Shii News – Academic Items
1. The Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University is searching to fill a tenure stream position at the rank of Assistant Professor.
We wish to hire a candidate whose research focuses on one or more of the central fields of Islamic Studies in the formative or classical period/s. We expect candidates to demonstrate innovative methodological and/or theoretical frameworks in their research. Areas of specialization may span disciplines and regions. We especially welcome applications from candidates with a commitment to the study and teaching of texts, but who are also working with texts in relation to societies, traditions of interpretation, and broader contexts.
Candidates for this position must demonstrate a solid record of research to date as well as excellent prospects and plans for future research. In addition to an innovative research portfolio, candidates are expected to show promise of excellence in teaching. They should show that they are committed to pedagogy, with an interest in how Islamic Studies is taught in a range of undergraduate and graduate teaching contexts. We are also interested in candidates who have an interest in participating in both academic and non-academic communities in various ways.
Applications should include a complete CV, a letter of application, and three academic letters of recommendation submitted via:
AcademicJobsOnline – https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/14576
The deadline for applications is 1 November 2019. All questions about this position should be addressed to the Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies and Chair of the Search Committee, Professor Michelle Hartman: director.islamic@mcgill.ca .
In their letters of application, candidates should discuss in detail how their research is innovative and contributes to the field/s and discipline/s of Islamic Studies, as well as how they might engage the current research areas and resources of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill. They also should specifically address teaching experience and innovative teaching practice. Candidates should have completed their PhD by the time of appointment. The salary will be negotiable and commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Applications should include a complete CV, a letter of application, and three academic letters of recommendation.
2. CFP: “Encounters during the Period of Crusades: History through Objects.”
We are looking for an Islamicist or Islamicists to participate in a roundtable “Encounters during the Period of Crusades: History through Objects.” The roundtable will take place at the conference organized by the Society for the Study of Crusades and the Latin East in Royal Holloway, University of London, 29 June – 3 July 2020, – 2020 ( see https://www.sscle2020.com/ ).
The roundtable’s coordinators are Richard Leson, Cathleen Fleck and Elizabeth Lapina. Its purpose is primarily pedagogical. To this end we will be posing some big questions including, for example, “What can we teach our students / general public about the period of the crusades through objects?” and “How might teaching this period with visual and / or material culture create a more effective pedagogical experience than reliance upon texts alone?”
This is a “low-pressure” roundtable event. We are interested in assembling scholars with disparate backgrounds and are asking each contributor to speak for about 5 minutes to a single object they find valuable as a teaching / outreach tool.
3. 8th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art
November 10-11, 2019
The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art
Summer break is over and we, the Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium Co-chairs, are entering a busy phase of our conference planning for The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art, the Eighth Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, to be held November 10-11, 2019, in Doha, Qatar. Panels, speakers and topics are available on http://islamicartdoha.org/2019-symposium/.
In our ongoing newsletters leading up to the symposium we are continuing to introduce to you the respective chairs and topics of the panels that will form the backbone of our conference. The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art aims to open up discourse on global connectivity through the lens of the Islamicate world and its material culture. Today I am introducing to you a panel that is rooted in the past, but has a clear resonance in today’s world.
Anne Dunlop, Herald Chair of Fine Art at the University of Melbourne is organizing a panel titled The Ilkhanate and Its Neighbors: Artistic Exchange, Overland Routes, and Maritime Trade, c. 1250-1400. Her session takes its cue from an account of Ilkhanate artistic mobility and exchange provided in the 16th-century account on the history of calligraphy by Dost-Muhammad who situates the roots of painting and calligraphy of his own time in the flourishing of portraiture and painting in “the lands of Cathay and the Franks” under the Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa’id (r. 1316-1335). For the sixteenth-century artist and writer, the awakening of the arts in the fourteenth-century Mongol lands took place in a larger and interconnected visual world. Anne Dunlop’s core point is that few moments of Islamic art history have been shaped so directly or definitively by cross-cultural movement and contact. In this light the session explores the spread and impact of Persian Ilkhanate art in Europe, East Asia, and the Indian Ocean trade basin, and the response within Ilkhanate art to new or intensified contact with these cultures. It brings together specialists in Ilkhanate, Yuan, and trecento Italian art, to create dialogue about artistic mobility and exchange between specialists of Islamic art and researchers in related fields.
Heather Coffey, Assistant Professor of the History of Art at OCAD University in Toronto will discuss the way research has looked at the spread and use of ultramarine pigment in 14th-century Italian painting and the way it may have been fetishized by Western scholars. In another paper, Shane McCausland, Percival David Professor of the History of Art in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology and Head of the School of Arts at SOAS, University of London will discuss “Art’s Agency at the Mid-Yuan Court Contemporary with the Reign of Abu Sa’id (r. 1316-1335).” Stefano Carboni will focus on an important artistic axis between the Ilkhanid and Mamluk worlds. His paper is titled “Artistic Exchanges and Overland Routes: An Exploration of the Ilkhanate’s Role in the Development and Circulation of Enameled Glass under the Mamluks.” All these contributions will provide unique angles that shed light on a variety of approaches across the seas and land. I am sure that they will add significantly to our historical understanding and evaluation of artistic movement and exchange.
In our next newsletter my colleague Sean Roberts will introduce you to yet another exciting panel. We all look forward to seeing you in November. Please contact Marisa Brown, our project manager, at mabrown@vcu.edu with any questions.
With best regards,
Jochen Sokoly
Co-Chair, 8th Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art
Associate Professor, Arts of the Islamic World
Art History Program
VCUarts Qatar
4. ANNOUNCEMENT OF AMERICAN CENTER OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH IN AMMAN FELLOWSHIPS
2020–2021
Deadline for the following fellowships is February 1, 2020
ACOR-CAORC Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Two or more two- to six-month fellowships for post-doctoral scholars and scholars with a terminal degree in their field, pursuing research or publication projects in the natural and social sciences, humanities, and associated disciplines relating to the Middle East. U.S. citizenship required. Maximum award is $32,400. Awards must be used between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2021 and Fellows must reside at ACOR. Funding for this fellowship is provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
ACOR-CAORC Fellowship: Two or more two- to six-month fellowships for masters and doctoral students. Fields of study include all areas of the humanities and the natural and social sciences. Topics should contribute to scholarship in Middle East studies. U.S. citizenship required. Maximum award is $23,800. Awards must be used between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2021 and Fellows must reside at ACOR. Funding for this fellowship is provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellowship: Up to four awards of $1,500 each to support beginners in archaeological fieldwork who have been accepted as team members on archaeological projects with ASOR CAP affiliation in Jordan. Open to undergraduate or graduate students of U.S. or Canadian citizenship as well as individuals who graduated less than 12 months before February 1, 2020 and/or have been accepted to a Graduate program for Fall 2020.
Bert and Sally de Vries Fellowship: One award of $1,500 to support a student for participation on an archaeological project or research in Jordan. Senior project staff members whose expenses are being borne largely by the project are ineligible. Open to enrolled undergraduate or graduate students of any nationality except Jordanian citizens.
Harrell Family Fellowship: One award of $2,000 to support a graduate student for participation on an archaeological project or for research in Jordan. Senior project staff members whose expenses are being borne largely by the project are ineligible. Open to enrolled graduate students of any nationality except Jordanian citizens.
Pierre and Patricia Bikai Fellowship: Two awards for one month each or one two-month award for residency at ACOR in Amman. It is open to enrolled graduate students of any nationality, except Jordanian citizens, participating in an archaeological project or conducting archaeological work in Jordan. The fellowship includes room and board at ACOR and a monthly stipend of $600.
Burton MacDonald and Rosemarie Sampson Fellowship: One award for either eight weeks residency at ACOR for research in the fields of Ancient Near Eastern languages and history, archaeology, Bible studies, or comparative religion, or a travel grant to assist with participation in an archaeological field project in Jordan. The ACOR residency fellowship option includes room and board at ACOR and a monthly stipend of $400. The travel grant option provides a single payment of $2,000 to help with any project related expenses. Both options are open to enrolled undergraduate or graduate students of Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status.
Kenneth W. Russell Fellowship: One award of $1,800 toward educational assistance for a Jordanian student enrolled in an archaeology or cultural heritage degree program in any country. For the 2020–2021 cycle, the Russell fellowship is only open to enrolled graduate students of Jordanian nationality.
James A. Sauer Fellowship: One award of $1,250 to support a graduate student participating on an archaeological project or pursuing independent research in Jordan. For the 2020–2021 cycle, the Sauer fellowship is only open to enrolled graduate students of non-Jordanian nationality.
Frederick-Wenger Memorial Endowment: Two awards of $1,500 to assist a Jordanian student with the cost of their education. Eligibility is not limited to a specific field of study, but preference will be given to study related to Jordan’s cultural heritage. Candidates must be Jordanian citizens and currently enrolled as undergraduate or graduate students in a Jordanian university.
Jordanian Graduate Student Scholarship: Four awards of $3,000 each to assist Jordanian graduate students with the annual costs of their academic programs during the period May 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021. Candidates must be Jordanian citizens and currently enrolled in either a Master’s or Doctoral program in a Jordanian university. Eligibility is limited to students in programs related to Jordan’s cultural heritage (for example: archaeology, anthropology, linguistics/epigraphy, history, conservation, museum studies, and cultural resource management related issues). Awardees who demonstrate excellent progress in their programs will be eligible to apply in consecutive years.
Please Note: NEH, CAORC, MacDonald and Sampson (residency option), and Bikai Fellows will reside at the ACOR facility in Amman while conducting their research.
Deadline for the following scholarship is February 1, 2020.
See the application instructions for this scholarship:
Jordanian Travel Scholarship for ASOR Annual Meeting: Two travel scholarships of $3,500 each to assist Jordanians participating and delivering a paper at the ASOR Annual meeting in mid-November in the United States. Academic papers should be submitted through the ASOR’s website (www.asor.org/am) by February 1, 2020. Final award selection will be determined by the ASOR program committee.
Deadline for the following scholarship is February 15, 2020.
See the application instructions for this scholarship:
ACOR Fellow MESA Award: One award of $1,000 to a former ACOR Fellow of any nationality for participation in the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) annual meeting. Eligible applicants are anyone who had previously been awarded any ACOR Fellowship (including the named fellowships and former CLS students) and their abstract has been submitted for presentation at the 2020 MESA annual meeting. The awardee must mention the award and ACOR in the text of paper, in addition to including ACOR’s logo on the “Thank You” slide. A check for $1,000 will be mailed before the meeting takes place. To apply, please submit the abstract, CV, and cover letter to usa.office@acorjordan.edu by February 15, 2020. For more information about the MESA annual meeting, please check MESA’s website: https://mesana.org/annual-meeting/
5. Pennsylvania State University – Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Arabic
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=59149
Review of applications will begin November 1, 2019.
6. The Department of Religion at Columbia University invites applications for an assistant professor appointment in the study of Islam prior to 1800.
We particularly welcome applicants whose research exhibits dynamic and innovative approaches to the study of Islam, as well as familiarity with broader debates in religious studies. Area of research and teaching specialization is open. Applicants with interests in Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan and coastal Africa are especially encouraged to apply. Position start date is July 1, 2020, Ph.D. required at time of appointment. Candidates are expected to sustain an active research and publication agenda and teach in both undergraduate and graduate programs.
For more information, go to: https://pa334.peopleadmin.com/postings/4231
Review begins 10/25/19
7. At the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studiesof the University of Vienna and the Institute of Iranian Studies (IFI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)
the position of a TENURE-TRACK PROFESSORSHIP for the field of Turkic Languages and Literatures from Early Modern to Present Time (full-time position) is to be filled.
The successful candidate is expected to be widely experienced in philological work with an historical perspective and should be able and willing to do research within the research programme of both the Institute of Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and of the University of Vienna. Successful candidates
should have the following qualifications:
- Doctoral degree/PhD and at least two years post-doctoral experience at a university or other research institution; as a general rule, applicants must have gained research experience outside the University of Vienna for a total of at least two years during or after their doctoral studies
·Outstanding achievements and potential in research, excellent publication record, international reputation
·Experience in designing and participating in research projects, ability to lead research groups, willingness to acquire third-party funding
·Enthusiasm for excellent teaching, teaching experience at universities or a teaching concept. Candidates are expected to be willing to teach students at all levels (bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral level), to supervise academic theses and to promote junior colleagues. - The application deadline is 15 November 2019.
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/subsites/Jobs/UNIWPHILKUOEAW_TT_Turk_E_0819.pdf
8. The University of Miami Department of Modern Languages and Literatures invites applications for a tenure-track position in Arabic, beginning August 15, 2020, at the rank of Assistant Professor.
The successful candidate will have native or near-native competence in Arabic and a solid command of English. In addition to the ability to teach Modern Standard Arabic through advanced L2 and heritage courses, the ability to teach upper level courses in another language (e.g., French, German, Italian, Spanish) is highly desirable. Field of specialization open to any area of modern literary or cultural studies or sociolinguistics. The candidate will be expected to collaborate with colleagues in fields such as Arabic literary and cultural studies, Maghrebian studies, gender and sexuality studies, Islamic art, and Islamic studies.
The successful candidate will have the ability to teach undergraduate courses at all levels (including upper-level Arabic Studies courses taught in English), be ready to take on a leadership role in curricular and program development and extracurricular activities in the Arabic studies program, and be willing to advise and teach students in our interdisciplinary Ph.D. program.
A strong commitment to excellence in teaching at a private multicultural non-sectarian institution should accompany solid scholarly potential. Prior teaching experience and a record of academic publications is highly desirable. Ph.D. (in Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Arabic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Linguistics, or another relevant field) must be completed by May 2020.
The review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Preference will be given to candidates whose materials are received by November 15, 2019. Selected candidates will be asked to send additional materials and will be interviewed via Skype. Please submit all application materials (i.e., letter of application, CV, transcripts) via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/68198
9. Research Assistant (Postdoctoral Position, 13 TV), Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies
The area of study includes Muslim societies in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, as well as Muslim communities in Europe and North America. The researchers examine concepts, practices, and institutions variously understood as Islamic. Special attention is given to relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as forms of inter- and intra-cultural communication.
Application deadline: 4 November 2019. Information: http://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/en/announcements/201909_Thyssen-Postdoc.html
10. Carter V. Findley Professorship in Ottoman and Turkish History, Ohio State University
The position is to begin in Autumn 2020. Rank is open, although the department’s preference is for a candidate who is a tenure-eligible assistant professor, an associate professor, or a recently-promoted full professor. Area of specialty is open.
Deadline for applications: 31 October 2019. Information: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/14660
Posted in: Academic items
- September 30, 2019
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