Shii News – Academic Items
1.Iran Heritage Foundation
This is a kind reminder that the deadline for the third round of submissions to the IHF Modern Iran Series is 31 August 2026.
The IHF Modern Iran Series is a new Open Access, peer-reviewed academic book series published by Bloomsbury Academic. The Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) is supporting successful applicants with Open Access publication costs.
Please submit your proposal to Hassan Hakimian, Series Editor, and Rory Gormley, Senior Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury Academic.
The IHF Modern Iran Series publishes innovative Open Access books with a broad thematic focus on modern and contemporary Iran. The chronological scope of the series covers the late nineteenth century to the present day with thematic areas ranging from cultural and social to political and economic issues.
The full announcement can be read here.
2. The Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art (AVISTA) is excited to announce the call for papers for our 2027 ICMS Kalamazoo session “Unfinished, Damaged, Reimagined: Rethinking the Fragment.”
Rarely do material traces of the premodern world survive without damage or alteration. In response, the fragment has emerged as a productive theoretical framework for understanding the condition of medieval objects, buildings, and archives in our time. In line with AVISTA’s focus on the intersection of medieval art, craft, and technology, this session seeks papers which present object-focused case studies of the medieval fragment, including incomplete, damaged, or reconstructed objects and buildings. Speakers might discuss, for example, repaired or transformed objects, architecture that was never completed or has since been lost, or medieval and modern efforts to complete the fragment.
When: May 13th–15th, 2027
Where: Western Michigan University | Kalamazoo, MI, USA
All submissions must be made through the ICMS Confex System. If you wish to submit a proposal you can submit to the specific session at: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Session/8645
Abstract Deadline: Sunday, September 15th, 2026
Contact Email
URL
https://www.avista.org/opportunities-cfp
AVISTA ICMS Kalamazoo 2027 CFP “Unfinished, Damaged, Reimagined: Rethinking the Fragment”
3. University of Edinburgh – Alwaleed Centre
Postdoctoral Research Associate: Muslim Societies in Latin America and the Caribbean
The closing date for applications is 26 August 2026.
and
https://elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1001/job/14560
4. ReMedY ERC StG Project Website and PhD Fellowship Opportunity
The website of the ERC Starting Grant project ReMedY – Reassessing Late Medieval Pharmacology: Logical and Metaphysical Tools in the Medical Context is now online:
Supported by the European Research Council (ERC), ReMedY is my ERC Starting Grant project, hosted by the Department of Humanities at the University of Palermo.
The project investigates the logical, metaphysical, and semiotic foundations of late medieval Rational Pharmacology, the branch of medieval medicine concerned with classifying the properties, virtues, and operations of drugs. The website provides an overview of the project’s aims, research team, and activities, and will be regularly updated with news, publications, events, and other resources.
I would also like to draw your attention to a fully funded PhD fellowship associated with the project, within the PhD Programme in Humanities at the University of Palermo. Funded by ReMedY, the fellowship focuses on the interplay between philosophy and medicine in the Late Middle Ages and may be of particular interest to students and early-career researchers working in medieval philosophy, the history of medicine, Medieval Latin philology, manuscript studies, or related fields.
Further details are available in the official call (see p. 167):
https://www.unipa.it/didattica/dottorati/dottorato-xlii/bando-di-accesso-ciclo-42/
The application deadline is 12 August.
Please feel free to circulate this announcement among colleagues, students, and anyone who might be interested.
Should you have any questions about the project or the PhD fellowship, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you very much, and I wish you all a wonderful and restful summer.
