Islamic Studies Past, Present, and Futures Workshop

Winter 2022 Schedule

*All Winter 2022 sessions will meet on Zoom at Noon. Please sign up here to join the mailing list to receive information for the sessions

January 31
Arafat Razzaque (Assistant Professor, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations)
“Can Insulting Someone Break Your Wuḍūʾ? A Debate on Ritual in Early Islamic Law and Ethics”

February 7
Amira Mittermaier (Professor, Study of Religion)
“God, Anthropology, Islam”

March 7
Ari Schriber (Postdoctoral Fellow, Study of Religion)
“Social Knowledge as Evidence: The Twelve-Layman Lafīf Testimony in Colonial-Era Moroccan Sharīʿa Courts”

April 18
Abdulla Majeed (PhD Candidate, Anthropology)
“States of Fadl, or Stating Fadl: Indebtedness, exile, and the production of indebted citizenship.”

May 9
Basit Iqbal (Assistant Professor, McMaster University/IIS Affiliate)
“The Dread Heights: Memory-Images and Inversion on the Syrian Border.”  

Workshop Aims:
Islamic Studies Past, Present, and Futures gathers Islamic Studies researchers at the University of Toronto to participate in a new collaborative research workshop. The Workshop has two major goals: 1) to provide a space for researchers to gain constructive feedback on their written works in progress, and 2) to build academic community across disciplines of Islamic studies (e.g., history, anthropology, sociology) and levels (graduate students, postdocs, and faculty) at the University of Toronto and forge ongoing scholarly and professional ties. The Workshop revolves around a draft manuscript (e.g., an article or book/dissertation chapter) distributed to participants to read in advance of the session. The sessions are informal but focused group discussions of the paper in the spirit of helping the author and constructive academic discussion more broadly. To that end, participants are strongly encouraged to attend regularly to foster a strong group dynamic. All sessions will occur on Zoom until it is possible to meet in person and serve lunch.

Workshop Format:

• The workshop will occur approximately five times per semester, focusing on one pre-distributed paper per session. Each session will last for 60-90 minutes.
• Presenters will submit a polished draft for the organizer to distribute to participants one week in advance of the workshop. The presenter may include an introductory note to participants with their draft.
• Workshop participants should read the paper in advance so that the conversation focuses on constructive feedback. One “first respondent” among the participants is pre-assigned to begin the conversation.
• The session itself proceeds informally:
  •  The presenter may make brief opening comments if they wish to situate their work in the context of a larger project and/or discuss ongoing challenges of the paper (approximately 5 minutes).
  •  The first respondent starts the discussion with questions and comments (approximately 5 minutes).
•  Thereafter, the session should flow freely with participants providing feedback in conversation with the presenter, who is free to respond to questions and comments as desired and to pose their own questions to the group.