Islamic Studies Workshop

Dear colleagues,

Welcome back to a new academic year! Please join us for our first event of the year – a discussion with Professor Yousef Casewit on the PhD program in Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago. We will meet next Thursday, October 10th from 2-3:30pm in Swift 400.

We are also looking forward to an exciting quarter of events. Please save the dates below, and we hope to see you soon!

Oct 24th: Adam Matvya (CMES)

Nov 7th: Samantha Pellegrino (Divinity)

Nov 21st: Alex Matthews (Divinity)

Best wishes,

Allison Kanner-Botan, ISW coordinator

Samantha Pellegrino, ISW assistant coordinator

Dear Colleagues,

The Islamic Studies Workshop welcomes paper proposals for the 2019-20 academic year. Presentations can include portions of dissertation chapters or proposals, job talks, master’s theses, conference presentations, or other research, and we especially welcome work-in-progress. In the past, we have hosted scholars from Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, History of Science, History of Christianity and Judaism, South Asian studies, Near Eastern studies and Political Science. We welcome scholars from these disciplines and others whose work engages with the study of Islam as a central object of inquiry.

Presenters circulate a piece of writing or resources for discussion a week in advance of the workshop. A respondent begins the discussion with a summary of the piece and a few opening questions. If you are interested in serving as a respondent this year, please email the coordinators.

We will meet on alternate Thursdays from 2:00-3:20pm (Swift 400), beginning in the Fall quarter. Please submit a brief proposal to Sam Pellegrino (spellegrino@uchicago.edu) and Allison Kanner (akanner@uchicago.edu) by Friday, September 20 if you would like to present.

We will also be placing papers for the upcoming winter and spring quarters, so please indicate when you submit in which quarter you would like to present.

Best,

Allison Kanner, Islamic Studies Workshop Coordinator
Sam Pellegrino, Islamic Studies Workshop Assistant Coordinator

Dear Colleagues,
Please join us at Islamic Studies workshop for our remaining events of the quarter. All events will be held in Swift 106 from 2-3:30pm with (light) refreshments!

4/25
– Sam Lasman (CompLit): Demonic Pasts: (other)World History in Medieval Iran

Dear Colleagues,

Please join us next Thursday, March 7th from 2:00-3:30pm in Swift 400 at Islamic Studies Workshop for a talk with Timothy Gutmann. Timothy will be presenting on his paper titled:

Islamic Thought Among Others The Confucian Ethics of Wang Daiyu

Dear Colleagues,

Please join us this Friday, February 15th from 2-3:30pm at Islamic Studies Workshop for a discussion with Nick Lorenz (Divinity) on his paper titled:

Salafi Ruqya in England: The Role of Evidence in the Ethical Formation of the Pious Self

Dear colleagues,

Please join us on Thursday, January 31st for a presentation by Amir Toft (NELC PhD) on “Freeing the Kadi’s Justice: Max Weber and Methodology in Islamic Legal Studies”.

Description: In this paper, I rethink Weber’s Kadi-justice, ignoring its substantive merit as a statement about Islamic legal practice and returning it to its original context of his Sociology of Law. I show that, properly read, Kadi-justice was deployed primarily to attack Anglo-American law. I argue that, because the concept’s original purpose undermines its utility for examining Islamic law, the term muddies the waters of Islamic legal studies, and scholars in this field ought to summarily abandon it.

The paper will be sent out upon individual request. Please contact the coordinators and/or the presenter directly.

Time/location: 2-3:30 at Swift 400

Light refreshments will be served.

Looking forward to seeing you all!

Best,

Zahra Moeini & Allison Kanner

ISW coordinators 2018-19

Please join us today at Islamic Studies workshop for a presentation and discussion with our Zahra Moeini Meybodi on her paper entitled:

“The Qur’an is as the Qur’an Says: The Shī’ī Imams on the Nature of the Qur’an.”

–

We will meet from 12:30-1:30pm in Swift 201 – do note this meeting is pushed up a week because of the Thanksgiving break.

Abstract:
The nature of the Qur’an as God’s verbatim revelation has served as a site of long-standing debate in Islamic theology. Broadly speaking, the positions established in early Sunni theology are represented by the Muʿtazilī belief in the createdness of the Qur’an versus the ʾAshʿarī view of its (co-)eternality. This paper in specific investigates a much less noted position – that of several of the Imams in the Twelver Shīʿī tradition who represent some of the earliest as well as systematic views on the matter. The Shīʿī Imams’ methodology in characterizing the Qur’an is the main subject of analysis. One sees a persistent disengagement and even resistance to the discourses of ‘eternality’ or ‘createdness’. It is argued that a theology of the Qur’an must necessarily employ the conceptual paradigms and vocabulary provided by the Qur’an itself. Possible grounds for the Imams’ disengagement is also explored, in turn touching on issue of the debate’s origin. Far from being objectified by reason alone, Revelation itself acts as a determining agent in the reasoning process.

Note: this paper will be provided upon individual request to the coordinators
(akanner@uchicago.edu, zahramoeini@uchicago.edu). Light refreshments will be
served- hope to see you there!