DS Events at the Institute

2022

October 13: The Author's Voice, The Perils and Joys of writing on the Arabs before Islam, Ayad Al-Ani, Professor for Change Management and Consulting, Associate Member of the Einstein Centre Digital Future, Berlin, and Professor extraordinary at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University. For a political scientist, the contradictory themes surrounding the Arabs and their region before the coming of Islam often seem strange and incomprehensible. Although there are no major barriers posed by rivers or mountain ranges, numerous civilizations are identified in the region each with their own language. As such, there is little opportunity for an Arab identity to emerge among those groups, despite the fact the Arabs themselves, as well as the Romans, seemingly had no problem identifying "Arabs". Some discussions on the theme have revealed a hesitancy in delineating the Arab language and script before the 5th century, rendering the appearance of the Qur’an mysterious. The majority of Arabs in the Roman East were Christians by this same period, and some still believe that monotheistic informants of the prophet need to be identified. Once these contradictions are unraveled a fascinating longue durée of events can emerge, which provides a common historical space between the East and the West, with religious ideas flowing from the periphery to the center. This talk will explore the process of dealing with these and other contradictions by adding a political and sociological lens to this stretch of history which focuses on the disappearance of the Arabs from history before Islam, their sudden appearance behind the banners of the Prophet, and the powerful and traumatic effect this emergence into world history has had on the relationship between the Arabs and the West. A recording of this event can be seen here.

Hosted by: Sabine Schmidtke (School of Historical Studies, IAS) and George A. Kiraz (School of Historical Studies, IAS and Editor-in-Chief, Gorgias Press) in cooperation with Angelos Chaniotis (School of Historical Studies, IAS).

October 25: ORCID Workshop for Researchers: Update your ORCID Record to Save Time and Get Credit in Funding Applications, Publications, and Research Reporting

Description: Getting and using your free ORCID iD and ORCID record can help you save time and get credit for your work in funding, publishing, and research reporting workflows. Funding organizations, publishers, and research institutions are increasingly requiring or asking for ORCID iDs from researchers, so this workshop will help you make sure you are ahead of the game. In this workshop, we will cover:
- An overview of the benefits of ORCID for researchers
- How ORCID can help you save time throughout the research landscape
- Tips and tricks for keeping your ORCID record up-to-date
Recording Link: A recording of this event can be seen here.

No prior experience with ORCID necessary. Additional details here.

December 8: The Author's Voice, Through the Prism of Wisdom: Elijah the Prophet as a Bearer of Wisdom in Rabbinic Literature, Hilla N. Alouf-Aboody, an independent scholar of Second Temple literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and rabbinic texts, who holds a PhD in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University. This presentation will explore the nature of the Elijah traditions in rabbinic literature and their connection to the wisdom tradition. By examining the diverse Elijah traditions in connection to the wisdom and apocalyptic traditions, I aim to shed new light on the manner in which Elijah’s role developed in rabbinic literature. A recording of this event can be seen here.

2023

January 20 to April 21: Scholarly Correspondences Among Orientalists during the Early and Late Modern Period as a Historical Source: A Series of Lectures.

The object of this lecture series is to bring together scholars and librarians engaged with collections of correspondences and/or include related projects that use appropriate digital tools to map and analyze such corpora. It is hosted by Sabine Schmidtke (NES@IAS) and María Mercedes Tuya (Digital Scholarship @IAS).

All meetings via Zoom, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm (EST), except for February 10.

January 20 - Sabine Schmidtke, Scholarly Correspondence: The Case of Oriental Studies During the Late 19th and Early 20th Century. A recording of this event can be seen here.
January 27 - Rukayyah Reichling and Kotoz Abdelhafiz Ahmed, Goldziher between European Orientalism and the Arab Nahda: Digitally Mapping a Far-Reaching Network. A recording of this event can be seen here.
February 10, 9:00 am (EST) - Ernst Herb, Leo Strauss's Letters to the Arabist Paul Kraus, between the Search of the Hidden Truth and Exile in Mizraim. A recording of this event can be seen here.
February 17 - Stefan Dumont, CorrespSearch–Connect and Search Scholarly Editions of Correspondence. A recording of this event can be seen here.
March 3 - Kinga Dévényi, “So far away, yet so close”: The correspondence of Ignaz Goldziher between 1863 and 1922. A recording of this event can be seen here.
March 10 - Paul Babinski, A Taste for the Difficult and Abstruse: A Seventeenth-Century Paris Librarian and His Orientalist Network. A recording of this event can be seen here.
March 17 - Isolde Lehnert, The Life of Max Meyerhof through his correspondence. A recording of this event can be seen here.
March 31 - Celeste Gianni, A library lost in translation: Paul Sbath’s correspondence with Eugène Tisserant. A recording of this event can be seen here.
April 7 - Garrett A. Davidson, The Correspondence between the orientalist and manuscript dealer Abraham Shalom Yahuda (d. 1951) and the Cairo-based publisher and manuscript dealer Mohammad Amin Khanji (d. 1938).
POSTPONED: April 14 - Ahmed Khan, Orientalists and 'Ulama' in Egypt in the 20th Century. Due to unforeseen circumstances this lecture has been postponed until the second iteration of this Lecture Series in Spring 2024. Details of this and the other lectures will be announced later in the year.
April 21 - Jan Just Witkam, Lives and letters. The correspondence of Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936).

Additional information: https://albert.ias.edu/20.500.12111/8044

May 11: ORCID Workshop for Researchers: Update your ORCID Record to Save Time and Get Credit in Funding Applications, Publications, and Research Reporting.