What role does sound play in shaping religious life and belonging?

IIS hosts a book talk with Dr Stefan Williamson Fa on his new book, Sonic Relations. The hybrid event takes place on Tuesday 29 September at the Aga Khan Centre, London, and online. Drawing on research with Twelver Shiʿi communities in Turkey, the talk explores how sound shapes devotion.
Register at:
https://www.iis.ac.uk/events/sonic-relations-book-talk/

New Issue on “Alevi Pasts Contested: Neglected Narratives and New Methodologies” Edited by Markus Dressler & Hege Markussen, European Journal of Turkish Studies, Vol. 42, 2026, 98 Pages
This special issue aims to address persistent gaps in the historical record of Anatolian Alevi communities and to rethink how such gaps can be studied. The contributions engage diverse sources, including archival documents, oral traditions, poetic texts, and ritual practices, highlighting the productive inter-play between written and embodied forms of knowledge. The analyse the cultural memory in Alevi poetry, the ritual production of historical consciousness, and ethnohistorical reconstructions of community formation.
View: https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/10683

This story will be behind a paywall, but the headline tells the story.

On the book, see 
https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/history/middle-east-history/boundaries-belonging-sectarianism-and-statecraft-early-modern-ottoman-empire

Four Positions for the Research Project “Alevi Archive: Ethnohistory of Alevi Communities in Ana-tolia, 16th – 20th Century”, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig

The project will reconstruct the only scarcely explored ethnohistory of the Alevis in Anatolia, focusing on the period from the 16th to the 20th century. It will examine settlement dynamics and the processes of community-building among Alevi groups, as well as their complex relationships with the state, Sunni Muslims, and non-Muslims. Combining a range of methods based on previously unconnected sources—including Ottoman archives, Alevi manuscripts, oral traditions, and material culture—a comprehensive virtual research environment will be developed. This environment will enable the reconstruction of the development of Alevi communities within the context of Ottoman social and religious history from the Early Modern Period to the Modern Era.

The positions are:

Historian as Research associate (m/f/d): https://www.saw-leipzig.de/de/ausschreibungen/stellenausschreibungen/aral-researcher01_engl.pdf/view
Anthropologist as Research associate (m/f/d): https://www.saw-leipzig.de/de/ausschreibungen/stellenausschreibungen/aral-researcher02_engl.pdf/view
Research Software Engineer (m/f/d): https://www.saw-leipzig.de/de/ausschreibungen/stellenausschreibungen/aral-researcher03_engl.pdf/view
Doctoral position Digital Humanities (m/f/d): https://www.saw-leipzig.de/de/ausschreibungen/stellenausschreibungen/aral-dh-doct04_engl.pdf/view

Deadline for applications: 30 November 2025.

Zahra Institute:
Wednesday, 4 December, at 6 PM Central/ 7 PM Eastern Time.
Dr. Akihiko Yamaguchi will present, “Safavid Policy in the Kurdish Borderlands: A Comparative Study with Ottoman Kurdish Policies”.

Dr. Yamaguchi is a professor of Middle Eastern History at Sophia University in Tokyo. His research primarily focuses on the history of Iran from the 16th to early 20th centuries, with a special emphasis on minorities and peripheral regions.

Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/95861905448?pwd=GVhh6furcdhIwnCnqxdLlRrIVF26yD.1