News: Announcement

The Structural Islamophobia Research Lab (SIRL) Fellowship The Structural Islamophobia Research Lab (SIRL) – at the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS), University of Toronto – supports the best and brightest minds committed to examining institutionally entrenched modes of Islamophobia that defy simplistic analyses and require creative research methods. This page will list three SiRL post-doc […]

The Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) is excited to share two new reports that came out of the Advisory Committee on Charitable Sectors (ACCR), of which Professor Anver Emon (Director, IIS) was a member from 2022 to 2024.

Grant from Inspirit Foundation to support MiCA’s storytelling capacity We’re excited to announce that the Muslims in Canada Archives (MiCA) project has been awarded a three-year grant from Inspirit Foundation. The funds will directly enable MiCA’s outreach and storytelling capacity about Muslim’s heritage in Canada. We are extremely grateful to Inspirit Foundation for their leadership […]

On May 23rd and 24th, the Canadian Association for the Study of Islam and Muslims (CASIM) met in Halifax, at St. Mary’s University, for the second conference organized since its founding in 2021. The conference centered around “Movement” and involved the spectrum of scholars from graduate students to mid-career professionals. The CASIM conference intends to […]

The Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) is proud to announce a new research project that will explore Muslim families’ experiences with the child welfare system in Ontario. This project will be housed under the IIS’ Structural Islamophobia Research Lab (SIRL). Limited research on child welfare system and Muslim’s experienceThere is a growing concern in Muslim […]

The Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto invites the Muslim-led charitable sector to participate in a dialogue with the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency to address concerns and deepen understanding.  Session 1: PlenaryThursday, February 29, 2024 (evening) – 6pm to 9:30pm Session 2: Sub-Sector Discussions (limited capacity):Friday, March 1, 2023 […]

On September 13, 2023, the Ontario Superior Court ruled against intervening in Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) audit of the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC)*. MAC raised a Charter challenge against the CRA on the grounds of violating religious freedom and non-discrimination. Muslim communities in Canada have long (but quietly) been concerned about CRA’s audit practices. […]

The Systemic Islamophobia Research Lab (SIRL) Fellowship The Systemic Islamophobia Research Lab (SIRL) – at the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS), University of Toronto – supports the best and brightest minds committed to examining institutionally entrenched modes of Islamophobia. This call for applications is for candidates committed to interdisciplinary research on Children’s Aid Societies (CAS) […]

The Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) is hiring for two positions: Business Officer & Administrative, Outreach and Communications Assistant to the Director. Given the expanding scope and operations, the IIS is bringing on more staff to enhance and support its various projects and work. We encourage anyone interested in working at the IIS to carefully […]

Dear members of the Islamic Studies community at UofT, It is our pleasure to announce the Winter 2023 Semester schedule for the Islamic Studies Past, Present, and Futures Workshop. All sessions will meet on Tuesdays at noon Eastern in a hybrid format: in-person at the IIS offices (fifth floor, Jackman Humanities Building) or on Zoom. […]

The Islamic Art & Material Culture Collaborative (IAMCC) is pleased to announce the launch of the second iteration of its online conversation series. This new series entitled Art and Activism in Contemporary Global Landscapes will consist of 4 monthly sessions held on Zoom on Saturdays from January to May at 11 a.m. EST. Our 2023 series aims to highlight […]

The Institute of Islamic Studies is hiring a Digital Network Officer to support the growing needs of its projects. Below is a copy of the job posting, but we encourage you to visit the original posting for all complete and latest details. Digital Network Officer Date Posted: 11/28/2022Req ID: 28685Faculty/Division: Faculty of Arts & ScienceDepartment: Institute of Islamic StudiesCampus: St. […]

The Muslims in Canada Data Initiative (MiCDI) is pleased to announce a new research project funded by the Peel Social Lab: Theorizing Islamophobia. The new project also has a job posting for a Research Assistantship (more details below). Announcement: Theorizing Islamophobia Job Opportunity: Graduate Research Assistantship (50 hours) New Project – “Theorizing Islamophobia” – To […]

In a joint project, the University of Toronto’s Institute of Islamic Studies seeks a researcher to write a report on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and allegations of its discriminatory practices against religious minorities and persons of colour with specific focus on access to and respect for legal counsel.

Graduate Research Assistantship: Islamophobia Index Development (400 hours) Area of Research The study of Islam and Muslims in Canada Description of Duties This Research Assistantship (RAship) will invite a graduate student to work closely with a MiCDI data team member to develop an index measuring Islamophobia. The role would include qualitative data analysis, conceptualization and operationalization […]

The Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto, welcomes the inclusion in the proposed federal budget of the Muslims in Canada Archives (MiCA) project. We thank the Government of Canada for its support, and the strong advocates for MiCA in the Government, such as MP Arif Virani (Parkdale -High Park). We look forward to working closely and […]

We’re pleased to share that Professor Anver Emon (Director, Institute of Islamic Studies) has been appointed to the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector (ACCS). Prof Emon’s appointment comes as the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson continues its systemic examination of the Charities Directorate’s audit process. The appointment of diverse members to the committee, which the Honourable Diane […]

