Shii News – Academic Items
1. Jameel Scholarships
The Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK is a leading academic institution for research and teaching about Islam and Muslims in Britain.
We have 1 International PhD Jameel Scholarship and 2 UK PhD Jameel Scholarships in British Muslim Studies available for suitably qualified students with an innovative and significant PhD proposal.
The PhD is based at the School of History, Archaeology and Religion and supervised by the Islam-UK Centre at Cardiff University.
We are seeking exceptional applicants with a First Class or high Upper Second Class Honours Degree or Masters’s Degree (or equivalent).
Research proposals are invited on topics that clearly align with the research interests and expertise of staff at the Islam-UK Centre. Proposals must demonstrate exceptional academic merit, potential and relevance to Muslims in the UK.
Relevant areas of research interest include:
- Islam and Public Life
- Islam in Prison and Rehabilitation
- Islam and the Media
- Muslim Religious Professionals including Chaplaincy and Imams
- Mental Health and Islam
- Pastoral Care and Pastoral Theology
- Imams and Religious Leadership
- Islamic Law in Britain
- Religious Authority, Revival Movements, Tradition, and Modernity in Britain
- Islam and Muslims in Wales, British Muslim History
- Socio-economic inequality amongst British Muslims
- Mixed methods research
- Muslim Women and Islam
The scholarship is funded by the Jameel Foundation.
How to apply
For further details on the scholarship and information on how to apply, please visit the PhD studentships and projects webpage.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 23:59 Monday 3 July 2023.
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/centre-for-the-study-of-islam-in-the-uk/study/jameel-scholarships
2. Science Communication, Islam and Muslim Communities
A lecture on Muslim perceptions of science hosted by the Institute for STEMM in Culture and Society (ISTEMMiCS) and the Science and Technology Cluster in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Policy, University of Birmingham
29.6.23, 6.30 pm UK time.
While there have long been lively discussions about gender and racial inclusiveness in science communication, Muslims, one of the UK’s most marginalised populations, have largely been ignored. This is despite Muslims being a group whose members are often described as being especially resistant to science, with news media regularly claiming they stand in opposition to everything from evolution to COVID regulations.
In this public lecture, Stephen H. Jones will use a range of data to look at what British Muslims really think about science and at the question of whether, and how, science communicators should engage Muslim members of the public. Drawing on a new research project hosted at the University of Birmingham, ‘Science and British Muslim Religious Leadership’, the lecture will offer particular insight into Islamic authorities’ role in arguing for and against scientific theories and how they approach issues such as human origins, organ donation, and engaging with secular society.
This lecture is free to attend. Refreshments and snacks will be provided. You can register at the following link:
3. CHSTM working group on Medieval European Medical Manuscripts, Monday 12 June: Ayman Atat on Arabic manuscripts as witnesses of pharmaceutical knowledge
CHSTM working group on Medieval European Medical Manuscripts takes place next week, Monday, 12 June, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm BST/11:00 am to 12:00 pm EDT. We are very pleased to welcome Dr Ayman Yasin Atat (Technical University of Braunschweig).
* Please note that we are meeting on a Monday rather than our usual Thursday slot! *
To join the working group and receive the Zoom link, visit
Ayman Yasin Atat (Technical University of Braunschweig), ‘Manuscripts as Storytellers. What Could Manuscripts as Witnesses of Pharmaceutical Knowledge Tell Us? A Case Study of Rawḍat al-ʿiṭr Manuscript’
4. Bloomsbury Webinar:
‘Presentism in Teaching History: A Live Webinar with Professional Historians’
26 June, 10 am ET/3pm UK time
The trend of presentism in history has caused sufficient controversy over the past year to garner mainstream media coverage in The Atlantic, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and more.
Join six professional historians and go beyond the headlines to explore the trend of presentism in teaching history. Drawing on their teaching experience as well as their recent exclusive articles in the digital resource ‘Bloomsbury History: Theory & Method’, each historian will discuss their article in turn, including how its subject matter lends itself to presentism, before turning to a panel discussion with all six participants about the overall trend of presentism in teaching.
This event is chaired by Associate Professor Tyson Retz, who is a member of the editor team for ‘Bloomsbury History: Theory & Method’.
For more information and to register:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9716850295599/WN_PEMb5t30Tpa20WkyzsLraw#/registration
For the texts to be discussed (free access), see:
https://www.bloomsburyhistorytheorymethod.com/featured-content
5. Doha Residence Program in Advanced Arabic & Social Studies
Spring Semester 2024
A limited number of merit-based tuition waiver and housing support
The Language Center at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) is pleased to announce its Spring semester 2023-2024 Residence Program in Advanced Arabic Language and Social Studies.