With best wishes,
Marilena Panarelli
Professoressa associata in Storia della filosofia medievale (GSD: 11/PHIL-05 – SSD: PHIL-05/C)
Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche
Università degli studi di Palermo
Edificio 12, stanza 4.05
Viale delle Scienze 90128 – Palermo (PA)
marilena.panarelli@unipa.it
https://www.unipa.it/persone/docenti/p/marilena.panarelli
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9277-2379
5. Call for Papers for a special issue of Iran Namag on Persian Lithographic Printing
Iran Namag: A Quarterly of Iranian Studies
Call for Papers for a special issue on Persian Lithographic Printing
Editors:
Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi (University of Toronto) and Mahdi Ganjavi (University of Toronto)
This special issue of Iran Namag is dedicated to uncovering understudied aspects of Persian lithographic history. By focusing on the specifics of lithographic production—including its techniques, locations, economics, and networks of cultural circulation—we aim to provide a nuanced understanding of how this medium shaped Persianate societies and engaged with broader global currents. This issue also highlights lithography’s role in fostering transregional connections and its significance in the cultural and intellectual history of the Persianate world.
The editors invite well-documented research articles that address topics including, but not limited to:
- Centers of lithographic production in Iran and beyond
- Lithographic techniques, materials, and innovations
- The interplay between manuscript traditions and lithographic practices
- Lithography’s impact on the visual and textual aesthetics of Persian books
- The range and features of lithographic printing in Iran beyond Persian
- The role of lithography in the circulation of historical, literary, and scientific texts
- Gender and class dimensions in the production and readership of lithographed materials
- Global influences on Persian lithographic practices and their transregional networks
- Lithography and the emergence of modern Persianate identities
- The preservation and digitization of Persian lithographed collections
Submission Guidelines
Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words in Persian or English, along with a 100-word biography, to the editors by September 30, 2026. Abstracts should be emailed to Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi at editor@irannamag.com and to Mahdi Ganjavi at mahdi.ganjavi@utoronto.ca.
As a bilingual quarterly, Iran Namag accepts articles for review in Persian and English. Authors of selected abstracts will be asked to submit final drafts of their articles (6000 to 8000 words) by January 1, 2027. Articles should adhere to the Iran Namag style guide, available at https://www.irannamag.com/en/author-guidelines/ and https://www.irannamag.com/author-guidelines/
Ethical and Scholarly Standards
Iran Namag is committed to academic integrity, responsible authorship, and ethical publication practices. Contributors are expected to acknowledge their intellectual debts through proper citations and to recognize the contributions of collaborators, colleagues, and research assistants. The journal promotes scholarly collaboration and the open exchange of ideas.
6. Dutch-Persian Encounters: Merchants, Diplomats, Engineers, and Cultural Brokers, 1850-1920
Willem Floor and Forough Sajadi
Mage, July 2026
https://mage.com/dutch-persian-encounters/
7. HYBRID Workshop “Law on the Margins of Empire: Pluralism and Politics in Colonial Periph-eries”, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK, 19-20 March 2027
The workshop asks what constituted law and legal change on the geographic, temporal, epistemic, economic, social, and religious margins of early-modern and modern empires, both European and otherwise. It primarily seeks to explore whether and how the expansion of these empires failed to subsume or subordinate many of the institutional practices of Asian, African, and other indigenous actors.
Deadline for abstracts: 10 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ymnmhjcp
8. Assistant or Associate Professor in Sociology, American University in Cairo (AUC)
Requirements: PhD in Sociology or a closely related field and a demonstrable record of teaching with special consideration given to those who can demonstrate the capacity to teach our offerings related to the Middle East and North Africa. Special consideration will also be given to those who can demon-strate the capacity to teach and supervise in subfields – such as urban, environmental and legal sociology.
Deadline for applications: 8 December 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/mhdt8kth
9. Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in Arts of the Medieval World, Department of History of Art, University of California, Berkeley
The position is open in terms of geographical and chronological focus, welcoming a range of local, regional, transregional, or comparative approaches to the study of art and the built environment in Africa, Asia, and/or Europe from the 7th to the 15th century. Candidates’ teaching and research might also engage historic trade routes, sites of pilgrimage, axes of scholarly exchange, or itineraries of con-quest and enslavement.
