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Encyclopedia Iranica launches new website: www.iranicaonline.org

The Encyclopædia Iranica is a comprehensive research tool, dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.

Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures

EWIC Scholar's Database

• Over 1,500 scholars from all over the world, from all disciplines, all research subjects
• A resource of international experts on women and Islamic cultures
• Search by scholar’s names, scholars’ institutional affiliations, countries of research, and research topics.

To participate, please fill out your information on the website atwww.sjoseph.ucdavis.edu/ewic/author/template.htm.

Books for Baghdad-Latest News

After four shipments of more than 55,000 textbooks and journals to universities in Iraq, we are saddened to report that "Books for Baghdad" books collection has been suspended for the time being due to lack of resources.

"Books for Baghdad" project has become a well known humanitarian project in Iraq and the demand on textbooks has increased. We have received many requests from the universities in Iraq asking us to support their education system. The fact is that we are a small organization and we have absolutely no extended funds to support the activity of this project. As a result, we are not able to satisfy the increasing demands and we cannot promise anything we can’t deliver. We would love to continue this project because we believe in it and we consider it a labor of love. We are waiting for the opportunity to come to allow us to restart book collections in the near future. However, other objectives of this project will continue, specifically helping the faculty in Iraq to establish collaborative work with the counterpart in the US. Books for Baghdad will continue to assist undergraduate and graduate students in finding a scholarship to come to the US and promoting partnerships with educational institutions in the United States.

Anyone who would like to contribute books and other gifts should contact Dr. Al-Hamdani (256-782-5801; sah@jsu.edu). Cash contributions can be made to the JSU Foundation, 700 Pelham Road North, Jacksonville AL 36265. Visit: www.booksforbaghdad.org.

Dr. Safaa Al-Hamdani and a small group of faculty volunteers established the Books for Baghdad project in 2004 as an international humanitarian effort to help reestablish the war-torn Baghdad University library. Local volunteers were soon joined by faculty and students from throughout the U.S. Thanks in part to international media coverage, including special reports on CNN, the project far exceeded its goal of 5,000 books with a total collection of more than 11,000 textbooks and $6,500 in school supplies.

The Baghdad Museum Project

The Baghdad Museum, or the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad, has been looted, stripping it of a priceless collection of cultural artifacts dating back to the dawn of civilization. As you will see from the “museum walkthrough” (available from the website), these are major historical treasures not only for the Iraqi people but for all humanity as well. How can we respond to this cultural catastrophe? This is an opportunity to promote better dialogue among our cultures. The Baghdad Museum Project proposes a 4-part program to not only help save the museum but also to bring about improved relations in the international community. The goals are to: Establish a comprehensive online catalog of all cultural artifacts in the Baghdad Museum to help locate them, discourage illegal dealing in these antiquities, and encourage their safe return to the museum’s curators in Baghdad; create a virtual Baghdad Museum, a content-rich website–free to the general public–based on the Baghdad Museum collection, in order to stimulate cross-cultural appreciation and dialogue. We anticipate that this site would feature the best search and navigation tools, including interactive streaming video, GIS, 3D navigation, and online classrooms; build a 3D collaborative workspace within the virtual Baghdad Museum, to allow international teams to work together on renovation designs, exhibit layouts, and new building proposals for the museum in Baghdad, as well as fundraising programs for construction and events; and establish a resource center for community cultural development within the virtual Baghdad Museum, offering experiences, ideas and success stories that show how people can contribute creatively to their own culture, and thereby strengthen their historical memory. For information and or to participate, contact: John Simmons, Chairman, The Baghdad Museum Project (JohnSimmons@BaghdadMuseum.org; BaghdadMuseum.org). 

Looking For...

IIE Scholar Rescue Fund-Iraq Project

Iraqi Scholars Seeking Academic Positions

The IIE Scholar Rescue Fund Iraq Project is seeking academic positions for scholars from Iraq at institutions where they may continue their research and teaching in safety. As you may know, the Iraq Project provides 1-year renewable fellowship awards of up to $32,500 to Iraqi scholars in order to support temporary academic positions at academic institutions willing to host scholars facing threats to their lives and careers. The fellowships are intended to allow the scholars to continue their important work pending improvement in conditions that would permit their safe return home.

 We hope that you will consider offering a position to a scholar at your institution. While not required, host institutions are asked to provide additional financial and/or in-kind resources to help supplement the SRF fellowship for Iraqi scholars. (This request of supplemental funding differs from the standard SRF policy which requires matching funds from institutions hosting scholars supported by the SRF “Global” program.)

More information on scholars seeking academic positions is available upon request.  If you are interested in learning more about these scholars or the hosting process in general, please contact: SRFIraq@iie.org.

New Programs

Hebrew University to Commence Arabic Immersion Program in Spring 2012

The Rothberg International School of The Hebrew University will offer a new immersion program in Arabic. The course, based on learning the language in a formal classroom setting as well as in its real-life cultural milieu, is uniquely suited for the School’s Jerusalem setting. The Program will focus on the constant and exclusive use of Arabic in a social setting, and include interaction with the native speaking Arab population. Beginning in Spring 2012, the course is designed for undergraduate students, graduate students and professionals interested in acquiring a knowledge of modern standard Arabic.

Applications are currently available for the 15-credit 11-week course, which will begin February 19, 2012 and end May, 2012, and will be held entirely in Arabic and source the Al-Kitaab textbook series. The initial level for the program is elementary, and there will be more advanced levels added in subsequent semesters. Every Tuesday and weekends will include a field trip or activity regarding Islam and Arab culture, including interaction with the Arabic-speaking population. For more information, please contact Janet Alperstein, Director, Office of Academic Affairs, Rothberg International School at 212.607.8520 or jalperstein@hebrewu.com.

"Bridging World Regions: The Turkic Connection"

The Turkic World encompasses nearly 200 million people, spans a remarkable geographic space between Europe and China, and constitutes a political, cultural, and linguistic nexus linking the conventionally recognized world regions of Europe, Russia/Eurasia, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. From Turkey itself in the west to Kazakhstan and China’s Xinjiang province (home of the Uyghurs) in the east, Turkic societies will play a crucial role in the emerging economic, political, and cultural environment of the newly globalized world.

The University of Virginia’s Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures and the Center for Russian and East European Studies are therefore pleased to present a series of lectures and symposia that explore how the study of Turkic societies can foster a view of the world that is more integrated and less fragmented by traditional geo-cultural and geo-political divisions as we strive to understand the complexity of emergent global conditions.

For more information, please visit http://www.virginia.edu/mesa/Turkic_Connection.html

Upcoming/Current

Oberlin College

King-Crane Commission Digital Archival Collection
Restoring Lost Voices of Self-Determination
Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the Five
Colleges of Ohio [Next Steps in the Next Generation Library: Integrating Digital Collections into the Liberal Arts Curriculum]
The Oberlin College Archives is pleased to announce the availability of The King-Crane Commission Digital Collection. Oberlin College President Henry Churchill King (1902-1927) led President Woodrow Wilson’s American Section of the Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey, known as the King-Crane Commission, following the end of World War I (June–August 1919).

As the fate of the territories of the Ottoman Empire was being negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference, the Commission was tasked with “acquainting itself as intimately as possible with the sentiments of the people of these regions with regard to the future administration of their affairs.” Although their report was suppressed at the Paris Peace Conference and subsequent treaties ultimately supported British and French colonial aspirations, this effort is nevertheless an important moment in US history–indeed in Oberlin's history.

In order to increase the study of the King-Crane Commission—within Oberlin’s classrooms and beyond, Maren Milligan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Middle East North African Studies in the Oberlin College Politics Department, and Oberlin College Archivist Ken Grossi applied for and received an Ohio Five Next Generation Library Mellon Grant to bring together in a single online digital collection materials relating to the work of the King-Crane Commission. The creation of this digital collection was a collaborative effort between Milligan and staff members of the Oberlin College Archives and the Oberlin College Library. Theodore Waddelow ’11 served as the Research Associate for the project.

The core materials of the collection consist of the King-Crane Commission Records filed in the Henry Churchill King Presidential Papers at the Oberlin College Archives. Other institutions provided materials to expand the research potential of the collection, including the Hoover Institute Archives at Stanford University – The Donald Brodie Papers, and The University of Illinois Archives – The Albert Lybyer Papers. The King-Crane Commission project team continues to work with other institutions, including the University of New Hampshire – William Yale Papers, and the Library of Congress – George Montgomery Papers, to locate materials to add to the digital collection.

However, perhaps more important than the papers of the Commission members are the petitions submitted by people of the region. The project team has sought to locate and curate the petitions submitted by various peoples of the region, thus restoring these lost voices.

The online digital collection includes an interactive map, tracing the route of the Commission’s work in the Middle East, and detailed instructions to assist researchers in navigating the collection of over 600 items. For further information about the King-Crane Commission and to view the collection (correspondence, reports, maps, photographs, petitions) please visit: http://www.oberlin.edu/library/digital/king-crane/.