Academic Year 2023-2024
Research & Publications » Monthly Lecture Series » Academic Year 2021-2022
Monthly Talk:What’s “Islamic” about Islamic Art?
Speaker: Professor Stephennie Mulder
Title of the talk: What’s “Islamic” about Islamic Art?
Date: Friday, 27 June 2024
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm (London summer time)
When most of us think of Islamic art, we probably think of the infinite geometries and elegant calligraphy of a mosque or an illuminated Qur’an. Yet in the 15th century, a Muslim ruler commissioned a beautiful brass wine cup inlaid with silver scrolling patterns and Arabic calligraphy. On its surface is an inscription that says “To Allah belongs might… power… victory… strength.” At first blush, it seems a strange thing to contemplate an object of art that praises Allah that is at the same time made to drink wine, a substance that is ostensibly to be avoided in Islam. So is the wine cup an example of Islamic art? How do we encompass an art form that spanned three continents and 1,400 years, bringing millions of diverse adherents into its fold? The question of what, exactly, Islamic art is remains enduring, perplexing, and fascinating. This talk will explore these questions by walking through both a bit of history of the art of the Islamic world but also through the history of the field of Art History. One of the most intriguing things about the question of what’s Islamic about Islamic art is that it forces us to ask questions about the broader history of art, and our answer allows us to realign how we think about not only what Islamic art is, but actually to think about what art is and why we have decided it’s one kind of thing and not another.
Stephennie Mulder is Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a specialist in Islamic art, architectural history, and archaeology. She worked for over ten years as the head ceramicist at Balis, a medieval Islamic city in Syria, and has conducted archaeological and art historical fieldwork in Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and elsewhere in the region. Mulder’s book The Shrines of the ‘Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shi’s and the Architecture of Coexistence, published in 2014, received numerous awards. She has published on matters related to heritage preservation and the trade in looted antiquities, Islamic archaeology, and cultural heritage in the Journal of Islamic Archaeology, the International Journal of Islamic Architecture, and The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology. She has appeared in media interviews and written editorials for media outlets such as TIME, the BBC, IB Times, al-Jazeera, the L.A. Times, and U.S. News and World Report on cultural heritage issues, Islamic art, antiquities, and the history of sectarian relations in Islam. Professor Stephennie Mulder
Monthly Talk: “The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church: In the World but not of the World.”
Speaker: Dr Steve Knowles
Title of the talk:” The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church: In the World but not of the World.”
Date: Friday, 17 May 2024
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Bio: Dr Knowles is a Senior Lecturer in Religion and Popular Culture at the University of Chester, where he has worked for 14 years. He is currently undertaking research on the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (Exclusive Brethren). His other research interests include examining the interface between religion and popular culture with a specific focus upon contemporary apocalyptic beliefs. Related to this is an interest in the correlation between notions of risk in contemporary Western society and apocalyptic ideologies.
In this plenary presentation, Dr Knowls will think through some of the challenges of researching a closed community: the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. He will focus on complex questions of positionality, inter-personal relationships, and communication with the field and consider the ethical implications for researching a group who are averse to engaging with outsiders due to misinformation. Indeed, for those in wider society who have heard of the PBCC it is usually in the form of negative publicity. Dr Knowls will dispel some of the myths around this group whilst providing insight into the exclusive nature of the community and the reasons for it.
Monthly Talk: The Development and Significance of Muslim Chaplaincy
Speaker: Professor Sophie Gilliat-Ray
Title of the talk:The Development and Significance of Muslim Chaplaincy
Date: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Bio: Sophie Gilliat-Ray is Professor of Religious Studies at Cardiff University, and the Founding Director of the Islam-UK Centre. She has published numerous monographs and journal articles about religion in public life, with particular focus on the work of Muslim religious professionals such as Chaplains and Imams.
