Shii News – Academic Items
1. Vacancies at CISS (Londson)
Job Title: Research Interns (x3)
Working For: Centre for Islamic Shi’a Studies (CISS)
Location:London
Charity number:1142811
Salary: Voluntary. Reasonable expenses reimbursed (part-time).
Job Details:
The Centre for Islamic Shi’a Studies (CISS) is a non-profit research centre founded in 2007 as the academic body of the Alridha Foundation. Alridha Foundation is an independent, international, charitable, non-governmental organisation with projects and events relating to youth, education, academic research, community support and international aid work.
The CISS specialises in the study of intellectual traditions and scholarly outputs articulated by persons or entities committed to the Shi’a Islamic faith, and/or persons or groups concerned with Shi’a Islamic milieus of past and present. We also aim to offer an informed and scholarly perspective on traditional and contemporary issues that affect Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
We are currently recruiting 3 part-time interns for our current research programme, which aims to produce comprehensive research and recommend efficient and effective policies for lawmakers. Our research will focus on compiling a detailed history of Shi’a Islam, including biographies on traditional and contemporary Shi’i scholars – looking at their history, experiences and contributions, alongside a historical study of the Akhbari and Usuli split in Shi‘ism. Our research will also explore contemporary issues facing Muslims, both in the Middle East and the West, including Islamophobia, sectarianism, demographics and human rights.
CISS is looking for candidates with enthusiasm, flexibility, an inquisitive mind and the ability to apply high standards of judgement. They will need to work efficiently, effectively and accurately – a keen eye for detail is essential. Teamwork is a key feature so candidates will need to have a collaborative mentality and at the same time be able to focus on their own individual tasks. Previous research experience is highly preferred. Candidates must have excellent writing skills, including being able to write concisely to an academic standard.
Whilst there is flexibility regarding the numbers of days per week, interns should be prepared to commit to a period of 3-6 months. As we share our building with a school, successful applicants will be required to pass a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Closing Date:1 February 2016
Interview/Start Dates: All applications will be reviewed upon receipt and interviews may be conducted before the closing date. Final interviews will be conducted in the week commencing 1 February 2016.
Application Details: Applicants interested in applying for a role should send a CV and covering letter to internship@shiastudies.org specifying why they are suitable.
2. SEMINAIRE ‘SOCIETES, POLITIQUES ET CULTURES
DU MONDE IRANIEN’
SEANCE DU 21 JANVIER 2016, 17h-19h
Agnes Korn, Chargée de recherches en Linguistique au CNRS, Paris
« Le bashkardi, une langue peu connue du sud de l’Iran (si c’en est bien une) »
Le terme bashkardi désigne un groupe de dialectes parlés au sud de l’Iran, non loin du détroit
d’Ormuz ; il s’agit d’une région peu accessible même pour les citoyens iraniens. C’est peut- être
aussi pour cette raison que le bashkardi a été assez peu étudié jusqu’ici : il y a deux esquisses de
quelques pages, mais on ne possède ni une grammaire ni un dictionnaire ou glossaire. La
documentation du bashkardi est d’ailleurs chose urgente puisque l’influence forte du persan est
en train de l’assimiler à la langue nationale, surtout sur le plan de la syntaxe.
Cet exposé présentera mes recherches actuelles sur le bashkardi (menées en coopération avec Behrooz
Barjasteh Delforooz / Uppsala, Suède) et les défis de la description d’un groupe de dialectes si
divergents que leur origine commune semble plutôt invraisemblable
Johnny Cheung, Maître de Conférences à l’INALCO, Paris
« La recherche actuelle sur la religion et littérature de la communauté des Yézidis,
quelques observations préliminaires »
La communauté des Yézidis, s’exprimant surtout en kurde, du dialecte kourmandji, habite dans
plusieurs pays ou régions du Proche Orient (Irak, Turquie, Syrie), du Caucase (Géorgie,
Arménie), et depuis récemment, en Europe (Allemagne et Suède principalement). Malgré une
assez longue histoire de marginalisations et de persécutions, les Yézidis ont préservé leur
identité, leur culture et leurs coutumes religieuses spécifiques. L’expression “Adorateurs du
Diable” par laquelle les désignent leurs voisins musulmans sunnites et chrétiens révèle une vision
négative voir même hostile de cette communauté.
Pour cette intervention je présenterai les théories, anciennes et modernes, sur l’origine
multifactorielle de la foi des Yézidis et comment leurs chants de prière, appelés “qewl”, aident
les chercheurs à (re)découvrir cette population mal connue.
Lieu : INaLCO, 65 rue des Grands Moulins, salle 413 (4e étage), 75013, Paris.
