CIWAS Third Annual Conference

Call for Papers

Date: February 19, 2020

Venue: Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK

Abstract Submission Deadline: October 4, 2019

The Centre for Islamic and West Asian Studies (CIWAS) is seeking papers for its 2020 Annual Conference. The Conference is concerned to explore multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of urban Islam which address questions such as how Islam has influenced urbanization and the urban livelihoods of their Muslim inhabitants; what the impact of this urbanization process has been on Islamic practices and Muslim identities; and how the presence of Islam in cities intertwined with concepts of ‘self’ and ‘other?

We are particularly interested in panel and paper proposals that offer original and under-researched approaches to studying historical and contemporary Islamic cities in West Asia, South Asia, and Africa. We welcome research that focuses on all Muslim communities, including Sunni, Shiite, Sufi, those of sub-denominations and of different schools of thought, jurisprudence and theology; and adherents of Muslim movements having a prominent communal identity and living as minorities in Islamic cities.

The various issues that might be addressed and be applied to a case of an Islamic city include, but are not limited to:

• The history, development, and modernization of Islamic cities
• The definition, ideal, and cosmology of Islamic cities
• Islamic cities in religious texts
• Urban architecture and Islamic cities
• The culture and Identity of Islamic cities
• Sacred spaces and rituals in, and pilgrimages to, Islamic cities
• Muslim minorities in Islamic cities
• Islamic cities and the politics of urban design
• Persecution, sectarianism and violence involving Muslim communities in cities

Please submit a paper title, abstract (maximum 250-words), and a short bio by email attachment to ciwas@rhul.ac.uk by 5pm (UK time), Friday 4 October 2019.

Source: CIWAS