Ninth Annual Conference 2024
Conference Highlights
Explore the full lineup of sessions
9:00 - 9:05 AM | Opening Remarks
Speaker: Dr. Mohammed Ali Ismail
Affiliation: Director of Research and Publications, The Islamic College, London, UK
9:05 – 9:45 | Keynote speech
Speaker: Professor Robert Gleave
Affiliation: University of Exeter, UK,
Topic: “Where did Shi‘i law come from? And where is it going?”
9:45 – 11:15 | Panel Session 1
Shi‘i Ritual and Popular Practice (Room F21)
Chair: Amina Inloes
Talk : 1
Speaker: Vinay Khetia (Shia Research Institute, Toronto, Canada),
Topic: The Ritual Practice of Ziyārah and its Ontological Foundations in the Work of Avicenna
Talk: 2
Speaker: Maryam Omidi (The Islamic College, London, UK; The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA),
Topic: Redemptive Eschatology in Christianity And Shi‘a Islam: A Brief Analysis of Eschatological Hope in Two Religious Traditions
Talk: 3
Topic: Noor Zaidi (University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA),
Topic: Traces and Transfer: Life and Death in Wādī al-Salām
Biographical Studies (Room F12)
Chair: Amina Inloes
Talk : 1
Speaker: Zahra Azhar (Independent researcher, The Hague, Netherlands),
Topic: Unveiling the Untold Exploring Female Narratives in Early Shi‘a Collective Biographies of the Imams
Talk: 2
Speaker: Huzaifa Dokaji (State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA),
Topic: The Shi‘i Women of Northern Nigeria, 1994-2015
Talk: 3
Speaker: Makbul Rahim (Independent researcher, London, UK),
Topic: From Wukalāʾ to Designated Deputies of the Twelfth Shi‘i Imam
11:15 – 11:30: Break
11:30 – 13:00 | Panel Session 2
Mysticism and Esotericism (Room F21)
Chair: Hamid Tehrani
Talk: 1
Speaker: Amir Mohammad Hakimi Parsa (St Andrews University, Dundee, Scotland),
Topic: Mysticism in the Formation of Shi‘i Statehood in Iran: From Ismāʿīl Ṣafavī to Rūḥullāh Khumaynī
Talk: 2
Speaker: Julia Katarina (The Islamic College, London, UK),
Topic: ʿIlm al-Ghayb: The Mystical Imamate of the Walī of our Time
Talk: 3
Speaker: Antonio Torres Fernández (University of Alicante, Spain),
Topic: The Shi‘i Isma‘ili Concept of Waṣiyyah: Exploring Esoteric Shari‘ah during the Alamūt Period
Science and Technology (Room F12)
Chair: Amir De Martino
Talk: 1
Speaker: Ali Hussain al-Hakim (Independent researcher, London, UK) and Zainab Al-Wasiti (Al-Mustansiriyyah University, Baghdad),
Topic: An Islamic Medicine? An Epistemological Scrutiny and Historical Examination of Bīmāristāns in Baghdad in the First Abbasid Era
Talk: 2
Speaker: Adam Ient (Al-Mahdi Institute, Birmingham, UK),
Topic: A Critique of ‘Modern Science’ from the Perspective of Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Talk: 3
Speaker: Malakeh Shahi (Metaschool, Berlin, Germany)
Topic: Metaverse and Imaging Shi‘ism in a Virtual Reality: A Prolegomena to Any Future Shi‘i Studies
13:00 – 13:15: Student Awards
13:15 – 14:15: Lunch
14:15 – 15:00: Book Launch
Book: Al-Asfa: A 17th-Century Shi‘i Exegesis of the Qur’an,
Launched: Mulla Muhsin Fayd Kashani,
Translated: Alexander Khaleeli
15:00 – 16:30 | Panel Session 3
The Qur’an and Hadith (Room F21)
Chair: Mohammed Ali Ismail
Talk: 1
Speaker: Maryamossadat Moballegh (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA)
Topic: The Probative Force (Ḥujjiyat) of Non-Renowned Reports (Akhbār Āḥād) in the Interpretation of the Qur’an
Talk: 2
Speaker: Liyakat Takim (McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada),
Topic: Shi‘i Tafsīr in the Akhbārī Period
Talk: 3
Speaker: Saeid Sobhani (The Islamic College, London, UK)
Topic: A Rebuttal to ʿAlī Dashtī’s Views on the Prophet Muḥammad and his Miracles
Shi‘i Scholars (Room F12)
Chair: Saeid Sobhani
Talk: 1
Speaker: Ali Alsayegh (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK)
Topic: Ayatollah Sistani’s Emotional Entrepreneurism During the Jihad Against ISIS 2014-2017
Talk: 2
Speaker: Seyed Jaafar Hosseini Milani (Independent researcher, London, UK)
Topic: The Contribution of Grand Ayatollah Milani to the Development of the Mashhad Ḥawzah Islamic Studies Programme
16:30 – 16:45: Break
16:45 – 18:15 | Panel Session 4
India and Mongolia (Room F21)
Chair: Amir De Martino
Talk: 1
Speaker: Imran Visram (University of Oxford, Oxford, UK)
Topic: Vernacular Expressions of Shi‘ism in Late Medieval India: The Satpanth Movement
Talk: 2
Speaker: Abid Zaidi (University of Oxford, Oxford, UK),
Topic: Shi‘i Revolution in the Shadow of the Nawab: Establishing a ‘Transnational Religious Economy’ between Post-Revolutionary Iran and Lucknow, India
Talk: 3
Speaker: Wu Hanqi (Inner Mongolia University, China)
Topic: An Examination of Mongolian Tribal Genealogy Based on the Records of the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh and the Tārīkh-e Waṣṣāf
On Human Nature and Knowing (Room F12)
Chair: Hamid Tehrani
Talk: 1
Speaker: Shahnaaz Alidina (Independent researcher, Richmond Hill, Canada)
Topic: Cultivating Spiritual Morality: Integrating Social Emotional Intelligence in Early Childhood Education for Holistic Development
Talk: 2
Speaker: Husain Heriyanto (Paramadina University, Jakarta, Indonesia)
Topic: Imam ‘Alī’s Teachings for Transcendent Anthroposophy
16:30 – 16:45: Break
8:15 – 18:30 | Closing Address
Speaker: Dr Isa Jahangir, Affiliation: Principal, The Islamic College, London, UK
