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Tombs, Mausoleums, Shrines and Memorials of Religious/Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East (1980-2011)This is a call for papers for one or several panels on “Tombs, Mausoleums, Shrines and Memorials of Religious/Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East (1980-2011)” which will be held during the Fourth World Congress for Middle East Studies (WOCMES), 18th-22nd August 2014 in Ankara (Turkey).http://www.wocmes2014.org/Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980), Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeyni (1902-1989), Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953-2001), Yasser Arafat (1929-2004), Saddam Hussein (1937-2006), Muammar al-Gaddafi (1942-2011) and Osama Bin Ladan (1957-2011) were all political, religious or pious leaders of important countries and movements of the contemporary Middle East during the last two decades of the 20th and the first decade of the 21st centuries. Their deaths and funeral ceremonies, their burial places, and their tombs and mausoleums are the main topics of our panel(s). We are interested in receiving proposals which present new and unpublished researches on topics such as (but not limited to):-        Death and funeral ceremonies as national and state formation;-       Funeral architecture and national identity;-       Memorials and mausoleums as a mechanism of symbolic legitimation;-        Significance of memorials and mausoleums in urban topography and the creation of sacred public space;-       The role of memorials and mausoleums in collective memory and constructing the narrative of the past;-       The role of memorials and mausoleums in innovation and the creation of new rituals and performances;-       The death of political and religious leaders and the creation of new saints and sanctity;-       Creation of new sites of worship and political-religious pilgrimage;-       Formation of religious-political tourism.We are primarily interested in receiving proposals which focus on case or comparative studies related to the above mentioned leaders. All branches of disciplines are welcome.Please send the title of your proposal, your discipline, a 500-word abstract and your full academic affiliation including your e-mail address as an attached file (Office Word) by 30th Nov. 2013 to: