Congratulations to Dr Setrag Manoukian!
Congratulations to Professor Setrag Manoukian (Institute of Islamic Studies and Department of Anthropology) on receiving a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for his project titled: "Ashura Online: An Ethnography of Poetry, Technology and Ritual Presence in Iran."
Congratulations to Dr Shuaib Ally!
Congratulations to IIS Postdoctoral Fellow Shuaib Ally on receiving the Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award, Honorable Mention (Humanities) for his PhD thesis at University of Toronto, “Anxieties over the Loss of the Classics: Tracing Islamic Intellectual History through the Manuscripts of ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī’s Dalāʾil and Asrār”.
Sonia Wigh’s talk, “If Your Bībī Is from Hindūstān” on December 20th!
Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts Speakers Series
““If Your Bībī Is from Hindūstān”: Geography as a Marker of Sexual Behaviour in Early Modern Persianate Texts”
Talk by Sonia Wigh
December 30, 2022, 5:00 pm EST
What does Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra and a nineteenth century mas̤nawī titled Dilafrūz (‘The Heart-Kindler’) have in common? Both include relatively detailed sections categorizing women based on their sexual behaviour concomitant upon their geographical location. This is not novel - usually in travel narratives written by men, comments about women were specifically oriented towards evaluation of women’s morality, bound tightly to her physical form and sexuality (Euben, 2006). These comments reveal as much about the women who are the subject of constant, usually pejorative, scrutiny – as they do about the author’s time, inherent biases, and contemporaneous sexual ethos. This workshop will study how Dilafrūz’s author, who might have been part of the tumultuous Mughal state edifice in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, observed and sexualized the body of real and imagined women through his mas̤nawīs.
Using Bouhdiba’s (2004) concept of ‘geo-erotology’, I will explore how a writer native to the subcontinent envisaged women from ‘Hindūstān’, ‘Shīrāz’, ‘Punjāb’, ‘Mālveh’ (Malwa)? These geographical categories will also be seen in context of Chatterjee’s (2006) argument that depending upon the particular linguistic, temporal, and political context of the production of the record, ‘identical nomenclatures of social groups not only referred to different entities at different times, they also referred to cultures of mobility.’ How do some women, geographically bound by the poet’s imagination, become embodiments of indecent sexual behaviour, while others channelled proper moral conduct? Methodologically, we will compare inherited poetic tropes to the state of ‘known knowledge’ (geographical and otherwise) – to comment upon concepts like ‘vilāyat’ (vis-à-vis homeland), curiosity about the unknown, and the eroticization of women. Lastly, Dilafrūz is distinctly situated in the Indo-Persianate poetical tradition as well as ‘city poems’ (Sunil Sharma, 2004, 2020). By critically analysing the language of the text, I hope to draw attention to the amalgamation of Hindavī/Urdu into versified Persian text, as well as the inherent inter-genre borrowing between literature and erotology.
Congratulations to Anne Farray on her retirement!
The Institute would like to congratulate Anne Farray on her retirement from the Institute of Islamic Studies and McGill on 31 December 2022. Anne has worked at McGill for 43 years and will be missed by us all. We wish Anne all the best on her new journey!
Film Screening and Discussion with Professor Malek Abisaab on December 2
Please join us in screening a film adaptation of one of Ghassan Kanafani's most renowned works, 'The Dupes' at 5:30 PM on the 2nd of December, in Arts W-215. The film will be followed by a discussion moderated by Professor Malek Abisaab. This event is organized by the World Islamic and Middle East Studies Student Association (WIMESSA) in collaboration with Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, the Arab Left Forum, The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and the Commemoration Committee for Samah Idriss.
Panel on Sudan at Oxford University on December 1st!
Professor Khalid Mustafa Medani will be part of a panel on Sudan.
This presentation will be livestreamed on Teams, but it will not be possible for online attendees to participate in the discussion.
Announcing a hybrid/panel event at Oxford University's African Studies Centre this Thursday, Dec 1 at 3:30 UK time. Join Professor Khalid Medani and Sudanese scholars and activists Raga Makawi, Kholood Khair, and Ahmed Ismat (spokesperson of Khartoum's Resistance Committees) for this livestreamed panel on the latest developments in Sudan: "Towards a New Polity in Sudan? Breaking the Coup-Transition Cycle."
Please check the African Studies Centre's website for complete information on the event.
Jamillah Karim’s talk, “Black Mecca to Medina” on November 29th!
Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts Speakers Series
Black Mecca to Medina: Finding Beauty in Islam
Talk by Jamillah Karim
November 29, 2022, 5:00 pm EST
Black Christian women, in contrast to white women, have always demonstrated a unique ability to see beauty in Islam. As both an academic and a participant in Muslim communities, I have observed and documented the ways in which African American Muslim women love and live Islam, navigating Islamic gender rules and norms in light of family, community, and work. While living in Medina Baye, Senegal, in 2021 and experiencing Islam lived in a culture different from my own, I saw Islam with new eyes, very much like the converts my research has featured. With fresh eyes, what I came to love about Medina Baye parallels much of what Black Christian women have found appealing about Islam in America. In this talk I present what Black women find attractive about Islam, across two continents, through three themes, all of which are most vividly experienced in the sacred space of the mosque.
Dr Evgenia Kermeli's talk, “Coercion and Justice for Non-Muslims in an Ottoman Imperial Context” on November 23rd!
Dr. Evgenia Kermeli (Hacettepe University, Ankara)
Discussant: Dr. Anastassios Anastassiadis (McGill University, Montreal)
Hybrid and in person.
Morrice Hall 328
3485 McTavish
Montreal, QC H3A 0E1
Zoom registration is mandatory.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Coercion and Justice for Non-Muslims in an Ottoman Imperial Context
This talk will reconsider the theoretical frameworks analysing the legal options non-Muslims enjoyed in the early Modern Ottoman Empire. Contrary to the insularism of the millet theory and to the zimmi rights and responsibilities prescribed by fiqh in the classical era, the talk will utilize Muslim legal opinions and records of Muslim and non-Muslim courts to discuss the integration of juridical and jurisprudential options non-Muslims utilized within Ottoman praxis. One of the focal points will be coercion, both state and communal, to ensure compliance to various decisions, essential to the restoration of the balance of justice, concept that the talk will discuss in detail.