In her talk Professor Gilliat-Ray intends to share some of her research about the work of Muslim chaplains, both in the UK and overseas. She will explore the development of ‘Muslim Chaplaincy Studies’ as an emerging field of research and will pay particular attention to the significance of chaplaincy in enabling Muslim women to take up professional religious work.
Monthly Talk: On Writing a Historical-Critical Tafsīr
A Talk by Professor Nicolai Sinai
Nicolai Sinai holds a PhD from the Free University Berlin (2007) and is a Fellow of the British Academy. Since 2011 he has been teaching at the University of Oxford, where he is now a professor of Islamic Studies. His most recent book is Key Terms of the Qur’an: A Critical Dictionary (2023).
This talk will present ongoing work on a historical and literary commentary on Surahs 1-3, undertaken in the framework of the ERC-funded project Qur’anic Commentary: An Integrative Paradigm. Topics addressed will include the commentary’s basic hermeneutical commitments, its methodological toolkit, and its envisaged structure and layout.
Monthly Talk: “Belief, Law and Politics: What Future for Muslims Europe?”
A Talk by Professor Jorgen Nielsen
Tuesday 9th January 2024
6.00 P.M. – 7.30 P.M. (LONDON TIME)
Venue: The Islamic Collee, 133 High Road London NW102SW
Speaker: Professor Jorgen Nielsen
Title of the talk: “Belief, Law and Politics: What Future for Muslims Europe?”
Date: Tuesday, 9th January 2024
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Jørgen S. Nielsen is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary European Islam, University of Birmingham, and Affiliate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He studied Arabic and Middle East studies at SOAS, London, and did his PhD in Arab history at the American University of Beirut. Since 1978 he has researched Islam in Europe at Selly Oak Colleges and the University of Birmingham. He was director of the Danish Institute in Damascus 2005-7 and then spent six years as Danish National Research Foundation professor at the Faculty of Theology, Copenhagen University. He is the author of Muslims in Western Europe (Edinburgh, 1st ed. 1993, 4th edition with Jonas Otterbeck 2016) and is involved in editing several book series for Brill (Leiden) as well as the Journal of Muslims in Europe.
Monthly Talk: How Does the Quran Introduce Jesus and Christianity?
A Talk by Dr Dwight Swanson
Friday 22nd December 2023
6.00 P.M. – 7.30 P.M. (LONDON TIME)
Speaker: Dr Dwight Swanson
Title of the talk: How Does the Quran Introduce Jesus and Christianity?
Date: Friday, 22nd December 2023
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Dr Dwight Swanson is a Senior Research Fellow in Biblical Studies, Nazarene Theological College. He is also Co-Director, Manchester Centre for the Study of Christianity and Islam. Dr Swanson’s research interests have moved to the Bible and Islam/Qur’an. He is currently working with the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies in Oxford on the project ‘Reading the Bible in the Context of Islam’. He also contributed a number of dictionary articles to The Global Wesleyan Dictionary of Theology (Beacon Hill Press, 2012), Theologisches Worterbuch zu den Qumrantexten (Kohlhammer, 2011) and The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (Walter de Gruyter and Co.)..
Monthly Talk: On the Methodological Significance of a Less Known Treatise of Ibn Arabi on Irfan (Mysticism)
A Talk by Professor Ali Paya
Speaker: Professor Ali Paya
Title of the talk: On the Methodological Significance of a Less Known Treatise of Ibn Arabi on Irfan (Mysticism)
Date: Friday, 8th December 2023
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
The treatise, known as Resāleh Mā Lā Yo‘awwalu ‘Alaih (What Cannot be Trusted), is a practical guide for mystics and wayfarers in their mystical journey. In this talk, the content of this treatise will be critically assessed. The focus of the talk will be mostly on the methodological value of this work and whether or not it can be regarded as an example of what the advocates of the Islamisation of knowledge, dub ‘Islamic science’.
