Shii News – Academic Items

1.City in the Desert, Revisited: Oleg Grabar at Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, 1964-71

Christiane Gruber and Michelle Al-Ferzly, with a foreword by Renata Holod

Kelsey Museum, 2021

An interactive PDF of the book is available for free download through the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology website, myumi.ch/0WvOk

 

 

 

2. Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law and Practice
Volume 17 Issue 1 2021, ISSN 2633-6626

The issue can be read or downloaded at:

https://www.electronicpublications.org/catalogue/253

 

 

 

3. Position in the Institute of Islamic Studies, Faculty Lecturer in Persian Language

McGill University

Position Description:This position is a Faculty Lectureship in Persian Language. The appointee will be responsible for all elements of the Institute of Islamic Studies’ Persian language program. This includes teaching Persian at all three levels offered to graduate and undergraduate students. The Faculty Lecturer also coordinates and manages the program.
Job Duties: The coordination, teaching, and implementation of all elements of the Persian language program, including teaching to graduate and undergraduate students at the Institute of Islamic Studies.
Qualifications and Education Requirements:MA or PhD in Applied Linguistics or relevant related degree required. Competence in teaching elements of Iranian and Persianate culture/s is not required but will be an advantage. French is an asset.
Faculty/Department/Unit:Institute of Islamic Studies
Job Type:Contract Academic Staff (Academic Contractual)
Rank:Faculty Lecturer
Length of Appointment:Three (3) years [August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2025]
Salary:Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Posting Period:Please submit your application by December 1, 2021 

Contact persons:  Professor Michelle Hartman, Director (IIS)   –director.islamic@mcgill.ca (academic) or anne.farray@mcgill.ca (administrative) queries.
Required Documents: • Cover letter and curriculum vitae   • Statement of teaching philosophy (MAX: one page) • Names and contact information of three (3) referees (to be contacted later) • Further information may be asked in the application process including: lesson plans, recorded class sessions, a remote interview and/or other material.​Please submit your application using Workday – the link to apply is here: https://www.mcgill.ca/hr/careers .  Use a personal email address when creating an account in Workday to submit your application. Do not use @mail.mcgill.ca or @mcgill.ca email accounts to apply.  See here How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) – McGill Academic & Administrative HR Knowledge Base_KB – Confluence
Advertisement in English:
https://mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/mcgill_careers/job/Morrice-Hall/Faculty-Lecturer–Persian-Language-_JR0000018907
Advertisement in French:https://mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/fr-CA/mcgill_careers/job/Morrice-Hall/Faculty-Lecturer–Persian-Language-_JR0000018907

 

 

 

4. Online seminar – 1 December 2021 – The Power of Documents: Passports and ID Cards

AKU-ISMC

Governance Programme Dialogue Series 2021/2022: Population Surveillance, the Body, and Mobility
The series examines twenty-first century population surveillance (ID cards, passports, checkpoints, and policing) in the Global South and/or spaces of its intersection with the Global North. It examines how population surveillance has been transformed through new technologies, whilst also seeking to uncover continuities with the colonial past/present. It asks how do forms of population surveillance today affect the body, movement, and power?

Lecture 2 – The Power of Documents: Passports and ID Cards
Passports, ID cards, birth certificates, and other material artefacts are crucial to how we navigate the world today. New computerised and biometric technologies also mean documents carry significant amount of personal information and data on them. Join us in this session as we discuss how states uphold regimes of deportation through documentation and databases, the politics behind how documents are designed, and the greater capacity for state control over the body.
Speakers

Mahmoud Keshavarz is a Senior Lecturer in Design Studies at HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design, University of Gothenburg. Keshavarz is the author of The Design Politics of the Passport: Materiality, Immobility, and Dissent (Bloomsbury 2019).

Nisha Kapoor is Associate Professor in Sociology at Warwick University. Her research interests are broadly concerned with racism and the security state covering topics relating to immigration, citizenship, criminalisation, Islamophobia, segregation and authoritarianism. Theoretically, she draws on critical race, postcolonial, and political theory to assist in the undertaking of this work. Her current research, still in its early stages, explores the role surveillance processes and technologies play in bordering practices in different national contexts (UK, India). She is the author of Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism (Verso 202).
Moderator

Sai Englert is a lecturer in the Institute for Area Studies. Sai Englert works on political economy and development in the Middle East, with a focus on settler colonialism and settler labour movements. Authored works include Settlers, Workers, and the Logic of Accumulation by Dispossession, Antipode 52(6): 1647-1666.
Date and Time

Wednesday 1 December 2021, 17:00 – 18:30 (London).
Registration

Join us online via Zoom by registering here.

