation abstract, sample of scholarly writing, and three letters of recommendation, online at the link above by November 1, 2015. Please also indicate whether you will attend the MESA convention in November 2015 and/or the MLA in January 2016.

Application Instructions   http://apply.interfolio.com/30218

Please submit complete dossier, including cover letter, curriculum vitae, dissertation abstract, sample of scholarly writing, and three letters of recommendation, online at the link above by November 1, 2015.

 

Yale University – Full Professor in Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations (NELC)
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51493

 

Christopher Newport University – Assistant Professor of History
(Middle East and North Africa)
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=51494

9. CFP: Current Iran: Art and Culture, Harvard University (17-20 March 2016)

 

An organized seminar at the Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) held at Harvard University [Abstracts by Sept.

23, 2015; Conference March 17-20, 2016].

 

Scholars need to type “Iran” in http://www.acla.org/seminars http://www.acla.org/seminars

 

to find the name of the seminar: “Iran Is Not As It Is Told: Contemporary Persian Art and Culture”

 

After “register”, they can “propose a paper” for this seminar.

 

This seminar seeks to explore the complexities of Iranian contemporary art and

culture, discuss the religious, artistic, and sociopolitical dimension, and

trace the emergence of discourses, previously neglected by academia.

Advocating a comparative cultural approach, it aims to reflect the

competition between subversive and reinforcing discourses embedded in many

cultural products in a seemingly inflexible structure. The process of their

cultural formation reflects not only Iran’s central values but also the

continuously performing and revisionist qualities of those beliefs.

It will address new possibilities: the version of Iran produced by Iranians

themselves for (inter)national audience embedded in Iran’s post revolution

literature, cinema, music, fine art, popular culture, and advertising.

 

For further inquiries, contact organizers:  ghandeharioon@um.ac.ir,

clarkosh@umassd.edu,