Cosponsored by:
Hartford Seminary
Hartford, Connecticut - October 27 - 29, 2006
Deadlines:
Abstracts: May 31, 2006
Papers: September 15, 2006
In the global postmodern context, identities are complex sites of struggle and negotiation. Muslim identities in particular represent contested epistemological and ontological sites. Islamic identities are being politically and ideologically defined and negotiated in the context of a volatile global political landscape post 9/11 and within and against competing doctrinal debates over what it means to be a Muslim and the true nature of Islam. Muslim subjectivities are also constituted through other social, cultural, legal, and political negotiations as part of
individual and collective lived realities. Therefore, the discursive contexts and
social and cultural environments through which Muslim identities are constructed, framed and legitimated are multiple, and often warrant renewed examination in light of shifting global and local realities.
This conference seeks to bring a wide range of scholarly voices in the social sciences and humanities to deconstruct the various dimensions through which Muslim social identities are constituted, challenged and lived.
We invite papers that may address but are not limited to the following themes:
. Muslim Identities in Historical, Textual or Empirical Research
. Religious, Social, Cultural and Political Dimensions of Muslim Social Identities
. Constructions of the Muslim Subject In Colonial, Neo-Colonial, and
Post-Colonial Encounters
. Good Muslim/Bad Muslim: Identity Politics in the Post-9/11 Era
. Divergent Discourses and the Construction of Muslim
Subjectivities:
Traditional and/or Modern Perspectives
. Essentialism/Anti-Essentialism in Muslim Identity Construction
. Epistemological and Ontological Perspectives: Textual Narrations of
Self/Identity/Community.
. The Complex Relationship Between Texts, Contexts, and Human Agency in the Construction of Islamic Norms
. Authoritative Identities: Exegetical Practices and Gendered Interpretations
. Contesting Boundaries: Gendered/Sexual Identities
. Indigenous and Diasporic Articulations of Identity, Community, Nation: Authenticity, Hybridity and Belonging
. Muslim Youth and Identity Politics
. Marginality and the Politics of Resistance
. Transnational Pan-Islamic Identities and Solidarities: Re-Examining
the Ummah
. Collective Identities and Political Praxis: Muslim Social and Political Movements
. Boundaries and Social Control: Regulating and Policing Identities
. Identity and Representation: Media Characterizations and Muslim Identities
. Religious Manichaeanism: Persistence of Orientalist and emergence of Neo-Orientalist Constructions of Self/Other and Civilizational Dialogues
. Identities of Faith: Challenges of and Possibilities for Interfaith
Dialogue and Collaboration
. Post-Modernism and the Crisis of Identity
Abstracts (250 words) are due May 31, 2006.
Accepted papers must be submitted by September 15, 2006.
Send abstracts and papers to Conference Coordinator Ms. Layla Sein at
Conference Chair: Dr. Jane Smith
Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut
For details about AMSS and conference updates, please visit
[sursa e-NASS]
