Categories : Field-specific (academic)

The ‘Embodied Imamate’ Project are pleased to announce our upcoming online lecture series, “Material Culture, Art, and Architecture of Pre-Safavid Shīʿīsm,” which will begin on March 28 and will run through the end of the year.

If you would like to attend, please register by sending an email to a.santi@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

We look forward to your participation and hope to see you there.

For more information about our project and upcoming initiatives, visit our website: https://embodiedimamate.hcommons.org/

Rethinking Ta‘ziyeh:
Performance, Memory, and Space in a Shi‘a Devotional Tradition

Location: de Certeau Room (Room 335) Arts and Humanities Building, third floor, UC San Diego

Symposium Schedule
(All times in PST)
Introduction
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM
Panel 1
9:15 AM – 10:45 AM
(9:15 AM PST | 6:15 PM Switzerland | 11:00 AM EST)
Chair: Staci Gem Scheiwiller (California State University, Stanislaus)
Keynote Speaker: Elisabeth Dutton (Freiburg University) (Zoom)
9:15 AM – 9:45 AM
“Playing Satan, playing Job: A medieval Christian example, and one from the Ta’ziyeh”
Sara Khalili (Fribourg University) (Zoom)
9:45 AM – 10:00 AM
“The Fall of Lucifer and Iblis on Stage”
Hawraa al-Hasan (Cambridge University) (Zoom)
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM
“Curiosity, Culture, and Colonial Intrigue in European Responses to the Ta’ziyeh”
Keynote Speaker: Kamran Scot Aghaie (University of Texas at Austin)
10:15 AM – 10:45 AM
“Qajar Elites and the Heavy Reliance on Ta’ziyeh Rituals”
Q&A Session
10:45 AM – 11:00 AM
Coffee Break | 11:00 AM – 11:15 AM
Book Launch
11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
Lucy Deacon (Freiburg University)
“Karbala in the Ta‘ziyeh Episode: Shi‘i Devotional Drama in Iran”

Discussant: Kamran Scot Aghaie (University of Texas at Austin)
Lunch Break | 12:15 PM – 1:30 PM
Memorial for Peter J. Chelkowski
1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
Keynote Speakers:
William Beeman (University of Minnesota)
Ali Mirsepassi (New York University) (Zoom)
Coffee Break | 2:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Keynote Speech
3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Chair: Muhammad Yousuf (UC San Diego)
Keynote Speaker:
Frank Korom (Boston University)

“Recent Developments in Trinidad’s Hosay: A South Asian Ritual Complex Transplanted in the Caribbean.”
Coffee Break | 4:15 PM – 4:30 PM
Roundtable: “Rethinking Takiyeh Dawlat”
4:30 PM – 6:15 PM
Screening: Documentary: “Takiyeh Dawlat” by Alireza Ghasemkhan
Panelists:
Milad Azram (Ohio University)
Babak Rahimi (UC San Diego)
Co-sponsors: The Middle East Studies Program, Program for the Study of Religion, Department of Literature, UC San Diego

To join us via Zoom, please contact brahimi@ucsd.edu for the link and password.
More info at: https://iah.ucsd.edu/_images/PSR-and-MES-Event.jpg

https://iupress.org/9780253070869/paths-made-by-walking/

ZOOM: March 7th, 2025, 3-5 pm CET, 9-11 am EST
A conversation with Dr. Amina Tawasil (Teachers College, Columbia University) who is the author of the book Paths Made by Walking: The Work of Howzevi Women in Iran (Indiana University Press, 2024) and our discussant, Prof. Yafa Shanneik (Lund University).
The conversation will be followed by a generous Q&A session.
To register, please email Dr. Minoo Mirshahvalad mmi@hum.ku.dk

4 March, 2025 – Giorgia M. Maffioli Brigatti (Pembroke College, University of Cambridge) will present “Poetics and Politics of Fragrance: An Olfactory Approach to Safavid Paintings.”

12:00 NYC / 17:00 London / 20:00 Istanbul.

To attend, please make sure to register in advance here:
https://wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/register/abodcKZJQee8IBn42E_vSA
Upon registration, you’ll receive the link to access the lecture.

SEMINAR

TO COMMEMORATE THE MARTYRDOM OF

IMAM ALI (a.s.)

SUNDAY 9th MARCH 2025 – 2:00 PM

NEW VENUE – REGENT’S UNIVERSITY LONDON
TUKE HALL
INNER CIRCLE, REGENT’S PARK, LONDON NW1 4NS

Tube station: Baker Street

Chair: Professor Justin Jones

Justin Jones is Associate Professor in the Study of Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, and specialises in South Asian Islam. His previous published research has focused upon Shi’i Islam in South Asia, including themes such as Shi’i clerical revivalism, religious writing and practice, martyrology, and Shi’i politics. He is the author of Shi’a Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2012), the editor of The Shi’a of South Asia: Religion, History and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2014), as well as having written various articles and other publications in this field.

