Shii News – Academic Items

1. Call for Papers, ‘Islam in the RE Classroom’

Deadline 28 February 2022

You will be notified of the acceptance of your paper by 17 March 2022.
Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words, and details of your current affiliation, to philip.wood@aku.edu
Papers will be twenty minutes long, followed by ten minutes of Q&A.
We warmly welcome submissions to present papers from teachers, academics and policymakers of different kinds.

These twin online workshops aim to enhance the quality of learning and teaching about Islam at GCSE and A-Levels. They aid both the academic-theoretical and practical-pedagogical aspects of conducting Religious Education through drawing on the best practices in the field in terms of curriculum design, agreed syllabi, textbooks, lesson design and delivery. They are jointly hosted by The Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board (ITREB) for UK and the Aga Khan University – Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations, London (AKU-ISMC) and will be held virtually on Saturday 25th of June and Saturday 2nd of July 2022.

On one hand, the workshops aim to make teacher-practitioners more confident in teaching about Islam in mainstream secondary schools in the UK. On the other, they aim to initiate dialogue between the key stakeholders (include curriculum designers, researchers in relevant disciplines, PGCE RE faculty and trainee teachers) to ensure that Islam is represented with greater complexity in textbooks and the classroom.

The study of Islam and Muslims is approached through an inter-disciplinary lens that acknowledges the role of historical and socio-political contexts, ethnic and regional diversities, and Muslims’ overlapping identities. Thus, the lived manifestations of Islam, far from being a monolith, are a mosaic, one comprising a multitude of interpretations, traditions, spaces and practices. This approach to engaging with religion does not only promote human agency and question authority, but also invites curiosity and creativity on the part of teachers and students.

A movement away from essentialist and reified representations of Islam (focusing on beliefs and rituals alone) can also create spaces to engage with the aesthetic, artistic, mystical and poetic expressions of faith over time and geography. Adopting a nuanced approach that takes into account the cultural differences and beliefs that evolved over time and geography, the workshop will provide the much-needed stimulus to the critical discussion of Islam in a secondary RE classroom. The recent works also points towards a worldview based approach that can be crucial towards the understanding of Islam(s) in RE classrooms.

Sessions in the workshop will invite discussion of Islam in different civilisational contexts: instead of seeing Islam as the automatic or inevitable product of a scripture, we will consider how different Islams were produced in different environments, and how these environments invited different interpretations of scripture or led certain parts of scripture to be prioritised over others.

We pursue this interest in how religion is defined, and its practical effects, in two areas where the academic study of religion has had greatest impact, namely the concept of Abrahamic religion, and the identification of different claims to have authoritative interpretation. The enquiry of the study of religion in universities has often been divorced from RE in secondary schools, so this workshop is an attempt to see whether and where there are insights from work in this area that could be brought into schools. Here we ask whether the concept of Abrahamic religion is a useful one? What are its effects on the religions that are included as Abrahamic (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) and those that are excluded (such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism)? Likewise, we ask whether an explicit search for agendas in the interpretation of scripture can be an emancipatory tool, in an RE environment where religious leaders often have a role in defining curricula and teaching resources, or whether it is an unjustified intrusion of a sceptical approach into school teaching. The diversity of religious traditions has rightly been an important theme in recent discussions of RE, but here we invite discussion of the other side of this issue, namely why certain agents consider certain kinds of diversity in religion threatening and how they seek to police this diversity.

The workshop also considers the broader social and political context of RE in Britain. What role can RE play in integrating different groups, in a modern Britain where ever larger numbers of children are members of religious diasporas and are highly conscious of political events overseas. The treatment of conflict in Israel-Palestine, Kashmir or Xinjiang are only the most salient recent examples of how global politics might affect the self-identity of Muslim students. One session considers this problem through the lens of government priorities, and how schools should relate to this. Another considers how students might themselves read scriptures, and whether reading scriptures together might develop understanding and solve shared problems. What presumptions do students and teachers bring to scriptures and how does this affect interpretation? And does the development of shared solutions to moral problems represent a step towards social cohesion or the compromise of the core values of a religious tradition?

Finally the workshop also considers pedagogical reflection. Firstly, how diversity can be taught in the classroom: how should we explore the existence of multiple Islams? How are textual traditions embodied in different social and cultural contexts? And what kinds of reflection should this stimulate amongst students? This is a recurrent issue of concern for RE teachers on social media. Secondly, we invite participants to consider how the presence of different kinds of Muslim students offer distinctive challenges and opportunities for the teaching of Islam. Research on RE has often highlighted the importance of the subject to allow students to explore existential and soteriological questions that they cannot pose in other contexts, including those without a formal background in a religious tradition: is this as true for Muslim students as for non-Muslims? To what extent can arts and aesthetics can open possibilities of inter-disciplinary bridges towards the teaching and learning of RE? These pedagogical reflections can include discussions of recordings of teaching practice.

We intend to publish selected proceedings with the ISMC’s Muslim Contexts series with Edinburgh University Press.

