The Movement of Population, Objects, and Ideas in the Pre-modern and Modern Muslim World

Call for Papers

Date: February 12–13, 2019

Venue: National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taipei, Republic of China

Abstract Submission Deadline: October 15, 2018

Muslim world, covering a vast geographical area, is characterized by its ethnic, linguistic, and cultural multiplicity. Its diversity is precisely captured by Dale F. Eickelman: ‘The main challenge for the study of Islam is to describe how its universalistic or abstract principles have been realized in various social and historical contexts without representing Islam as a seamless essence on the one hand or as a plastic congeries of beliefs and practices on the other.’ (1987)

How and why do/did people, ideas, and objects move from one place to another? Through what agencies do/did people, ideas, and objects travel? How did/does such movement impact upon other communities, their social and cultural dynamics? We welcome contributions from scholars and postgraduate students concerned with these questions from any relevant scholarly discipline, including history, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, area studies, politics, (comparative) literature, and religious studies.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Migration of tribes, Sufi orders, refugees, or any distinctive group in pre-modern and modern contexts
• Transmission or translation of ideas, artistic or literary motifs, or texts
• Travel & travelogues
• Exchange and interaction through commerce (e.g. slave trade)
• Spread of techniques or objects (e.g. introduction of paper)

Each presentation will last 20 minutes, including Q&A session. Abstracts between 300–400 words along with a one-page CV should be sent to Dr. I-Wen Su at isu@nccu.edu.tw, by 5.00 pm, October 15th, 2018, with ‘ISIC 2019’ in the subject line. The presenters whose papers are accepted will be notified in late October and early November, and asked to submit the full papers by January 10th, 2019. The papers, which pass the double-blind review, will be published.

Source: National Chengchi University Master Program of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies