Categories : Field-specific (academic)

‘Shii News Chats’ aims to profile academics across the world whose research focuses on Shiism and Shii communities across the world. These thereby highlight the diversity of the researchers but also the diversity of the faith and its practitioners.
The link to these can be found on the menu along the top of the site’s main page.
The first of these is with Mara Leichtman, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Michigan State University.

The IMES research seminar of 21 March with Morten Valbjorn and Jeroen Gunning’s talk “Where Have All the (Sunni) Islamist Gone? Bridging Studies of Sunni and Shia Islamism” has been cancelled. It will be recheduled for the Autumn.

The next seminar will be on Monday March 28 at 17:15 (UK time) and will feature two presentations by IMES PhD candidates Lucy Deacon and Carlos Mendez.

Here is the link to register for this and the next talk, and obtain the zoom meeting log-in information:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlcuyvqjgvHdaSodYsuXt5D9W4T3lim0DW

Studying the Philosophy and Meaning of Ashura in Academia: Historical and Contemporary Issues
Thursday, March 17, 2022, 12:30pm to 2:00pm

Abstract:
Within academia, there has been much research done on Ashura and its centrality in Shi’a Islam. However much of the field has focused on particular communal or ritual manifestations with less emphasis on the rich philosophical and theological interpretations of Imam Hussain’s life and legacy found in diverse Muslim societies throughout time. To move the literature forward, this panel addresses the question: how can the philosophy of Ashura and the values underpinning Imam Hussain’s actions be more deeply understood and investigated in academia from various disciplinary approaches? How can we study the values, meanings, and philosophy of Ashura? What is the field of Islamic or regional studies lacking in this regard and what can we do as scholars and academics to help rectify these challenges in the state of the field?

Speakers:
Syed Akbar Hyder, Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Islamic Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Karen Ruffle, Associate Professor of History of Religions and the Study of Religion, University of Toronto
Nicholas Boylston, Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Seattle University

Register here.

The Al-Mahdi Institute is pleased to announce that the deadline has been extended for the call for paper for the 1st AMI Graduate Islamic Studies Conference.

The conference is aimed at graduate students at the masters level working in the field of Islamic studies with the aim of providing those intending to pursue a career in research and academia with an opportunity to gain experience presenting at a conference and to network with like minded peers.

Students enrolled on a masters programme (taught or research) in any discipline at the time of the conference at any university or institution in the United Kingdom are invited to submit abstracts on any topic in Islamic studies, broadly conceived as the study of Islam and Muslim societies.

The conference will be held in-person at the Al-Mahdi Institute between Saturday the 28th May and Sunday the 29th May 2022. Provisions are in place should the conference be required to move online due to changes in public health guidance.

The new deadline for submissions is 23.59 GMT on the 18th March 2022. Abstracts sent after this date will not be considered.

There are arrangements in place for accommodation. Further information on this will be provided when the abstracts have been selected. The cost and arrangement of travel is the responsibility of each person attending. Participants are encouraged to speak to their respective universities who often offer financial support for attending conferences.

For those selected to speak but who will face financial difficulties attending, please email the conference convenor. Lunch and dinner will be provided for each conference participant thanks to the hospitality of the Al-Mahdi Institute.

Further details can be found at the following link: https://ami.is/gc

National Museum of Asian Art
Tuesday, March 15 at 12 pm EST, please join us for “Fit for a Palace: The Craze for Safavid Carpets in Seventeenth-Century Europe” with Jessica Hallett.
In the fifteenth century, the city of Venice was the principal gateway for the arrival of highly valued knotted-pile carpets with geometric designs from the Ottoman Empire. When the Portuguese opened the sea route to India in 1498, Asian carpets became more accessible to consumers in Europe. In Iran, the Safavids decided to seize the opportunity and capture this new overseas market. A revolution occurred in Safavid production with the rise of an urban carpet industry that reacted swiftly, embarking on innovative changes to materials, colors, designs, and dimensions to compete with cheaper Turkish carpets. In Europe, a craze ensued as the elite looked to substitute their old-fashioned geometric carpets with new floral ones, turning the floors of their palaces into gardens. In this talk, Jessica Hallett, curator of the Middle East and China at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, will address how the synergy between makers in Iran and consumers in Europe created this “craze.”
Jessica Hallett was guest curator for Iraq and China: Ceramics, Trade and Innovation at the National Museum of Asian Art (2004). She has curated many exhibitions in Lisbon, since then, including The Oriental Carpet in Portugal at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (2007) and The Rise of Islamic Art at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2019), both of which were awarded national prizes. Her publications include various academic articles and catalogues on ceramics, textiles, and carpets as well as the book Mamluk Glass in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (2000). She is currently preparing with Clara Serra a catalogue of Gulbenkian’s renowned carpet collection.
Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_I6w65FMNQtqOrQgSnzy17Q
For more information please visit our events page: https://asia.si.edu/events or contact us: AsiaScholarlyProgram@si.edu

Al-Mahdi Institute is pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the 10th Annual Contemporary Fiqhi Issues workshop on “The Institution of Marriage in Islam and Modern Society” is now open.
The workshop will be held over two days on 21st and 22nd July 2022 at Al-Mahdi Institute (Birmingham, UK).
Deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 15th April 2022.
Find out more.. https://www.almahdi.edu/events/marriage-in-islam/