Deadline for applications: 1 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yh3t4e23
10. Yearly Arabic Courses Programme of the Département des Études Arabes, Médiévales et Modernes de l’Institut français du Proche-Orient at Ifpo in Amman or Beirut, 2026-2027
The programme offers in-depth language and cultural training to trainees (students or non-students) who have already completed Modern Standard Arabic (MSA/fuṣḥā). Courses in Arabic calligraphy, Ar-abic music and singing, and theater are also offered.
Deadline for registration extended to 30 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/5b99mk23
11. Articles on “Architectures of the Soul: The Built Environments and Muslim Mental Health” for a Special Issue of the “Journal of Muslim Health”
This issue explores the relationship between architecture, space, and Muslim mental well-being, draw-ing on Islamic intellectual traditions and contemporary interdisciplinary research. Contributions are wel-comed on topics including Islamic environmental psychology, healing spaces, mosque and community design, healthcare environments, urbanism, spatial trauma, and the role of ritual and everyday spaces in fostering mental health.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 December 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/y4a6ur4e
12. ONLINE Latest Issue of “The Muslim World Review”, Vol. 46, Issue 4, July 2026
“The Muslim World Review” is a quarterly publication of the Islamic Foundation, Markfield, Leicestershire, UK. This journal aims to present the Muslim viewpoint on books and issues which concern Islam and Muslims. It also includes scholarly articles on all aspects relating to Islam and the Muslim World.
View: https://tinyurl.com/d78sdstz
13. New Volume “Race and Slavery in the Middle East: Histories of Trans-Saharan Africans in Nineteenth-Century Egypt, Sudan, and the Ottoman Mediterranean” Edited by Terence Walz & Kenneth M. Cuno, The American University in Cairo Press, 7 July 2026, 256 Pages
In the 19th century hundreds of thousands of Africans were forcibly migrated northward to Egypt and other eastern Mediterranean destinations, yet relatively little is known about them. In recent decades new sources have become available. Along with new developments in the study of African slavery these sources provide a perspective on the lives of non-elite trans-Saharan Africans in 19th century Egypt and beyond. The nine essays in this volume examine the lives of slaves and freed men and women in Egypt and the region.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/45uxyk34
14. New Volume: “Cosmic and Animal Piety in Islam: Everything Glorifies God” Edited by Walid Ghali, Guillaume de Vaulx d’Arcy, Asmaa El Maaroufi, Nicolas Payen, Edinburgh University Press, July 2026, 360 Pages
Examines the concept of praise (tasbīḥ) in Islam, encompassing its human and nonhuman expressions: – Provides a census and explanation of Qur’anic verses on cosmic piety. – Explores case studies on dogs and cats based in hadith literature and Muslim culture. – Reveals the bond between zoology and theology in Islam. – Engages with hermeneutic tools from Hebraic and Syriac literature.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/2s4uf664
15. New Book: “Iran’s Environmental Challenges and Movements on the Margins: Beyond the Centre” by Allan Hassaniyan, Edinburgh University Press, July 2026, 352 Pages
Interrogates the state-centric approach to Iran’s environmental crisis, reframing it as a profoundly polit-ical issue: – Draws on first-hand narratives of impacted local populations, environmental groups and NGOs. – Discusses narratives and case studies as featured in local environmental magazines and Telegram pages. – Challenges the Persio-centric approach to Iranian studies and gives a strong voice to the marginalised national communities in Iran. – Centres the previously overlooked periphery within environmental studies in Iran.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/2kju2jbs
16. New Book: “The Forgotten Khayr al-Din al-Tunsi’s Islamic Social Contract: Governance, Public Welfare and Justice” by Deina Ali Abdelkader, Edinburgh University Press, April 2026, 200 Pages
This book challenges the entrenched marginalisation of Muslim contributions to political theory, expos-ing the epistemological biases that have privileged Western traditions while silencing rich intellectual legacies from the Islamic world. Centering on the 19th-century reformer Khayr al-Din al-Tunsi, it offers the first comprehensive analysis and translation of his political writings through the lens of Islamic ju-risprudence – specifically, the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa (Objectives of the Law).
Information: https://tinyurl.com/fvrj8saw
Posted in: Academic items
- August 01, 2026
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