Organisateurs : Matteo De Chiara (INaLCO), Denis Hermann (CNRS), Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3 – CNRS), Julien Thorez (CNRS).
3. Call for Papers
Pahlavi Iran, 1941-1979:
A Global History Workshop
London School of Economics and Political Science
19 May 2016
Sponsored by the LSE Kuwait Programme and the British Institute of Persian Studies
The LSE Middle East Centre invites submissions for a one-day workshop on the global history of Pahlavi Iran at the London School of Economics on 19 May 2016.
In the four decades that passed between the Allied wartime occupation of Iran in 1941 and the fall of the Pahlavi monarchy in 1979, Iran was slowly transformed from a battleground of Cold War competition to a major regional and global actor. The Pahlavi state and Iranian society both witnessed profound social, cultural, and economic changes as rising oil revenues fuelled the developmental goals of the White Revolution, while global movements of ideas and activism shaped the growing opposition to the rule of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The roots of contemporary Iran, and the challenges and opportunities it presents, lie in those formative four decades that culminated in the political and social earthquake of the Iranian Revolution.
We seek applications from advanced graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and non-tenured faculty working on all aspects of Iran’s global history in the Pahlavi era from 1941 to 1979. Papers could examine Iran’s place and impact in the world, or the impact of global forces within Iran itself. We welcome submissions on a variety of topics spanning the cultural, diplomatic, intellectual, political, and social history of late Pahlavi Iran, with a common focus on global issues, forces and questions that transcended Iran’s borders. We particularly welcome submissions in three broad areas: 1) the international and transnational relations of Pahlavi Iran; 2) oil, development, and modernisation in Pahlavi Iran; and 3) ideas, culture, and dissent in Pahlavi Iran. Workshop participants will receive feedback at the closed-door workshop from three commentators: Roham Alvandi, Associate Professor of International History at the LSE; Houchang Chehabi, Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University; and Cyrus Schayegh, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
Applicants should submit a 300-word abstract and CV by email to the workshop convenor, Dr Roham Alvandi <r.alvandi@lse.ac.uk>, by 1 February 2016. Abstracts should indicate what sources your paper will draw on, as well as the global dimensions of your research. We anticipate selecting nine workshop participants, each of whom will receive funding for return economy air or train travel to London, and one night’s hotel accommodation. Participants will be asked to submit an 8,000-word working paper ahead of the workshop in London. Following the workshop, having received feedback on their work, participants will be invited to revise and resubmit their papers for publication as an edited collection.
For further information, please see: http://www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/vacancies/Pahlavi-Iran-workshop-.aspx
4. The upcoming conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies will be held August 15-18, 2016 (11-14 Av, 5776) at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee (USA), to be hosted by Prof. Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman.
We would encourage our members from Europe and North America to register.
This is the final call for papers for the 2016 conference. Please send your submissions to Phil (mailto:phil.lieberman@vanderbilt.edu), with a copy to Sarit Noy at Ben-Zvi Institute (mailto:mbz@ybz.org.il).
Please provide an English title and short abstract (not to exceed 250 words). The normal time slot for papers will be 20 minutes plus10 minutes for discussion. Please let us have your topic by January 31, 2016. There is no overriding theme for the conference as a whole. Any paper related to the field may be submitted.
5. International Studies Librarian (African, Middle Eastern, and/or South Asian Studies), University of Iowa
https://jobs.uiowa.edu/pands/view/68234
6. Teaching Opportunities at Sciences Po/Kuwait
www.sciencespo.fr/psia/sites/sciencespo.fr.psia/files/Kuwait_Chair_at_SciencesPo_Call_2016.pdf
<http://www.sciencespo.fr/psia/sites/sciencespo.fr.psia/files/Kuwait_Chair_at_SciencesPo_Call_2016.pdf>
www.sciencespo.fr/psia/sites/sciencespo.fr.psia/files/KSP_Visiting_Faculty_2016-2017.pdf
<http://www.sciencespo.fr/psia/sites/sciencespo.fr.psia/files/KSP_Visiting_Faculty_2016-2017.pdf>
The Kuwait Program at Sciences Po (KSP) is a partnership between
Sciences Po and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.
Working together, the two institutions are supporting teaching and
research of excellence in the social sciences and the humanities with
special emphasis on the study of the Arab World and the Gulf Region.
www.sciencespo.fr/psia/kuwait-program
<http://www.sciencespo.fr/psia/kuwait-program>
7. Conference: “Women, Empowerment, Citizenship and Development”, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Manchester University, 28-29 January 2016
Postgraduate candidates are invited to submit proposals/papers addressing modes of gender and sexuality in and around the Middle East and North Africa, as they are manifested in political, social, economic, educational, literary and artistic contexts. Please send your papers/proposal and a 50-word biographical statement to sarah.tafakori@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk.
