Day 1: Friday May 2, 2014
9:00 – 9:30 Breakfast
9:30- 9:35 Opening Remarks from the Organizers
9:35-9:45 Opening Remarks from the Acting Director of the Institute Of Islamic Studies, Professor Rula Abisaab
9:45- 10:45 Session 1 Islam, Gender, and Literature – Moderated by Prof. Pasha Khan
Jennifer Pineo-Dunn (New York University), Crisis and Change in Egyptian Women’s Literature: Fatḥiyyah al-ʿAssāl’s Gendered Language Choices
Elliot Montpellier (McGill University), Asgharī, docile agent? Re-examining the portrayal of gender roles in 19th century reformist literature
10:45 -11:00 Break
11:00-12:15 Session 2 Muslims in the West: Challenges and Debates – Moderated by Prof. M. Hartman
Kurosh Amoui Kalareh (Queen’s University), “Cool” Islam: Michael Muhammad Knight and the Beats
Hicham Tiflati (Université of Québec at Montréal), Islamic Values, Education, and Quebec Society
Ryan T. Sawyer (Hartford Seminary), Navigating Authenticity and Temporality in Post-Modern Islam: Time. Change, and Agency in the Neo-Traditionalist Intelligentsia
12:15-2:00 Lunch
2:00-3:15 Session 3 Theological Commentaries: Sites for Debate and Ideology - Moderated by Prof. Rula Abisaab
Joud Al-Korani (University of Toronto), Tafsīr & the Politics of Publication: Saudi Sponsorship of al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, and Ibn Taymiyya
Ayse Betul Tekin (Columbia University), Theological Commentaries as Venues for Following Trajectory of Islamic Metaphysical Thought: The Case of Tajrīd al-I‘tiqād of al-Tūsī
Nora Jacobsen Ben Hammed (University of Chicago Divinity School), Linguistics, Knowledge, and the Divine: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's Commentary on Verse 31 of Surat al-Baqarah
3:15-3:30 Break
3:30-5:00 Guest Speaker, Professor Amira Mittermaier (University of Toronto)
Day 2: Saturday May 3, 2014
9:00-9:30 Breakfast
9:30-11:00 Session 1 Contesting Power – Moderated by Prof. Malek Abisaab
Evan Fowler (Johns Hopkins University), The Afro-Arab Spring, Continuity, and Post-Independence Mauritania
Christopher Anzalone (McGill University), The Sectarian Dialectic: Syria, Shi’ism, & Social Mobilization
11:00-11:15 Break
11:15-12:30 Session 2 Science, Philosophy, and Islam –Moderated by Prof. R. Wisnovsky
Pouyan Shahidi Marnani (McGill University), The Delimiter of Directions: Remarks on the Muḥaddid al-Jihātas Discussed in the Second Namaṭ of Ishārāt and in Rāzī’s and Ṭūsī’s Commentaries
Hasan Umut (McGill University), Two Different Approaches to Astrology in the Aristotelian Tradition: Abū Maʿshar and al- Fārābī
Davlat Dadikhuda (McGill University) Mas'alah IV of the Tahafut; is Avicenna's Proof Precipitant?
12:30-2:00 Lunch
2:00-3:15 Session 3 Contemporary Developments in Islamic Law – Moderated by Prof. Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim
Asif Iftikhar (McGill University), Ijmā‘ (Consensus) on Interpretation and Ijtihād (Independent Reasoning) in Sunni Epistemology: A Critical Reflection
Michael Arnold (The Islamic College), Freedom of Religion, Non-Coercion, and Apostasy in Light of Islamic Law
Omar Edaibat (McGill University), ‘Communitarian Politics’ or a ‘Politics of Multiple Communities’? Reframing the Relationship of Islamic Law to the Contemporary Human Rights Regime
3:15-3:30 Break
3:30-4:30 Session 4 The Reforming State – Moderated by Prof. Laila Parsons
Fadia Bahgat (McGill University), Bureaucratic Contention: The Case of the Maltese Women Evaders in WWII Egypt
Kenan Tekin (Columbia University), Reforming Epistemology: Ahmed Cevdet Pasha's Translation of Ibn Khaldun's The Muqaddimah."
4:30-5:30 Roundtable Discussion and Closing Remarks