Tuesday 30 November 2010

Grant for photographers from Central Asia, Caucasus, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Pakista

GRANTS- Photography from Cent. Asia, Caucasus, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Pakistan

Posted by: Jeff Yarborough

The Open Society Foundations Documentary Photography Project
(http://www.soros.org/initiatives/photography) and Arts and Culture
Network Program (http://www.soros.org/initiatives/arts) announce a
grant and training opportunity for documentary photographers from
Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Pakistan.

The grant is being offered to:
* visually document issues of importance in the region; and
* provide training and support to photographers from the region.

Approximately 10 cash stipends in the amount of $3,500 each will be
awarded to photographers to produce a photo essay on a current human
rights or social issue in the region. Grantees will participate in two
master-level workshops on visual storytelling through photography and
multimedia. These workshops are led by internationally-recognized
photographers and industry professionals who will then provide ongoing
mentorship and support throughout the six-month grant term.

The Open Society Foundations will pay travel and hotel expenses and
provide a per diem to cover meals and incidentals for the workshops.
The deadline for proposals is December 3, 2010.

For more information on the grant, please visit:
http://apply.docphoto.org

GRANTS- Central Asian Energy Fellowship at BIC, Washington, D.C.

From Central Eurasia list:

Bank Information Center is pleased to announce a call for applications
for the BIC Energy Fellowship for residents of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Kazakhstan and Russia.

Europe and Central Asia Program Call for Applications Fellowship on
Energy Strategies and the Multilateral Development Banks Bank
Information Center (BIC) is pleased to announce a call for
applications for a 2-4 week fellowship program in Washington, DC for
civil society organizations interested in advancing citizen interests
and participation in energy projects or policy supported by
multilateral development banks (MBDs). The fellowship is open to
applicants from Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The
fellowship is an opportunity to learn about multilateral development
banks and their projects and policies, their impact on the development
of energy sector in fellow's countries and role of public oversight
and advocacy. The fellows will also learn advocacy skills, network
with civil society, meet decision makers and take part in BIC's Energy
Campaign during spring of 2011. The fellows will have a chance to
develop a coherent strategy to advocate civil society concerns
vis-à-vis international investors. The fellowship will focus on the
World Bank and BIC's accumulated experience in project monitoring and
policy setting work. BIC welcomes proposals from fellows that
elaborate on long-term cooperation between the applicant's
organization and BIC on a concrete World Bank project, program or
policy.

Application instructions:

Applicants need to submit the following documents in Russian or
English to fellowship@bicusa.org , no later than December 31, 2010.

* The application form,
* Narrative proposal describing the specific issue they would like to
address according to proposal criteria below, not exceeding 3 pages.
(See proposal criteria below)
* Resume

Proposal criteria:

* The proposals should involve multilateral development banks,
preferably the World Bank, and be related to energy sector;
* Clearly state an opportunity or a problem in the energy sector that
the applicant would like to address and why;
* Propose how you intend to bring about change in the specific
project, program or the energy sector in general;
* Elaborate how BIC and the fellowship can help achieve the stated
goals, during the fellowship and after its completion;
* Elaborate what you want to accomplish with skills and knowledge
obtained from the fellowship.

Eligibility:

* Be a national and current resident of Russia, Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan.
* Have a track record demonstrating commitment to social change in a
professional setting;
* Have a working knowledge of English language;
* All encouraged to apply, but early and mid-career professionals
will receive preference.

Expenses: The fellowship will cover applicant's trip to Washington,
DC, accommodation and per diem during the period of stay between 2 4
weeks. BIC will also cover fellow visa expenses.

Please contact BIC for the application form.


Said Yakhyoev
Associate, Europe and Central Asia Program
Bank Information Center
1100 H Street NW, Suite 650
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 624 0639
syakhyoev@bicusa.org
www.bicusa.org

Friday 26 November 2010

Redhouse Turkish Lexicon - Please use e-book

The copies of Redhouse's Turkish Lexicon (1857, 1890, Arabic script first before Redhouse's transliteration) that the Library possesses are not in good shape, but very difficult to replace. I have withdrawn two from service because it is so fragile but in the meantime please try to use the free e-book which is available from Internet Archive. It might not be as handy as the print version, but at least you can use it outside of the Library. The link is on this catalogue record.

NB More modern Turkish dictionaries based on Redhouse's original are still available in the Library as usual, this announcement only refers to the Bernard Quaritch editions.

Thursday 18 November 2010

Russia's Arabic language newspaper re-launches in UAE after 17 years

(Picture from sfnblog.com)

The Moscow News yesterday re-launched its Arabic edition in the United Arab Emirates 17 years after its closure, RIA Novosti reported. Anbaa Mosku will cover Russian affairs and is a part of Russian government's new strategy to step up relations with the Arab world.

Click on the picture above to go to the full article

Monday 1 November 2010

Call for Papers: Official Anti-Veiling Campaigns in the M. East and C. Asia, Sept. 23

Call for papers:

Friday 23 September 2011
St Antony's College, University of Oxford

Coercion or Empowerment?
Official Anti-Veiling Campaigns in the Middle East and Central Asia

The recent decision by the French National Assembly to ban the wearing
of the niqab (Muslim face-veil) in public has sparked an intense
controversy. Similar anti-niqab campaigns are taking place in a range
of European countries

The immense symbolic significance which the niqab, sometimes
mistakenly referred to as the burqa, has acquired, both for its
supporters and its opponents, is a marked feature of this controversy.
Both sides claim to speak for women's empowerment, but are divided by
issues of secularism versus religious belief, and identity versus integration.

Yet neither the anti-veiling campaigns in contemporary Europe, nor the
debates which rage around them, are new. They are strikingly
pre-figured by similar campaigns and debates which occurred across the
Islamic world in the early decades of the twentieth century,
particularly in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Although
these countries were ruled by very different regimes, in Turkey a
republican regime based on the army, modernizing monarchs, Reza Shah
and King Amanullah, in Iran and Afghanistan, and communist parties in
Central Asia, their anti-veiling campaigns bore profound similarities.
Whether communist or elite nationalist, all disliked what they viewed
as the reactionary forces of Islam and tradition, forces which they
equated and conflated, and all wished to create a new and modern
woman, unveiled, educated and integrated into the workforce.

These anti-veiling campaigns were everywhere presented as
emancipatory. However, they were conducted by regimes which were in
every sense authoritarian while the state's sponsorship of aggressive
and authoritarian anti-veiling campaigns led to an intense
politicization of the issue. Unveiling became a battleground on which
enemies of the regimes might mobilize a more general opposition. For
the secular elites, unveiling remained a signifier of modernity. For
their opponents, unveiling became symptomatic of a loss of cultural
integrity and a capitulation to European imperialism. Many also saw
unveiling as a deliberate attempt to weaken religious feeling, the
last means by which European power might be resisted.

The conference will look at these official anti-veiling campaigns in
the interwar Middle East and Central Asia from a comparative
historical perspective. It will examine as wide a range of historical
episodes as possible and draw conclusions about the nature,
objectives, achievements and failures of these campaigns, which have
such a striking contemporary resonance.

Please submit abstracts, of not more than 500 words, of proposed
papers to Stephanie Cronin: Stephanie.cronin@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Deadline for submissions 15th February 2011.