Ali Paya is Professor of Philosophy at the Islamic College in London and Adjunct Professor of the Philosophy of Science at the National Research Institute for Science Policy in Tehran. His most recent publications include Methods, Methodologies and Perspectives in the Humanities and Social Sciences (With Particular Reference to Islamic Studies): A Critical Rationalist Interpretation, London: ICAS Press, 2022; Religious Science, Indigenous Science, and Islamic Science: Thinking the Impossible or Thinking Ahead of Time: An Anthology of Ideological Projects of Knowledge Production, Plus Two Critical Assessment of the Views of Two Iranian Thinkers on Science, Tehran: University Press Centre, 2021.
Monthly Seminar: Prophet Mohammad’s Message for the 21st Century
A Talk by Professor Juan Cole
Speaker: Professor Juan Cole
Title of the talk: Prophet Mohammad’s Message for the 21st Century
Date: Monday, 8th November 2023
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. His areas of expertise include Middle East and Islamic History; Muslim South Asia; Transregional currents; and Social and Cultural History. He is also the founder of the ‘Informed Comment’ Weblog (https://www.juancole.com/), which since its inception in 2002, has tried to fight fake news in the arena of politics.
Professor Cole has received many awards, and published twenty titles, including Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires, and more than one hundred papers and book chapters in various academic journals and anthologies.
Monthly Seminar: Ibn Khaldun in the 21st Century: Is He Still Relevant?
A Talk by Dr Farid Al-Attas
A Talk by Dr Farid Al-Attas
Monday 2nd October 2023
6.00 P.M. – 7.30 P.M. (LONDON TIME)
Venue: The Islamic College 133 High Road Willesden Green NW102SW
Speaker: Dr Farid Al-Attas
Title of the talk: Ibn Khaldun in the 21st Century: Is He Still Relevant?
Date: Monday, 2nd October 2023
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Syed Farid Alatas is Professor of Sociology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Visiting Professor at the Department of Anthropology & Sociology at the University of Malaya. He also headed the Department of Malay Studies at NUS from 2007 till 2013. Prior to joining NUS he taught at the University of Malaya in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies. In the early 1990s, he was a Research Associate at the Women and Human Resource Studies Unit, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Alatas has authored numerous books and articles, including Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology (Routledge, 2014), and (with Vineeta Sinha) Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon (Palgrave, 2017); “Political Economies of Knowledge Production: On and Around Academic Dependency”, Journal of Historical Sociology 35, 1(2022): 14-23; and “Knowledge Hegemonies and Autonomous Knowledge”, Third World Quarterly (published online: 04 Oct 2022). His areas of interest are social theory, religion and reform, the sociology of Islam, intra- and inter-religious dialogue, and the study of Eurocentrism.
Monthly Seminar: Religion and Secularism in Turkey: Problems and Prospect
A Lecture by
Dr Caroline Tee
A Talk by Dr Caroline Tee
Thursday 21 September 2023
6.00 P.M. – 7.30 P.M. (LONDON TIME)
Speaker: Dr Caroline Tee
Title of the talk: “Religion and Secularism in Turkey: Problems and Prospect”
Date: Thursday, 21 September 2023
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Dr Tee is Associate Professor of Modern Islam, and Programme Leader, MA Theology and Religious Studies, Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Chester
In her academic research, she is interested in the diverse ways in which Islam is lived in the contemporary world. She focuses on the intersection between religion, democratic politics and other major institutions of modernity such as modern science, secular education, and civic engagement. She has carried out extensive ethnographic fieldwork over the course of six years in Turkey, and has published primarily on the subject of the Alevi minority and the socio-religious movement led by the US-based imam Fethullah Gülen. She is the series editor (with Ashraf Hoque) for the Edinburgh Studies in Anthropology of Islam book series at Edinburgh University Press.
Dr Tee also work on Islam in the UK and is currently Principal Investigator on the project ‘A Hermeneutics of Civic Engagement? Reading the Qur’an and Sunna in British Islam’, which is funded by Templeton Religion Trust between 2019-2023
