ASPS NEWSLETTER ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF PERSIANATE SOCIETIES www.persianatesocieties.org No. 21, Fall 2008. All submissions in humanities and social sciences related to Call for Papers Persianate Societies are welcome. We encourage pre-organized panels, but also welcome individual papers. Submissions for Fourth ASPS Convention pre-organized panels must include a panel abstract of no more Lahore, Pakistan, Feb 27 – March 1, 2009 than 300 words plus individual abstracts of no more than 300 words for each panelist. Panels must be limited to a minimum New Extended Deadline: October 31, 2008. of three panelists and a maximum of five. Panels and individual Contact: [email protected] abstracts must contain a clearly stated thesis. We are pleased to announce the ASPS Fourth Biennial Conven- Paper and panel proposals should be sent to: tion, which will take place from February 27-March 1, 2009 in Dr. Shahzad Bashir: [email protected] Lahore, Pakistan. In addition, proposals from Iran should be sent to: Lahore is the cultural center of Pakistan and the Mughal ruler Dr. Habib Borjian: [email protected] Jahangir's capital in the 17th century. The city boasts some of the wonders of Islamic architecture, including Shahi Qila (the New deadline for submissions: October 31, 2008. Lahore Fort), Badshahi Mosque, Shalimar Gardens, and the buildings of the old, walled city. Not far away from Lahore is Report from Tajik Regional Offices the prehistoric site of Harappa, the ancient city of the Indus Valley Civilization. In July and August 2008 Board Member Jo-Ann Gross traveled We look forward to an exciting fourth convention. Our first to Tajikistan where she met with the directors of the ASPS biennial convention took place in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in Sep- branches in Dushanbe and Khorogh. Jo-Ann met with Lola tember 2002, with the cooperation of the Academy of Sciences Dodkhudoeva, director of the Dushanbe office, which is located of the Republic of Tajikistan, the Rudaki Institute of Language in the Institute of Oriental Studies and Written Heritage. Among and Literature, and the National Commission of UNESCO, Taji- the planned activities of the Dushanbe branch is a roundtable kistan. The Dushanbe Conference brought together over 80 scheduled for November 2008 with the President of the Acad- scholars from thirteen countries. ASPS’s second biennial con- emy of Sciences on the status of Iranian Studies in Tajikistan vention, on "Society, History and Culture in the Persianate and the launching of new publication featuring research on World," in Yerevan, Armenia in 2004, brought together 90 Iranian history and culture in Tajikistan. The Dushanbe branch scholars from 18 countries. During the third conference in has also organized a panel for the upcoming ASPS conference Tblisi, Georgia in June 2007 at the lv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State in Lahore. University and the Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies, the ASPS opened its new branch office at the Institute of Oriental Jo-Ann Gross also met with the director of the new ASPS Studies. branch in Khorog, Umed Mamadsherezodshoev. The Khorog office is now organizing activities for fall 2008 and spring 2009, The conferences have provided a rare and valued opportunity including a seminar on the historiography of Badakhshan. Dr. for scholars from West, Central and South Asia, Europe and Mamadsherzodshoev also is planning to publish a bi-annual North America to participate in an interdisciplinary dialogue. majalah in Tajik and Persian on Badakhshan studies, with the The interchange of ideas has also found its place in our publica- assistance of Sabohat Donayorova, co-director of the Khorog tion, Journal of Persianate Studies. office. Dr. Mamadsherzodshoev will participate in a panel on Badakhshan organized for the ASPS Lahore conference. Tentative Program Thursday, Feb 26 New Website Up! Registration: 9:00-16:00 Presidential Address: 16:30-18:00 Reception: 18:00-20:00 http://www.persianatesocieties.org The new ASPS website is Friday- Sunday, Feb 27- March 1: 24 Regular Sessions online! We owe sincere thanks to Chad Johnson and Peter Sunday, March 1: Banquet Angelos at the University of Minnesota Duluth for the fancy Monday, March 2: Excursions (Optional) new design! jomand's name. Please check at the hotel reception desk for New Student Member the number.) on the ASPS Board Further, the following ASPS meetings will be held (closed to the public): ASPS members voted a new student member to the ASPS board • Board Meeting, Saturday, Nov 22, 3:00-4:00PM, Jack- of directors in March 2008. Roja Fazaeli received the largest son. amount of votes. • JPS editorial board meeting, Saturday, Nov 22, 5:00- 6:30PM, Jackson. Roja Fazaeli is now a lecturer in Islamic Studies at Trinity Lahore Conference Organizing Committee Meeting: College Dublin. She received her PhD from the Irish Centre for • Sunday, Nov 23, 9:00-11:30AM, Tyler. Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, in July 2008. Her thesis was a study of women's rights in Iran, compar- ing and critiquing international human rights law and Islamic ASPS at ISIS 2008 law. Roja was the recipient of the Government of Ireland schol- arship for Humanities and Social Sciences. She has been a visit- ing scholar to the Feminist Legal Theory Project at the Emory The workshop "Encounters Between Early Modern Sanskrit and School of Law, Atlanta, GA, and the Institute for the Study of Persian Cultures" took place in conjunction with the Seventh Women and Gender (IRWaG) at Columbia University, New York. Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies in Toronto from July 31- In 2006, Roja served as the human rights trainer for Amnesty August 3, 2008. Organized by Prof. Ajay Rao (University of International, Irish Section. She has also worked as a consultant Toronto) and Prof. Chris Minkowski (University of Oxford) along to Frontline (Defenders of Human Rights Defenders) and several with several graduate students, it focused on relationships NGOs in Iran. Roja was the chair of the South-West Asia Mil- between Sanskrit and Persian scholastic and courtly cultures in lennium Development Goals Youth Leadership Initiative with the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. One objective of the work- the United Nations and is a member of the executive committee shop was to bring scholars into dialogue with each other, pro- of UNIFEM Ireland. She is also one of the co-founders and was viding a site for collaborative partnership while addressing the vice-president of the Iranian Society of Ireland. larger historical and theoretical issues. Sessions dealt respec- tively with Ethical and Political Texts, Practical Arts and Sci- ences, and Mystical and Metaphysical Texts. The texts that Elections for the ASPS President were compared included the Mahabharata/Razmnamah, and Secretary-Treasurer Yogavasistha/Muntakhab-i Jug Basisht, Ratirahasya/Lizzat al- nisa, and Siddhantasarvaraja/Zij-i Shah Jahani. A special session on Mughal and Post-Mughal Translations was chaired by Prof. Ballots for the election of the ASPS President and for the Secre- tary-Treasurer will be sent out electronically in mid-October Muzaffar Alam (University of Chicago), in which three graduate 2008. Please watch out for emails from Habib Borjian. students presented papers. A public discussion was also held that opened up the floor to other participants and the audi- ence. The workshop was well attended and proved to be a ASPS Panel at MESA 2008: success. Civil Society and Constitutionalism "The Eighteenth Century Fracturing of the Persianate World” in Iran and Egypt was a discussion organized by Mana Kia (Harvard University) and chaired by Paul Losensky (University of Indiana at Bloom- ington). The panelists and their topics were: Mana Kia, "Ac- The ASPS is sponsoring a thematic conversation at the 42nd counting for Difference: A Comparative Look at the Autobio- annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association to be graphical Travel Narratives of Muhammad Ali Hazin Lahiji and held in Washington DC, November 22-25, 2008. The panel, Abd al-Karim Kashmiri"; Rajeev Kinra (Northwestern University), titled “Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law in Egypt "The Place of Place in Early Modern Indo-Persian Comparative and Iran,” will feature Atef Said (University of Michigan), Me- Philology"; Matthew Smith (Harvard University), "A Debate on hrangiz Kar (Harvard University), Mehrzad Boroujerdi (Syracuse Authenticity: Literary Return and the Indian Style"; Sunil Sharma University), Samer Shehata (Georgetown University) as partici- (Boston University), "From Aisheh to Nur Jahan: Women Poets pants and Farideh Farhi (University of Hawaii at Manoa) as and the Shaping of the Classical Persian Literary Canon". Sev- conversation leader. eral papers presented at this panel are scheduled to appear in a future issue of the ASPS’ Journal of Persianate Studies. ASPS Business Meeting and Reception at MESA 2008 Conference Reports All ASPS members shall be encouraged to attend the ASPS A three day conference "Persian Literature in Multilingual India: Business Meeting at MESA as well as the Reception the same Genres, Contexts, Styles" was held at the University of Cam- evening. The ASPS Business Meeting will be held Saturday, bridge, 16-18 June 2008. The convenors of the conference November 22, 2:00-3:00 PM, in Jefferson. The ASPS reception were Francesca Orsini (SOAS), Stefano Pello (University of Ven- will take place from 8:00-10:00 PM in the Marriott Wardman ice) and Christine van Ruymbeke (University of Cambridge). The Park Hotel (more precisely: in a suite reserved in Said Ar- papers dealt with the issue of localism and internationalism in the Persian context. 2 Final reports, including receipts of all expenses, must be remit- The Central Eurasia Research Fund (CERF) ted at the end of the project period in order for the Research Fund to meet its own internal accounting requirements that ensure the Research Fund’s continued operation.