The 33nd ANNUAL CONFERENCE
of the
Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS)
Revisioning Modernity: Challenges and Possibilities for Islam
Cosponsored by:
George Mason University: Center for Global Studies and Islamic Studies Program
Arlington Campus, Virginia
September 24 - 26, 2004
Call for Papers
AMSS 33rd Annual Conference offers an exceptional forum to address the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. We live today in a world in which the multiple and sometimes contradictory trajectories of globalization have rendered certainty elusive and geography unsettled. Transnational flows of people, ideas, technologies, and commodities challenge fixed conceptions of identity and belonging and traditional models of social and political organization. Reassessment of these models is required to address conflicts that cut across geopolitical, cultural and economic boundaries.
Since these same processes today blur the contours, location, and social meaning of Islam - both in global spaces and closer to home - AMSS seeks to explore the following questions in its annual conference: “To what extent has contemporary global life exceeded the boundaries of modernity? What does it mean - in terms of both discourse and practice - to transcend modernity? How do Muslims from diverse subject locations engage, question or challenge notions of modernity and post-modernity? What is it to be Muslim in a complex world of multiple identity affiliations and fractured subjectivities?
We are looking for papers that engage aspects of these complicated questions and which address or integrate any of the following subthemes:
- The De-colonization and Politicization of Knowledge
- Multiple and Fractured Identities
- Discourse Ethics and Cosmopolitanism
- Diaspora: Integration, Assimilation, Resistance
- Islamic Feminism in Transnational Contexts
- Technology and Society
- International Security and Humanitarian Crises
- War, Migration and Refugees
- Human Rights/Civil Liberties
- Poverty/Economic Restructuring
- Center and Periphery: the Global Politics of Development and Governance
- Resisting Ethnic “Tribalism”
- Social Movements
- Peace Education, Anti-racism/Anti-Islamophobia Education
- The Politics of Difference and the Challenge of Solidarity
- Progressive Islam and Who are Progressive Muslims
- Islamic Knowledge and Education: Future
Abstracts (250 words) are due May 28, 2004. Accepted proposals will be announced within 21 days. Accepted papers must be submitted by August 27, 2004 to be included in the conference program.
Send abstracts to Conference Coordinator Ms. Layla Sein at conferences@amss.net
Conference Chair: Dr. Peter Mandaville
George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia
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Program
Friday September 24, 2004
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Registration
9:00 – 9:30 a.m. Welcoming and Introductory Remarks
AMSS and GMU officials - to be announced
9:30 – 11:00 a.m. Panel 1 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Illumination of Knowledge
Louay Safi (Islamic Society of North America, IN):
“The Transcendental Roots of Knowledge: Beyond Metaphysics and Empiricism”
Fathi Malkawi (International Institute of Islamic Thought, VA):
“Integration of Knowledge and Values”
Dilnawaz Siddiqui (Clarion University, PA):
“From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Meta-theoretical Imperative for the C21st & Beyond”
11:00 – 11: 15 a.m. Break
11:15 – 12:45 p.m. Panel 2 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Human Rights and Civil Liberties
Saeed A. Khan (Institute for Social Policy & Understanding, MI):
“The USA Patriot Act and its Civil Rights Implications on Muslim Americans: An Analysis of Actual and Virtual Impact”
Ataul Huq Pramanik (International Islamic University of Malaysia):
“Poverty, Inequality and Growth Interrelationships: How Globalization Can Help Overcome Poverty”
Anisseh Van Engeland-Nourai (Institut d’Etudes Politiques, France):
“Human Rights in Iran: Modern Challenges of the 21st Century”
Bilial Ibrahim (University of Waterloo, Canada):
“Authority, Continuity and Human Rights: Roots of Reform in Early Islamic Law”
Ismail bin Mat (University of Brunei, Darussalam):
“Human Rights in Islamic Legal Shari'ah Perspective”
12:45 – 2:45 p.m. Lunch and Jumah Prayer
3:00 – 4.30 p.m. Panel 3 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Decolonization of Knowledge
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad (Minaret of Freedom Institute, MD):
“Liberals Without Ties and Muslims Without Mutawwa: Disentangling Liberalism from Westernization”
Hasan Horkuc (University of Durham, UK):
“Contemporary Case Study of Decolonization of Knowledge”
Muhammad Saidul Islam (York University, Canada):
“Knowledge/Power Regime: The Global Politics of Development and Governance”
4:30 – 4: 45 p.m. Break
4:45 – 7:00 p.m. AMSS Annual Grand Meeting
Public Invited Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Saturday, September 25, 2004
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Panel 4 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Islamic Feminism
Jasmin Zine (University of Toronto, Canada):
“Between Orientalism & Fundamentalism: Muslim Women and Feminist Resistances”
Maliha Chishti (University of Toronto, Canada):
“Engendering Post Conflict Afghanistan: Critical Perspectives in the Aftermath of War”
