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Call for Papers 2012 - Seminar for Arabian Studies Conference We are very pleased to announce that the 46th Seminar for Arabian Studies Conference will be held at the British Museum from Friday 13th July to Sunday 15th July 2012. Please note this a change from previous years when the Seminar ran from Thursday to Saturday. The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international forum that meets annually for the presentation of the latest academic research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula from the earliest times to the present day or, in the case of political and social history, to the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922). The Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies are published the following year in time for the next Seminar. Call for Papers If you wish to offer a paper, please send a 200-word abstract to seminar.arab @ durham.ac.uk before the 15 February 2012 for consideration by the Steering Committee. Do not send abstracts to any other e-mail address. Abstracts that are significantly over the word limit may rejected. Abstracts submitted after the deadline may be accepted or rejected at the discretion of the Committee. Abstracts must include: 1) the name(s) and full contact details and affiliation(s) of the contributor(s); 2) the title of the proposed paper; 3) what the proposed paper intends to cover; 4) an outline of the approach it will take; 5) an indication of the significance of the topic; 6) five keywords; 7) up to three relevant bibliographical references. Presentations are limited to 20 minutes, with an additional 5 minutes for discussion. Due to programme time constraints, and the ever-increasing number of abstracts received, there is no guarantee that all papers will be accepted. The Steering Committee will select those abstracts that are most scholarly, with a focused statement of thesis or importance, clear aims and methodology, well-organized research data, specified sources, and coherent conclusions. As in previous years, the Committee will normally only accept one abstract from any given project. Only those papers that are physically presented at the Seminar will be considered for publication in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, and they will be subject to editorial and peer review. Special Session In 2012, the Seminar will incorporate a Special Session entitled 'The Role of Museums in Arabia', organised by Dr Mark Beech (Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, UAE), Sarina Wakefield (The Open University, UK) and Dr Celine Hullo Pouyat (TDIC, Cultural Department, Abu Dhabi, UAE). Abstracts related to this theme are welcome and potential contributors are encouraged to contact Dr Mark Beech (mark.beech @ adach.ae) for additional information on the session. Session Proposals The Committee is willing to consider possible Session Proposals. A Session Proposal must include a minimum of four papers and have a clear scholarly focus with the explicit purpose to promote discussion and debate on work currently in progress, the current state of scholarship, issues involved in the application of new approaches and models etc. A Session Proposal should include a session summary of up to 200 words in length, along with abstracts formatted as outlined above for individual abstracts. The Committee will still consider each session abstract individually. A Session chair may be nominated but a final decision on this will remain with the Committee. Posters The deadline for the submission of Posters is the 30 May 2012. A poster submission form and guidelines will be available on the Seminar's website soon. For further information please contact seminar.arab@durham.ac.uk Instructions for Authors Please note that from July 2012 Prof. Janet Watson will become the new Editor-in-chief of the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. From July 2012 onwards all correspondence concerning PSAS should be addressed to her, via: Prof. Janet Watson, School of Languages, University of Salford, Maxwell Building, Salford, Greater Manchester M5 4WT, U.K. New issue of Proceedings published
Click
here to find out more about the latest issue, Volume 41 (2011),
of the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian
Studies.