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 31Arafat 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 7Amira Mittermaier (Professor, Study of Religion)“God, […]

The theme for the Spring 2022 edition of Islam in the City is regrowth and reclamation of autonomy in the city. As we enter spring, we begin to shift our habits to the new season. In this edition, we hope to spotlight your take on rebirth and reclamation of autonomy after two years of a drastically changed reality. How […]

Watching the news of Afghanistan over the last few weeks has been heartbreaking for many of us who have a close connection to the country, its people, and its history.  For some Afghan-Canadians, they watch from the comfort of their homes, often with a sense of guilt as relatives still in the country scramble to escape. […]

***Please note that only students enrolled at UofT are eligible to apply for the positions listed below. Please see the specific eligibility requirements for each position.***  A PDF version of this Call for Applications can be found here.  Islamic Art and Material Cultures Collaborative (IAMCC)Senior Fellow The Institute of Islamic Studies issues a call for applications for […]

Last March, 2021, the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) was pleased to host the online platform for Under Layered Suspicion: A Review of CRA Audits of Muslim-led Charities. The report was the fruit of a collaborative research and engagement process led by Anver Emon, Director of the IIS, and Nadia Z. Hasan, Chief Operations Officer of the National […]

The IIS is deeply grateful to everyone who held space to process and grieve, in the wake of the tragic murders in London, ON last month. During that time, the Reading Muslims network compiled and posted a series of reflections in solidarity with #OurLondonFamily. The compilation is now made available as a publication below. We […]

On April 22, 2021, the Council of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) unanimously voted (with one abstention) to censure the University of Toronto for violating academic freedom in the hiring process for the Faculty of Law’s International Human Rights Program Director. The Faculty of Law’s selection committee unanimously agreed on a single candidate, […]

On the evening of June 6, 2021, 20-year old Nathanial Veltman decided to maim, murder, and erase from existence, a family of Muslims out on a daily walk, simply because they were Muslim.

The Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) at the University of Toronto invites applications for an innovative Fellows Program in Islamic Art and Material Culture.  The Fellows Program is a joint project of the IIS, Aga Khan Museum (AKM), and Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), and is run collaboratively through the Islamic Art and Material Culture Collaborative (IAMCC).    The definition of Islamic art […]

On April 19, 2021 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrysta Freeland presented to Parliament the 2021 Federal Budget. Not surprisingly, the budget narrative is framed around the need to respond to COVID19 and overcome the economic recession it has caused across Canada. But while the budget presents a considered impetus to Canada in […]

After nearly 50 years of obscurity, a large collection of rare manuscripts in the basement of the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library has found new life as the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) and the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) agreed upon and implemented a plan to catalogue this collection, thereby opening it up to […]

We at the IIS are proud to launch a new research report, in partnership with National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), called “Under Layered Suspicion: A Review of CRA Audits of Muslim-led Charities”. The report can be found at: layeredsuspicion.ca The report finds potential biases and prejudicial policies that influence the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) […]

The Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) is excited to introduce you to a new and exciting venture: the Muslims in Canada Data Initiative (MiCDI). MiCDI examines and and develops large-scale data sets, that improve the visibility of Muslims across Canada. With a higher resolution understanding of Canada’s Muslims communities, MiCDI can enable more effective discussions […]

The Muslims in Canada Archive (MiCA) project was recently featured in the Toronto Star. Moska Rokay (Research Fellow and Project Coordinator for MiCA), and Anver Emon (Director, Institute of Islamic Studies) share insights about the origins of the project and how it fits into a broader societal shift in empowering community members to tell their […]

We’re very excited to share some updates from the Reading Muslims project, as we develop the project throughout the year ahead. About Reading Muslims Reading Muslims is an interdisciplinary conversation on the role of texts and textuality within Islamic studies. The project re-examines the methodological assumptions surrounding the history and use of texts across a […]

A report was recently published by the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS), led by Dr. Sarah Shah, on the status of health data and research on Canadian Muslims. The paper titled “Canadian Muslim Health Exceptionalism—Community Consultation” is available to the public here: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/102879 Abstract:This report follows a recent scoping review on Canadian Muslim health. The […]

Earlier this month we had the honour of hosting Khaled Fahmy – Professor of Arabic Studies, Cambridge University – for a week-long engagement at the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS). Public LectureKhaled Fahmy’s visit contained a public lecture titled “History of Islamic Legal Practice: Some Insights from 19th Century Egypt”.  In this lecture, Professor Fahmy […]

To introduce communities to the Muslims in Canada Archives (MiCA), project lead – Moska Rokay – will be hosting three virtual sessions from December 2020 through January 2021. The sessions will be held on Zoom and will be recorded (in true archival fashion). The need for a Muslim community archiveThe chance to tell your story […]

On Oct 16th, a French schoolteacher in the suburbs of Paris named Samuel Paty was murdered by a Muslim man for showing his classroom caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The aftermath has placed Islam and Muslims under scrutiny with the government claiming that “Islamist separatism” is challenging the Republic’s values and unity. In this podcast, […]

