Shii News – Academic Items
1. On Tuesday, March 18, Atri Hatef Naiemi (University of British Columbia) will present “Ilkhanid Capital Cities: Transcultural Interactions.”
As always, you can find a full schedule of upcoming talks and register for our list-serv on our website at viahss.org. Although not every talk is recorded, we also have recordings of several recent talks available on the VIAHSS Vimeo page at vimeo.com/viahss . Lastly, you can follow us on X at @viahss and on Instagram at @theviahss to stay up to date on upcoming events!
We look forward to seeing you on March 4!
Contact Information
Drs. Alexander Brey, Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, and Rachel Winter
Contact Email
URL
2. HYBRID History Seminar “Cinema alla franca in Ottoman Istanbul” by Özde Çeliktemel (Boğaziçi University), IFEA, Istanbul, 5 March 2025, 15:00 – 17:00 h CET
This presentation examines the emergence of cinematic culture in early 20th century Ottoman Istanbul, focusing on its interplay with the cultural, social, and political fabric of the imperial capital. The introduction of films as cultural exports and tradable commodities was driven by both foreign and local entrepreneurs eager to profit from exhibitions, rentals, and the sale of cinematic devices.
Deadline for registration: 3 March 2025. Information: https://www.ifea-istanbul.net/index.php/fr/evenements/eve-hist/history-seminar-cinema-alla-franca-in-ottoman-istanbul
3. HYBRID Roundtable “Making and Unmaking of Ottoman Borders”, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative, New York University, 6 March 2025, 11:30 pm CET
This roundtable brings together scholars to discuss the making and unmaking of Ottoman borders in the last century of the empire. The participants will reflect on the definition of what constitutes borderlands in relation to their academic works, and what are the processes in which various experiences of territoriality can be conceptualized within the Ottoman context.
Information and registration: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/kAmiTPU7RM2VmnevvvljLA#/registration
4. HYBRID Book Talk „Occasions for Poetry: Politics, Literature, and Imagination Among the Early Modern Ottomans“ by Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano, Ottoman and Turkish Studies, New York Univer-sity, 20 March 2025, 10:30 pm CET
After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman elites turned to poetry to craft distinctive expressions of identity and authority within the sultanate. Aguirre-Mandujano places Ottoman court poetry in its historical and social context, revealing its role as a powerful political act. Through poetic imagery, scholars and bureaucrats not only engaged with one another but also influenced bureaucratic practices and advanced their careers.
Information and registration: https://nyu.zoom.us/meeting/register/dWWJ8jUCTVW8FepB4dH_Ow#/registration
5. Research Seminar “War and Armed Conflict Ethics in Islamic Scholarship: Historical Insights and Modern Challenges”, Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, 26-27 May 2025
This seminar seeks to critically engage with both modern ethical challenges and the long-standing tradition of Islamic scholarship on war ethics. The discussion will focus on two main themes: (A) modern ethical challenges as addressed by contemporary interdisciplinary scholarship, and (B) insights from historical Islamic scholarship that remain relevant to these discussions today. CILE will cover travel, accommodation, and open-access publication fees for selected participants.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 March 2025. Information:
https://www.cilecenter.org/public-outreach/announcements/call-research-papers?utmsource=chatgpt.com
6. Conference “Minority Law in Arab States: Governing Religious Diversity”, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg, 14-15 July 2025
The conference foregrounds the complex interplay between legal autonomy and the governance of religious diversity with regard to family law in Arab states. We invite submissions that address legal pluralism; minority responses to the governance of religious diversity; gender and inter-religious relationships; the impact of conflict on family laws; international law, institutions, and advocacy; local, national, and regional policy and reform perspectives.
Deadline for abstracts: 24 March 2025. Information: https://www.mpipriv.de/minority-law
7. Workshop “Changing Conditions, Changing Discourse: Bektashis and Other Sufis in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic Turkey, 1826 to 1950”, University of Munich, 21-22 July 2025
Main topics: • How did Sufi orders, both as organizations or represented by individual disciples, experience and respond to the aforementioned events and to the concomitant change of discourses? • In what manner has the format of their communications evolved? How did Sufis share their individual experience within their communities? Which external actors were attracted, which cooperations were established?
Deadline for abstracts:9 March 2025.
Information: https://www.sfb1369.uni-muenchen.de/veranstaltungen/meldungen/cfp-b05/index.html
8. Annual Conference of the “Qurán Unit” of the “American Academy of Religion (AAR)”, Boston, 22-25 November 2025
We are especially interested in proposals highlighting new or developing areas of research in relation to the Qur’an, papers on understudied topics and themes, or that relate to the annual theme of “Freedom” (broadly defined – political, religious, economic, personal, positive, negative, etc.). Deadline for abstracts: 2025 [sic]
Information: https://papers.aarweb.org/sites/default/files/uploads/full_call.pdf (page 270)
9. Arcapita Visiting Professor of Modern Arab Studies (1 Semester), Middle East Institute, Columbia University
We are interested in candidates whose field of research and teaching is in history, culture, or social sciences of the modern Arab world. Qualifications: Ph.D., record of scholarly publications, and proven teaching experience in English are required by the beginning of the appointment. Experience teaching at a university in the Middle East highly preferred.
