Jörg Matthias Determann's Blog, page 8

Interview in the journal Sociology of Islam

Thank you very much and çok teşekkür ederim to Tugrul Keskin of Cappadocia University for interviewing me about the book Islamic Theology and Extraterrestrial Life (I.B. Tauris), which Shoaib Ahmed Malik and I edited. Our discussion was published in the journal Sociology of Islam (SOI) 10, no. 3–4 (December 2024): 281–86. I further thank Driss Bouyahya of the Université Moulay Ismail, the chief editor of SOI, for his generous interest and support. Sociology of Islam is published by Brill. The digital object identifier (DOI) is: https://doi.org/10.1163/22131418-1003...

National/International Recognition Awards (NIRA) Reception in Richmond

I am extraordinarily thankful to the Office of the Provost of Virginia Commonwealth University, and specifically to Mangala Subramaniam and LaToya Blizzard, for inviting me to the National/International Recognition Awards (NIRA) Reception in Richmond on December 4, 2024. I was hugely honored to receive this award from Fotis Sotiropoulos after remarks by Michael Rao. My participation in this celebration was made possible by many people. Patty Paine provided leadership and support for me all the way through. The Dean’s Office at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar sponsored my trip. Mary Amat, in coordination with Dushan Rajith and Chester Pollocks of Mannai Travel, booked my transportation and accommodation. Jeanne Vaz and Marilou Magsayo Semetara took care of my daughter Maria and our home in my absence. Byrad Yyelland substituted for me in my classrooms. You can see the list of NIRA honorees here: https://provost.vcu.edu/nira/

Journal of Arabian Studies publishes announcement of 2023 Biennial Book Award

Congratulations once again to Amal Sachedina on winning the 2023 Biennial Book Award of the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (AGAPS) with her work Cultivating the Past, Living the Modern (Cornell University Press)! I also congratulate Saba (Amélie) Le Renard for earning an Honorable Mention of her volume Western Privilege (Stanford University Press). Once more, I thank Laura Goffman, Fahed Al-Sumait and Crystal Ennis for entrusting me and my fellow members of the AGAPS Book Award Committee with the selection process. The commendation that Neha Vora (our Committee Chair), Fanar Haddad and I wrote was published in volume 13, issue 2, of the Journal of Arabian Studies. AGAPS members and other subscribers should have full access to the journal on the Taylor & Francis website. Everyone else can preview the award notice: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/...

Volume 13, issue 2, of the Journal of Arabian Studies published

In my capacity as Book Review Editor of the Journal of Arabian Studies, I express sincere thanks to the contributors to our new issue (volume 13, number 2), which was published online on November 28, 2024. Our authors include Tony Allison, Andreas Krieg, Joan Grandjean, Fred H. Lawson, Martha Mundy and Hamdullah Baycar. I thank Routledge, I.B. Tauris, De Gruyter and the BBC for producing the works under review and for providing copies. I also acknowledge the constant support from my colleagues on the editorial team and at Taylor & Francis. They include Gerd Nonneman, James Onley, Fatemeh Teimoorzadeh, Meena Janardhan and Geethanjali Sivanandam. Browse our most recent issue here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjab2...

National/International Recognition Award (NIRA) at VCU

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and Ευχαριστώ από καρδιάς to Fotis Sotiropoulos for congratulating me on my selection for the National/International Recognition Award (NIRA) at Virginia Commonwealth University! I am profoundly honored to be part of the 2024 class of NIRA scholars, which also includes my colleague Maryam Al-Homaid. I am forever indebted to my supervisor Patty Paine and to all members of our Dean’s Office at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar for their support. This recognition would not have been achievable without the contributions of many other people. First among them are my wife Jeanne Vaz, our daughter Maria, our nanny Marilou Magsayo Semetara, my parents Michael and Sibylle Determann, my office mate Byrad Yyelland, and my departmental coordinator Marynol Amat. You can read the announcement in a blog entry of the VCU Office of the Provost on November 20, 2024: https://blogs.vcu.edu/provost/2024/11...

Interview on artificial intelligence in the history of science classroom

ধন্যবাদ and thank you to Malika Basu Ghosh of Kalna College for inviting me to speak on her podcast Research Academia. The topic of our conversation was artificial intelligence in the history of science classroom. Rohit Dutta designed the thumbnail for our YouTube video, which was released on November 24, 2024. Malika’s talented son, Soumalya Basu, created the background and edited this contribution. I further thank my students at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar for teaching me a huge amount about AI, including programs like ChatGPT, DALL-E and Midjourney. I proudly showed Malika some of their works from this semester. You can watch our interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp-z9...

Mohammad Abu Hawash wins Dubai Future Forum Sci-Fi Short Story Competition

Congratulations and ألف مبروك to Mohammad Abu Hawash for winning the first place in the Dubai Future Forum Sci-Fi Short Story Competition “Echoes of Tomorrow” (أصداء المستقبل)! His story is entitled “The Interstellar Haj.” He wrote it in Clyde Wilcox’s seminar on “Interstellar Politics” at Georgetown University in Qatar in 2019, in which I gave a guest lecture on “Space Aliens and Politics in Muslim Science Fiction.” Clyde shared Mohammad’s story with me, and both of us encouraged him to publish it. You can read “The Interstellar Haj” on the website of the Dubai Future Foundation: https://www.dubaifuture.ae/the-inters...

Interview in Viewpoint magazine of the British Society for the History of Science

A big thanks to Joe Holloway for interviewing me for Viewpoint, the magazine of the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS)! Our conversation appeared on page 15 in issue 134 (October 2024). Jeanne Vaz kindly proofread my draft responses. Kateryna Reshetova took the picture which is part of this contribution. Mentioned in the text are two other very important people in my life: my daughter Maria and my friend and collaborator Emad El-Din Aysha. You can download this issue of Viewpoint and other recent ones on the BSHS website: https://www.bshs.org.uk/publications/...

Joining the Working Group Star Names of the International Astronomical Union

Ein ganz größes Dankeschön and a very big thank you to Susanne M. Hoffmann for inviting me to join the Working Group Star Names (WGSN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). We research, catalog and adopt proper names for stars for use by the global astronomical community and aid the recognition and preservation of intangible astronomical heritage. We further support other IAU efforts related to celestial nomenclature, including public campaigns like NameExoWorlds. I thank Danielle Adams very much for coordinating our Arabic Star Names Subgroup, which also includes Roland Laffitte and Khalid AlAjaji. You can get to know our group by going here: https://exopla.net/star-names/group/

Seminar on internationalism in astronomy at Georgetown University Qatar

Alf shukr and thanks a million to Ayman Shabana for inviting me to give a lunch talk at Georgetown University Qatar. On Thursday, October 31, 2024, at 1pm, I will speak in room 0A13. My lecture is entitled “Uniting the Planet: A History of Internationalism in Astronomy.” It is part of the new CULP Seminar Series, which is organized by the Culture and Politics curricular group. Whenever I disseminate findings of my projects, I am indebted to my research assistants for their invaluable contributions. Currently, they are Naila Aliyeva, Rizwanul Islam and Shugyla Karshygakyzy. As I am preparing for this event, I also think of my past collaborators who were students at Georgetown, such as Shaheer Liaqat, Linda binti Ridzuan Chun and Walli Ullah. Everyone who is interested is welcome. https://www.qatar.georgetown.edu/even...