Readings - 11/14

Introductory Session

Welcome, all! It's our pleasure and privilege to be in conversation with you for these two days.

Optional Readings: Akkach, "Polarizing ʿIlm: Science and Religion in Early Modern Islam"; Grosfoguel, "Epistemic Islamophobia and Colonial Social Sciences"

Session 1: Classification and Pedagogy - Curators, Librarians, Educators

A panel featuring Drs. Silke Ackermann, Siti Marina Mohd Maidin, and Susan Douglass

• Discuss the challenges and opportunities encountered due to disciplinary boundaries, particularly in curatorial settings

• Discuss collaborations between librarians, curators, academics, and graduate students, as well as utilization of institutions.

Please read the documents below from our curators, librarians, and educators! This section will be continually updated.

To learn more about the al-Tibb: Healing Traditions in Islamic Medical Manuscripts exhibition, please follow this link: https://www.iamm.org.my/altibb/ . Furthermore, Siti Marina has put together a short video gallery tour of the exhibition. Please use the link below to view the video: https://youtu.be/IqpWAeklimA

Session 2: Chronology

Reading: Dallal, "Beginnings and Beyond"

• How can ma’qul/manqul be historicized, rather than used transhistorically and transregionally in a static way? How can we remap these in relation to science and religion?

• What are the unique methodological contributions of science & Islam to STS and the history of science?

Reading: Raj, "Thinking Without the Scientific Revolution"

• What specific relational histories can “unskew” the picture of scientific activity in Islam, and overall?

• How do we move beyond the diffusionist models of history in the many regions we study e.g. binaries of Islamic and African/Indic knowledge, “Greek” vs. Islamic religious knowledge, etc.

Session 3: Geography

Reading: Harding, "Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies"

• • How can we productively apply the frameworks like “standpoint work” or studies of empire within our field, rather than in relation to European sciences? What hegemonies and peripheries could then be identified and unsettled?

  • How are postcolonial projects intersecting with or animating our field?

Reading: Mavhunga, "Introduction: What Do Science, Technology, and Innovation Mean from Africa?"

• • How do hegemonic discourses about science and technology in Africa impact studies of science & Islam in Africa?

  • What are the power dynamics and centrisms in our field, which we need to name and address as part of a shared ethical project?