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● Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Victoria and Albert Museum July 18, 2004 - February 6, 2005 East Building, Upper Level Related Online Resources Overview: The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London has one of the most renowned Islamic art collections in the world. Over 100 works from the V&A, many exhibited for the first time outside that museum, convey the richness of Islamic art on a scale and quality hard to find in any collection outside the Middle East. The exhibition's themes start with "The Written Word," featuring calligraphy from the 10th to 18th century. Considered the noblest and most distinctive form of Islamic art because of its association with the Qur'an, beautiful calligraphic writing pervades Islamic art. "Courts and Courtiers" introduces art made for the secular realm of the ruling elite. Two royal courts that flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries will be featured--the court of the Ottoman dynasty that ruled from Istanbul and the Safavid dynasty in Iran. "Mosques, Shrines, and Churches" will examine works created for religious establishments, including a 20-foot high pulpit (minbar) made for a mosque in Cairo in the 15th century. The section also includes works produced by Islamic artists for Christian churches, reflecting the religious tolerance that has characterized Islamic culture from its beginnings in the 7th century. "Artistic Exchange," the final section, includes works of Islamic, European, and Chinese manufacture. As the textiles and ivories demonstrate, the wealth of interaction between the Islamic Middle East and Europe was such that some works of art cannot be easily assigned to one culture. Timothy Stanley, senior curator, Middle East, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, is exhibition curator and the principal author of the book that accompanies the exhibition, Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Middle East. Organization: This exhibition was organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Sponsor: The exhibition at the National Gallery of Art is generously sponsored by H.R.H. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States. The international tour of this exhibition has been made possible by the generosity of Mohammed Jameel, the benefactor of the V&A's Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, which is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Abdul Latif Jameel, the late founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Group, and his wife Nafisa. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Schedule: National Gallery of Art, July 18, 2004 - February 6, 2005; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, April 3 - September 4, 2005; Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, October 22 - December 11, 2005; Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, January 14 - April 16, 2006 Passes: Passes are not required for this exhibition. ● Insight Turkey July-September 2004 Vol. 6 No. 3
Insight Turkey July-September 2004 Vol. 6 No. 3
Why the EU Needs Turkey
Integrating EU and Turkish Foreign Policy
From Drift to Strategy: Why the EU Should Start Accession Talks with Turkey
Beyond Istanbul Developing a New Euro-Atlantic Strategy for the Black Sea Region by Ronald D. Asmus
Turkey, the EU, and Freedom in the World: An Examination of EU Accession through the Lens of Data on Political Rights and Civil Liberties
The Transformation of U.S. Military Strategy and the Issue of New Bases and their Effect on Eurasia
The Impact of EU Enlargement on the U.S.: The New by Transatlantic Relations The South Caucasus: An Insecurity Dynamic or Crunch Time? by Tedo Japaridze
Transnational Terrorism: The Threat to Australia
Investing in the Middle East and North Africa: Development and Modernization
Turkey’s Identity Options and the Challenges of Turkey’s EU Relations
The South Caucasus: Balancing Legacy and Future For abstracts, detail and subscription information please visit the web address shown below.
Suat Kiniklioglu ● Contemporary Art in the Middle East
Author: Nat Hamon, Artfacts.Net Ltd.
● Masterworks of African Art: Yoruba Images and Aesthetics
Masterworks of African Art: Yoruba Ideas and Aesthetics was guest curated by Michael Kan, Curator Emeritus of African and Oceanic Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and by David T. Doris, Assistant Professor of African Arts and Visual Culture at the University of Michigan, Department of the History of Art and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. The gallery commentary for this exhibition was written by Professor Doris and students in his First Year Seminar in Yoruba Visual Culture, with additional contributions by Michael Kan and by seventh-generation Yoruba diviner and ritual specialist Kolawole Oshitola. The bringing together of these diverse and deeply informed interpretive "voices," provides multiple ways to engage with, better understand, and enjoy the exceptional works of art on view. Research funding for this exhibition was made possible by Robert M. and Lillian Montalto Bohlen. The exhibition and its accompanying publication have been made possible by TIAA-CREF, with additional support provided by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Office of Undergraduate and Graduate Education, the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and The Atlantic Studies Initiative.
● A Medieval Masterpiece from Baghdad: The Ann Arbor Shahnama One of the great classics of world literature, the Shahnama is a dramatic and entertaining telling of the legendary exploits of Persian kings and heroes from the beginnings of civilization down to the Islamic conquest in the mid-seventh century. Its pages are filled with vivid human and supernatural figures, from selfless heroes and virtuous women to cruel, greedy kings and evil wizards. Underlying this dazzling surface pattern are Persia's most enduring beliefs about virtue, honor, and kingship. Composed by the court poet Firdausi in the first decade of the 11th century, the Shahnama has inspired countless generations of Persian rulers to commission deluxe manuscripts, drawing on the talents of the best calligraphers and painters of the day. This exhibition, curated by Senior Curator of Asian Art Maribeth Graybill, features one of the great treasures in UMMA's collection, an illustrated Shahnama produced in Baghdad in the 1460s. All of the paintings from the manuscript will be on view for the first time in 40 years. This exhibition is made possible by the University of Michigan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Additional support has been provided by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
● MESA Bulletin Seeks Articles on Web-based Resources
The MESA Bulletin seeks article submissions, or proposals for articles, concerning Web sites, search engines and electronic resources of interest to those in Middle East Studies. Articles should be in English, although the subject of the articles may be in any language. Articles should be written for a general audience, and be between 1500 and 5000 words in length. Please submit completed manuscripts, or brief synopses, for consideration to:
Editor, MESA Bulletin ● Second World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies
ANNOUNCEMENT Second World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies Amman, Jordan, 11-16 June 2006 The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) is pleased to announce that it has been chosen to organize and host the Second World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES-2), which will take place in Amman, Jordan on 11-16 June 2006. This will be the first time that experts on the Middle East drawn from all over the world and all branches of the humanities and social sciences (including economics, political science, media studies and others) will assemble together in the region to share and exchange their research, experience and ideas, and to discuss the challenges of methodology vs. theory and praxis vs. politics and their possible resolutions. It promises to be an unprecedented event that will finally bring Middle Eastern studies to the Middle East. Initiated by the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), the First World Congress was organized and hosted by the University of Mainz in 2002 and attracted over 2000 scholars, experts and students from around the globe. It involved the participation of the European Association for Middle Eastern Studies (EURAMES), the British, French, Italian and German Middle East studies associations (BRISMES, AFEMAM, SeSaMO and DAVO) and other similar organizations in North America, the Middle East and the 14 other member countries of EURAMES. RIIFS now extends its own invitation to all of the institutions and organizations that took part in the First World Congress and requests that they inform their members about WOCMES-2 and consider how they may contribute to its success. In particular, RIIFS asks that they begin coordinating their 2006 activities with the WOCMES-2 Secretariat in the autumn of 2004, organizing panels, workshops, symposia and major conferences under the WOCMES-2 umbrella. This invitation also applies to other associations, research centres, university departments, international organizations and institutions which did not take part in the First World Congress, but which are involved in the study of the Middle East, North Africa and the Muslim states of Central Asia in addition to those areas of the world directly or indirectly affected by developments in these regions. Calls for papers from individual scholars will be sent out in 2005. Local and international media and high-ranking decision-makers involved in political, economic and cultural spheres are also expected to attend the Second World Congress and to disseminate, in the months that follow, the new ideas and interpretations that they encounter there. The working language of the congress will be English, with some French and Arabic. Because the Second World Congress will actually take place in the Middle East, the cultural program is expected to be particularly rich. Organizers are presently considering two book fairs (Arabic/International) involving book-sellers, publishers and authors; exhibitions of modern Arab art by Jordan’s national and local galleries; other exhibitions related to various aspects of Middle Eastern studies; a film festival with panel discussions; and concerts featuring musicians from across the Arab world. The timing will also be advantageous since the weather will be pleasant and many academics will be on their summer break, leaving them with ample time to explore Jordan’s well-known tourist attractions (such as Petra, Jerash, Madaba and Mount Nebo), as well as those in neighbouring countries, during their visit to the region. RIIFS is presently redesigning its Web site (www.riifs.org) and the new version is expected to be up and running in Autumn 2004. Once it is online, users will be able to click on the WOCMES-2 icon appearing on the home page in order to obtain more information and to register for the Second World Congress. Until that time, any further announcements will be sent out by list-serv and will also be posted on the RIIFS home page. Communications from the representatives of institutions and organizations interested in participating, as well as other urgent requests for further information, may be addressed to the e-mail address given below. We look forward to hearing from friends and colleagues, old and new, in the coming months. HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal, President of WOCMES-2 HE Ambassador Hasan Abu Nimeh, Director of RIIFS Baker al-Hiyari, General-Secretary of WOCMES-2
Baker al-Hiyari, ● Call for Papers
Special Issue of "Culture, Theory and Critique"(CTC) on Intellectual History CTC plans to devote the spring 2006 issue to a consideration of the state of intellectual history. We would be interested in a variety of types of articles. They may focus on any number of concerns, including but not restricted to the following: Intellectual history, cultural studies and critical theory— Conflict or complementarity? Comparative and trans-national approaches (e.g. Black Atlantic, Pacific Rim, Middle East, etc); Re-assessments of major intellectual historians; Particular themes and problems. CTC welcomes inquiries at any time, but contributors are requested to submit articles between February and June 2005. Contact Richard H. King at Richard.King@nottingham.ac.uk
Richard H. King ● Women's roles through history references
Subject specialists needed to author reference books for high school students to the general public for new reference series entitled Women's Roles through History with subseries Women's Roles in American History. Women’s Roles in America (4-volumes: 17th c, 18th c, 19th c, and 20th c) Women’s Roles in Europe (4 volumes: Middle Ages, 18th c, 19th c, and 20th c) Women’s Roles in the Middle East (1 volume to span post-ancient world} Women’s Roles in Asia (1 volume: post–ancient world) Women’s Roles in Latin America and the Caribbean (1 volume: post–ancient world)
Scope/Contents: Middle East, Asia, and South America and the Caribbean volumes: Same as above in the main, with topical chapters that trace developments over time by country as needed
Length: 100,000 words Author qualifications: Ph.d. or proven track record as independent scholar. Ability to write engagingly for a general audience, using sound scholarship. Expertise in the time period/history of the region. Successful publication history (ability to write extended narrative) and ability to meet deadlines for a commercial publisher. Co-authorship welcomed. Replies only to qualified individuals. For further details and consideration, please contact:
Wendi Schnaufer ● American Comparative Literature Association 2005 Annual Meeting Conference Theme: Imperialisms--Temporal, Spatial, Formal March 11-13, 2005* * The Pennsylvania State University <http://www.psu.edu> University Park, Pennsylvania The ACLA's annual conferences have a distinctive structure in which most papers are grouped into twelve-person seminars that meet two hours per day for the three days of the conference to foster extended discussion. Some eight-person (or smaller) seminars meet just the first two days of the conference. This structure allows each participant to be a full member of one seminar, and to sample other seminars during the remaining time blocks. Previous conference programs that show this pattern are available online at http://www.acla.org. The new deadline for paper proposals is November 1. The seminar: Combining Perspectives on Power Organizer: Jocelyn Sharlet, University of California Davis Email: jcsharlet@ucdavis.edu <mailto:jcsharlet@ucdavis.edu> Literary texts offer ways to combine diverse perspectives, including compilation and juxtaposition, framing, figurative language and rhetorical devices, comedy and parody, shifts in point of view, convention and innovation, and other intersections among texts and genres. These features allow authors to articulate multiple perspectives on forms of hegemony. Forms of hegemony may include cultural, political, religious, ethnic, gender, social, and economic power that is central or peripheral to the role of empire in society. The articulation of multiple perspectives enables authors to investigate concepts such as opposition to and support for hegemony, as well as the conditions and consequences of power. Presentations should focus on the strategies that authors use to combine multiple perspectives on hegemony and how they use these strategies to investigate aspects of hegemony, and should situate the analysis in the context of specific genres. Presentations may be based on texts that are usually defined as literary or on other kinds of texts.
● JOURNAL OF ARABIC LITERATURE, 35: 3, 2004 |
Recent and ongoing events in the Middle East being a major factor in world politics and ever present in the media keeps many of us concerned and inquisitive. Galleries and museums are investigating this topic through curatorial means and exhibiting work by artists from that region. Two exhibitions showing such work are: "The Promise, The Land" at the O.K. 
Although the works on view in this exhibition are aesthetically powerful, the Yoruba people see them in a broader context. To the original makers and users of these objects, their beauty was more than "skin deep," deriving from finely worked surfaces or expressive form. The significance and value of a work of art within the Yoruba cultural context relates to the extent to which it embodies Yoruba ideals of character, individuality, and one's relationship to the social order. As ritual objects, these works featured in this exhibition marry ideals of physical beauty with corresponding virtues celebrated by the culture, providing guidance to the Yoruba people as they live their lives, make peace with the gods, and maintain connections to their ancestors.