Gulamabbas Lakha

Developing Islamic AI: Balancing Mental Health Benefits and Theological Risks

Gulamabbas Lakha takes a multi-disciplinary approach to research and teaching at Oxford. His doctorate in Psychiatry investigates mental health applications of Islamic concepts and practices, including empirical work on depression in the UK Muslim population. He serves as a tutor in Psychology of Religion and leads seminars on Neuroscience of Religious Experience, including supervising medical students and postgraduates. In addition, he also teaches Christian-Muslim relations and psychotherapy from Old Testament and Islamic psalms, having previously undertaken research on comparative neuroimaging of dhikr and secular mindfulness practices. His first degree in Economics & Econometrics was followed by the Chartered Financial Analyst programme and subsequently founded an investment firm at which he serves as CEO. He later completed four master’s degrees, spanning Psychology and Neuroscience, Theology, Islamic Studies, History and Arabic. Following religious training over two decades, he was accredited as a Shaykh and has lectured on contemporary Islam for fifteen years.

Dr George Warner

The Blunt Arrow and the Two-Pointed Sword: Encountering Imam Ali in Early Islamic Epic

Dr George Warner is a scholar of Islamic studies specialising in Sunni-Shi’a relations, hadith, ritual, and devotional literature in Arabic and Persian. Having completed his BA and MPhil at the University of Cambridge, he received his PhD from SOAS University of London in 2017. He has previously held academic positions at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, SOAS and the University of Exeter, and is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He has published widely on diverse aspects of Shi’i Islam and its history, including his first book, The Words of the Imams: al-Shaykh al-Saduq and the Development of Twelver Shi’i Hadith Literature, which was published by I. B. Tauris in 2021.

AN OPEN INVITATION

PLEASE BE SEATED BY 2:00 PM

ORGANISER & SPONSOR: THE AHMED FAMILY – C/O MUHAMMADI TRUST (020 8452 1739)

Theology Abstracted

SEMINAR

TO COMMEMORATE THE MARTYRDOM OF

IMAM ALI (a.s.)

SUNDAY 9th MARCH 2025 – 2:00 PM

VENUE – ROYAL ACAEMY OF MUSIC

DAVID JOSEFOWITZ RECITAL HALL

MARYLEBONE ROAD, LONDON NW1 5HT

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE IN VENUE THIS YEAR

Tube stations: Regent’s Park, Baker Street

Chair: Professor Justin Jones

Justin Jones is Associate Professor in the Study of Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, and specialises in South Asian Islam. His previous published research has focused upon Shi’i Islam in South Asia, including themes such as Shi’i clerical revivalism, religious writing and practice, martyrology, and Shi’i politics. He is the author of Shi’a Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2012), the editor of The Shi’a of South Asia: Religion, History and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2014), as well as having written various articles and other publications in this field.

Gulamabbas Lakha

Developing Islamic AI: Balancing Mental Health Benefits and Theological Risks

Gulamabbas Lakha takes a multi-disciplinary approach to research and teaching at Oxford. His doctorate in Psychiatry investigates mental health applications of Islamic concepts and practices, including empirical work on depression in the UK Muslim population. He serves as a tutor in Psychology of Religion and leads seminars on Neuroscience of Religious Experience, including supervising medical students and postgraduates. In addition, he also teaches Christian-Muslim relations and psychotherapy from Old Testament and Islamic psalms, having previously undertaken research on comparative neuroimaging of dhikr and secular mindfulness practices. His first degree in Economics & Econometrics was followed by the Chartered Financial Analyst programme and subsequently founded an investment firm at which he serves as CEO. He later completed four master’s degrees, spanning Psychology and Neuroscience, Theology, Islamic Studies, History and Arabic. Following religious training over two decades, he was accredited as a Shaykh and has lectured on contemporary Islam for fifteen years.

Dr George Warner

The Blunt Arrow and the Two-Pointed Sword: Encountering Imam Ali in Early Islamic Epic

Dr George Warner is a scholar of Islamic studies specialising in Sunni-Shi’a relations, hadith, ritual, and devotional literature in Arabic and Persian. Having completed his BA and MPhil at the University of Cambridge, he received his PhD from SOAS University of London in 2017. He has previously held academic positions at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, SOAS and the University of Exeter, and is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He has published widely on diverse aspects of Shi’i Islam and its history, including his first book, The Words of the Imams: al-Shaykh al-Saduq and the Development of Twelver Shi’i Hadith Literature, which was published by I. B. Tauris in 2021.

AN OPEN INVITATION

PLEASE BE SEATED BY 2:00 PM

ORGANISER & SPONSOR: THE AHMED FAMILY – C/O MUHAMMADI TRUST (020 8452 1739)

A JOURNEY OF DEDICATION AND WONDER