Deadline for applications: 30 April 2025. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/162010
10. Faculty Fellow in Near Eastern Studies (1-3 Years), Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University
The ideal candidate has an in-depth understanding of the modern Middle East, knowledge of at least one Middle Eastern language, a commitment to inclusive pedagogy, and has a Ph.D. in one of the following fields: Anthropology, History, Near Eastern Studies, Politics/Political Economy, Sociology, or related disciplines. Candidates should have completed their Ph.D. no earlier than 2020, and no later than August 1, 2025.
Deadline for applications: 24 March 2025. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/163617
11. Call for Papers – Journal of Digital Islamicate Research (JDIR)
Issue: July 2025 | Submission Deadline: April 1, 2025
The Journal of Digital Islamicate Research (JDIR) invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners to submit original contributions for its upcoming issue, scheduled for publication in July 2025. As a peer-reviewed journal, JDIR is dedicated to advancing the intersection of Digital Humanities (DH) and Islamicate Studies, fostering innovative computational, analytical, and theoretical approaches to the study of Middle Eastern and Islamicate cultures—both past and present.
We particularly welcome interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse studies that integrate Cultural Analytics, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), visualization techniques, and other digital methodologies to examine the rich textual, visual, and material culture of the Islamicate world. We are especially interested in expanding our focus to include literary, artistic, and cultural production within the Islamicateworld, encouraging contributions that explore how digital tools transform the study of Islamicateliterature, aesthetic practices, media, and performance cultures across different historical periods and geographic regions.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Computational and Quantitative Analyses of Islamicate Texts
(Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Urdu, and other Middle Eastern languages) - Digital Methods in the Study of Islamicate Literature and Poetics
- Visualization and Big Data Approaches to Islamicate Cultural Heritage
- Applications of AI, NLP, and Machine Learning in Middle Eastern Digital Humanities
- Corpus Linguistics and Stylometric Studies of Islamicate Writing Traditions
- Islamicate Digital Archives, Repositories, and Text Encoding Initiatives
- Non-Muslim Literary and Cultural Traditions in Islamicate Contexts
(e.g., Geniza research, Judeo-Arabic, Syriac, Armenian, Persianate Jewish texts) - Digital Approaches to Islamic Manuscripts, Calligraphy, and Epigraphy
- Mapping and GIS Analysis of Islamicate History and Cultural Networks
- Computational Studies of Islamic Art, Architecture, and Visual Culture
- Digital Media and Islamicate Popular Culture: Film, Music, and Performance in Digital Contexts
- Islamicate Digital-Born and Digitally-Reformatted Materials in the Contemporary World
- Ethical Considerations in Digital Humanities and Islamicate Knowledge Production
The Journal of Digital Islamicate Research accepts manuscripts in English and Arabic. Submissions should be made via the Editorial Manager on the Brill website: Submit Your Manuscript.
For inquiries or further information, please contact: jdir@brill.com
12. Circle for Late Antique and Medieval Studies (CLAMS) at The Ralph Bunche Institute of International Studies (RBIIS) The Graduate Center & College of Arts & Sciences at New York City College of Technology/CUNY
Presents
KHUSRO I ANUSHIRWAN (531-79)
The Life & Achievements of a Great Reforming Sasanian King
Friday, March 7th | 12:00 pm
James Howard-Johnston
Emeritus Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University
https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/IjsPCkfuTKy26O7jfkG01w#/registration
13. Online conference on Script-switching in Literary Texts
Join us online for over thirty inspiring talks, interesting discussions and a visual poster session on literary script-switching!
The programme, abstracts and sign-up link for our Script-switching in Literary Texts conference on 12-14 March 2025 are now available on the LangueFlow website.
14. “An Examination of the Historical Evolution of Persian Lithographic Book Publishing during the First Pahlavi Era in the Cities of Tehran and Shiraz” (in Persian)
Dr. Torfeh Abtahi
Independent Scholar, Tehran
Thursday, 6 March 2025, 12:00 p.m. EST
Zoom Registration Link:
https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUscumrrzosHNUsM7F1nqw4NvFz2Ia1ON9Q
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
15. M-Classi, tutorial for new users
A short demo of M-Classi device, to help users navigate the system and showing M-Classi’s main functionalities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUuIL1Adpw&ab_channel=InstitutIncalUCLouvain
M-Classi is an open-source digital tool to store, catalogue, search, and visualize the classifications of the sciences in Islam as well as those of the regions that came into contact with Islamic cultures, from Antiquity to the Pre-Modern era. The device is thus focused by priority on Arabic, Persian, and Turkish classifications, but for comparative purposes it will also integrate taxonomies in languages such as Syriac, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and others.
M-Classi allows one to make various types of queries on the classifications integrated into its database. Through a cumulative graph and the use of filters (by language, by author, by period, etc.), it also allows one to visualize the results at a glance and in a dynamic manner.
M-Classi’s beta version (https://www.m-classi.eu/), created at UCLouvain in 2023, is available on simple request by contacting me at godefroid.decallatay@uclouvain.be.
Posted in: Academic items
- March 01, 2025
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