The Al-Mahdi Institute is delighted to host its inaugural Graduate Islamic Studies Conference. The conference, aimed exclusively at students studying at the masters level, is designed to provide students with an opportunity to gain experience presenting their research in a supportive and encouraging environment and to provide a platform to network with likeminded peers.
The conference features presentations on a diverse range of topics in Islamic studies from young scholars based at institutions across the United Kingdom and Germany. We are also honoured to be hosting Dr Fozia Bora, Associate Professor of Islamic History at the University of Leeds and the Chair of the British Association for Islamic Studies, who will be delivering the keynote lecture.
We have a limited number of spaces for other masters students in Islamic studies and related fields to attend the conference in order to benefit from and engage with the presentations and to network with others in the field. The cost of the ticket includes lunch and dinner on both days of the conference. Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite.
Itinerary
1st Al-Mahdi Institute Graduate Islamic Studies Conference
Day 1: Saturday 28th May 2022
10:00 – 10:30
Registration / Tea and Coffee
10:30 – 10:45
Opening Remarks (Adam Ramadhan)
10:45 – 11:45
Keynote Lecture
Dr Fozia Bora (Associate Professor of Islamic History, University of Leeds)
11:45 – 12:00
Break
12:00 – 1.30
Islamic Legal Studies
Alice Catanzaro (University of Oxford)
Reality, Rationality, and the Unseen in the Fatwa Section of al-Manār
Sajeda Canani (University of Birmingham/Al-Mahdi Institute)
The Rule of Breastfeeding in Shia Islam: Its Inaccurate Deduction and Improper Placement in Jurisprudential Literature
Anwār Omeish (University of Oxford)
Between Law and Politics: Jurists, Rulers, and Jurisdiction in Early Mamluk History
13:30 – 14:30
Lunch
14:30 – 15:30
Muslim Readings of Western Philosophy
Emir Faruk Kayahan (University of Oxford)
Mustafa Sabri on Kant’s Understanding of Causality: Asharite Occasionalism in Conversation with Kantian Theoretical Philosophy
Adam Ient (King’s College London, recent graduate)
A Sadrian Interpretation of Frank Jackson’s Knowledge Argument
15:30 – 15:45
Break
15:45 – 16:45
Islam and Society
Hafeesha Thoppil Babu (University of Sussex, recent graduate)
Symbolic violence against Ahmadiyyas in Malabar; a cultural perspective
Muhammad Humza Apabhai (University of Birmingham)
How is political Islam as a form of governmentality enacted in specific contexts, considering the case study of Turkey and Tunisia?
16:45 – 17:45
Islamic Material Culture
Victoria Bianchi (University of Oxford)
The cartography of al-Idrīsī’s Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq: Arabic Mapmaking in the Medieval Mediterranean
Huzefa Ghadiali (University College London)
Historical Bibliography of an English translated Qur’an
17:45 – 19:00
Dinner
Day 2: Sunday 29th May 2022
10:00 – 11:30
Studies in Shīʿī Thought
Mizhgona Okhonniyozova (Institute of Ismaili Studies)
Al-Kirmani’s Notions on the Imamate
Munzela Raza (University of Birmingham/Al-Mahdi Institute)
Rejection, Retention, and Rehabilitation: The Emergence of Early Shīʿī Doctrine in the First Two Centuries of Islam
Kasra Shiva (Institute of Ismaili Studies)
From Strongholds to Khanaqahs: Coalescence Between Ismailism and Sufism in the Post-Alamut Period
11:30 – 11:45
Break
11:45 – 12:45
Engaging with the Qurʾān
Zoe Myers (University of Oxford)
Eve/Hawwāʾ in the Qurʿān, Tafsīr, and Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ
Ahmad Kaouri (University of Birmingham/Al-Mahdi Institute)
What reality is being evaluated against when upholding a Qurʾānic epistemological criterion?
12:45 – 13:45
Lunch
13:45 – 14:45
Muslim Responses to Western Philosophy and Theology
Kadir Çapan (University Osnabrück)
The Art of Argumentation in the work of the Catholic theologian Ludovico Marracci (1612-1700) and its criticism from an Islamic perspective
Syed Wajee ul-Hasan Shah (University of Birmingham/Al-Mahdi Institute)
ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʿī’s Defence of Divine Simplicity
14:45 – 15:00
Closing Remarks (Adam Ramadhan)