Keynote Speakers
Dr. Feriel Bouhafa is temporary University Lecturer at the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge. She specialises in Islamic philosophy, especially the philosophy of law, and she is particularly interested in the Arabic reception of Aristotle and the thought of Ibn Rushd. (25th June)
Dr. Richard Kueh is Her Majesty’s inspector of Schools and the National subject lead for Religious Education at Ofsted. He has previously been Vice-Principal of a secondary school and RE Specialist for a multi-academy trust. (25th June)
Dr. Anders Ackfeldt is a member of the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University in Sweden. He specialises in the study of how Islam is expressed through the medium of hip-hop. In particular, he is interested in African-American Islam and theoretical perspectives on the study of Islam. (2nd July)
Dr. Farid Panjwani is Dean of the Institute for Educational Development, Aga Khan University, in Karachi, Pakistan. He was formerly a member of the Institute of Education in London (now part of UCL) and AKU-ISMC.

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIodumupz4vHtOkaPAS5KsWmvNgHOqeQxK3

2. The Middle East and North Africa Forum at the University of Cambridge is launching a part-time fellowship, covering the following themes – grand strategy, geoeconomics, warfare, and gender and security matters.

Deadline: January 7, 2022

Questions to:

Elena Ruxandra Seniuc
Strategic Partnerships | MENAF Committee
committee@cmenaf.org | www.cmenaf.org

3. UCLA: Online conference:

Conference on Minoritization in Middle Eastern Geopolitics

Jan. 6 and 7, 9am – 5.40 pm PST

Despite the growing academic interest that Middle Eastern minorities have continued to receive over the decades since the publication of Albert Hourani’s Minorities in the Arab World in 1947, the theme of minoritization has remained a marginal topic in Middle Eastern and North African studies. In this international conference that builds on a series of workshops and lectures funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation over the last two years, we revisit from multidisciplinary, geographic and historical perspectives the concept of minority (ethnic and religious). Our objective is to engage with minorities from the angles of the humanities and social sciences by considering the histories, ethnographies, and artistic approaches of ethnic and religious groups, and to interrogate the concept of minority itself.

For full programme and to register for Zoom, see:

https://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/event/15226

4. Grabar Travel Grant

Deadline: January 7, 2022

This competition is open to graduate students (doctoral candidates) who have been invited or accepted as participants in a scholarly conference or other professional meeting for the purpose of presenting papers, chairing sessions or moderating discussions.

Applicants must be HIAA members in good standing at the time of application. Grabar Travel Grants must be used within 12 months of the award date.

Applications must include the following five components and be submitted in a single pdf to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair, Matthew Saba (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by January 7, 2022:

Application cover sheet, available here
A cover letter explaining the applicant’s purpose in participating in the conference, the expected benefits of participation, and an itemized travel budget
Curriculum vitae
Letter of acceptance from the conference/session organizer(s).
Abstract of the paper to be presented.

In addition, a letter of recommendation from the applicant’s primary supervisor should be sent directly to the Grabar Travel Committee Chair, Matthew Saba (grabar.hiaa@gmail.com) by the deadline.

Applicants from outside the United States are responsible for meeting the requirements for and obtaining any visas necessary for visits to or residence and research in the United States. Upon request, HIAA will supply documentation of the grant and/or fellowship award, the dates of the award, and financial support.

For further details and to apply, please visit: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/opportunities/hiaa-prizes/grabar-grants-and-fellowship

5. UCLA Iranian Studies

From Medieval Afghanistan, “The Most Beautiful of Stories”: Jami’s Yūsuf-u Zulaykhā, a Persian reading group and workshop series

The UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies and the UCLA Program in Iranian Studies, in collaboration with the Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Program on Central Asia, invite scholars and graduate students from across the world to participate in the following research program: From Medieval Afghanistan, “The Most Beautiful of Stories”: Jami’s Yūsuf-u Zulaykhā, a Persian reading group and workshop series, which will take place via Zoom on a weekly basis between January and June 2022.

The reading group and workshop series are convened by Domenico Ingenito (Associate Professor of Persian Literature, NELC) and organized in the context of the UCLA Afghan Scholars at Risk Program, coordinated by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Humanities Division. The series takes place in conjunction with the cycle of workshops Afghanistan through Afghan Voices, organized by the UCLA Program on Central Asia, in collaboration with the University of Washington, Stanford, and UC Berkeley.

Reading Group Registration Details: Prospective participants may join the reading group by submitting a short description of their background in Persian language and literature to the following email address: dingenito@ucla.edu

For more information:

https://nelc.ucla.edu/event/from-medieval-afghanistan-the-most-beautiful-of-stories-jamis-yusuf-u-zulaykha-a-persian-reading-group-and-workshop-series/

6. Persian Language Short Course

The Islamic College has organized a Persian Language Course for those who want to learn modern Farsi. The Course has three semesters.
This course offers an excellent opportunity to master a very important language which provides an entry into a rich and diverse culture. Since Persian has not changed significantly in over a millennium, the basic grammar for the classical and modern forms of the language is virtually the same and is relatively easy to learn.
One of the benefits of learning Farsi is the ability to access a huge body of literature and sources of Islamic knowledge.
The Course Registration Fee is £50/semester. The registration deadline is 25th December 2021.
An attendance Certificate would be granted at the end of the course.

Starting: 25th December 2021
Beginners: Every Saturday 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Intermediate: Every Sunday 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Advance: Every Tuesday 5:00 -7:00 pm

Posted in: Academic items