Shii News – Academic Items
1.4th International Kurdish Studies Conference
We are delighted to announce the 4th International Kurdish Studies Conference, taking place from April 22-23, 2025, at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
This conference, co-organized by the Kurdish Institute of Paris, the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research – Kurdistan Region Government, with the support of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Ministry of Higher Education, aims to bring together scholars from around the world to discuss pioneering research on various aspects of Kurdish studies.
With keynote speakers Prof. Hamit Bozarslan (EHESS, France) and Prof. Khanna Omarkhali (Free University of Berlin), the event will cover topics including Kurdish society, politics, language, gender studies, migration, and much more.
Panel proposals and abstract submissions are open until December 16, 2024. Join us for a dynamic exploration of Kurdish studies and its relevance in today’s changing geopolitical landscape. Travel grants are available for early-career and female academics.
For submission guidelines and more details, contact kurdishstudiesconference@ukh.edu.krd
Organising Committee
Salih Akin, University of Rouen-Normandy, France
Nazand Begikhani, Sciences Po, France
Amiri Cali, Advisor, KRG Ministry of Higher Education
Naif Bezwan, University of Vienna, Austria
Janroj Yilmaz Keles, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Bayar Mustafa, University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, Kurdistan
Arzu Yilmaz, University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, Kurdistan
Kind regards
Janroj Yilmaz Keles, PhD SFHEA
Associate Professor in Politics, Law School, Middlesex University
Visiting Professor in International Relations at the Centre for Peacebuilding and Dialogue, University of Kurdistan Hewlêr
Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security, LSE
W09 Williams Building, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BT
Email: J.Keles@mdx.ac.uk
2. 2025 BRISMES Conference: Call for Papers
Newcastle University, Newcastle • 1-3 July 2025
Proposals due by 13.12.24.
Full information at:
And
https://www.brismes.ac.uk/pages/preview/AHEjwgi7DXvi2y3zMIWztWXq
3. Seminar “Societies, Politics and Cultures of the Iranian World” this Thursday, October 24, 2024
We regret to announce that the first session of the seminar, scheduled for Thursday, October 24 at 5 p.m. at Inalco, must be cancelled. The lecture by Mr. Marc Toutant, “Le Tuḥfat al-ṭālibīn, une grammaire moghole du turc oriental. Philological, Cultural and Political Teachings” will be postponed to a date to be communicated later.
The seminar “Societies, Politics and Cultures of the Iranian World” will therefore begin on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 5 p.m. at INALCO (4th floor, room 4.15, 65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII), with the intervention of Mr. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi (EPHE-PSL, LEM), for a conference entitled: “Persian Mystical Poetry and Spiritual Exercises”.
Summary:
Mystical poetry in the Persian language in the classical age (tenth-fifteenth century) is characterized, as we know, by the extreme richness of its symbolic lexicons: from the evocation of eroticism and the beauties of nature to drinking, debauchery and immorality. The present examination does not concern these technicalities, which have been extensively studied for a long time; rather, he will endeavour to recover a layer of unrecognized meaning, hidden under these lexicons, which has to do with ascetic practices and spiritual exercises. The scattered allusions in mystical prose literature or symbolic philosophical fables allow us to discover hermeneutical grids where “the morning breeze” can refer to morning breathing exercises, where “the dew” can evoke the ascetic’s perspiration, and “the rose petals”, the purple cheeks. In this way, in the case of the great Ḥāfeẓ, for example, a lyrical description of nature or the lament of heartache can refer, in addition to their obviate meaning expressed in a sublime poetic language, to specific mystical practices and inner experiences.
Bibliographical orientations:
– Naṣrallāh Pūrjavādī, Zabān-e ḥāl dar ‘erfān va adabiyyāt-e fārsī, Téhéran, Hermes, 1385 solaire/2006
– Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, “Singing the Sweetness of Prayer. De quelques aspects méconnus du vocabulaire technique de la poésie mystique persane”, Journal des Savants, January-June 2014, p. 121-141.
– Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, “Provocation, Love, Inner Freedom. On Some Spiritual Aspects of Iranian Islam”, Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques 101.2 (April-June 2017), p. 187-200.
You will find the 2024-2025 program of the monthly research seminar “Societies, Politics and Cultures of the Iranian World” attached, and on the CeRMI website:
https://cermi.cnrs.fr/seminaires-de-recherche/societes-politiques-et-cultures-du-monde-iranien-2024-2025/
4. University of Edinburgh
Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Research Seminar Series: Peter Hill
Date & Time: 28 October 2024, 5:15pm – 6:30pm
Venue: Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square
In brief: Dr Peter Hill (Northumbria University) will give a talk entitled ‘Disturbance of Thoughts: Doubt, Impiety, and Unbelief in the Arab-Ottoman World, 17th-19th Centuries’, which will draw on his research into political thought, intercultural exchanges, and the modern Middle East.
Booking: Not required for attending in person, simply turn up on the day.
For attending online, you can email an IMES colleague for joining details.
See:
5. Historians of Islamic Art Association
2025 Symposium, April 3-5
Pre-registration will close by February 14
Thursday, April 3 – MIT and Boston College
MIT:
- 10:30am – 1:00pm: Viewing of the collections and the exhibition “Refracted Histories through Stained Glass: 19th Century Islamic Windows as a Prism into MIT’s Past, Present, and Future,” followed by a light lunch. Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT. Capped at 30, please register.
Boston College:
- 3pm: Welcome Remarks, Boston College
- 3:15 – 4:45 pm: Roundtable: Provenance and Islamic Art: Current Discussions and Future Directions.Speakers: Elizabeth Dospel Williams, Gwendolyn Collaço, Inês Fialho Brandão, Margaret Graves, Amanda Phillips, Martina Rugiadi, Eiren Shea, Alyson Wharton(-Durgaryan), Franziska Kabelitz
- 5 – 6:30 pm: Keynote lecture: Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor and Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, MIT. Writing (Art) History in the Time of War
- 7:00 – 9:00 pm: reception and visit “Wonders of Creation: Art, Science and Innovation in the Islamic World.” McMullen Museum, Boston College, 2101 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA
Friday April 4 – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- 9:00 – 11:00 am: Panel 1: “Inscribed Meaning, Memory, and Identity: The Embodiment of Textiles, Dress and Jewels in the Islamic World”
- ‘Reading’ Inscribed Textiles in Context: an Abbasid tiraz textile in a Fatimid Burial. Arielle Winnik, Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University Art Gallery
- Messages in Minerals: Decoding Inscribed Gemstones. Courtney Stewart, Research Associate, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Two Inscribed Ghurid Talismanic Jewels in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. Jochen Sokoly, Associate Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar
- Traceable Origins of Coins, Embroidery & Adornment in Palestinian Headdress, (Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries). Wafa Ghnaim, Founder, Tatreez Institute and Research Scholar, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- 11:00 – 11:30 am: Coffee break
- 11:30 – 1:00 pm: Panel 2: “Writing, Speaking”
- Flipping the Script of a Historical Whodunnit: An Epigraphical Forgery at the Abbasid Nilometer in Cairo. Heba Mostafa, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, St George
- Playing with Arabic Script: Visual Analogies and the Imagination in Medieval Islamic Aesthetics. Zahra Kazani, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge
- Cloths of Mourning: Late Safavid Epigraphic Textiles. Sarah Molina, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
- 1:15 – 2:00 pm: lunch
- Optional lunchtime discussion: AI and Islamic Art History. Led by Nancy Um, Associate Director for Research and Knowledge Creation, Getty Research Institute, and Hossein Nakhaei, PhD Candidate, University of Pittsburgh. Capped at 20, please register.
- 2:00 – 3:30 pm: Collection viewings, limited capacity. Please register.
