Shii News – Academic Items

1.HYBRID Roundtable “Sufism from Medieval to Early Modern Era: Recent Studies and Emerging Perspectives” by Professor Ilyass Bouzghaia (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University), Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative, New York University, 17 April 2025, 23:30 h CET

This roundtable brings together scholars specializing in Sufism from the medieval to early modern periods. Its primary aim is to foster a collaborative and productive environment where researchers working on related themes can exchange ideas and engage in in-depth discussions on recent developments and challenges in the field of Sufi studies.

Information and registration:

https://as.nyu.edu/research-centers/neareaststudies/events/spring-2025/ots-template.html

 

 

 

 

 

2. International Conference: “Exploring the Meanings of the Holy Quran through Translation and the Role of Emerging Technologies”, Al-Zahra College for Women, Muscat, 3-5 November 2025

The conference will explore innovative solutions and technological tools that can help produce translations that resonate with contemporary audiences while preserving the noble message of the Quran. Themes: Historical perspectives in the translation of the Holy Quran. – Methods and approaches in the translation of the Holy Quran. – Culture in/of the translation of the Holy Quran. – Innovations and emerging technologies in the translation of the Holy Quran

Deadline for abstracts: 15 May 2025. Information: https://www.zcw.edu.om/Research/First-International-Conference-On-QuranTranslation/Scientific-Research-Council.aspx

 

 

 

 

 

3. International conference “Forms of (Un)Freedom: Emancipation and Post-slavery in the Red Sea Region”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 13-14 November 2025

Deadline for abstracts: 1 May 2025.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/system/files/attachments/call-papersred-sea-workshopnovember-2025.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

4. Associate Senior Lecturer in History with Specialisation in Middle Eastern History, Lund University

Qualifications: You hold a doctoral degree or have corresponding research expertise in history that is of value in view of the subject matter of the position and the duties that it will involve. We will primarily prioritise those applicants who have been awarded a doctoral degree after 18 May 2018.

Deadline for applications: 19 May 2025. Information: https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:798426/

 

 

 

 

 

5. ONLINE Mediterranean Studies Summer Skills Seminar: “Reading Ottoman Turkish”, 9-12 June 2025

This course will introduce participants to the Ottoman language, it’s alphabet, calligraphic styles, basic grammar and structure, as well as an overview of changes over time. The course will focus on primary sources often used by historians and the paleographic challenges they present.

Deadline for applications: 28 April 2025.

Information: https://www.mediterraneanseminar.org/overview-islamic-legal-texts-2025

 

 

 

 

 

6. ONLINE Mediterranean Studies Summer Skills Seminar: “Islamic Legal Texts: In Depth”, 11-14 August 2025

The seminar is focused on developing the skill of reading Islamic legal texts as opposed to surveying Islamic legal doctrines. It is designed for beginners seeking to build their capacity to investigate Islamic law. Professor Ali will lead participants in a methodical reading of an introduction to Islamic law. Participants will read the chapters on legal obligation (taklīf) and ritual purity (ṭahāra) in Durūs tamhīdiyya fī l-fiqh al-istidlālī by Muḥammad Bāqir al-Īrawānī (b. 1949).

Deadline for applications: 28 April 2025.

Information: https://us9.campaign-archive.com/?e=82aeb6c61d&u=e1ae5bef9757e58afec01a89a&id=62e3b6f14f

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Job advertisement: Lecturer in Islamic Studies

Theology and Religious Studies

School of Critical Studies

University of Glasgow

Grade 7/8, R&T

For more details, visit: https://www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer-in-islamic-studies-r-and-t

For informal inquiries, please contact Head of Theology and Religious Studies, Dr Mia Spiro, mia.spiro@glasgow.ac.uk .

Closing date: 27 April 2025.

 

 

 

 

8. CfP: South Asia and the Neighboring World in the Mughal Period:

Intellectual and Material Exchanges

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Marseille

December 10th-11th 2025

The conference examines the intellectual networks, material exchanges, and scholarly interactions between the Mughal Empire (1526-1857) in South Asia and its neighboring regions of the Middle East, Iran, Central and Southeast Asia. This conference takes a transregional perspective to the recent debates surrounding the cosmopolitan nature of early modern intellectual activities and networks. The scholarship in the last decade has heavily focused on the place of Persian—the high literary and administrative language of the Mughal elites as well as its influences on producing a distinct Indo-Persian culture in South Asia. While Indian Ocean studies had privileged the study of peninsular India, recent works have focused on Iran’s cultural and political influence in the creation of a distinct Persianate world. The expanded definition of the “Persianate” has generated insights on literary and cultural practices, elite self-fashioning, religious pluralism, and artistic production. Others have urged to recognize its limits, boundaries, and the severe constraints of relying on Persian literary narratives for writing about pre-modern South Asia. For instance, the vibrant literary practices in Sanskrit and the vernaculars have been increasingly present in examining the region’s multilingualism. Yet, current approaches, as this project argues, do not take into account the inter-regional dynamics specific to Islamic intellectual networks.

The conference invites scholars to take a transregional perspective to Islamicate culture through the influences and trends in legal, religious, and scientific practices from both the perspective of intellectual and material histories. Rather than artificially decouple the Persianate from the Islamicate, a tendency prevalent in most scholarship on South Asia, our aim is to bring together scholars working in diverse genres of textual practices to examine forms of transmission and acculturation in Arabic, Persian, and other languages as mutually coexisting spheres of Islamic knowledge production.

The conference addresses the need to bring into dialogue scholastic debates, norms, and practices with their transmission in writing practices of the period. Early modern relations between these regions were circumscribed by larger intellectual networks that were trans-imperial in nature while also constrained by specific socio-political contexts. In other words, although the Ottomans, Mughals, and Safavids had extensive internal diversity in literate communities, we argue that their connections going beyond the imperial frontiers have to be examined to revise historiographical views that tend to be concentrated on national or regional zones.

We welcome submissions on themes outlined above taking into account wide-ranging discussions in literature, poetry, philosophy, logic, law, medicine and other fields without ignoring the material transmission through the circulation of works across long distances.

Please send an abstract of 300 words and a short bio of 200 words to the following email address by June 10th 2025: fabrizio.speziale@ehess.fr

Organizers: Asad Q. Ahmed (University of California, Berkeley), Naveen Kanalu (EHESS-CRH, Paris), Fabrizio Speziale (EHESS-CESAH, Marseille-Paris).

Venue: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales/School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Centre de la Vieille Charité, 2 rue de la Charité, Marseille.

 

 

 

 

 

9. Shape of Extinction
Poems by Bijan Jalali
Translated from the Persian by Adeeba Shahid Talukder and Aria Fani
Preface by Domenico Ingenito
Critical Introduction by Aria Fani
Publication date: May 9, 2025

https://asemanabooks.ca/shape-of-extinction/

 

 

 

 

 

10. In-Person Workshop in June- Manchester, England -Decolonial Methods

Workshop Title: Collectively Situated Knowledge: A decolonial research method for constructing collective auto-narratives and positionalities

To Apply: Please fill out the form here- https://share.mayfirst.org/apps/forms/s/dqtPkM7GWQntCCJ8m2mEDQEp
Application Deadline: Until all spaces are filled.
Payment Deadline: June 2nd, 2025
Dates: June 4th-5th, 2025
Time: 10am to 6pm
Location: Manchester, England (Specific details will be provided upon acceptance)

 

Posted in: Academic items