Islamic Studies Across Divides in an Era of Crisis and Global Injustice

Call for Papers
Date: January 24-25, 2026
Venue: Boğaziçi University, South Campus, Istanbul, Turkey
Abstract Submission Deadline: October 17, 2025 @ 5pm GMT
Organizers: The British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS), and Boğaziçi University Development Foundation (BUVAKIF)

The British Association for Islamic Studies is co-hosting a landmark international winter symposium at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. The purpose of this symposium is to dissolve barriers in the Global Majority and transcend structural boundaries to academia often experienced by scholars in Europe and North America. As a means knowledge exchange, submissions from scholars who face economic constraints and structural barriers from attending the Annual International Conference are especially welcomed.

To expand knowledge exchange with Global Majority scholars and diversify Anglosphere academia, this unique Istanbul symposium facilitates exchange amid legalized genocide in Gaza, inequality, and academic silencing. Scholars globally, from all Islamic Studies disciplines, are invited to present research. Proposals for individual papers or whole panels are welcomed from senior, early-career, and non-academic experts.

Within the Symposium’s theme of Islamic Studies research during global crisis and injustice, Islamic Studies is broadly understood to include all topics and disciplinary approaches relating to the study of Islam and Muslim societies. This includes all time periods from the formative to the classical, and pre-modern to the contemporary. Subjects and approaches include, but are not limited to, the following suggested areas:

• Blackness, Islam and African Diaspora Studies
• Cultural Studies, Critique and Postcolonial Studies
• Decolonizing the Curriculum, including New Periodization and (Inter)Disciplinary Approaches
• Capitalism and Islamic Finance
• Climate Change, Islamic Approaches to Ecology and Environmental Humanities
• Ethics (Medical & Finance) and Islam
• Genocide Studies, Scholasticide and Epistemicide
• History of the Premodern Islamicate:
  • Arab/Ottoman/Persianate worlds
  • Indian Ocean, trans-Saharan, Mediterranean, and Atlantic trade and slavery
  • Genocide, migration, and diaspora formation
• Indigenous and Islamic Epistemologies
• Intellectual History, the History of Science, the History of Political Thought
• Islam and Muslims in the Media, Critical Film Studies
• Islamic liberation theology and theologies of resistance
• Islamophobia and Racism Studies
• Peacebuilding, Violence and Social Movements in the Muslim World
• Postcolonial Muslim Societies and Subaltern Studies
• Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology
• Religious praxis, family, and relationships in Muslim Societies
• Traditional Islamic Studies Fields, including:
  • Hadith Studies
  • Philosophy, Theology and Ethics
  • Qur’anic and Tafsir Studies
  • Sufism and Mysticism

Abstract Submission:

For individual papers, a 200-word abstract of the paper should be submitted along with your details using the form available via this link.

Panel Proposal Submission:

BRAIS particularly welcomes proposals for whole panels curated around certain themes or methodologies. Panels will ideally include four individual papers, but panels of three individual papers will also be considered. For panels, a 200-word outline of the theme of the panel, together with 200-word abstracts of each individual paper and the biography of each presenter should be submitted using the form available via this link.

Submission Deadline:

The deadline for paper and panel submissions has been extended to Friday 17 October 2025 at 5pm GMT.

If you have any questions, they might be addressed on FAQ page. For any other questions, please contact the BRAIS directly: brais@ed.ac.uk

In the spirit of inclusivity and transcending barriers to knowledge exchange, BRAIS will provide Fee Waivers to a number of scholars whose papers are accepted, based on structural financial disadvantage.

Important Dates:

• Abstract Submission Deadline: October 17, 2025
• Registration Start: November 5, 2025
• Bursary Application Deadline: November 30, 2025
• Symposium Presentation: January 25-26, 2025

More information at:  The British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS)