Shii News – Academic Items

1.Hybrid Event

The University of Edinburgh

The Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES)  Research Seminar resumes on Monday, 15 September at 5:15 (UK time) in 40 George Square Lower, LG.11. 

The sessions will be hybrid. For those who wish to join us online, please email Anthony.Gorman@ed.ac.uk, who will send you a link on the day of the seminar.

Our first speaker will be Prof Yasir Suleiman-Malley, CBE, University of Cambridge, who will speak on Arabic Literary Prizes and the Sociology of Literature.

Professor Yasir Suleiman-Malley is Emeritus Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at the University of Cambridge, formerly His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Professor of Contemporary Arabic Studies at the University of Cambridge and the Iraq Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

His research covers the cultural politics of the Middle East with special focus on identity, conflict, diaspora studies and modernisation in so far as these issues relate to language, modern Arabic literature, translation and memory. He also conducts research in Arabic grammatical theory and the Arabic intellectual tradition in the pre-modern period.

The presentation will be followed by a reception.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Ghand-e Parsi: Academy of Persian Language and Persianate Culture holds:
2025 Persian Autumn School
Dates: 20 September – 12 December 2025
Program Highlights: 14 Topics; 100% Online; Payment in 2 Installments

The courses :

• Advanced Persian through Persian Texts
• Advanced Persian through Mystical and Sufi Texts
• Advanced Persian through Sa’di’s Golestan
• Advanced Persian through Persian Novels
• Advanced Persian through Persian Films
• Advanced Persian through Persian Codicology Texts
• Digital Humanities and Persianate Studies Bootcamp

• Persian for Heritage Speakers
• Persian for Everyday Conversation
• Elementary Persian
• Intermediate Persian
• Intermediate Persian through Persian Short Stories
• Intermediate Persian through Persian Proverbs
• Intermediate Persian through News Websites in Simple Persian

More details about the courses available here: https://www.ghandeparsi.com/autumnschool

 

 

 

3. Arab World English Journal for Translation and Literary Studies welcomes submissions of papers for the October 2025 issue. The submission deadline is September 20, 2025. The issue publication date is October 2025. Please send your paper as an attachment to TLS@awej.org

3. For more details, please click here

Here is the AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 9. Number 3.  August 2025

 

 

 

 

 

4. CFP Seminar at ACLA (Montreal, 2026): Shared Imaginaries and Intellectual Entanglements Across Latin America/the Caribbean and the Middle East/North Africa

This seminar invites proposals that explore the cultural, literary, and intellectual entanglements between Latin America/the Caribbean and the Middle East/North Africa from a comparative perspective. Our aim is to foster dialogue between scholars working across geographies, languages, periods, and disciplines, and to highlight emerging intersections in Latin America/Caribbean–Middle East/North African studies. We seek to center transregional flows—of people, texts, ideas, aesthetics, and political imaginaries—that link these two complex, heterogeneous regions.

We welcome papers that engage with a wide range of themes, including but not limited to:

• Early Modern connections between the regions
• Migration, exile, and diaspora (e.g., Arab migration to Latin America and vice versa)
• Comparative literatures, poetics, and translation across Caribbean languages, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish, and Indigenous languages
• Anti-colonial thought and revolutionary imaginaries
• Postcolonial and decolonial approaches to comparative literature
• Orientalism, Occidentalism, and their critiques
• Religion, secularism, and cultural politics across regions
• The politics and aesthetics of memory, trauma, and representation

By inviting contributions from across periods and disciplines, we hope to foster conversation among the selected panelists, with the goal of shaping an intellectual community that looks beyond national and regional silos. We aim to reserve ample time for discussion between panelists.

To view the seminar and propose a paper, go to: https://www.acla.org/seminar/9e4475e8-26ea-4b9a-ab74-2edeca90c736

Ali Noori PhD

Faculty in History | Bard Early College Brooklyn

Adjunct Assistant Professor | Brooklyn College (CUNY)

Visiting Fellow | Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania

alinoori@sas.upenn.edu

 

 

 

 

 

5. Call for Papers: International Symposium – ‘Islamic Studies Across Divides in an Era of Crisis and Global Injustice’ – Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, 24-25 January 2026
The British Association for Islamic Studies is proud to announce that it will be co-hosting a landmark international symposium at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 January 2026.

As part of BRAIS’s commitment to fostering global knowledge exchange and diversifying the academic landscape, we are pleased to offer this unique opportunity to engage in scholarly discourse amidst the backdrop of legalised genocide in Gaza, increasing inequality, and the structural silencing of academic research.

We invite scholars from around the world, and from all disciplines related to Islamic Studies, to join us in Istanbul to present their research. We invite proposals for individual papers, as well as whole panels, from senior and early-career scholars, as well as colleagues from beyond the academic world who have specialist expertise or unique insights to share.

The Symposium’s theme is “Islamic Studies Across Divides in an Era in Times of Crisis and Global Injustice”, offering a space for scholars to reflect on the role of Islamic Studies in these extraordinary times. As usual, our broad definition of Islamic Studies encompasses all topics and disciplinary approaches related to the study of Islam and Muslim societies.

For view the full Call for Papers, to submit a paper, and for information about delegate fees and bursaries, please visit the BRAIS website: www.brais.ac.uk/symposium/symposium-call-for-papers

If you have any questions about the International Symposium, they might be answered on our FAQ page here: https://www.brais.ac.uk/symposium/symposium-faqs

The Call for Papers deadline is 5pm GMT on Friday, 17 October 2025.

Finally, please note that in the spirit of inclusivity and transcending barriers to knowledge exchange, BRAIS will provide Fee Waivers to a number of scholars whose papers are accepted, based on structural financial disadvantage.

Please do share this CfP through your networks and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions: brais@ed.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

6. The Journal of Literary Multilingualism will publish a special issue on Multilingual Literature in Conflict Zones, co-edited by Adrian Wanner and Marianna Deganutti. You can find the full call for papers here: https://brill.com/view/journals/jlm/jlm-overview.xml?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOorZS2HJypLrljogaBuZWRrdqn42uMP0V-On7E-fkPNUwDLawj7d&contents=editorialContent-133826

Scholars of literary responses to conflicts are particularly well-suited to contribute. For example, how do authors’ attitudes toward their languages shift in the face of conflict? Other topics of interest include the literary consequences of political fragmentation or the linguistic choices made by authors who are directly involved in, or deeply affected by, war.

Submissions for book reviews, interviews, and creative writing are also encouraged. The deadline for abstracts is April 1, 2026, with full articles due on October 15, 2026.

Posted in: Academic items