Dr. Evgenia Kermeli is Professor of Ottoman Law at the Institute of Turkish Studies, Hacettepe University in Ankara. She holds a doctorate from the Middle Eastern Studies Department of the University of Manchester and specializes on Ottoman/Islamic law with a focus on Muslim/non-Muslim jurisprudence and judicial praxis. She is a 2010 Harvard Islamic Legal Studies Scholar. During 2019-2022, she served as the President of the International Society of Islamic Legal Studies. She currently works on a book manuscript “Ottoman Legal Plurality” where she revisits legal isolation and argues that custom affected interreligious legal normative change.
Montreal Ottoman Turkish Studies Group (MOTS), launched at McGill University, is an annual workshop series aimed at bringing together scholars working on the diverse peoples, cultures and environments of modern Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. While prioritizing graduate student work, the workshop is open to scholars at any stage of their careers. Co-sponsored by the Peter Guo-Hua Fu School of Architecture and the Department of History.
If you are interested in joining our mailing list and discussions, please contact us mots [at] mcgill.ca (by email).
Professor Jasmin Zine’s talk, “Under Siege: Islamophobia and the 9/11 Generation” on November 30th!
Under Siege: Islamophobia and the 9/11 Generation
Book Talk by Professor Jasmin Zine
November 30, 2022, 6:00 pm
680 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Room 1041
Please join the Institute of Islamic Studies and the Collective des Feministes Musulmanes du Québéc for a talk by Prof. Jasmin Zine of Wilfrid Laurier University (Sociology, Religion & Culture) on her new book, Under Siege: Islamophobia and the 9/11 Generation. This book talk will take place on November 30th, 2022 at 6pm at 680 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, room 1041. In person only.
See our Facebook event.
Dr. Sara Verskin’s talk, “Testing Women's Bodies, Trusting Women's Voices” on November 8th!
Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts Speakers Series
Testing Women's Bodies, Trusting Women's Voices: Rethinking the Connection Between Biological Status and Legal Status in Medieval Islamic Writings
Talk by Dr. Sara Verskin
November 8 2022, 5:00 pm
Women's bodily statuses often take on social significance. In the medieval world, virginity, menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and menopause all had Islamic legal implications. But who decided what a woman's bodily status was? Who determined, and by what means, whether a woman was a virgin or not, menstruating or not, or pregnant or not? Sara Verskin looks at claims of pregnancy and virginity and the role and function of pregnancy and virginity testing to argue that, in many of these cases, men did not use women's bodies to determine their legal status. Rather, women determined what legal status they aspired to and described their own bodies accordingly.
Dr. Hesham Sallam’s Book Presentation, “Classless Politics”, on November 18th!
Classless Politics: Islamist Movements, the Left and the Authoritarian Legacies in Egypt
Talk by Dr. Hesham Sallam
November 18, 2022, 5:30 pm
Leacock 232
Dr. Hesham Sallam is a Research Scholar at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, where he serves as the Associate-Director of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy. He is also a co-editor of Jadaliyya ezine. He is author of Classless Politics: Islamist Movements, the Left, and Authoritarian Legacies in Egypt (Columbia University Press, 2022), co-editor of Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World (University of Michigan Press, 2022), and editor of Egypt's Parliamentary Elections 2011-2012: A Critical Guide to a Changing Political Arena (Tadween Publishing, 2013).
Discussants:
Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst, and commentator specialising in the contemporary Middle East. He has previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, and is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya and Contributing Editor of Middle East Report.
A graduate of Tufts University and Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Rabbani has published, presented, and commented widely on Middle East issues, including for most major print, television and digital media.
Khalid Medani, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Institute of Islamic Studies
Event co-sponsored by the undergraduate students at the Institute, World Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Student Society (WIMESSA), the African Studies Program, the African Studies Students Association, the Department of Political Science and the Political Science Students Association.
Behzad Borhan at University of Chicago's Persian Circle
Doctoral Student Behzad Borhan will give a talk on saintly miracles in Sufi literature.
"Among our Shaykh’s Karāmāt… Abū Saʿīd Abū'l-Khayr and his Karāmāt Narrative"
November 2, 2022, 5:00 pm CST
In person and on Zoom - please see the UChicago Persian Circle's website.
Please join us this Wednesday, November 2, at 5:00 pm CST for a talk with Dr. Behzad Borhan! Behzad Borhan is a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Islamic studies at McGill University. He has also earned a Ph.D. in Persian Language and Literature from Tehran University. Before joining McGill, Dr. Borhan was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Religious Studies and a Fellow in the Iranian Studies Program and NELC at Yale University. He has previously taught at Tehran University and is now a Persian language lecturer at McGill University. Dr. Borhan’s research is focused on Persian and Arabic mystical literature, especially medieval hagiographical texts and Sufi manuals. He is currently working on his book manuscript on saintly miracles (karāmāt) in Sufi literature. He studies the narratives about Sufis’ supernatural deeds in their historical and social context with a special focus on the role of the narrator and the master-disciple relationship in the formation and development of these narratives.
The title of his talk is "Among our Shaykh’s Karāmāt… Abū Saʿīd Abū'l-Khayr and his Karāmāt Narratives."
You can join us in person, in Pick Hall room 218. Tea and light refreshments will be served.
(5828 S. University Ave, Chicago, IL 60637)
لطفا این چهارشنبه برای سخنرانی جناب آقای دکتر بهزاد برهان با ما همراه باشید! آقای بهزاد برهان دانشجوی دورهٔ دکتری اسلامشناسی در مؤسسهٔ مطالعات اسلامی دانشگاه مکگیل و دانشآموختهٔ دکتری زبان و ادبیات فارسی دانشگاه تهران است. او پیش از پیوستن به دانشگاه مکگیل، به مدت دو سال پژوهشگر مهمان در دانشکدهٔ دینشناسی و همکار گروه ایرانشناسی دانشگاه یِیل بود. ایشان در دانشگاه تهران زبان و ادبیات فارسی تدریس کرده و اکنون مدرس زبان فارسی در دانشگاه مکگیل است. دکتر برهان پژوهشگر ادبیات عرفانی فارسی و عربی و بهویژه مقاماتها و تذکرههاست. کتاب اول او، لطایِف المعنوی مِن حقایق المثنوی تصحیح و تعلیق یکی از شروح مثنوی مولوی بود که برندهٔ جایزهٔ کتاب سال دانشجویی در ایران شد. سخنرانی امروز ایشان بر مبنای کتابی است که دربارهٔ روایات کرامات در متون تصوّف در دست تکمیل دارد. او روایات افعال خارقالعادهٔ صوفیان را در بافت تاریخی و اجتماعی آن مطالعه میکند و در این میان بر نقش راویان و روابط مرید و مراد در شکلگیری و پرورش این روایات توجه ویژه دارد.
عنوان سخنرانی ایشان "از کَرامات شیخ ما...ابوسعید ابوالخیر و روایات کَرامات او" است.
این برنامه به شکل حضوری در اتاق شمارۀ 218 ساختمان "پیک" در دانشگاه شیکاگو و همچنین به صورت آنلاین از طریق زوم برگزار میشود.
The Persian Circle at the University of Chicago is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Persian Circle at the University of Chicago
Dr. Sa’diyya Shaikh’s talk, “Islamic Feminism and Sufi Imaginaries” on November 1st!
Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts Speakers Series
Islamic Feminism and Sufi Imaginaries
Talk by Dr. Sa’diyya Shaikh
November 1 2022, 10:00 am
Muslim ways of being and becoming in the world are multiple and derived from cosmopolitan imaginaries. Islamic feminism represents one such contemporary development, focused on fostering ever-more comprehensive forms of gender and social justice. This body of scholarship addresses crucial epistemological questions, including, what analytical methods are illuminating when engaging Muslim tradition, what core resources within tradition need to be foregrounded; how to critically engage contemporary forms of religious authority, and most significantly, how to develop inclusive and emancipatory horizons of imagination for our times. In this paper I reflect on some of these questions in relation to my current research project on Muslim feminist ethics. In particular I outline some of my developing and creative theorization of Islamic feminism as a project of human and divine friendships, inspired by Sufi ideas of walaya.
New Publication by Dr Jamil Ragep
Congratulations to retired Professor, Dr F. Jamil Ragep, on his new book: Islamic Astronomy and Copernicus. The publication is open-access and could be downloaded on Turkish Academy of Sciences' website.
"Bringing together fifteen articles that have been published by F. Jamil Ragep over the last four decades, this volume offers fresh insights and a deeper understanding of how Islamic astronomical and scientific traditions influenced the emergence of the Copernican heliocentric system. These articles not only provide new technical and contentbased evidence regarding the Islamic background to Copernicus, but also highlight the importance of studying scientific and historical contexts in which Islamic astronomy could find its way into medieval and early modern European intellectual and cultural settings. Raising new questions and contributing solid research through the examination of various Islamic, Latin, and Greek scientific texts, Ragep’s articles will be useful for anyone interested in engaging in the study of the Islamic- Copernicus connection from a broader multicultural perspective."
Blog Post by Dr. Shuaib Ally Published by University of Toronto
A blog post by SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Shuaib Ally, was recently published on the website for the University of Toronto's Practices of Commentary Project: "The Thrill of the Find: Subkī’s Qur’an commentary in Österreichische Nationalbibliothek 2052 (Cod. Mixt. 780)". You could find the entry on UofT's website. Congratulations!
Fall Turkish Language Conversations Every Other Week - All Students Are Invited
Starting October 19 at 14:45
Thompson House, 3650 McTavish, Montreal H3A 1Y2
faysal@demir [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Email) PhD Student Murat Demir for more information.
Dr. Ash Geissinger’s talk, “Ordering the Empire, Gendering Bodies: On Queer Rereadings of Hadiths” on October 25th!
Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts Speakers Series
Ordering the Empire, Gendering Bodies: On Queer Rereadings of Hadiths
Talk by Dr. Ash Geissinger
Oct 25 2022, 5:00pm
Morrice Hall Rm 017 (TNC Theatre), 3485 McTavish St, Montreal
Adopting an ancient metaphor, a widely circulated hadith compares the community of Muslims to one body. Among the many fascinating yet under-researched aspects of classical hadith collections are the ways these construct an idealized social body as well as individual bodies of a wide assortment of believers. Some traditions portray moments of nonnormative gendered embodiment or behaviour, and a small number depict gender minorities—or have been thought by some to do so. The textual functions of several such hadiths will be examined, and their roles in constructions of gender categories, inter- and intracommunal boundaries, religious authority, as well as imperial, congregational and household order, as well as religious authority. A key issue which will be addressed is the discursive role of ambiguity in interpretive history of some such traditions.
Revisiting Karl Polanyi at Cornell University
Professor Khalid Mustafa Medani will be lecturing on The Great Transformation in the Middle East and Africa at Cornell’s Institute for Comparative Modernities (ICM). Join virtually for a livestreamed lecture with no registration required. QR code included. Streaming will also be available with the link below at the time of the talk.
New Publication by Professors Malek Abisaab and Michelle Hartman
Congratulations to Professors Malek Abisaab and Michelle Hartman on their new book: Women’s War Stories: The Lebanese Civil War, Women’s Labor and the Creative Arts, published this week by Syracuse University Press. You can order the book on Syracuse University Press' website. It is also available as an e-book from the Project Muse, through McGill Library. This book is part of their large project, also called Women’s War Stories, which you can read more about on the website dedicated to it .
Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture - "At Home with Displacement: Material Culture as a Site of Resistance in Sudan"
Faculty Search Candidate Presentation
Dr Hanaa Motasim Ali
Friday, October 14
9:45 - 10:45 a.m.
Macdonald-Harrington Building, Room 212
Congratulations to Rachel Habrih!
Congratulations to MA student Rachel Habrih on receiving a 2022 SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, for her project provisionally entitled, “Franco-Algerian Women's Literature in the French Cultural Context.” Her supervisor is Professor Michelle Hartman.
Space, Knowledge and Art: Islamicate Cosmopolitan Reflections
A Symposium in Honor of Toshihiko Izutsu
Religious Studies Professor Armando Salvatore and Institute of Islamic Studies Professor Robert Wisnovsky cordially invite you to a symposium in honor of Toshihiko Izutsu.