 

 

 

 

5. ISLAMIC ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE MUSEUM
Nadia Abu El-Haj, Barnard College/Columbia University

Renata Holod, University of Pennsylvania

Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, National Museum of Afghanistan

Alison Gascoigne, University of Southampton

Christian Greco, Museo Egizio, Turin

Ahmed Adam, University of Khartoum
Friday, November 5th, 11:00am ET

PLEASE NOTE: The US adopts winter daylight saving time slightly later than other regions. As a result, for this one event the time differences from New York vary slightly. This event begins at 11am New York time (15h London, 16h Lagos/Berlin, 17h Cairo/Beirut, 18h Addis/Istanbul, 20.00 Islamabad, 20.30 Delhi)
[Webinar] Silsila Fall 2021 Lecture Series

Expectations regarding the context and value of excavated material vary across the fields of Islamic archaeology and museology, fields with competing epistemologies and theoretical approaches. Focusing on practices of excavation and display, this panel aims to explore the often-contentious relationships between these fields. The topic is especially relevant to a moment when the colonial and racist legacies of the academy and the museum have come under increased scrutiny. The presentations will explore the implications of archaeological research conducted by museums, the legacies of such projects, and their relevance to contemporary discussions regarding the exhibition of archaeological material from the Islamic lands. A central aim is to explore the potential meaning of context, extending the term to the modern life of objects and to the human relations enabled by it.

Full details of the event and a link to register as an attendee can be found at:

https://as.nyu.edu/silsila/events/2021-2022/islamic-archaeology-and-the-museum.html

Only registered attendees will be able to access this event

 

 

 

6. Webinar Series – SOAS Research Seminar in Islamic Art

We are delighted to say that we are able to start the SOAS Research Seminar in Islamic Art (ReSIA) again, after the pause last year due to the pandemic. Thank you for all your requests for the seminar to resume.

The seminars will take place on the Zoom platform, at least for the moment, and because of the logistics related to Zoom the time will be 6 pm (instead of the usual 5.30 pm), London time.

You will have to register with Matty Bradley at mb@royalasiaticsociety.org who will then send you the Zoom link to access the seminar.

Our first three seminars are:

Thursday 25th November, 6pm with

Sohelia Sokhanvari – In the Age of Delirium

Abstract: This presentation will cover Sokhanvari’s artwork and explain the ideas behind how the female image has become synonymous with Iran’s ideologies. Including some of the latest works for her upcoming major solo show in 2022, she will present the story of the struggle of female cultural icons against the backlash from the conservative reactionaries and explain how after the revolution their voices were silenced, and their images banned. Sokhanvari will introduce the techniques employed in her paintings and drawings, such as the medieval process of egg tempera on calf vellum and the Iranian crude oil on paper, and will highlight how the material itself carries a strong political message that has been a matter of debate in the media.

Thursday 2nd December, 6pm with

Natasha Morris – The King and I: Qajar Portrait Miniatures

Abstract: Both portable and precious, bejewelled portrait miniatures of the Qajar Shahs were given as both diplomatic gestures and for the endowment of favour within the court. In being extensively worn and displayed on the male body, they became symbols of reverence, embodiment and fraternity. Whilst there are obvious parallels with the European production of portrait miniatures of notable persons, there are stronger links to local conceptualisations of both image and subject, specifically Shi’i traditions of portable, idealised portraits of Imams (shemayel). These glittering mementos, therefore, reveal not only a self-contained dynastic vision that could be charted in mise-en-abyme from the chest of one Qajar ruler to the next, but they also pertain to notions of the iconic and an inherently devotional attachment to a male image of power. In being passed with reverence from one man’s body to another, portrait miniatures implicate concepts of masculinity, charisma and authority that are both regal and religious.

Thursday 16th December, 6pm with

Maximilian Hartmuth – The phenomenon of ‘Oriental rooms’ in Central European residences, museums, and exhibitions, ca. 1850 to ca. 1930 – Historicity, materiality, aesthetics

Abstract: In the Europe of the long 19th century, ‘Arab’ or ‘Turkish’ rooms were far from uncommon in residences of aristocracy and bourgeoisie. Interiors with (real or alleged) provenances in Islamic lands were also exhibited at museums and fairs. There, they purported to offer insight into an alien dwelling culture. Whereas some ‘rooms’ were shipped from Damascus or Cairo, others purported to be authentic takes on their style. Occasionally, an original and an original supplement became amalgamated. This paper will present findings of a recent conference and publication venture, conducted in the context of ERC project #758099. It brought together researchers and curators to ruminate about the place of Central Europe in this international phenomenon, bringing to light (again) several truly fascinating cases. I will survey some of these cases, discussed in greater detail in a volume (“Gezimmertes Morgenland [etc.]”) published this year, with additional reflections about patterns and logics of reception, design, and appropriation.

Hope to see many of you at the events.

 

 

 

7. Online Symposium – Bektashism in the Southern Balkans – 30-31 October

BEKTASHISM IN THE SOUTHERN BALKANS: 

Online Symposium in Memory of Efstratios Zeginis

Organisers: Paschalis Androudis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) & Dimitris Loupis (Harvard University)

To register send an email to dimitrisloupis@gmail.com. Zoom codes will be sent prior to the symposium.

Note: Times are Saturday [Athens, GR (UTC/GMT +3 hours)] & Sunday [Athens, GR (UTC/GMT +2 hours)]

 

DAY 1  Saturday 30 October 2021

OPENING REMARKS 

16:00 – 16:15 Paschalis ANDROUDIS – Dimitris LOUPIS: The study of Bektashism in the Southern Balkans and Efstratios Zeginis

16:15 – 16:30 Chrysanthi ZEGINI – Nikolaos ZEGINIS: Our father Efstratios Zeginis and his work

SESSION A – BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION (Chair: Dimitris LOUPIS)

16:30 – 16:50 Levent KAYAPINAR: The stages of development of Bektashism in the Ottoman Period

16:50 – 17:10 Rıza YILDIRIM: Balım Sultan and the institutionalization of the Bektashi Sufi order

17:10 – 17:30 Aggeliki ZIAKA – Ioannis MYLONELIS: Bektashism, Balkan Islam and the work of Efstratios Zeginis

17:30 – 17:50 Ayşe KAYAPINAR :The process of the formation of heterodox understanding and its centers in the Balkans

17:50 – 18:20 Questions – discussion

SESSION B – SEYYID ALI SULTAN. MOVING BEKTASHISM TO THE BALKANS (Chair: Paschalis ANDROUDIS)

18:30 – 18:50 Yeliz TEBER: Tracing the life of Kızıl Deli from Anatolia to Thrace

18:50 – 19:10 Ali YAMAN – Mehmet ERSAL: The role and Importance of Seyyid Ali Sultan (Kızıl Deli) and the ocak founded on his behalf in the Alevi-Bektashi communities

19:10 – 19:30 Ayfer KARAKAYA-STUMP: A new perspective on the Çelebiyan-Babagan division within Bektashism

19:30 – 20:00: Questions – discussion

 

DAY 2 Sunday 31 October 2021

SESSION C – BEKTASHI SITES FROM ANATOLIA TO THRACE (Chair: Paschalis ANDROUDIS)

16:00 – 16:20 İkgül KAYA: The lodge of Seyyid Battal Gazi in the context of social continuity in a confraternity

16:20 – 16:40 Dimitris LOUPIS: Reshaping rural and urban space. Bektashi dervish settlers along the Via Egnatia in Western Thrace

16:40 – 17:00 Ayşegül KILIÇ: The impact of Bektashism on the Ottoman settlements in the Southern Balkans. Ottoman dervish lodges of Feres and their role at the security strategy

17:00 – 17:20 Aikaterini MARKOU: Sharing sacred places. The Case of two shared Muslim/Bektashi-Christian sanctuaries in Greek Thrace

17:20 – 17:40 Vanessa R. DE OBALDÍA: Megalo Dereio / Büyük Dervent Cemevi: The first official cem house in the Thracian lands of the Hellenic Republic

17:40 – 18:10 Questions – discussion

SESSION D – BEKTASHI SITES IN THE BALKANS (Chair: Dimitris LOUPIS)

18:20 – 18:40 Theodora IOANNIDOU – Evangelos Ath. PAPATHANASSIOU: Islamic graffiti in a Christian church: An unknown episode in Kastoria’s History

18:40 – 19:00 Paschalis ANDROUDIS: New historical and archaeological evidence on two 15th century Βektashi tekkes in Thessaly: Hasan Baba in Tempi and Durbalı Sultan in Asprogeia, Pharsala

19:00 – 19:20 Dragi GJORGIEV: Some traces of crypto-Christianity and links between Bektashism and Christianity on the Balkan Peninsula (XVI-XIX centuries)

19:20 – 19:50   Questions – discussion

CONCLUDING REMARKS

19:50 – 20:20 Paschalis ANDROUDIS – Dimitris LOUPIS

Organised under the aegis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Society for the Study of Greek Orthodox East, the Greek Committee & Center of South-Eastern European Studies, and the Seminar of Ottoman Language and Palaeography.

E-flyer:

https://www.academia.edu/59896055/BEKTASHISM_IN_THE_SOUTHERN_BALKANS_An_e_Symposium_in_Mem…

Posted in: Academic items