Call for Papers

McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Graduate Student Symposium

Call for Papers: Crisis and Change in Islamic Societies

McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies Student Council (MIISSC) invites abstracts for scholarly papers to be presented at its Fourth Annual Graduate Symposium to be held on the 2^nd and 3^rd of May, 2014.

Over the past year, many upheavals and changes have affected Muslims all around the world, such as political changes in Egypt, the war in Syria, elections in Iran, the Charter of Values in Quebec, among others. These recent events inspire questions concerning the nature of change, the forces that both precipitate and impede it, and the ways in which individuals and communities both shape and are affected by it.

The Fourth Annual McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Graduate Student Symposium will focus on students’ original academic work that analyzes the causes and consequences of crisis and change. The aim of this year’s symposium is to consider manifestations of change, both ideological and material, in the study of historical and contemporary Islam. This year’s symposium will also feature an in-depth roundtable discussion concerning the relationship between academia, and more specifically the discipline of Islamic Studies, to recent events. The main question will center around whether or not Islamic Studies has an imperative to respond and shed light on current trends and uprisings? Moreover, what are the stakes, both academic and non-academic in such an engagement?

DEADLINE: Please submit a formal abstract (250-300 words) and CV no later than February 17^th, 2014 by email to miisscsymposium@gmail.com. Submissions should also include the following information in the body of the email: name, program (M.A, Ph.D), year of study, research focus, university/department, email address, title of paper, and audio-visual requirements. Presentations must not exceed 15 minutes. Presenters will be informed of their acceptance by March 7^th, 2014. Proposals for panels are also welcome.

*Note: we are unable to provide travel assistance.

We invite papers from a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to anthropology, history, philosophy, literature, art, political science, and women’s studies. Themes of papers can include but are not limited to:

- Theoretical issues in the study of Islam

- Feminism and gender in Islam and Islamic Studies

- Islam(s) and modernity

- Islam, communications, and (new) media

- Islam and social and environmental justice

- Pre-modern Islam

- Secular vs. faith-informed approaches to the study of Islam

- “Queering” Islamic Studies

- Anthropological perspectives and the study of Islamic culture(s)

-Historiographies of Islam and Islamic phenomena