- “Inscribed Meaning, Memory, and Identity: Dress and Adornments in the MFA Collections”
- “Contemporary Calligraphy – New Acquisitions”
- 3:30 – 5:30 pm: Panel 3: “Architecture Speaks”
- Architecture as Archive: Re-framing Mughal Imperial Lineage. Srinanda Ganguly, PhD Candidate, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
- A Seventeenth-Century T-Shaped Mosque in Anatolia? The Byzantinizing Mosque of Hüsrev Paşa near Eskişehir. Zeynep Oguz, University of Zagreb
- The “Defender of Islam” Defiant: The Mausoleum of Qus and the Virtual Hajj.” Mikael Muehlbauer, Interim Assistant Educator, Office of Academic and Professional Programs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Forging locality in domes: Muslim architecture of Quanzhou, Chendai, and Baiqi in the 20th and 21st centuries. Sylvia Wu, Assistant Professor, the University of Texas at Austin
Saturday, April 5, Boston College
- 9:00 – 11:00 am: Panel 4: “The Architecture and Arts of Islamicate Central Asia during Dynastic Ruptures”
- Bihzad’s Ghost: The Timurid—Abu’l-Khayrid transition in Transoxiana, 1480–1510. Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Oxford
- Qarakhanid Architecture Re-examined: Portals, Patronage, and Consolidating Turko-Islamic Power in eleventh-century Transoxiana. Dilrabo Tosheva, AKPIA Fellow, Harvard University
- The pre-Mongol City of Balkh as Seen by its Residents: a Report from the Fadaʾil-i Balkh. Said Reza Husaini, Research Fellow, King’s College, Cambridge University
- Historical Madrasas as Spolia: Appropriating Timurid and Abu’l-Khayrid Monuments in Toqay-Timurid Urban Squares. Yue Xie, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
- 11:00 – 11:30 am: coffee break
- 11:30 am – 1:00 pm: Critical Explorations of Gen AI through Visual Datasets and the ‘Missing Metadata’ of Islamic Art, Aroussiak Gabrielian, Assistant Professor, USC Architecture (Landscape Architecture + Media Arts), Huma Gupta, Assistant Professor, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, MIT
- 1:00 – 2:00 pm: Lunch
- Optional lunchtime discussion: Teaching Difficult Topics. Led by Zohreh Soltani, Assistant Professor, Ithaca College, and Emily Neumeier, Assistant Professor, Temple University. Capped at 20, please register.
- 2:00 – 4:00 pm: Panel 5: “Responding to a Changing World”
- Tool of Craft or Homage to Profession? A Study of a Qajar Architectural Tablet and a Futuwwatnama of Architects. Salimeh Hosseini, PhD Candidate, University of Chicago,
- The meaning of ‘photography’ (fotogerāfi) is light-drawing (nūr-negārī)”: Mystical Metaphors in Technical Manuals of Photography in Nineteenth-Century Iran. Chaeri Lee. PhD Candidate, Indiana University
- “The Gift of the Orient”: Ottoman Cultural Brokers in the US, ca. 1900. Roxanne Goldberg, PhD Candidate, MIT
- The Spatial Realms of Ottoman Imperial Portraiture: Sultan Selim III, Self-Representation, and Topkapı’s Renewal. Hilal Uǧurlu, Associate Professor, MEF University, Istanbul, and Deniz Türker, Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
- 4:00 – 4:30 pm: Coffee break
- 4:30 – 6:30pm: Panel 6: “Realms of Response: Javab and Cultural Production in Early Modern Iran and South Asia”
- The Poetics of Pottery and the Aesthetics of Absence: Isfahan’s Music Room. Michael Chagnon, Aga Khan Museum
- Speaking Cities: The City and the Self in Premodern Urban Descriptions. Farshid Emami, Assistant Professor, Rice University
- Mirroring the Cosmos: The Mi‘raj as an Inner Journey Towards God in Hindustani Painting. Murad Khan Mumtaz, Associate Professor, Williams College
- Self/Reflection: Ghiyas/Sherley, or how to talk back in Safavid art and history. Kishwar Rizvi, Professor, Yale University
- Moderator: Paul Losenky, Professor, Indiana University
- 6:30 – 8:00pm: Closing reception at the McMullen Museum, Boston College, 2101 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA
6. HIAA ONLINE WORKSHOPS
Addressing Fraught Proximities between the Historical and the Contemporary in the Teaching of Islamic Art and Architecture
November 21, 2024 (Thursday)