Speakers: miriam cooke, Duke University; Nader Ardalan and Bruce B. Lawrence, Duke University
Tuesday, October 18, between 4-6 pm
Morrice Hall 017
Congratulations to Caline Nasrallah!
Congratulations to IIS student Caline Nasrallah on successfully completing her MA thesis, "Breaking Hashtags and the Mother Tongue: Transgressive Language as a Feminist Tool in the Context of the 2019 Lebanese Uprising". Her supervisor was Professor Michelle Hartman.
Dr. Kayla R. Wheeler’s talk, “Cover(ed) Girls: The History of Black Muslim Fashion in the United States” on October 11th!
Part of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Fall 2022 Speaker’s on Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts Speakers Series: fb.me/iismcgillspeakers
Cover(ed) Girls: The History of Black Muslim Fashion in the United States
Talk by Dr. Kayla R. Wheeler
Oct 11 2022, 5:00pm
New Article by Dr. Shuaib Ally
A new article by SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Shuaib Ally, was recently published in Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques (76.2 (2002) 315-354) : “Forbidding the Reading of the Kashshāf: Clarifying the Mamluk Era Reception of Zamakhsharī’s Qurʾān Commentary”. Congratulations!
Post-Byzantine Musical Manuscripts as a Source for Oriental Secular Music - Talk by Dr Kyriakos Kalaitzidis
MOTS: Montreal Ottoman and Turkish Studies presents:
Post-Byzantine Musical Manuscripts as a Source for Oriental Secular Music - by Professor Kyriakos Kalaitzidis
September 28, 5 pm
Morrice Hall 328
Congratulations to Dr Rula Jurdi Abisaab for Her Poem, Gaze, Being a Prize Finalist !
Dr Abisaab's poem, Gaze, is on the finalists' list for the Montreal International Poetry Prize, 2022.
Congratulations to Dr Khalid Medani for APSA best-book award!
Dr Medani's book, Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa, was chosen as Best Book in the Field of Middle East and North Africa Politics by a Senior Scholar, 2022, by the American Political Science Association-Middle East and North Africa Section. For more information, please consult Cambridge University Press' website.
How to Make a Queer-Affirming Mosque - Talk by Garrett Kiriakos-Fugate
Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts Speakers Series
How to Make a Queer-Affirming Mosque: the Authority of Queer/Trans Experience and the Infinitely Queer Possibilities of Islamic Tradition
Sept 27 2022, 5:00pm
Professor Munira Shahidi's talk, "Persian Literary Studies in Soviet and Post-Soviet Tajikistan" on September 20, 2022.
Tuesday September 20, 2022. Institute of Islamic Studies - Morrice Hall, Room 328 at 3:00 p.m.
Dr. Samar Habib's talk, "Gender & Sexual Variance in Islam: Classical Theology & Beyond" on September 13th!
Part of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Fall 2022 Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts Speakers Series.
Gender & Sexual Variance in Islam: Classical Theology & Beyond - Talk by Samar Habib
Sept 13, 2022, 5:30pm
Fall 2022 Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University Speakers’ Series
The IIS is honoured to welcome the following scholars in a series of talks, workshops, and performances around the topic of Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts. We invite you to visit and follow the IIS Facebook page, which will be updated with Zoom registration links, details of locations, and individual talk posters as they become available.
Gender Performance in Islamicate Contexts
Speakers Series
Samar Habib (Independent Scholar)
Gender & Sexual Variance in Islam: Classical Theology & Beyond
Tue, Sep 13, 2022 17:30–19:00 | Zoom
Garrett Kiriakos-Fugate (Boston University)
How to Make a Queer-Affirming Mosque: The Authority of Queer/Trans Experience and the Infinitely Queer Possibilities of Islamic Tradition
Tue, Sep 27, 2022 17:00–19:00 | Zoom
Kayla Wheeler (Xavier University)
Cover(ed) Girls: The History of Black Muslim Fashion in the United States
Tue, Oct 11, 2022 17:00–19:00 | Zoom
Ash Geissinger (Carleton University)
Ordering the Empire, Gendering Bodies: On Queer Rereadings of Hadiths
Tue, Oct 25, 2022 17:00–19:00 | Hybrid
Sa’diyya Shaikh (University of Cape Town)
Islamic Feminism and Sufi Imaginaries
Tue, Nov 1, 2022 10:00–12:00 | Zoom
Sara Verskin (Princeton University) + Kathryn Kueny (Fordham University)
In Dialogue/TBA
Tue, Nov 8, 2022 17:00–19:00 | Zoom
Jamillah Karim (Independent Scholar, Former Associate Professor, Spelman College)
Black Mecca to Medina: Black Women Find Beauty in Islam
Tue, Nov 29, 2022 17:00–19:00 | Zoom
Rose Deighton-Mohammed (Emory University)
Sufism, Gender, and Community-Engaged Self-Cultivation
Tue, Dec 6, 2022 17:00–19:00 | Zoom
Sonia Wigh (University of Edinburgh)
“If Your Bibi Is from Hindustan”: Geography as a Marker of Sexual Behaviour in Early Modern Persianate Texts
Tue, Dec 20, 2022 17:00–19:00 | Zoom
Congratulations to Anne Farray
Congratulations to Anne Farray, our Administrative Officer, on her nomination for this week's Unsung Heroes. Please see this link on the Bicentennial Celebrations initiative, which celebrates the contribution of faculty and staff to shaping the McGill community.
New Article by Prof. Michelle Hartman
A new article by IIS Prof. Michelle Hartman and Prof rosalind hampton was recently published in Curriculum Inquiry. “Solidarity in Multiple Registers” discusses solidarity building on Canadian university campuses and their research project on Black student activism and organizing. You can read it (via McGill library access) on Taylor & Francis online.
Congratulations to Sajjad Nikfahm Khubravan
Congratulations to IIS student Sajjad Nikfahm Khubravan on successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled: "The Reception of Ptolemy's Latitude Theories in Islamic astronomy". His supervisors were Professor Robert Wisnovsky and Professor Robert Morrison.
