Day 1, Friday – April 27, 2012
1. Theology and Philosophy – 9:30 to 12:00
Heather Empey, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: God is Not in Any Place: The Almohad Conception of Tawhid and Its Theological Precursors
Bilal Ibrahim, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: Refurbishing Kalām: The Incorporation of Philosophical Results in the Creedal Works of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī
Seyed Hossein Hosseini Nassab, M.A. Candidate, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto: Fakhr al-Din Razi on the Light-Verse: How can God be the Light of the Heavens and the Earth?
Emann Allebban, Ph.D. Candidate, Philosophy Department, McGill University: An Endless Debate: Avicenna on Infinite Causal Chains
Eliza Tasbihi, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Religion, Concordia University: The Concept of Knowledge in the Ash’arite Creed of al-Qushayri
2. Literature and Language – 1:45 to 3:00
Dima Ayoub, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: On the “Untranslatability” of Arabic
Hamid Rezaeiyazdi, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto: Literary Modernity in Islamic Societies: An Iranian Case Study
Jennifer Dunn, M.A. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: A Postfeminist Arabic Novel? Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh as Chick Lit
3. Islamicate History – 3:15 to 4:45
Usman Hamid, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto: The Curious Case of Shāh Qulī Khān Maḥram: Episodes from the life of a Mughal Eunuch-Military Commander
Reza Hemyari, M.A. Candidate, Master of Arts Consortium Program in Hinduism and Islam, George Washington University: Origins of Shi’ism: Elements of Shi’ism in the Formative Period
Alberto Tiurcio Urquiola, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: Reflections on the Status of Zoroastrians in Late Safavid Kerman
4. Keynote address by Professor Todd Lawson - 5:00 to 6:00
Day 2, Saturday – April 28, 2012
1. The Qur’an – 9:30 to 10:45
Hiba Mehdi, M.A. Candidate, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Wayne State University: Women’s Readings of the Qur'an
Elliott Bazzano, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara: Reinventing the Islamic Exegetical Tradition: an Unlikely Comparison Between Past and Present
Bariza Umar, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: The “Beautiful Example” through the “Most Beautiful of Stories”: The Representation of Prophet Muhammad through his retelling of the story of Joseph
2. Categories of Knowledge and Islamic Studies – 11:00 to 12:40
Pascal Abidor, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: An Examination of al-Hurr al-‘Amili’s Amal al-Āmil fi ‘Ulama’ Jabal ‘Amil
Kamran Karimullah, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: In Defense of Post-Classical Ethical Philosophy
Timothy Gutman, Ph.D. Candidate, Divinity School, University of Chicago: Ibn Taymiya and Orthodoxy
Matthew Lynch, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: "Dude, You Have No Qur'an": An Examination into the History and Stability of Various Definitions of the Qur'anic Text
3. Interpreting Islam in the Modern World – 1:40 to 3:20
Faisal Malik, M.A. Candidate, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto: Beyond Discourses of Modernity and Tradition, The Historical Roots of the Educational Crisis in Pakistan
Muhammad Ahmad Munir, M.A. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: Debating Death - A Contemporary Islamic Juridical Position on Euthanasia
Asif Iftikhar, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: Jihād and the Establishment of Islamic Global Order: A Comparative Study of the Interpretative Approaches and Weltanschauungs of Abū al-A‘lā Mawdūdī and Jāved Ahmad Ghāmidī
Christopher Anzalone, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: Ideological Landscapes of the Mahdi: Millenarian Shi‘ism in Post Ba‘thist Iraq
4. Women, Law, and Subjectivity – 3:35 to 4:50
Candace Mixon, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: Rethinking Fatima in Islamic Studies
Faika Oz Celik, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: Gendering the Margins: Gypsy Women Seeking Justice in Istanbul (1540-1600)
Fatima Seedat, Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University: On the Subject of Law