11am CST/ 12:00 EST/ 17:00 GMT
To register: https://temple.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUofu-trT0pHtasBVgmHrZJxj4aXL3-CkZd
Moderator: Theodore Van Loan (Washington and Lee University)
Panelists: Alessandra Amin (Johns Hopkins University), Stephennie Mulder (UT Austin), Kirsten Scheid (American University Beirut), Mohammed Mourtaja (Washington and Lee University), Saima Akhtar (Barnard College)
The premise that research and teaching of the historical art and architecture of the Middle East can be dispassionately separated from urgent political and cultural issues of the region has been thoroughly dismantled by postcolonial critical practices. Yet, at the same time, it remains an open question how curricular and pedagogical practices of historical “Islamic” art and architecture might be responsive to such concerns. For students interested in the field, these issues are of prime interest, as they are for faculty who are often lack the critical tools to engage with historical material as it is set within proximate location to death, destruction, and conflict, to state things in the starkest of terms. This workshop will bring together a multidisciplinary group of art historians and others in related fields whose work, and research practices involve conceptualizing connections between the study of historical art and architecture and these various urgent concerns. These concerns include modes of neo-colonial exploitation, warfare, ethnic cleansing, genocide, Islamophobia, human rights, cultural heritage protection, among others. The Humanities offer us no easy answers or concrete methodologies to address these challenging proximities, but nonetheless they need to be urgently discussed.
7. Medieval Landscapes of Anatolia: Deciphering the dynamic relationship between urban and rural, Online Talk Serie Archaeology Seminar – October 23
The IFEA, together with METU and Sorbonne Universite, organises an online Talk Serie Archaeology Seminar in 2024-2025.
The first lecture will be held online, October 23, 7.00pm (Istanbul time)
Speakers : Burcu Erciyas (METU) & Maxime Durocher (SU)
Title : “Resilient Landscapes and Dynamic Communities of Medieval Komana”
Link and registration : https://www.ifea-istanbul.net/index.php/fr/evenements/eve-archeo/archaeology-seminar-medieval-landscape-of-anatolia-deciphering-the-dynamic-relationship-between-urban-a
Contact Email
maxime.durocher@sorbonne-universite.fr
URL
https://www.ifea-istanbul.net/index.php/fr/evenements/eve-archeo/archaeology-se…
8. Iowa State University – Assistant Professor – Art History
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67995
Pennsylvania State University – Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) of Architectural History
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67961
University of Massachusetts – Amherst – Associate/Full Professor – Islamic/Middle Eastern Studies
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=68010
Harvard University – NELC – Preceptor in Persian
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=68018
Texas Christian University – Assistant Professor, Modern Middle East
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=67985
9. Hybrid: Columbia University
Arabic Studies Seminars with Nouri Gana Melancholy of the Oppressed 24/10
The first meeting of the semester with Professor Nouri Gana (UCLA) next Thursday (10/24) at 7pm EST in Faculty House for a book talk on his latest book: Melancholy of the Oppressed: Defeat and Cultural Critique in the Arab World.
Please note that due to new regulations, non CUID holders will not be allowed into Faculty House without prior notice. If you intend to be present in-person and are not a CUID holder, please RSVP as soon as possible. If we don’t receive your RSVP by the end of Friday, we may not be able to let you in.
This meeting will also be live streamed here on ZOOM for those guests who can’t make it in person.
The talk will begin at 7:00 pm.
Posted in: Academic items- October 22, 2024
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