The Program is a unique forum for academic and cultural exchange between the DI’s predominantly native Arabic- speaking graduate students and faculty (from across the Arab world) and their international non-native or heritage peers.
The Residence Program is offered for one semester on site in Doha. It meets the language, culture, and academic needs of advanced non-native and heritage graduate students who wish to strengthen their language and cultural skills, as well as prepare for specific challenges related to their academic areas of expertise. The Program is delivered entirely in Arabic and consists of a twin advanced language-training and academic components.
The language-training component prepares students to function professionally in Arabic and offers dedicated courses in language, translation, and content-based instruction. The program adapts to the academic needs of students as a base for linguistic and cultural acquisition, emphasizes productive and presentation skills, and develops higher levels of proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and translation.
The academic component gives fellows the opportunity to take advantage of the wide array of unique graduate-level courses the DI distinguished faculty teach in Arabic through its academic units: The School of Social Sciences and Humanities and the School of Public Administration and Development Economics. For more detailed information about the DI, please go to:
https://www.dohainstitute.edu.qa/EN/Pages/default.aspx
The Residence Program is an important part of the DI’s mission to establish, maintain, and nurture intellectual links and two-way dialogues between its students, faculty, and the international learning and research community. The DI aims to create an enduring legacy of intellectual innovation and education within the Arab world and beyond. It assumes and promotes the Arabic language as a tool of scientific inquiry, an official language in public discourse, and a primary language for teaching and research.
To Apply to the Doha Residence Program, click on the link below:
https://dilc.wufoo.com/forms/zvlz3kp0kd4036/
Semester Program Features:
- 6 credits of Intensive Arabic,
- A language partner,
- Option to audit graduate academic courses taught in Arabic if eligible,
- Option to have an academic partner,
- Access to the DI rich conferences, symposia, and guest lectures.
Admission Requirements:
- Advanced level in Arabic,
- Tuition fees: 9,000 QAR (approximately 2,250€ or 2,465$),
- Housing: 11,000 per semester (approximately 2,650€ or $3000).
Program Dates:
- Application Deadline: August 15, 2023
- Start of Classes: January 07, 2024
- End of Program: April 25, 2024
6. Zoom: SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies
Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry Memorial Lecture – The Sassanian Empire: A Fire That Was Extinguished
6.00pm, Tuesday 13 June 2023
This lecture is about the Sassanian Dynasty which ruled Persia for over 400 years and was a bulwark against the Roman Empire, which could never cross the Euphrates river because of the resistance put up by the Persians.
The lecture takes the audience through a series of remarkable Monarchs, some of whom ruled a vast empire with justice and sagacity. Zoroastrianism was the state religion for these 400-odd years, which was finally put out by the invading Arabs who imposed Islam on this great nation. Two earlier dynasties had ruled Persia for 200-odd years, and 400-odd years respectively.
To register:
7. Leighton House
Imagination Unbound: An Evening of Persian Poetry
7.00pm-8.30pm, Thursday 22 June 2023
Poetry is the art par excellence of Iran and the Persian speaking world. For more than a thousand years, poetry has enhanced and sustained the lives of Persian speakers, and for many centuries now, these rapturous expressions of love, longing, and acceptance of providence are enjoyed by Western audiences through translation.
Join Narguess Farzad, author and Senior Lecturer in Persian Studies, as she discusses how Persian poetry remains the unrivalled means of encapsulating experiences and emotions, memories, traumas, and delights. The evening will include a selection of classical and contemporary poetry, recited in Persian and in English translation, by British actor Matt Addis.
To attend:
https://leightonhouse.digitickets.co.uk/event-tickets/49169?catID=48518&
8. The British Museum
Luxury and power: Persia to Greece
04 May – 13 August 2023
Drawing on dazzling objects from Afghanistan to Greece, this exhibition moves beyond the ancient Greek spin to explore a more complex story about luxury as a political tool in the Middle East and southeast Europe from 550–30 BC. It explores how the royal Achaemenid court of Persia used precious objects as markers of authority, defining a style of luxury that resonated across the empire from Egypt to India. It considers how eastern luxuries were received in early democratic Athens, self-styled as Persia’s arch-enemy, and how they were adapted in innovative ways to make them socially and politically acceptable. Finally, it explores how Alexander the Great swept aside the Persian empire to usher in a new Hellenistic age in which eastern and western styles of luxury were fused as part of an increasingly interconnected world.
More information:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/luxury-and-power-persia-greece
9. Frontline Club
Screening +Q&A: Nazanin with Richard Ratcliffe
7.00pm-8.30pm, Thursday 06 July 2023
The behind-the-scenes account – part love story, part thriller – of how Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was thrown into a Tehran jail, and how her family battled to get her home.
Chaired by Ramirta Navai, an Emmy and Robert F. Kennedy award-winning British-Iranian journalist, documentary producer and author. She has reported from over forty countries and has a reputation for investigations and work in hostile environments.
Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/screening-qa-nazanin-with-richard-ratcliffe-tickets-641440805717
10. ‘Current debates and emerging trends in the history of science in premodern Islamicate societies’
History of Science, 2023
N Fancy, et al.,
This roundtable brings together contributions from nine senior, mid-career and junior scholars who work on the history of science in pre-1800 Islamicate societies. The contributions reflect upon some of the challenges that have historically constrained the subfield, how they have sought to overcome them, and what they see as some of the more productive and fruitful turns the field has taken and/or should take in the future. A central trend in all contributions is how they seek to confront the combined weight of colonialism, Orientalism, and the teleological history of science that continues to haunt contemporary discussions in both academia and the general public with regards to science in pre-1800 Islamicate societies.
Without diminishing the pioneering achievements of the generations of historians who have preceded us, and upon whose work we continue to rely, this combined weight has tended a) to marginalize the study of occult sciences in Islamicate societies; b) to emphasize investigations of content from an etic perspective of how we got to the present, which is primarily seen as how the scientific content is connected to the rise of modern science in Europe; and c) to concomitantly marginalize the study of science in post-1200 Islamicate societies, particularly those with little to no connection to the rise of “Western” science. The contributions build upon conversations that took place among participants in December 2019 at a workshop at New York University (NYU), Abu Dhabi Institute in New York City, funded by a grant from NYU Abu Dhabi.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00732753231154690
11. Early Sciences 2023 Essay Prize
Early Science and Medicine and the Early Sciences Forum of the History of Science Society are joining together to run a prize competition for the best essay focusing on early science, medicine, technology, and other forms of natural knowledge across the globe before 1800. We especially welcome submissions from early career scholars. The author of the winning essay will receive a $200 award and the piece will be published as an article in Early Science and Medicine 29 (2024) subject to peer review; the committee will provide mentorship throughout the process. The winner will be strongly encouraged to attend the 2023 History of Science Society Conference meeting on November 9-12 in Portland, Oregon as the prize will be awarded at the Early Sciences Forum Meeting.
We invite you to submit unpublished essays between 8,000 and 15,000 words in English that are not under consideration at another journal. Please follow the ESM style guide and make sure that your paper has been anonymized. ESM publishes images in color and black-and-white; the author will handle permissions. Please submit essays by August 1, 2023 via this form (https://forms.gle/5bzAJigAaAruSRfQ9). For questions, please email earlysciencesforum@gmail.com.
12. Position: UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies Associate Director
Job Title: Associate Director, UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies
Start date: Monday, August 7, 2023
Hours: 40 hours per week
Pay: $64,500 – 79,100
Mode: Hybrid, Monday-Friday 8-4:30, occasional evening/weekends
Apply online here – due Thursday, June 22
Position Description:
This position is located in the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies within the College of Arts and Sciences. The staff and programs of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies work to provide the University and the people of North Carolina with a campus hub to promote an understanding of the Middle East through teaching, research, and community outreach, and to explore and promote cross-regional approaches to Middle East and Islamic studies, including sponsorship of a wide variety of activities that bring together interested faculty and students from a large number of academic disciplines. The Associate Director will be involved in all aspects of Middle East and Islamic studies program development, including management of the Center’s Title VI and Foreign Language and Area Studies award from the U.S. Department of Education while organizing and overseeing day-to-day center programs such as workshops, conferences, and lecture series. The Associate Director will also work closely with the Center’s Director, Outreach Manager, and Business Manager, as well as the Center’s partners at Duke University and Durham Tech.
Required Qualifications:
M.A. or Ph.D. in a Social Science or humanities field required, with academic background and experience in Middle East or Islamic Studies; candidates demonstrating comparable independent research productivity or comparable background in independent academic or instructional activities, will accept a relevant bachelor’s degree (or foreign degree equivalent) and 3 or more years of relevant experience in substitution. The candidate will have expert knowledge of Middle East or Islamic studies, well-developed communication skills, experience in writing and administering grants, and administrative experience.
Preferred Qualifications
At least two years of experience in a professional capacity in the field of international studies, such as teaching in a related field, budget management, program development, grant proposal, and/or research. Basic knowledge of at least one Middle Eastern language preferred
Apply online here – due Thursday, June 22
For questions about the position, please contact Claudia Yaghoobi yaghoobi@email.unc.edu
Posted in: Academic items- June 10, 2023
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