Deadline for submission: 23 January 2016. Information: http://www.casaw.ac.uk/news-events/women-empowerment-citizenship-and-development-28-29-january-2016/
8. Symposium: “The Idea of Iran: Renewal in the Age of Post-Mongol Prestige”, SOAS, University of London, 20 February 2016
This symposium explores the cultural complexities of reinventing the idea of Iran during the period of extreme political decentralization, focusing on aspects of cultural longevity and fluid transformations in light of the competing cultural, political, and religious aspirations in the post-Mongol world.
9. Conference: “101 Years of Research in the Oasis of Bukhara – Looking Forward to New Venues”, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, 11 March 2016
The conference seeks to address the interplay and entanglement of the political, geographical, climatic, and economic factors in the history of the Oasis of Bukhara, within the contexts of the larger empires. Geo-sciences and history are connected on the ground with archaeology. The aim is to develop a new dynamic historical model on historical, political, and economic system of the oasis.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 February 2016. Information:
www.islamic-empire.uni-hamburg.de/en/news-and-events/conferences/bukhara-hofstra.html
10. Conference: “Avenues of Social and Political Change: Five Years of Contention in the Middle East and North Africa“, City University of New York, 8 April 2016
Five years after the eruption of mass protests across North Africa and the Middle East, citizens of these countries now live under contrasting conditions. This conference will explore current possibilities that have been opened up through and in the aftermath of the grassroots uprisings that have swept through the region since 2011 and the sustained struggles for these arenas as well as the counter-efforts that have attempted to constrain and constrict them.
Deadline for abstracts: 5 February 2016. Information: ascmenaconference@gmail.com
11. Session at the Royal Geographic Society Annual Conference: “Sacred Stuff: Material Culture and the Geography of Religion”, London, 30 August – 2 September 2016
We want to explore how material things offer alternative narratives about religious communities and what religion means to its adherents; how material objects are designed, created, appropriated or travel; what affects the decay, damage and necessary repair and maintenance of religious things have on religious engagements and experiences; what role material things play, and have played, in both the contemporary geographies and past histories of religious institutions.
Deadline for abstracts: 8 February 2016. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/106481/sacred-stuff-material-culture-and-geography-religion
12. Conference: “Mutual Imaginings of Europe and the Middle East (800-1700)”, Barnard College, New York, 3 December 2016
Bringing together art historians, literary scholars, historians, scholars of the history of science, and scholars of religious thought, this interdisciplinary conference will explore the real and imaginary cultural interchanges between Europe and the Middle East during their formative periods.
Deadline for abstracts: 10 April 2016. Information: http://humweb.ucsc.edu/mediterraneanseminar/news/index.php?id=597
13. Conference: “Outcast Voices: Reflections on the Marginalized, the Exiled and the Secondary in Classical and Modern Arabic Culture”, University of Haifa, Israel, 10-12 January 2017
The Department of Arabic Language and Literature seeks to encourage reflections on marginalized, exiled and secondary voices, persons, groups, thoughts, arts, language and trends in classical and modern Arabic culture.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 April 2016. Information: http://arabic.haifa.ac.il/images/random/random_2016/Call_for_Papers_OUTCAST__VOICES_Jalal.Masud.pdf
14. Doctoral Dissertation Summer Workshop: “Researching Lebanon”, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 13-24 June 2016
By bringing together PhD students of various disciplinary training and topical foci, this program creates a space to interrogate, modify, and develop critical approaches to the study of Lebanon. Central to this process is increasing students’ familiarity with the contours of knowledge production as well as field research in Lebanon.
Deadline for application: 15 February 2016. Information: www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/23504/call-for-applicants_doctoral-dissertation-summer-w
15. Summer Seminar: “Transcending Boundaries: The Ottoman Empire, Europe and the Mediterranean World, 1500-1800“, Washington, DC, 20 June – 15 July 2016
This four-week seminar offers an opportunity to college and university professors (and two advanced graduate students) to integrate stimulating approaches toward Ottoman, Mediterranean and European history. Seminar participants who have broad research and teaching interests in comparative history will develop skills and knowledge that will enable them to integrate the Ottoman Empire into their projects and courses.
Deadline for application: 1 March 2016. Information: http://grants.smcm.edu/neh-summer-seminar-2016/
Posted in: Academic items- January 18, 2016
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