MAILING LIST If
you know of anyone who would like to be added to the Seminar mailing
list please ask them to email seminar.arab@durham.ac.uk and we will be happy to oblige. 2011 Seminar for Arabian Studies Visit a gallery of photographs taken during the Seminar for Arabian Studies Reception, held at the British Museum on Friday 29th July 2011. The conference featured a Special Session on the Nabataeans, called The Nabataeans in Focus: Current archaeological research at Petra. The associated MBI Al Jaber Foundation Public Lecture took place on Thursday 28th July 2011, was given by Dr Laila Nehme, of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Orient et Méditerranée, and was entitled: ‘From the Nabataean capital of Petra to the provincial city of Hegra: new insights on the Nabataeans’ The Nabataeans in focus The last few years have seen a significant intensification of archaeological activity in the environs of Petra. New projects, such as in Wadi Farasa, the Outer Siq, Umm el Biyara, and the various necropoleis and cultic areas of the surrounding mountains are particularly important in enhancing knowledge of the social, religious and funerary activities of the Nabataeans and their relation to the topography of the city, its urban core and how it functioned. This session aims to bring together key projects in order to gain a new understanding of how different areas of the city functioned, how they relate to one another and what original ideas they reveal about Nabataean culture, society and the urban development of Petra. The key questions that the session will tackle include: How did Petra’s natural environment influence the Nabataean architectural and sculptural style, urban planning, carving and construction techniques, and more social factors such as religious rituals and burial practices? How should we define the Nabataean cultural identity, which is only now being appreciated as something distinct from better-known surrounding cultures in the region? How do aspects of Petra’s urban, religious and funerary landscape relate to other cities and settlements in the territory of the Nabataeans and wider region? The latter question will engage with the topic of the Special Lecture that is to be delivered by Dr Laila Nehmé at the conference. In addition, this session will act as a platform to promote discussion of the various methodological approaches taken in archaeological projects related to the Nabataeans in the face of limited literary sources and debates over chronology. This will raise important questions concerning the direction in which future archaeological activity at Petra should be going. Details of the
special Nabataean session can be downloaded as follows: word
version (146 Kb) or pdf (251 Kb) Obituary - Selma Al-Radi Selma Al-Radi died peacefully on the evening of Friday 8th October 2010 at her home in New York City. She was 71 and was surrounded by family and friends. Often described as “a force of nature” by many, she was slowly robbed of that energy by her Alzheimer’s affliction, leaving a ruin that was rapidly demolished by ovarian cancer in a little over a year after symptoms were first detected. Selma was born on 23 July 1939 in Baghdad and grew up in many countries but largely in Iran and India where her father served as the Iraqi Ambassador for a number of years. She graduated from Cambridge University in Archaeology and Ancient Semitic Languages, and earned her Master’s degree at Columbia where she came under the influence of her lifelong mentor, the late Dr. Edith Porada. She obtained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam but remained under the mentorship of Dr. Porada along with Dr. Maurits van Loon. Her thesis work focused on a Neolithic site in Cyprus (Phlamoudhi Vounari). A consummate “dirt” archaeologist, working mainly on excavations in the field, Selma excavated on sites in most of the Middle East including Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt, and Yemen. But Yemen was where she would spend much of her career. She first started working there in the late 1970s, first as a consultant to the Antiquities Department and was central in establishing the National Museum of Yemen. During that time she stumbled upon the Amiriya Madrasa in Rada’. It was a case of instant love. She immediately decided that this would be her life’s work. The early 15th C palace, school, and mosque complex includes unique elaborately painted walls and stucco that was falling into ruin. She convinced the Yemeni and Dutch governments to fund first the structural restoration of the building. Over the next 20 odd years, she fought for and got funding for the restoration of the complex in its entirety. Her beloved Yemeni team and she revived many of the original medieval building methods of the region. She relied on artisans with technological memories that had been handed down from generation to generation. She encouraged their experimentation and in response to her great respect for their work, many Yemenis – imams, politicians, government officials, and the local population - became deeply involved in the project. The al-Amiriya restoration started in the early 1980s and was completed in 2004. At the triumphant formal opening hundreds of international guests joined Yemenis in celebrating Selma’s great achievement. Yemen’s head of state awarded Selma the Presidential Medal of Culture. In 2005, recognizing this monumental work spanning three decades, Selma received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Selma
Al-Radi is survived by her husband Qais Al-Awqati who lives in New
York, her son Rakan (Kiko) Zahawi, who is currently based in Costa
Rica, and her mother Suad Muneer Abbas and brother Abbad Al-Radi,
who live in Beirut and Abu Dhabi.
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