Michelle Hartman writes on Summer with the Enemy in The Conversation
The Conversation Canada has published a piece by Professor Michelle Hartman on Shahla Ujayli’s novel Summer with the Enemy. She writes about the novel as women’s history, how it chronicles the story of Raqqa before and after the 2017 siege, and the dynamics of translating it into English.
You can read the article on the online magazine "The Conversation".
Congratulations to Behzad Borhan!
Congratulations to IIS PhD student Behzad Borhan on the publication of his review of Mana Kia's book, "Persianate Selves: Memories of Place and Origin before Nationalism", in Iranian Studies. Please see this link for open access to the article.
Congratulations to Osama Eshera
Congratulations to IIS student Osama Eshera on successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled: "The Composition and Transmission of Avicenna's Najāt, Ilāhiyyāt and al-Mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād: Critical Edition". His supervisor was Professor Robert Wisnovsky.
Online Publication of Methodos dedicated to “Argumentation and Arabic Philosophy of Language,” co-edited by IIS Researcher Walter Edward Young et al.
We are very pleased to announce publication of the latest online, open access issue of Methodos, dedicated to “Argumentation and Arabic Philosophy of Language,” co-edited by Shahid Rahman and Walter Edward Young, with chief editor Leone Gazziero and editorial secretary Anne Dourlens. The issue includes an introductory essay by Rahman and Young, followed by ten articles by authors in relevant fields—one of which includes a first-time critical edition of an intriguing text on dialectic.
Link to the issue: Methodos Issue Article 8505
Article authors and titles:
Omer Awass
Modalities of Argumentation, Scriptural Reasoning, and the Structural Characteristics of Early Islamic Theological Discourse
Abdessamad Belhaj
Al-Ashʿarī’s Adab al-jadal : A Few Remarks on its Genre
Ali-Reza Bhojani
Linguistic philosophy in modern uṣūl al-fiqh: al-Ākhund al-Khurāsānī (d. 1911) on seeking something without willing it to be
Alexander Lamprakis
Did the Arabic Tradition Know a More Complete Version of Alexander’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Topics? The Evidence from Ps-Jābir’s Kitāb al-Nukhab / Kitāb al-Baḥth
Abdurrahman Ali Mihirig
Analogical Arguments in the Kalām Tradition: Abū l-Ma‘ālī al-Juwaynī and Beyond
Necmettin Pehlivan & Hadi Ensar Ceylan
Old Rivalry, Eternal Friendship: The Story of an Opponent-al-Fuṣūl in the ʿilm al-naẓar
Jens Ole Schmitt
Preferring Formal Language over the Face? Avicenna on the Physiognomical Syllogism. Some Observations
Shahid Rahman & Walter Edward Young
In Existence and in Nonexistence: Types, Tokens, and the Analysis of Dawarān as a Test for Causation
Aaron Spevack
Defending Definitions: The Tools of Disputation in Logic of al-Fanārī
Walter Edward Young
On the Logical Machinery of Post-Classical Dialectic: The Kitāb ʿAyn al-Naẓar of Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (d. 722/1322)
The Majlis Podcast - Interview with Professor Pasha M. Khan
Prof. Pasha M. Khan was interviewed by Prof. Adnan Husain and Shahroze Khan about South Asian storytelling traditions and his book The Broken Spell (Wayne State University Press, 2019) on (opens in a different window) The Majlis podcast, by Muslim Societies Global Perspectives (MSGP) at Queen's University.
To listen, please follow this link: Episode 25 - The Art of Storytelling - with Professor Pasha M. Khan
New Article by Prof. Prashant Keshavmurthy
A new article, "Two Interpretive Postures and Two Kinds of Friendship in Mughal Commentaries on Sa‘dī’s Gulistān", by IIS Prof. Prashant Keshavmurthy was recently published in Publications of the Modern Language Association (PMLA) of Cambridge University Press. You can read it (via McGill library access) on Cambridge University Press online.
Congratulations to Hussain Awan!
The Institute of Islamic Studies is proud to announce that graduating student, Hussain Awan has been named valedictorian in the Faculty of Arts. Hussain has served the Institute as president of WIMESSA and in many other ways.
Congratulations from the IIS Hussain! For an interview with Hussain, highlighting courses and of course the ISL, please click here to read the interview.
Professor Khalid Medani's "Black Markets and Militants" is Featured on Art's Life Magazine
Associate Professor Khalid Medani talks to about his research on informal economic markets in Sudan, Egypt, and Somalia and how his book serves as a modest contribution to ongoing public concerns.
To read this article, please click here.
WIMESSA end of the year BBQ
On Tuesday May 3, WIMESSA hosted an end of the year BBQ at Parc Léo Pariseau, co-hosted by SPHR. Thanks to everyone who attended!
New publication, Memoirs of a Militant
The Institute of Islamic Studies announces the most recent publication of the Women’s War Stories project, led by IIS Profs Michelle Hartman and Malek Abisaab.
Translated from Arabic by Michelle Hartman and IIS MA student Caline Nasrallah, Memoirs of a Militant: My Years in the Khiam Prison is Nawal Qasim Baidoun’s memoir of her arrest and imprisonment in Khiam Prison in South Lebanon.
Read an excerpt of the book here.
You can buy the book from the publisher here or in Canada here.
Congratulations to Caline, Michelle, and Malek!
New Interdisciplinary Initiative: “The Old Women of Nishapur”
The Institute of Islamic Studies is pleased to announce a new interdisciplinary initiative on “The Old Women of Nishapur” by a number of our members, IIS Profs Sara Abdel-Latif, Rula Jurdi Abisaab, and Setrag Manoukian, Associate Member Prof Katherine Lemons, and PhD student Kausar Bukhari.
A new installment in their inquiry into the old women of Nishapur is now available at the SSRC's website Immanent Frame. You can also read there the Introduction to the project, a translation of relevant texts, an etymology of ʿa, j, z and an essay by IIS Prof Sara Abdel-Latif. Furthermore, there will be a new essay posted each week for a total of ten original contributions. In addition to essays by Rula Abisaab, Kausar Bukhari, Katherine Lemons, and Setrag Manoukian, there will be five additional essays that explore the expression "The religion of the old women of Nishapur" from a variety of angles (ritual, medical, mystical, erotic, political...).
For the participants in the project, the old women have become an endless matrix of reflection and intellectual engagement, and they hope the project will be of interest and prompt further conversations in the broader IIS community and beyond.
Congratulations to Sherine Elbanhawy!
Congratulations to IIS MA student Sherine Elbanhawy on the publication of her short story, “Night Stencils,” which won the 2021 Summer Short Story Prize given by the Masters Review. You can read the story here.
Congratulations to Osama Eshera!
Congratulations to IIS PhD student Osama Eshera on the publication of his article “On the early collections of the works of Ġiyāṯ al-Dīn Jamšīd al-Kāšī”, in the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts. Please see the link below:
https://brill.com/view/journals/jim/13/2/article-p225_2.xml
Congratulations to Aqsa Ijaz
PhD candidate Aqsa Ijaz has been awarded the McGill Arts Graduate Student Teaching Award in recognition of her significant contribution to her classes. Well done, Aqsa!
Generality and Exception in Islamic Legal Theory
The Institute of Islamic Studies is pleased to announce a lecture by Professor Omar Farahat, Faculty of Law, on the occasion of joining the IIS as an Associate Member.
Please join us on April 12, 2022, at 4:00 p.m.
Congratulations to Đồng Bảo Ngân Hà!
Congratulations to MA student Đồng Bảo Ngân Hà on receiving a 2022 SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, for their project provisionally entitled, “ ‘Al-Haraka Baraka’: Palestinian Sportswomen’s Boycott as Movement-Building for Liberation.” Her supervisor is Professor Michelle Hartman.
In-Person Book Launch Co-Sponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Islamic Studies
The Department of Political Science and the Institute of Islamic Studies invite you to our book launch celebrating Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani’s book Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
Tuesday, April 5, 2022, 4:00pm
Morrice Hall 017 (TNC Theatre), 3485 Rue McTavish
Speakers:
- Michelle Hartman - Director, Islamic Studies
- Jacob T. Levy - Chair, Political Science
- Juan Wang - Political Science
- Malek Abisaab - History/Islamic Studies
- Khalid Mustafa Medani - Islamic Studies/Political Science
- Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani - Chair of McGill University’s African Studies program, and Associate Professor in Political Science and Islamic Studies.
Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa
Understanding the political and socio-economic factors which give rise to youth recruitment into militant organizations is at the heart of grasping some of the most important issues that affect the contemporary Middle East and Africa. In this book, Khalid Mustafa Medani explains why youth are attracted to militant organizations, examining the specific role of economic globalization, in the form of outmigration and expatriate remittance inflows, plays in determining how and why militant activists emerge. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on ideology to explain militant recruitment. Based on extensive fieldwork, Medani offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of globalization, neoliberal reforms and informal economic networks as a conduit for the rise and evolution of moderate and militant Islamist movements and as an avenue central to the often, violent enterprise of state building and state formation. In an original contribution to the study of Islamist and ethnic politics more broadly, he thereby shows the importance of understanding when and under what conditions religious rather than other forms of identity become politically salient in the context of changes in local conditions.
Happy Nowruz!
Thank you to Behzad Borhan and Anaïs Salamon for the beautiful Haft-Sin table set up in the library to mark Nowruz this year. Please pass by and visit!
HAFT SĪN هفتسین
Denoting seven items beginning with the letter sin (س), Haft-Sīn is one of the components of the rituals of the New Year’s Day festival. Seven items symbolise purity, brightness, abundance, happiness and fertility for the new year. Typically, before the arrival of Nowruz, family members gather around the Haft-Sīn table and await the exact moment of the March equinox to celebrate the New Year. The center is normally occupied by a vase of flowers, customarily hyacinth (sonbol). Next to it are placed sabzeh and at least six more items starting with the letter sin (س) from the list below:
Samanū (sweet pudding made from wheat germ, Persian: سمنو)
Sīb (Apple, Persian: سیب)
Sīr (Garlic, Persian: سیر)
Somāq (Sumac, Persian: سماق)
Senjed (Persian olive, Persian: سنجد)
Sonbol (Hyacinth, Persian: سنبل)
Sekkeh (Coin, Persian: سکه).
Sabzeh (Persian: سبزه) – wheat, barley, mung bean, or lentil sprouts grown in a dish.
Sā’at (Clock, Persian: ساعت)
Congratulations to Professor Rula Abisaab
Congratulations to Professor Rula Abisaab for her new work, a collaboration between McGill and Matkab e-Tehran: Muḥammad Amīn Astarabādī, Dānishnāmah-yi Shāhī with an introduction, editing, and commentary by Rula Jurdi and Reza Mukhtari Khoei. Published by Institute of Islamic Studies of McGill University, Maktab-e Tehran, Iran, 2022.
«دانشنامه شاهی» اثر ملا امین استرآبادی با مقدمه، تحقیق و تعلیق رولا جردی (استاد دانشگاه مک گیل کانادا) و رضا مختاری خویی، توسط مؤسسه مطالعات اسلامی دانشگاه مک گیل - دانشگاه تهران منتشر شد.
In Memory of A Uner Turgay
The Institute of Islamic Studies is sad to announce today the passing of our colleague, teacher, mentor and friend Professor A Uner Turgay who passed away on Friday in Toronto.
We will remember Professor Turgay fondly for his devotion to Institute students, his many years as Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies, and his friendly warm laughter. He served both the Institute and the McGill community devotedly and will be much missed.
We extend our deepest condolences to his partner Dr Minoo Derayah and entire family. Below is a link to his funeral service which can be attended remotely, on Wednesday March 23. The text of what appears on that page is also pasted below:
https://mountpleasantgroup.permavita.com/site/AliUnerTurgay.html
September 14, 1936 - March 18, 2022
It is with deep sorrow to inform that on March 18th, 2022, our beloved Dr. Ali Uner Turgay passed away. Born September 14th, 1936, Dr. Turgay was a PhD graduate of Maddison-Wisconsin and a professor of History at McGill University from 1976 until 2010. He leaves behind his beloved wife, Dr. Minoo Derayeh, older sister Leyla, son Osman, grandchildren Aryanne and Johnathan; step daughter Dr. Rana Nasseri and step son Dariush Derayeh, and others. Known as Dr. T by many, Uner passed away peacefully from natural causes at age 86. Uner will be heavily missed by family, colleagues, students, and friends. The funeral service will be held at Elgin Mills Cemetery, Cremation, & Funeral Centres located at 1591 Elgin Mills Road East, Richmond Hill ON, Canada, L4S 1M9 from 13:00 to 15:00 on March 23, 2022. An online streaming service will be available for those unable to attend in person.
