August 2022 Newsletter
There's always something happening at NMC, missed out?
Here is a snapshot of what went on in August and what's to come.
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NMC Welcomes New Faculty Members
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NMC is proud to welcome Professor Miguel Ángel Andrés-Toledo to the newly-created position of FEZANA Professor in Zoroastrian Languages and Literatures. Professor Andrés-Toledo has an impressive research profile and extensive teaching experience. He is a scholar of international acclaim who is unparalleled in the broad scope of his knowledge of Indo-Iranian linguistics and Old and Middle Iranian languages and literatures.
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He has also made significant contributions to the study of Zoroastrianism. His projects include the Avestan Digital Archive (University of Salamanca) and the Middle Persian Dictionary Project (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). His research interests mainly cover the Avestan and Pahlavi languages and literatures, with a specific focus on the Pahlavi translations and exegesis of Avestan texts and their written transmission.
He has previously held academic positions at the University of Salamanca, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Copenhagen, and Free University of Berlin. Among other publications, he is the author of the monographs El hilo de la vida y el lazo de la muerte en la tradición indoirania [The thread of life and the noose of death in the Indo-Iranian tradition] (Valencia, 2010) and The Zoroastrian Law to Expel the Demons: Wīdēwdād 10-15. Critical Edition, Translation and Glossary of the Avestan and Pahlavi Texts (Wiesbaden, 2016). The 2016 volume in particular had a significant impact on the field of Zoroastrian studies. That work constitutes the first comprehensive and critical edition of the Avestan and Pahlavi texts, and it has been described as ushering in a paradigm shift through its meticulous analysis of primary source manuscripts that exposed shortcomings of the previous scholarly tradition. This commitment to gathering and analyzing primary source materials is consistent with NMC's vision, and we are very excited that Professor Andrés-Toledo will be continuing this important work in his new position.
Professor Andrés-Toledo has been teaching in-person and online courses on Zoroastrian languages and literatures, and other related topics, for almost two decades. His teaching portfolio includes experience in a number of international universities. At the University of Toronto, he will offer NMC courses on Avestan, Old Persian, Middle Persian (Pahlavi), and Zoroastrian Literature of Ancient and Late Antique Iran, and will expand the training of students with other specific courses on these languages and literatures.
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We are delighted to welcome Professor Jeremy Schipper to the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations.
Professor Schipper is cross-appointed in the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations and the Department for the Study of Religion; his research focuses on Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity, more specifically the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
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Professor Schipper received his MDiv and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, and has published a number of books including: Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible (Bloomsbury, 2006), Disability and Isaiah's Suffering Servant (Oxford, 2011), and Ruth: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Yale, 2016); and with Nyasha Junior a co-authored volume entitled: Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon (Oxford, 2020). He received the Guggenheim Fellowship for research related to his latest book, Denmark Vesey's Bible: The Thwarted Revolt that Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial (Princeton, 2022).
He will be teaching courses in NMC that deal with some of his major areas of interest: Disability in the Bible, Race and the Bible, and the uses and interpretations of the Hebrew Bible in social and cultural contexts that extend into modern times. Professor Schipper's commitment to engaging with issues of current significance, and the rigorous philological foundation that he brings to this work, promise to motivate students to extend their linguistic abilities in primary source languages and to greatly enrich their understanding of biblical texts. We look forward to integrating his innovative courses into our curriculum.
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Professor Milena Methodieva Awarded SSHRC Insight Development Grant
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Assistant Professor Milena Methodieva has been awarded a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for her new project “Migrants: Changing an Empire, Building a Nation.” The project explores the large-scale migrations of Muslims from the Balkans to the late Ottoman empire and the early Turkish republic. Its goal is to examine how these migrations shaped the late Ottoman world, the emerging Turkish nation-state, as well as the post-Ottoman Balkan space.
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Crucially, it seeks to bring to light the experiences of migrants and refugees. Professor Methodieva will carry out extensive multi-archival research and work in close collaboration with student assistants to provide novel insights into one of the salient phenomena in the history of the region.
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The Mu’tazilism and the Qur’an conference, convened by Professor Walid Saleh
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Professor Walid A. Saleh organized an international conference in collaboration with the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) in London on the connection between theology and the Qur’an. The conference, entitled "The Mu`tazilism and the Qur’an" took place on Friday, July 22, 2022, at the Aga Khan Centre and online.
The conference focused on the influence of Mu'tazilism - one of the earliest Islamic schools - on all aspects of the Qur’an, its status, interpretation, and relationship to the Prophet. It also addressed Mu'tazilite thought and the influence it had on Islamic theology in other schools. |
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Professor Saleh said, “This is the first such conference to be held on this topic. Scholars gathered to discuss the relationship between one of the most important theological schools in Islam and the Qur’an. The proceedings will be published in the IIS prestigious series on the Qur’an.”
For more information, visit the IIS news page.
