Shii News – Academic Items
1. New Exhibition – “Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads” at the Aga Khan Museum
The Aga Khan Museum is proud to announce the new exhibition Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads, which opened to the public on October 9th.
The exhibition is a collaboration with the Book and the Silk Roads (BSR) Project led by Alexandra Gillespie and based at the University of Toronto.
Please visit both the museum and the digital exhibition.
We look forward to sharing these Hidden Stories with you!
Filiz Çakır Phillip (Hidden Stories co-curator, Aga Khan Museum)
Suzanne Conklin Akbari (Hidden Stories co-curator and BSR co-Principal Investigator, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
2. DECOLONISING KNOWLEDGE ON EURO-MEDITERRANEAN RELATIONS
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE | THURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2021, 11am CEST
Panelists will discuss the relevance and implications of “decolonising knowledge”, while also addressing Euro-Mediterranean relations in the present.
Information and registration: https://www.dipstudistorici.unito.it/do/avvisi.pl/Show?_id=j0kg
3. ONLINE Conference: “Ignaz Goldziher and His Correspondents: Islamic and Jewish Studies around the Turn of the Twentieth Century”, Universität Göttingen, 12-13 November 2021
This correspondence of over 13,000 letters constitutes the single most important source informing about the history of Arabic, Jewish, and Islamic studies and cognate fields during Goldziher‘s time.
Information, program and registration:
4. Colloque : « Islam et altérité : Quelle théologie islamique du pluralisme religieux ? », l’Institut Catholique de Paris, 19-20 novembre 2021
Ce colloque porté par le Laboratoire de recherche « Islam et altérité » permettra de dégager les lectures et les principes théologiques en islam qui président aujourd’hui pour rendre compte du pluralisme religieux. Il interrogera la manière dont est pensé le lien entre unité et diversité.
Information et inscription : https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/billets-islam-et-alterite-quelle-theologie-islamique-du-pluralisme-religieux-164822407257?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
5. Workshop: “Travel, Mobility, and Cultural Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa”, South-east Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 9-10 April 2022
We invite paper proposals from any discipline in the humanities or social sciences that address topics relating to travel and mobility in, to, and from the MENA region in any historical era.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2021. Information: https://mesana.org/resources-and-opportunities/2021/10/22/call-for-papers-travel-and-mobility-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa
6. Conference: “Gramsci in the Middle East and North Africa”, London School of Economics, 9-10 May 2022
Antonio Gramsci has emerged as a popular theorist in work focused on resistance, revolution, popular move-ments, capitalism, political economy, memory, temporality, transnationalism and internationalism. In the wake of 2011 there is a significant revival in Gramscian perspectives in Middle East Studies. How can his work help us make sense of a moment marked by a significant expansion in resistance and uprising.
Information: https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/news/gramsci-in-middle-east-conference
7. HYBRID Workshop: “The Making and Unmaking of Identities in the Early Modern Mediterra-nean”, European University Institute, Florence, 12-13 May 2022
When and how did people across the Mediterranean defend their identitarian boundaries? When did show-ing/claiming an identity become a necessity? When did people lose their identity? We anticipate new insights from reconsidering these terms and demanding attention to the concepts of difference and diversity in differ-ent political and religious groups.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 December 2021. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/8617952/cfp-making-and-unmaking-identities-early-modern-mediterranean
8. Call for Applications for scholarships and places in our doctoral programme
Deadline: 1 November, 2021, 12 noon CET
The Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies will admit up to ten PhD fellows to its three-year doctoral programme, which is to begin on 1 October 2022. The Graduate School is a joint institution of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, which brings together scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and area studies. The Graduate School investigates the plurality, changeability, and global connectedness of Muslim cultures and societies. Successful applicants will have a master’s degree in Arabic Studies, Central Asian Studies, History, Human Geography, Iranian Studies, Islamic Studies, Political Science, Semitic Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, South and Southeast Asian Studies, or Southeast European History.
Deadline for applications: 1 November 2021. Information: https://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/application/call_for_applications/index.html
9. Research Associate (Postdoc, 3 Years) in Oriental or Classical Studies: Ruhr University Bochum
Your task: Translation and commentary of the treatise Naḥw al-qulūb (‘Grammar of the Hearts’), written by the Arab-Persian Sufi Al-Qushayrī (376-465 AH = 986-1072/73 CE). Your profile: PhD in Oriental or Classi-cal Studies; Language skills: Arabic (excellent), Latin (desired), Experience in the field of digital processing of historical text sources (appreciated):
Deadline for applications: 31 October 2021. Information: https://www.stellenwerk-bochum.de/jobboerse/postdoc-tv-l-e-13-100-bochum-210920-491841
10. Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship (2 Years), Northwestern University
We welcome applications from early career scholars whose work focuses on non-dominant and underrepre-sented groups including but not limited to religious, ethnic, and LBGTQ minorities and otherwise marginalized groups. Scholars in all branches of the Social Sciences and Humanities may apply.
Deadline for applications: 13 January 2022. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/8661283/call-applications-keyman-modern-turkish-studies-postdoctoral
11. Winter School on “Variations in Populism”, Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS), Doha, 3-13 January 2022
I aims to provide an in-depth and critical look at selected topics in the broader study of the Middle East. For participating early career scholars, it provides an opportunity to network with regional scholars, gain substan-tive knowledge and insight unavailable in their home institutions and countries, and receive feedback from respected scholars. Funding of travel expenses available.
Deadline for applications: 30 October 2021. Information: https://www.dohainstitute.org/en/Events/Winter-School-Third-Round-2022/Pages/index.aspx
12. Summer School for Doctoral Students on “The Qur`an in Inter-Christian Polemic”, Nantes, 13-17 June 2022
How have Christian authors in Europe used and appropriated the Qur’an? We are interested in how the Qur’an was used as a historical and linguistic archive, as a mine of heretical ideas and as a tool used in confessional rivalries.
Deadline for proposals: 15 December 2021. Information: https://mailchi.mp/mediterraneanseminar/summer-school-the-quran-in-inter-christian-polemic-nantes-13-17-june?e=82aeb6c61d
13. New Book Series: “Cinema and Media Cultures in the Middle East” (Peter Lang Publishing)
The purpose of this series is to demarcate and critically examine the shifting terrain of film- and media-making in the Middle East, and of practices of film and media studies regarding it, testing them both against their larger, social enabling conditions at the national, regional, and transnational levels.
Please send your book prospectus to Terri Ginsberg (Concordia University, Montréal) terri.ginsberg@con-cordia.ca . Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/8688549/cinema-and-media-cultures-middle-east
14. Upcoming Arabic Calligraphy Talk and Workshop at the Warburg Institute
A Bridge Between – The Art of Arabic Calligraphy – Online talk (4th November) & In-person workshop (11th November)
How can the art of Arabic calligraphy offer a bridge between the material and the spiritual? The visual and the verbal? As a living tradition, Arabic calligraphy is a vital element of Islamic art. In this way, it offers an important platform for discussing the nature of, and intersections between, language, art and belief. The early development of Arabic calligraphy was intimately tied not only to the emerging civilisation of Islam, but also innovations in writing materials and shifting perspectives on geometry and cosmology. Over centuries, Arabic calligraphy has evolved from its pre-Islamic conception to the modern styles of writing that are in use today. The styles and techniques that were codified and elaborated through Arabic calligraphy’s evolution continue to be taught. This two-part event series is made up of an online talk and small in-person workshop. In the online talk, Soraya Syed will describe her journey and practice as a calligrapher, drawing on both her experience as an apprentice in Istanbul and a practicing artist in London. In the small in-person workshop, Soraya will introduce participants to the materials used in calligraphy and teach them its foundational techniques.
Soraya Syed is a classically trained calligrapher, artist and filmmaker. She is considered the first Briton to receive the coveted icazetname, or calligraphy license, from Istanbul in 2005. She is part of an unbroken silsila, or chain of transmission, that goes back centuries. While embracing traditional techniques and materials, her recent practice incorporates new digital media. In this way, Soraya continually works to push the boundaries of what is expected from this traditional art form.
The online talk takes places on Thursday November 4th, 6-7.30pm GMT. More information can be found here: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/arabic-calligraphy-lecture.
The in-person workshop takes place on Thursday November 11th, 5.30-7pm GMT. More information can be found here:https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/events/arabic-calligraphy-workshop
This workshop is limited to 15 participants – please book ahead to avoid disappointment.
Both events are free and open to the public thanks to the London Arts and Humanities Partnership.
15. Fall 2021 AMECYS Graduate Student Discussion Series
The Association of Middle East Children and Youth Studies (AMECYS) welcomes you to listen and engage with graduate students who will present on their research on young people in the Middle East and North Africa, and its diasporic communities. The format of the sessions is thirty minutes of presentation by the speaker followed by thirty minutes of discussion and Q&A with the audience. The AMECYS Graduate Student Discussion Series is intended to be a space for graduate students to share their cutting-edge research as well as workshop their dissertation material.
