Muslim Studies Program October 15, 2021 News and Events Please share with other faculty, students, and community. All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
Upcoming events
Sponsored by the Muslim Studies Program
Muslim Journeys
Join us this year for another Muslim Journeys series, centered on the theme of encounters: encounters between friends, encounters between strangers, encounters between people of different faiths, and encounters between individuals and their own faith practices. Our first event, featuring the young adult novel All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney will be held in late October in a hybrid form. Look for more sessions in 2022, including an event in conjunction with the Libraries’ Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections, a talk from a literary translator, a film screening, and more.
Thursday, October 28, 2021, 7:00 pm: All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney, discussion led by Leila Tarakji (MSU). Register in advance here.
February 2022: Malcolm X directed by Spike Lee; Lissa by Sherine Hamdy and Coleman Nye, illustrated by Sarula Bao and Caroline Brewer
March: Special Collections event with speaker Jyotsna Singh
April: My First and Only Love by Sahar Khalifeh with speaker and translator Aida Bamia
The Ulama Between Democracy and Autocracy Tuesday, November 16, 12:30 pm EST
Usaama al-Azami will discuss his latest book which considers a relatively understudied dimension of the Arab revolutions of 2011: the role of prominent religious scholars. Professor al-Azami is Departmental Lecturer in Contemporary Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford. He completed his BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Oxford, his seminary training at Al-Salam Institute, and his MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He specialises in Islamic political thought. Register in advance for the online event here.
NAVIGATING 'SHOMOYSCAPES' AND Navigating temporality and FACULTY LIFE IN DHAKA, BANGLADESH
Thursday, November 18, 10-11:30 am EST
Drawing on interviews and participant observations with 22 faculty in Dhaka, Bangladesh, we illuminate how academics experience, contest and manipulate their time(s) amid rapid socio-economic transformations of Dhaka (a mega-city). We aim to decenter the Global North knowledge production about temporality in higher education literature by introducing and applying a culturally sustaining concept of 'shomoyscapes'. While the Bengali word 'shomoy' literally means 'time', it goes beyond 'clock time', and also refers to memories, present moments, feelings, a particular duration, and/or signier for a temporal engagement. We demonstrate the efficacy of shomoyscapes by illuminating how faculty in Bangladesh experience various temporal forces, such as: a) traffic, b) university politics, and c) the future of others. We conclude with implications about the complex temporal constraints at work within an urban Global South context and a rapidly growing HE system in South Asia.
Speakers: Dr. Riyad A. Shahjahan is an Associate Professor of Higher, Adult and Life Long Education (HALE) at Michigan State University. Ms. Tasnim A. Ema is an undergraduate student at the Department of Anthropology at University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mr. Nisharggo Niloy completed his post-graduation from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Dhaka. Registration link coming soon.
Coming in April 2022
Muslim Journeys will host a discussion of My first and Only Love written by Safar Khalifeh. The translator, Aida Bamia, will give the opening lecture. Book synopsis: Nidal, after many decades of restless exile, returns to her family home in Nablus, where she had lived with her grandmother before the 1948 Nakba that scattered her family across the globe. She was a young girl when the popular resistance began and, through the bloodshed and bitter struggle, Nidal fell in love with freedom fighter Rabie. He was her first and only real love--him and all that he represented: Palestine in its youth, the resistance fighters in the hills, the nation as embodied in her family home and in the land.
Co-Sponsored Events
Indian Diplomacy during the Bangladesh Crisis and War
Friday, November 5, 10am EDT
Bangladesh marks the 50th anniversary of its independence this year. Mohammed Ayoob, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations, will discuss Indian Diplomacy during the Bangladesh Crisis and War.