Meena Sharify-Funk (American University, Washington, DC):
“Encountering the Transnational: Women and the Transformation of the Authoritative in Islam”
Halil Ibrahim Yenigun (University of Virginia, VA):
“Unveiled Muslim Identity in the West: A Muslim Male Perspective”
10:30 – 10: 45 a.m. Break
10:45 – 12:15 p.m. Panel 5 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/12
Living Islam in the West
Karim H. Karim (Carleton University, Canada):
“Impact of Muslim Intellectuals on Muslim Communities in Canada”
Shabana Mir (Indiana University, IN):
“Norms and Practices of Women's Dress”
Muna Ali (Arizona State University, AZ):
“Discourse and Identity”
Abdul Qayum Mohmand (University of Utah, UT):
“Muslim -American, American- Muslim or Just American Feasibility and Implications”
Mohammad Hassan Khalil (Univ. of Michigan, MI):
“Leaving Islam: A Preliminary Study of Conversion out of Islam”
12:15 – 2:00 p.m. Lunch and Dhuhr Prayers
2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Panel 6 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Qur'anic Hermeneutics
Asma Afsaruddin (University of Notre Dame, IN):
“The Compatibility of Civilizations: Muhammad Shahrur and His Modernist Qur’anic Hermeneutics”
Zainab Alwani (International Islamic University of Malaysia):
“Islamic Feminism in Transnational Contexts: Re-Conceptualizing Gender Through the Qur'an”
Aliaa Dakhroury (Carleton University, Canada):
“Toward a Philosophical Approach of the Hermeneutics of the Qur'an: To Read, Understand, Think and Reflect ... or Just to Follow”
Elizabeth Salima Christie (Georgetown University, Washington, DC):
“Qur'anic Hermeneutics: Navigation of Modern Dilemmas”
Melissa D’Agostino (The New School for Social Research, NY):
“Translation as Event: Impact of Variation in Translation & Interpretation of Islamic Text”
3:30 – 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 – 5:15 p.m. Panel 7 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Democracy
Kamran Bokhari (Howard University, Washington, DC):
“Moderate Islam, Progressive Muslims, Democracy & Post Islamism”
Louis J. Cantori (University of Maryland, MD):
“Revisioning Democracy: Republican Islam”
Mazen Hashem (American Center for Civilizational and Intercultural Studies, CA):
“Civil Society and the Entanglement with Values”
Saieed Golkar (University of Tehran, Iran):
“Islamic Democracy and Religious Reformism Discourse in Iran after Khomeini”
David D. Grafton (Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt):
“Din wa dawla: Egyptian Views of American Secularism”
6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Annual Banquet (Atrium – Ground Level)
Keynote Address: Tariq Ramadan, University of Notre Dame, IN
Best Graduate Paper Awards Ceremony
Sunday, September 26, 2004
7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. AMSS Board Meeting (Dean’s Suite Conference Room 215)
Strategic Planning Meeting
Chair: Rafik Beekun, AMSS president
9:30 – 11:00 a.m. Panel 8 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Dialogue, Peacemaking and Justice
Robert Crane (Center for Economic and Social Justice - Cofounder):
“Ridda in the Age of Muslim Dhimmi: Choice of Law in Non-Islamic Society & Future of Legal Reform in the Muslim World”
Ali Hassan Zaidi (York University, Canada):
“Revisioning Modernity: Challenges and Possibilities”
Judith Rahima Jensen (Educational Solutions: OR):
“Web Technology to Increase Communication between Undergraduate Youth of Islamic & Western Societies”
Muhammad Yusuf Ali (International Islamic University of Malaysia):
“The Three Abrahamic Faiths: their Role in Making Peace, Unity & Coexistance”
Saadia Yacoob (Huntington Learning Center, VA):
“Developing Identities: What is Progressive Islam and Who are Progressive Muslims”
11:00 – 11:15 a.m. Break
11:15 – 12:45 Panal 9 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Muslim Identity in a Global Context
D. Jason Berggren (Florida International University, FL):
“More than the Ummah: An Exploratory Study of Muslim Identities”
Zaman S. Stanizai (University of Southern California, CA):
“Redefining Identities in Center-Periphery Politics”
Patrick Cates (University of Michigan, MI):
“Ridda in the Age of Muslim Dhimmi: Choice of Law in Non-Islamic Society & Future of Legal Reform in the Muslim World”
Yetkin Yildirim (University of Texas at Austin, TX):
“The Golden Generation: Reconciling Muslim Identity and Modernity through Education”
12:45 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch and Dhuhr Prayers
1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Panel 10 Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
Roundtable - The US War in Iraq: The Broad Spectrum of Consequences
Saeed A. Khan (Institute for Social Policy & Understanding, MI):
“The Impact of the 2003 Iraqi Campaign upon the Interactions of the Iraqi Shi'i, Sunni and Iraqi Christian Communities of Michigan”
Sharaf Rehman (Teleman AB, Lund, Sweden):
“Analysis of Media Texts Covering Abu Ghraib Incident”
Kamran A. Bokhari (Howard University, Washington, DC):
“Iraq: The US-Iranian Intrigue”
3:30 – 3:45 p.m. Closing Remarks Arlington Phase 1 Bldg - Room 120/121
AMSS and GMU officials - to be announced
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Abstracts
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Final Papers
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