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The Tayinat Archaeological Project
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(Photo Courtesy of Stanley Klassen )
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The Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) recently concluded a very successful 2022 season with a total of eleven squares excavated. Squares re-opened in Field 1 produced material from the EBIVa-EBIVb periods (ca. 2500-2100 BCE), including a number of EBIVb rooms with cooking installations uncovered in what appear to be domestic contexts, along with pits and roof collapse in structures from the EBIVa period.
Excavations in Field 7 uncovered Iron II/III (ca. 900-600 BCE) walls and floor surfaces with large quantities of basalt fragments, some with portions of Luwian inscriptions, and stone paving associated with that uncovered in front of the temple in previous excavation seasons. Exploratory squares in Field 8 produced some evidence of Iron II/III surfaces and material remains. The success of this year’s season is due to the dedication of the TAP international team and funding from SSHRC.
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NMC Graduate Orientation 2022
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- Date: Thursday, September 15, 2022
- Time: 2 PM - 5 PM
- Location: Conference Room (200B, 4 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto)
2 PM - 3 PM: Department Graduate Information Session
3:10 PM - 5 PM: Department Reception
For more information, contact Michael Godwin, Graduate Administrator.
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University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy 2022
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- Date: Friday, September 23 - Saturday, September 24, 2022
- Location: Room 100, Jackman Humanities Building (170 St. George Street, Toronto)
The Colloquium includes a talk by Meryem Sebti (CNRS, Paris) on the topic of “Why Does Avicenna Use the Concept of Fitra in his Doctrine of the Rational Soul? ". All sessions are free and open to the public and will be held in Room 100 of the Jackman Humanities Building (170 St. George Street), with an option to attend remotely via Zoom (https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/89146928336; Passcode: 533867). The full program is available on the Department of Philosophy Events page.
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Jackman Humanities Institute 2023-2024 Faculty Research Fellowships
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The JHI Faculty Research Fellowship (JHIRF) is a six-month or twelve-month award for research faculty members in the tenured and continuing streams who will hold the rank of Associate Professor or higher by July 1, 2023. Applications will be accepted for up to four 12-month fellowships, and up to six 6-month fellowships to be held in the 2023-24 academic year. For the 12-month fellows, the annual theme will be Absence.
For more information, visit the JHI Faculty Research Fellowship page. |
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New NMC Courses
for Fall/Winter 2022-23
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NMC244H1S The Arab Spring and Cultural Production
This course examines the Arab revolutions that began in 2011 and their ongoing impact through the lens of cultural production. How have Arab writers and artists contributed to and reflected upon the Arab revolutions collectively known as the "Arab Spring"?
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How have art and literature represented the aspirations, and struggles of the Arab peoples during and after these transformative revolutionary struggles? The cultural texts examined in this course range from those that mediate the euphoric optimism heralded by the revolutions to those that narrate and reflect upon the dystopian aftermath after revolutionary failure, including fiction and art that address the reassertion of authoritarian rule, the violence of civil war, and the homelessness of exile. Through novels, poetry, music, art, and film, this course will examine cultural texts that narrate and historicize the multi-faceted motives and impacts of the Arab revolutions.
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NMC268H1F Data Science Applications in Archaeology
Digital technology and “big data” are transforming not only the ways in which archaeologists present and communicate their research, but also increasingly the ways they collect and analyze data. Modern archaeology is also becoming progressively more multi-disciplinary, and reliant on the analysis of growing bodies of disparate forms of data, both archaeological data, and data from related fields.
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This course exposes students to the underlying concepts of the emerging field of data science, and helps them develop hands-on skills in various critical techniques in archaeological data analysis. Where possible, this course will focus on case studies from the Near Eastern world. No previous background in data science or programming is required.
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NMC354H1F LEC0101 Abbasid Literature and the Sciences
The ‘golden age’ of the Islamic caliphate saw massive patronage of the natural and technical sciences, as well as very quick development of the technical aspects of the religious sciences. Astronomy, chemistry, zoology, medicine, linguistics, philosophy, and technical elements of theology and law – these were prestigious and well-funded fields.
How did this technical and scientific activity impact Arabic literature? How did literature help to publicize and communicate scientific methods and conclusions?
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Students will read narrative works by Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, al-Jahiz, Ibn Qutayba, al-Tanukhi, al-Tawhidi, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, as well as poetry dealing with scientific and philosophical concepts. We will ask how (and whether) Abbasid authors differentiated between the categories of literature, science, beauty, knowledge, and narrative, and how they imagined interactions between them. All readings are in English translation.
Assignments consist of weekly 1-page response papers, an in-class presentation, and a final assignment (can be in the form of an essay or a visual presentation).
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NMC365H1S Women and Gender in Egyptian Archaeology
The course explores issues related to gender within the ancient Egyptian context and investigates the activities of women through the study of many different kinds of archaeological and material evidence. We'll build a foundation for this work with an overview of current developments in gender theory and consider their applications for research on ancient Egyptian society and culture.
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No prior knowledge of theoretical approaches is expected. From this basis, we'll go on to consider how archaeological material can contribute to the understanding of gender roles and examine how excavators may unconsciously impose their own gender perspectives on ancient contexts, creating biased views of ancient societies that become entrenched in scholarly tradition. The same methods of critical analysis will inform our study of women in ancient Egypt, incorporating archaeological data and artifactual material that can inform our understanding of the complex roles that women played in Egyptian culture, society, and religious practice.
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NML371H1F Conversational Turkish: Oral Communication in Context
This course is designed for students who wish to consolidate their communicative and conversational skills in Turkish. Emphasis is placed on improving listening and speaking skills in diverse formal and informal contexts to prepare the students for real-life oral communication situations. Students will gain experience with different styles and registers while also improving their grasp of the Turkish culture.
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NMC372H1F Islam and Muslims in the Balkans
The course explores the history of the Balkans from the Ottoman conquest in the fourteenth century until the present day with a particular focus on Islam, Muslims, and Muslim culture, while situating the subject within a broader transnational context. It examines topics such as the formation of Muslim communities in the Balkans, Sufi Islam, the region under Ottoman and Habsburg imperial rule, Muslims as minorities and majorities in nation-states, World War II, and the experiences of state socialism. In this course students will also engage critically with questions and debates concerning imperial rule and legacies, nationalism, religion, ethnic conflict, and coexistence.
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NMC379H1S Capital, Technology, and Utopia in the Modern Middle East
How does the workings of capital intersect with technological innovation and political visions in the modern Middle East? This course approaches this question through critical reading in the histories of capitalism, crisis, science, politics, and intersections between cultural history and technology studies using the Middle East as a starting point for the study of global phenomena. We will examine the ways in which constructions like race and ethnicity, gender, and the human/non-human divide have mediated the social and spatial expansion of capital in the region, especially through technological infrastructure and utopias between the late 18th and the 21st centuries.
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JRN301H1F Disability in the Hebrew Bible and Related Texts
For thousands of years, the Hebrew Bible (sometimes called the Old Testament) has influenced ideas about disability in societies across the globe. Yet, notions of disability in the Hebrew Bible may be strikingly different from what we might imagine. This course explores how some biblical texts and related ancient literature conceptualize disability in relation to issues of ethnicity, sexuality, beauty, age, social class, religious expression and so on. All readings will be in English. No knowledge of Hebrew is required.
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JHM307H1F Islamic Legal History: Formation and Encounters
This course examines the formation and encounters of Islamic Law with Legal Others from roughly the 8th century CE to the early formation of the Ottoman Empire. The Islamic legal tradition arose in a complex historical context in which legal traditions mapped onto, and gave legal cover to, imperial polities. As the Islamic polity expanded, so too did the imagination of jurists having to contend with new realities (political, geographic, economic, and otherwise). This course will introduce students to the formation of Islamic law in a context of contending legal orders, its ongoing encounters with legal orders in the course of Islamic expansion, and the retraction of Islamic legal orders and institutions as a tradition that anticipated political sovereignty experienced the limits of that sovereignty. Examples will be drawn from the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and South East Asia. The course will introduce students to the disciplinary focus of Law and History through a focus on doctrine, institution, and the implications on both as territory and people are subject to varying waves of imperial designs and local resistance.
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NMC474H1S / NMC2000HS LEC0101The Archaeology of Death
Death is an unavoidable part of the human experience, and each culture has its own unique ways of handling the loss of family and community members and conceptualizing the relationships between the living and the dead.
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This course represents an intensive education in the archaeology of death.
Participants in this class will read a variety of theoretical and methodological literature outlining several approaches to reconstructing the ways that people have disposed of the dead throughout history, and will use these frameworks to examine in detail the primary archaeological data for mortuary practices from sites in the ancient Near East.
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NMC471H1S / NMC2001HS LEC0101 Climate & Collapse in the Ancient Near East
Discussions of climate change and its repercussions for modern society have become pervasive in the media and in general social discourse. The past offers a deep time-scale within which to examine the plethora of ways in which humans have interacted with their environment, and responded and adapted to climate variability in various periods.
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However, when we find stories about past civilizations and their relationship with their environment in the media, these are almost exclusively framed as stories of unavoidable collapse. Is this legitimate, or over-dramatic? What can we learn from past societies and how they adapted to ancient climate change—or perhaps failed to do so? This course addresses the methods used to reconstruct past climate, the details of what we know about Near Eastern palaeoclimates, and the frameworks of collapse and resilience that are frequently employed in explaining episodes of rapid climate change in the Near East.
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HPS4020H Postcolonialism and the Global Turn in Science and Technology Studies
Weekly discussions on knowledge, violence, necropolitics, science & imagination, black reason, braided science, postcolony, western science, global circulation, praxis, crisis, universalisms, race, technonationalism, provincialization, temporality, scales, atomic junctions, expertise, perspectivism, ontology, indigenous feminism, performativity, cosmology, decolonization. For more information, contact Professor Adrien Zakar ( adrien.zakar@utoronto.ca). |
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Upcoming Events
There's always something happening at NMC, keep up to date with our upcoming events at NMC's Events page.
Contact us if you would like to have your event featured.
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