A link to the online streaming services will be uploaded on this page a few minutes before 13:00. Please refresh the page until the link appears on the screen.
Persianate Studies Colloquium Lecture Series: “Universal Religion: Persian and the Making of Modern Hinduism”
Tuesday, April 5, 2022 from 3:00 - 4:00 pm
Abstract: The statement ‘Hinduism is not a religion’ has now gained the status of a truism. It is often accompanied by the claim that it is instead “a way of life”. This notion, still pervasive today, came into being just as Hinduism, under the colonial gaze, crystallized as a world religion. My talk historicizes this claim to a timeless and universal Hinduism by tracing a seemingly incongruous strand of its genealogy––the domain of Persian letters in colonial India. While the Mughal court had earlier sponsored a vibrant engagement with Indic texts and forms of knowledge, Persian translations commissioned by East India Company rulers played a key role in the colonial construction of religion in India. Drawing on select case studies, I explore how this neglected corpus of colonial Persian and Urdu writing offers new insights into the history of modern Hinduism.
Exhibition
Souq Stories: Reclaiming the Commons
Photographing Daily Life in Palestine’s Historic Markets
March 21 – April 7, 2022
Opening on March 21, 4:30 pm
Following the widespread uprisings and unprecedented unity sparked by the Sheikh Jarrah expulsions in East Jerusalem last spring, youth organizations across Palestine opened Souq Stories, a photographic installation in and about the historic souqs. Reclaiming the Commons is an extension of and meditation on that project, inviting us to imagine Palestine through its markets, to consider the possibilities of public space and the constitution of a body politic. In the face of ceaseless efforts to disarticulate lives spatially (in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the 1948 territories, and the diaspora) and generationally (those expelled in 1948, in 1967 and those under occupation now), the materials presented here weave together a collective and distinctly Palestinian narrative. Photography is the medium of liberation, the souq the space in which it happens.
Helga Tawil-Souri
Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
Keynote Lecture + Discussion with Souq Stories Curators
March 22, 2022 6.00 pm
G-10, Macdonald-Harrington Building
Souq Stories Curators:
Waed Manaf Abbas
Shareef Sirhan
Layan Salameh
Amir Marshi
For information on related talks and events, please visit: https://www.mcgill.ca/race-space/
Co-sponsored by the Research Group on Democracy, Space and Technology of the Yan P. Lin Centre, and the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture.
Presented in association with the McGill Refugee Research Group and Insaniyyat.
McGill Panel: Living with Law 21/ Vivre avec la loi 21 03/24 13h00
Living with Law 21: Second-class Citizenship in Quebec Today
Vivre avec la loi 21: La citoyenneté de seconde classe au Québec aujourd’hui
24 March 1:00pm | 24 mars 13h00
Théâtre TNC Theatre | Morrice Hall 017
3485 Rue McTavish St, McGill University
Register/Enregistrer: https://fb.me/e/1GjU6cotK
Please join us for a panel discussion of the personal, legal, and career implications of Law 21 on racial and religious minorities in Quebec. We are proud to host four panelists in person (with an online option). Rabbi Lisa Grushcow had testified against the law before the Assemblée Nationale. Faiz M. Lalani was one of the lawyers involved in the appeal against the law. Fatemeh Anvari was removed from her teaching position when the law was applied to her. And Zeinab Diab is currently studying the effects of Law 21 on minorities in Quebec.
Veuillez vous joindre à nous pour une discussion sur les implications personnelles, juridiques et professionnelles de la loi 21 sur les minorités raciales et religieuses au Québec. Nous sommes fiers d’accueillir quatre panélistes en personne (avec une option en ligne). La rabbin Lisa Grushcow avait témoigné contre la loi devant l’Assemblée nationale. Faiz M. Lalani était l’un des avocats impliqués dans le recours contre la loi. Fatemeh Anvari a été démis de ses fonctions d’enseignante lorsque la loi lui a été appliquée. Et Zeinab Diab étudie actuellement les effets de la loi 21 sur les minorités au Québec.
With/Avec:
Fatemeh Anvari
Former teacher & current Student Life Animator / Ancienne professeure & actuelle animatrice de vie étudiante, Chelsea Elementary
Rabbi Lisa Grushcow
Senior Rabbi / Grande Rabbine, Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom
Zeinab Diab
Doctorante / PhD candidate, Institut d’études religieuses, Université de Montréal
Faiz M. Lalani
Partner / Associé, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
Prof. Pasha Khan - Urdu Storytelling and his book The Broken Spell on Brown History Podcast
Prof. Pasha M. Khan spoke on the Brown History Podcast about Urdu Storytelling and his book The Broken Spell (Wayne State University Press, 2019).
To listen, please follow this link: https://bit.ly/35vTxJb
Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa
Tuesday, February 22, 2022 from 1:00 pm to 2:15 pm (EST) on Zoom.
Khalid Mustafa Medani joins ARD to discuss his recently released book, Black Markets and Militants Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021) in an event hosted by Stanford University.
Understanding the political and socio-economic factors which give rise to youth recruitment into militant organizations is at the heart of grasping some of the most important issues that affect the contemporary Middle East and Africa. In this book, Medani explains why youth are attracted to militant organizations, examining the specific role economic globalization, in the form of outmigration and expatriate remittance inflows, plays in determining how and why militant activists emerge. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on ideology to explain militant recruitment.
Based on extensive fieldwork, Medani offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of globalization, neoliberal reforms, and informal economic networks as a conduit for the rise and evolution of moderate and militant Islamist movements and as an avenue central to the often violent enterprise of state-building and state formation. In an original contribution to the study of Islamist and ethnic politics more broadly, he thereby shows the importance of understanding when and under what conditions religious rather than other forms of identity become politically salient in the context of changes in local conditions.
For Stanford University's event posting, please click here.
The Persianate Studies Colloquium with Professor Touraj Daryaee
To view the video of this event, please click here.
