The Eighth Annual Conference on Shi’i Studies


Eighth Annual Conference on Shi‘i Studies

15 minutes per talk; the remaining time is for discussion.

9-9:05 am Opening remarks by Dr Mohammed Ali Ismail, Director of Research and Publications at The Islamic College, London, UK

9:05-9:45 AM Keynote speech – ‘Digging for Subalterns: Safavid Ijāzāt as a Source on the “Periphery”’ Andrew Newman, Personal Chair of Islamic Studies and Persian, University of Edinburgh, UK

9:45-10:45 Session 1: Contemporary Shi‘i Thought

Chair: Mohammed Ali Ismail

Zain Alattar University of California Berkeley, USA Two Voices on Islamic Government: Ayatollah Khomeini and Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Mughniyyah on the Structure and Duties of the Islamic State

 

Bahman Khodadadi University of Münster, Germany Shi‘i Jurisprudential Perception and the Rule of the Judge in the Crucible of the Modern State: Problems and Perspectives

 

Tim Orr Indiana University Purdue University,  Columbus, USA Gender Justice in Islam: A Critique of Ziba Mir-Hosseini’s Humanistic Ethic of Social Justice by Using Shi‘i Epistemological Assumptions

 

 

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00-12:00 Session 2: Philosophy and the Intellect

Chair: Amir DeMartino

Saeid Sobhani The Islamic College, London, UK A Critical View on Sayyid Quṭb and the Status of Intellect (ʿAql)

 

Amina Inloes

 

The Islamic College, London, UK Artificial Intelligence and Islamic Theology: An Interview with ChatGPT
Mehdi Ali University of Southern California, USA Before ‘After Virtue’: The Philosophy of Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr

 

 

12:00-1:00 Session 3: Regional studies

Chair: Amina Inloes

 

Sher Muhammad University of Karachi, Pakistan Shi‘ism in Sindh: Its roots and History with a Special Link with Mysticism
Jaffer Mirza King’s College London, UK The Absence of British Shi‘a Muslims in the Multicultural and Integration Literature
Antonio Torres Fernández Independent researcher When Shari‘ah and Secularism Collide: The Shi‘i Bektāshī Order’s Contribution to Turkey’s Modern Politics

 

 

1:00-1:15 Student awards

1:15-2:15 Lunch

2:15-3:15 Session 4: Writings

Chair: Hamid Tehrani

Mahdieh Tavakol Freie Universität Berlin, Germany Mobility and Intellectual Production: Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad al-ʿĀmilī and his Moving Scholarly Circle
Amir Mohammad Hakimi Parsa New York University, USA Shi‘i Mysticism in the Turkish Divan of Shāh Ismāʿīl Khaṭāʾī

 

Kasra Shiva University of Oxford, UK The Post-Mongol Ismaili Community in the Poetry of Nizārī Quhistānī (d. 1320)

 

 

3:15-4:00 Session 5: Narrative studies

Chair: Amir Dastmalchian

Rev Frank Gelli Church of England, UK A Deconstruction of Two Popular Western Fictional Narratives about Imam al-Mahdī, Contrasted with a Positive Literary Alternative
Reza John Vedadi Loughborough University, London, UK How has the Shia Muslim identity been represented in Hollywood films since 1986?

 

4:00-4:15 Break

4:15-5:15 Session 6: Intrafaith studies

Chair: Amir Dastmalchian

Berhat Cem Oner Independent researcher The Imamate of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and the Fatimid Alids: A Comparison of the Doctrine of Imamate between the Zaydiyyah and the Imamiyyah

 

Julia Katarina

 

and

 

Sheikh Al Muatasim Said Al Maawali

The Islamic College, London, UK

 

Centre for Omani Studies at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman and University of Birmingham, UK

Akhlāq, Imāmah, Wilāyah: A Comparative Study of the Ibāḍī and Jaʿfarī Schools

 

Shabbir Agha Abbas University of Arizona, USA Defining Twelver Islam

 

5:15 pm Closing address: Dr Isa Jahangir, Principal of The Islamic College, London, UK