Shii News – Academic Items
1.De-centering the Global Middle Ages
February 8-9, 2019, University of Michigan
The Department of History and Medieval and Early Modern Studies Program at the University of Michigan invite proposals for a February 8-9, 2019 symposium, “De-centering the Global Middle Ages.”
This symposium will contribute to the burgeoning body of scholarship on the meaning of the “medieval” and “Middle Ages” in increasingly interdisciplinary and cross-regional conceptions of the premodern world.
This symposium invites researchers to consider scholarly perspectives of the “global Middle Ages” by presenting research and resources that address the connectivity and mobility of the globe c. 500-1600 CE. What work does the idea of “the Middle Ages” do in our scholarship, and what do we gain from a shared or comparative notion of the medieval? Papers and presentations will aim to contribute to a more inclusive view of the premodern world that de-centers European interpretations of the Middle Ages and recognizes dynamic globalisms. A keynote address will be delivered by Valerie Hansen (Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Yale University), specialist in premodern China and Silk Road Studies, whose current book project is entitled: The World in the Year 1000: When Globalization Began.
Faculty and graduate students are welcome to apply to deliver a lightning talk + complementary paper and/or a primary source-based research presentation. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words.
Lightning Talks
The symposium will hold two panels of lightning talks (8 minutes each) based on short, pre-circulated papers (approx. 4 pages) summarizing current work on globalized conceptions of and connections within the medieval world. Lightning talks will engage field- or region-specific conceptualizations of “the medieval/Middle Ages.”
Roundtable discussions with respondents will follow.
Primary Source-based Research Presentations
Submissions will also be accepted for 15- to 18-minute research presentations, each focused on a particular medieval primary source (text, image, object, etc.) that is useful for thinking in comparative or global perspectives. The source (an image or a selection from the source) should be pre-circulated to attendees.
Each talk will be followed by a moderated discussion.
All presenters are asked to submit a brief bibliography (5-10 entries) on resources related to their lightning talks or research presentations. After the symposium, these bibliographies will be uploaded to the Global Middle Ages Project website (http://globalmiddleages.org/, University of Texas at Austin) and contribute to the development of a canon of literature on the global Middle Ages.
Deadline: September 17, 2018
How to Apply:
Applications should be submitted in PDF form to conference organizers Paula R. Curtis (prcurtis@umich.edu) and Amanda Respess (arespess@umich.edu by September 17. Those submitting both lightning talks and primary source presentations should prepare separate abstracts. Please include the following information:
Name:
Affiliation:
Faculty/Graduate Student/Independent Scholar:
Field:
Regional Specialization:
Proposed Format (Lightning Talk/Primary Source Presentation):
Abstracts of no longer than 300 words.
Notifications of acceptance will be made by no later than October 15, 2018.
This symposium is made possible by the generous support of the University of Michigan Department of History, Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, History of Art Department, Department of English Language & Literature, Asian Languages and Cultures Department, Slavic Languages & Literatures Department, Near Eastern Studies Department, Center for Japanese Studies, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, Forum on Research in Medieval Studies, and the Japanese Studies Interdisciplinary Colloquium.
Contact Email:
2. CfP: Empires of Pleasure across Eighteenth-Century Cultures Chair: Dipti Khera – New York University
Chair: Meredith S. Martin – New York University
Email: dipti.khera@nyu.edu, msm240@nyu.edu
Now one of art history’s most vibrant subfields, the eighteenth century has played a key role in the discipline’s global turn and in re-thinking conventional histories of art, empire and Orientalism. By tracing the increased circulation of people and objects in different parts of the world, scholars working on this period have highlighted new conceptions of knowledge, aesthetics, power and sociability. Furthermore, they have ensured that formerly devalued concepts tied to eighteenth-century practices and patrons – among them luxury, pleasure, leisure, femininity, sensuality, wonder, hybridity, and consumption – be taken seriously. Yet while the physical exchanges of eighteenth-century artworks, peoples, and things from around the globe has been the subject of recent scholarly inquiry, less attention has been paid to conceptualaffinities – notably a mutual emphasis on pleasure and decline – that existed between disparate geographical and cultural locales. For instance, how might we enrich or complicate the story of eighteenth-century art and culture by putting Indian or Chinese paintings of palace gardens in dialogue with French fêtes galantes? Our contention is that these kinds of global comparisons will not only yield a richer formal and conceptual understanding of each type of artwork, but will also enable us to ask larger theoretical and methodological questions related to the common grounds they share. By examining how intertwined histories of pleasure and power were mediated across local, trans-regional, or intercultural contexts, we hope also to contribute to scholarly debates beyond art history and to encourage new research projects and teaching agendas.
For instructions to submit paper abstract (250 words), see, http://www.collegeart.org/programs/conference/cfp
You may contact panel chairs for any questions. Deadline: August 6, 2018
3. The Royal Lens: Naser Al-Din Shah’s Photography of His Harem (July 2018)
By Pedram Khosronejad
Hardcover: 352 pages
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.1 x 8 inches
Khosronejad’s unique collection provides us with a treasure trove of images focusing on the daily life of Naser al-Din Shah, his wives, concubines, and slaves of both sexes.
Janet Afary, Mellichamp Professor of Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara.
Pedram Khosronejad has provided invaluable new information about the history of photography in Iran during the 19th-century Qajar period. In particular he has carefully researched the photographs taken by Naser al-Din Shah, perhaps the Qajar monarch most fascinated by Western technology. These intimate photographs of his own harem are unique and highly informative, not just for their intrinsic value in a period in which human images were disapproved of, but also for what they reveal about Naser al-Din Shah, his self-image, his household and his court.
William Beeman, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/099948012X?ref=cp_d_n_u
4. From the Understanding Sharia (www.usppip.eu) project:
- USPPIP Autumn School (Leiden, 11-17 November) applications: The USPPIP project held a successful “Uses of the Past in Islamic Legal Thought and Practice” summer school held in Exeter (8th-14th July – report to follow). To follow up on this, the project will be holding a second “Autumn School”, to be held at Leiden University, 11th-17th The format will be the same (peer review of chapters/articles and collaborative translation of primary source texts). The deadline for applications is quite soon, Wednesday 5th September 2018.
- “Uses of the Past in Islamic Law” Project Conference, 27th-29th September, Exeter, will be held in Exeter, . A list of panel titles and a preliminary programme is available and the final list, with all the participants and titles of papers will be available in late August.
- HERA fellow Judge Samoud al-Damiri and workshop on Islamic International Law: There was a very successful series of lectures and a workshop at the University of Göttingen, including the presentations of the HERA fellow Samoud al-Damiri, a Palestinian judge, and the workshop on Islamic International Law – 26th-29th Report (with pictures!) can be found here.
See http://www.usppip.eu/ for further information.
- USPPIP Postdoctoral Fellow Success: It is with great pleasure we announce that two of our post-doctoral fellows have recently been appointed to academic positions, following on from their work with USPPIP: Dr Omar Anchassi has been appointed as the Early Career Fellow in Islamic Studies in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. Dr Eirik Hovden has been appointed Lecturer in Arabic at the University of Bergen. Congratulations to them both.
USPPIP Project Director:
Robert Gleave
Professor of Arabic Studies
Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam
E-mail: r.gleave@exeter.ac.uk
Posted in: Academic items- August 04, 2018
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