Please RSVP to Dylan Baun to attend (djb0035@uah.edu) and receive the zoom link
Friday December 10th, 11 am CST
Melis Sulos, PhD candidate, Graduate Center – CUNY
Power, Architecture, and Childhood in Turkey: The case of Children’s Palace
This paper focuses on an innovative architectural structure, Cocuk Sarayi (Children’s Palace), in Ankara in the 1930s. It attempts to locate the transformation of children’s spaces within the politics of social hygiene and modernity in the 1930s. How, for instance, did the Children’s Palace serve the medicalization of the childrearing practices in post-war Turkey? And, how did it act as a performative and symbolic space shaping the imagery and the iconography of the nation state? Putting together visuals and pamphlets, I try to discuss the influence of architectural and spatial reorganization on the history of childhood in early republican Turkey.
16. Online Conference: Expectations of justice and political power in the Islamicate world (ca. 600-1500 CE)
28 and 29 October – Online Conference
Speakers: Or Amir, Sean Anthony, Nasrin Askari (Keynote), Mustafa Banister, Enki Baptiste, Linda Darling, Sébastien Garnier, Hanna-Lena Hagemann, Najam Haider, Angela Isoldi, Büşra Kaya, Noëmie Lucas, Taryn Marashi, Christian Mauder, Aseel Najib, Marta Novo, Rana Osman, Marina Rustow, Deborah Tor.
Expectations and notions of just rule
In the Islamicate world, as elsewhere, requests for just rule surface constantly as notions of justice are debated and contested. Exemplary rule can be sought in direct and open ways, through entreaties and demands, but also subversively through irony, flattery and satire. Expectations of justice can be pursued through reform or revolution, or via secession, utopianism and millenarianism. Participants will present case studies discussing how just rule was defined and what actions and reactions it precipitated in specific historical, geographical and cultural contexts.
To view the programme see: https://emco.hcommons.org/events/event/970/
To sign up to attend the Zoom meeting mail: emco@hum.leidenuniv.nl
17. Invitation to 6th IDHN Conference on November 17, 2021
We would like to invite you all to attend the 6th IDHN Conference on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. Please find the full program of the conference as a pdf attachment below. You are welcome to share the program and invite interested colleagues and students.
We will hear four exciting presentations:
Metin M. Coşgel, Emre Özer, and Sadullah Yıldırım: Gender and Justice: A Quantitative Analysis of Women’s Participation and Victory in Ottoman Courts
Wafa Fatima Isfahani: Tracing Genealogies: Using Network Analysis to Model the Spatiotemporal Distribution of Sufi Orders
Noëmie Lucas, Clément Salah, and Chahan Vidal-Gorène: RASAM – A Dataset for the Recognition and Analysis of Scripts in Arabic Maghribi scripts
Sohaib Saeed: Al-Rāzī’s Great Exegesis: Can text reuse detection solve a longstanding debate over his sole authorship?
The Zoom link to the event will be shared with you in a separate email on November 15, 2021.
Members of the IDH Network do not have to register in order to receive the link. If you are not a member of IDHN but wish to attend the event as a guest, please register by sending us an email at registration@idhn.org.
18. Online Seminar – Islamophobia and Racism in the Secular University: An Examination of the Muslim Student Awarding Gap (Edge Hill Research Seminar 28th Oct)
Dr Reza Gholami
28th October 12 noon (Online)
More info: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/education/research/events/
Book via: https://forms.office.com/r/hEqfQ6gUCK
This paper engages with a dominant model of Islamophobia which gives race and racism primacy. It argues that such an approach is parochial, conceptually narrow and practically ineffective. I take as my case the UK’s Muslim student awarding gap – Muslims are currently the worst performing religious group at UK universities. Existing work explains this problem in terms of racism/Islamophobia. These factors are correctly identified, but a lack of analytical precision around race and religion has led strategies to fall back on ‘standard’ and largely ineffective ideas.
I argue that racial and religious disadvantage must be understood separately, though intersectionally, through Critical Race Theory and the concept of ‘religification’. Such an analysis sheds light on how institutional approaches to race and religion play a key role in the structuration and perpetuation of educational disadvantage for Muslim students. It also paves the way for more effective strategies for eradicating the awarding gap.
Reza Gholami is a Reader in Sociology of education at the University of Birmingham where he is also the Deputy Director of the Centre for Research in Race and Education (CRRE). His research interests are Islamophobia and racism in education as well as community-based forms of education. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Senior Research Associate at the UCL Institute of Education. He earned his PhD in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS, University of London, where he also conducted postdoctoral research funded by the AHRC working with diverse youth and community organisations in London to improve educational and citizenship outcomes for young people. Currently, he is leading an ESRC-funded project working with non-formal educators in Birmingham to develop innovative educational materials to foster intercommunal learning.
Reza is the author of numerous books and articles in his field including co-editing the book Education and Extremisms: Re-Thinking Liberal Pedagogies in the Contemporary World (Routledge 2018). He also regularly appears in national and international media, including featuring in the BBC Radio 4 documentary ‘The Corrections’ about the Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse’ affair.
Posted in: Academic items
- October 26, 2021
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