MiCA partners Memorial University and Muslim Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (MANAL) have been awarded an SSHRC grant to launch the Muslim Narratives and Lives in Newfoundland and Labrador Community Project (MNL in NL Community Project). Lead by co-PIs Jennifer Selby and Ayse Sule Akinturk, the project will both locate and create archival materials to […]

The IIS is pleased to announce that Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has awarded a Partnership Development Grant to support the development and growth of the Muslims in Canada Archives (MiCA). MiCA is a project of the IIS in partnership with a number of national and local archival institutions, such as the University […]

The Institute of Islamic Studies will launch in Fall 2020 a new research collected entitled Reading Muslims. Supported with a recently awarded grant from UofT’s Connaught Global Challenge Fund, Reading Muslims will be lead by Co-PIs Anver M. Emon and IIS Post-Doctoral Fellow Youcef Soufi. Over the next two years, Reading Muslims will host a […]

To the IIS community of faculty, staff, students, and community partners I’ve had the pleasure to talk to many of you over the last few days, as we struggle individually and collectively in the wake of horrific police violence against Black Americans such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arberry, as well as the […]

In 1973, David Esplin, then associate chief librarian of the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, purchased from Sulaiman’s Book Shop in Beirut, Lebanon, a collection of almost 1,200 manuscripts. These texts were primarily in Arabic and from the 19th century, although some go back as far as the 17th. This collection, in its astounding number […]

An IIS-Hart House Joint Initiative In recent years, the world has witnessed an increase of Muslim women-identified athletes. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, of the 33 Muslim women athletes who competed, 14 won medals across a range of sports. Audiences were enthralled by these women’s physical abilities and impressive strength, yet public discourse centered on […]

The IIS, in collaboration with the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), the Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association (CMLA) and Downtown Legal Services (DLS) has launched its support hotline for UofT students approached by CSIS or other Canadian national security agent seeking information or an interview. While CSIS and other national security agencies have an important […]

For immediate release: From June 17-19, 2019, the Institute of Islamic Studies hosted the 10th annual Ibadi Conference at the University of Toronto. We were especially pleased to host His Excellency, Minister Abdullah Al Salimi of the Government of Oman, whose Ministry of Religious Endowments supported the conference and helped bring together a diverse and […]

We are all saddened by the tragic terrorist acts in New Zealand directed at Muslims in prayer at their mosques. For Canadians, this heinous act hits especially hard, as we have only just commemorated on January 29th the Quebec City mosque massacre, in which 6 Canadian Muslims were killed while in prayer, by Canadian White-supremacist […]

As stated in the inaugural director’s message in September 2019, the IIS is committed to advancing the scale and scope of advanced research.  This year, we began with two research labs, the Study of Islam and Muslims in Canada (SIMiC) and Between the Straits.  We are pleased to announce the formation of a third research […]

And we’re off! Fall 2018 was a stellar term for the IIS. With faculty and graduate students from all three UofT campuses, a global cohort of faculty visiting Toronto, and community partners that now see the IIS as an institutional ally, the Institute’s seminar room was nothing short of lively. Faculty from across the UofT […]

On Wednesday, March 6, 2019, the IIS is pleased to present a master class delivered by Professor Brinkley Messick (Columbia University).  Messick is the inaugural visiting lecturer at the IIS in 2019.  His master class, directed to graduate students,  post-doctoral fellows, and faculty, is a 3 hour seminar (with a one hour lunch break) scheduled […]

For the week of March 4, 2019, the IIS is pleased to host inaugural visiting lecturer Professor Brinkley Messick (Columbia University).  Over a period of three days, Professor Messick will give a book talk on his recent book Sharia Scripts; a master class for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty; and a public lecture at UTM. Tuesday, […]

The IIS is pleased to welcome Catherine Larouche, who will be part of our research community for the 2018-2019 academic year.  Catherine is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto. She completed her PhD in sociocultural anthropology at McGill University in 2018. Her research interests include the anthropology of philanthropy […]

In November 2018, the IIS welcomed to its offices Dr. Albert Frolov, a post-doctoral fellow and scholar at risk. We asked Dr. Frolov to write a short introduction to his work and hope that our community of scholars and students will take part in the Arabic philosophy seminars he will be leading in the Spring. […]

The IIS is pleased to announce that Brinkley Messick, Professor of Anthropology, at Columbia University is the inaugural 2019 IIS Visiting Lecturer.  Professor Messick specializes in the anthropology of law, legal history, written culture, and the circulation and interpretation of Islamic law.  He is the author of The Calligraphic State (1993), which was awarded the Albert Hourani […]

Over the course of two weekends in the month of August 2018, a graduate research team from Université de Montréal conducted field work in Toronto out of the IIS offices. We were a team of about ten Masters and Doctoral students from UdM’s sociology department. Our project, entitled “Political Fictions : An analysis of fictional […]

Welcome to the newly redesigned website of the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) at the University of Toronto. The IIS is devoted to supporting advanced research in the study of Islam and Muslims. As director of the IIS, it is a privilege to lead an advanced research institute in this historical moment. It’s often easy […]