Upcoming events
(not organized by the Muslim Studies Program)
that might be of interest
The 1918 influenza pandemic in Indonesia and comparisons with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
U-Mich CSEAS Friday Lecture Series
Friday, October 15, 2021 12:00 p.m. EDT Online Registration Link
This presentation highlights research on pandemic impacts on various aspects of key demographic aggregates in Indonesia. These include estimates of the toll of the pandemic in the absence of reliable birth and death registration data, the timing, size, and geographic spread of waves of infection and mortality, and the impacts of the pandemic on health policy in Indonesia. Where relevant, comparisons are made with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaker: Siddharth Chandra is professor and director of the Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University. The 1918 influenza pandemic had a profound impact on Indonesia.
Courses that may be of interest
DISC Islamic Studies CourseShare TUESDAY & THURSDAY 11:30AM-1:00PM EASTERN
JANUARY 5 TO APRIL 28, 2022
MSU, U-Mich and Rutgers
For more information, visit the course web page or contact DISC at digital.islam@umich.edu
Recap of events
Sponsored by the Muslim Studies Program
Meeting the Moral Markers of Success: Concerted Cultivation among Second-Generation Muslim Parents
Dr. Rebecca A. Karam
Thursday, October 7, 12 pm EDT
Concerted cultivation describes how parents reproduce middle-class status by preparing children for success through the organization of their family's daily lives. Scholarship accounting for the potentially important role that minority religious identity plays in this process is warranted. The current study fills this theoretical and empirical niche by exploring the parenting practices of second-generation, upper-middle-class Muslim Americans. Utilizing data from two years of ethnographic fieldwork and 72 in-depth interviews with second-generation Arab and South Asian Muslim Americans in suburban Metro Detroit. Dr. KaramI makes contributions to sociology by presenting novel data on a little understood minority group and their institutions Michigan State University Muslim Studies Program
Additional videos from the Muslim Studies Program may be viewed on our YouTube Channel.
Call for Abstracts
Call for Abstracts
Disability at the Intersection of History, Culture, Religion, Gender, and Health
Date: March 3-4, 2022
Place: Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
This conference aims to encourage open discussion and better understanding as well as to breakdown stigma associated with disabilities. To accomplish that, the conference aims to generate inclusive dialogues and interdisciplinary interactions between academia, community organizers, social and legal activists, health care service/providers, and religious leaders. The conference will serve as a platform to foster collaboration between various groups engaged in understanding and improving disability conditions.
During the 35 hours of sessions, participants will have the opportunity to listen to and engage with leading academics, analysts, activists and politicians representing a wide spectrum of views on Lebanon.
Awards/Research Funding/Grants/Job Opportunities
Our Mission: To improve scholarship about Palestinian affairs, expand the pool of experts knowledgeable about the Palestinians, and strengthen linkages among Palestinian, American, and foreign research institutions and scholars.
PARC's 2022-2023 fellowship competitions are now open! After reading all the information and checking the corresponding page on our website, please contact us with any questions. We look forward to YOUR application. Click here for full details.
Global IDEAS Funding Opportunities Update
Funding opportunities with international dimensions curated by Global IDEAS in the weekly Funding Opportunities Update are now also available online as a searchable database. Anyone with an msu.edu email address has access to this new database.
New funding opportunities will continue to be disseminated through the weekly Global IDEAS Funding Opportunities Update email. Faculty, staff, and students can sign up to receive these emails on the Global IDEAS website.
Here are a few listings related to Muslim-majority countries:
Muslim Studies Core Faculty Achievement Submissions
To Muslim Studies core faculty:
As the new spring semester begins and despite the challenging times we are in, we wish you the best and hope that you are positioned to put your best foot forward.
The Muslim Studies Program seeks to continue to support your work in research, teaching, and outreach. One form of support we would like to provide is by showcasing your recent achievements.
We invite you to share your latest achievements (e.g. publication, external funding and awards, promotion, etc.) through the Faculty Achievements Submission page (or by clicking below). With your permission, we will promote and highlight these successes in our social media and bi-weekly e-newsletter, circulated among MSU Mulsim Studies faculty, MSU administrators, as well as academic and professional colleagues outside of MSU with interest in Muslim studies.
The submission portal is permanently open, and submissions are accepted at any time. Thank you and have a great semester.
