About the Network
The Shii Studies Network aims to provide a space for graduate students researching Shiism to forge personal and professional connections, share their research with and learn from each other, and push the field forward.
Run by graduate students for graduate students, the Network organises events such as lecture series with established scholars in the field, online seminar sessions for students to share their work in a supportive environment, and more practical sessions aimed at sharing advice and opportunities. We have much more planned for the future including an international conference which we are currently working on attracting funding for.
Why Shii Studies?
In recent years, journals, book series, and professorial chairs have been established dedicated to the study of Shiism. One may question the utility of isolating Shiism as a separate field of study when few would identify as a scholar of Shiism without any qualifications. Most would define their area of research by a disciplinary boundary, a temporal, or a geographical focus, or any combination of the three. By isolating Shiism as a field of study, one may run the risk of “ghettoising” Shiism so that it is perpetually seen in relation to Sunnism and not as a trend of thought in its own right. As a point of comparison, nobody ever feels the need to identify as a scholar of Sunnism.
This is not our aim by naming this initiative the ‘Shii Studies Network’. Rather, through dedicated attention to Shii trends of thought and figures identifying as Shii, our intention is to avoid sidelining such traditions and figures and help incorporate them more fully into the wider discourse in Islamic studies. Through the Network, we hope to bring together fellow graduate students working on Shiism as a phenomenon to help promote its study and avoid the sidelining of Shii sources and figures and encourage a more holistic understanding of Islamic thought and Muslim societies.
We hope that our work will yield both theoretical and practical pathways for exploring the study of Shiism within the broader context of Islamic studies.
Membership
Membership of the Network is open to students currently enrolled on a doctoral program at universities, divinity schools, and seminaries anywhere in the world who work on or who have an interest in the study of Shiism in any of its manifestations, across any time period, and in any region.
In order to keep the Network intimate and manageable, we hold a strict policy that membership is only open to those currently enrolled on a doctoral program and will update the membership list accordingly. The seminars are only open to members, but the lecture series are open to all.
To become a member, email one of the chairs of the Network who will add you to the mailing list and send you invites to the seminars.