"Oh, the Humanities"
Professor Michelle Hartman and the Institute of Islamic Studies are featured in a recent article in the McGill Tribune, "Oh, the Humanities"
Persianate Studies Colloquium Lecture Series: “Saffron and Jasmine: The Early History of Persian Spice & Fragrance Trade”
This lecture, by Professor Touraj Daryaee of University of California, Irvine, will take place on Zoom from 3 to 4.30 PM on Tuesday, 15 February and be on:
Abstract: This presentation discusses the trade in aromatics and spices from the Iranian Plateau to Afro-Eurasia in late antiquity and the medieval period. The imprints of these Iranian commodities are found in the Persian terms which were used for them by neighboring civilizations, who received them via maritime routes and the Silk Road. While the practical nature of spices and fragrances are known, the talk also touches upon the complex nature of categorization of aromatics in the Zoroastrian tradition in Iranshahr.
Coordinated by Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy and Behzad Borhan, PhD Student - IIS
Persianate Studies Colloquium Lecture Series with Professor Domenico Ingenito
To view a video of the event on YouTube, please click here.
Congratulations to PhD student Aqsa Ijaz
Aqsa Ijaz has recently published a review entitled "Spiritual Bridges: Across Time and Space" on Thomas Harrison in the Marginalia Review of Books. A copy of the review can be found here.
Congratulations to MA student Sarah Abou-Bakr
This year’s Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec memorial award has gone to IIS MA student Sarah Abou-Bakr. Congratulations, Sarah!
You can read about the award here.
Persianate Studies Colloquium Lecture Series by Professor Domenico Ingenito
"Gardens of Medieval Afghanistan: Exercising Literary Archaeology" - Tuesday, 1 February, at 3.00-4.30 PM
Abstract: Persian poetry and the visual arts of medieval Central Asia and Iran cannot be fully appreciated without considering the socio-cultural role of gardens in Persianate societies and the way they informed both the poetic breadth of figurative arts and the visual dimensions of lyric expression.
Early Persian poems of praise were usually introduced by descriptions of natural and amatory vignettes revolving around stylized depictions of princely gardens, palaces, and pavilions. Through such portrayals, poets staged the contrast between the architecturally domesticated space of gardens and the untamed natural settings in which cosmic cycles offered a background for the social festivities presided over by the ruler. Usually discounted as idealized representations that lack historical veracity, such descriptions deserve to be analyzed in the context of the relationship between material culture and the aesthetic impact of poetic creativity.
By focusing on the case of the understudied city of Balkh, the winter capital of the Ghaznavid sultanate, this talk explores the role of gardens in the representation of natural and architectural landscapes in the panegyric poetry of the early Ghaznavids (999-1040 CE). Nestled in a lush oasis that was crossed by a network of rivers and canals, Balkh provided Ghaznavid poets with a complex ecology in which nature and ephemeral architecture overlapped at multiple levels.
The material and symbolic veracity of “architectural” poems and natural descriptions composed by Farrukhi Sistani and ‘Unsuri Balkhi between 1015 and 1035 CE will be compared against evidence provided by geographical and historiographical sources such as Hudud al-‘ālam and Tārikh-i Bayhaqi. These comparisons will help us locate the topographic position of key Ghaznavid gardens in Balkh and explain how ephemeral architectural landmarks emerged through the interaction between urbanized natural contexts and spaces of wilderness.
Coordinated by Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy and Behzad Borhan, PhD Student - IIS
Congratulations to Prof. Prashant Keshavmurthy on The Eight Books
IIS professor Prashant Keshavmurthy and former IIS professor and colleague Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi's translation of Sohrab Sepehri, The Eight Books: A Complete English Translation has just been published in a bilingual edition by Brill. Congratulations to them!
You can find the book here.
Congratulations Aqsa Ijaz!
PhD candidate Aqsa Ijaz has been awarded Ian Stewart Graduate Student Fellowship at the Centre for Studies in Religion & Society, University of Victoria for work on her project “Shaping the Language of Love: The Afterlives of Niz̤āmī Ganjavī’s Ḳhusrau u Shīrīn in Hindustān”. Congratulations Aqsa!
ISL Librarian Anaïs Salamon recognized
The Institute of Islamic Studies is pleased that Islamic Studies Librarian Anaïs Salamon's work has been recognized by naming her one of McGill's "unsung heroes." See the website where she is featured with others here.
IN-PERSON BOOK LAUNCH - Professor Khalid Medani - Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the book launch of Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani’s Black Markets and Militants has been postponed. A new date will be announced once restrictions have been lifted. —Prof. Pasha M. Khan
Based on long-term, immersive field research in Sudan, Somalia, as well as Egypt, Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani’s new book Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021) will be discussed by Prof. Malek Abisaab (History/Islamic Studies) and Prof. Juan Wang (Political Science). Please join us for this important in-person event.
Tuesday, January 11, 2022, 4:00pm
Morrice Hall 017 (TNC Theatre)
3485 Rue McTavish
Facebook event here
Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani is Chair of McGill University’s African Studies program, and Associate Professor in Political Science and Islamic Studies.
Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa
Understanding the political and socio-economic factors which give rise to youth recruitment into militant organizations is at the heart of grasping some of the most important issues that affect the contemporary Middle East and Africa. In this book, Khalid Mustafa Medani explains why youth are attracted to militant organizations, examining the specific role of economic globalization, in the form of outmigration and expatriate remittance inflows, plays in determining how and why militant activists emerge. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on ideology to explain militant recruitment. Based on extensive fieldwork, Medani offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of globalization, neoliberal reforms and informal economic networks as a conduit for the rise and evolution of moderate and militant Islamist movements and as an avenue central to the often, violent enterprise of state building and state formation. In an original contribution to the study of Islamist and ethnic politics more broadly, he thereby shows the importance of understanding when and under what conditions religious rather than other forms of identity become politically salient in the context of changes in local conditions.
Listen to Dr. Khalid Mustafa Medani’s discussion with Dr. Marc Lynch @ the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) podcast.
Congratulations to Michael Trindade Deramo!
Congratulations IIS student Michael Trindade Deramo on successfully completing his MA thesis entitled: "Crisis of the Mosques: State power and religious authority in Tunisia's transition". His MA supervisor was Professor Khalid Medani.