Conference - Postcolonialism & Islam
Date: 16 April 2010 - 17 April 2010
The Northern Association for Postcolonial Studies (NAPS) and The
Sunderland-Nizwa Centre for Anglo-Arab and Muslim Writing are inviting
abstracts and expressions of interest for a conference to be held at the
University of Sunderland, UK, 16-17 April 2010.
Postcolonialism and Islam are two terms that frequently appear in tandem,
however, the relationship between the two and the question of their
compatibility has not been extensively investigated. The speed and
intensity of the changes characteristic of late modernity under the
pressures of cultural and economic globalisation has traumatised Muslims and
non-Muslims alike. Hybrid identity formations, very often provisional, are
generated in the articulations of difference marked by imaginary relations
to faith, nation, class, gender, sexuality and language. Postcolonialism
might seem to provide a framework for approaching the experiences of not
only formerly colonized subjects but émigrés, exiles and expatriates and
their host societies.
However, Muslim writers and intellectuals have both adopted and rejected
postcolonial theory as an effective tool for analysing and accounting for
the experience of Muslims in the modern world.
This multidisciplinary conference will be relevant to specialists in
postcolonial theory, and cultural, historical, political, sociological,
literary, and religious studies who seek to problematise both the terms
themselves and their juxtaposition. It will mainly focus on these six main
themes:
- Muslim identity and its connection to race, cultural politics, integration
- The experience of Muslim communities in Britain and elsewhere in the West
particularly as representative site(s) of settlement, networking and
diasporic mobility
- Terms such as multiculturalism, citizenship, secularism, ethnicity
- The way in which Muslim culture(s) become(s) embedded in and thematised by
Muslim and non-Muslim writers in English and other literatures in
translation
- The connection between Muslim women and the activities of western
orientalism
- The conditions and possibility of 'Islamic' feminism; its response to the
way in which Muslim women have often been represented and theorised
according to western, Christian and white feminist versions of female
experience
Other related topics will also be considered. The intention is to publish
an edited volume based on the theme of the conference to which a selection
of participants will be invited to contribute.
Confirmed Keynote speakers so far include:
- Dr. Tahir Abbas, FRSA, currently principle analyst at Deen International
- Prof. Ceri Peach, Emeritus Professor and Research Associate at the Oxford
School of Geography
- Prof. Patrick Williams, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies,
Nottingham Trent
Conference URL: http://www.naps-online.org/?cat=17
Conference organiser(s): Dr. Geoff Nash & Dr. Sarah Hackett, Faculty of
Education & Society, University of Sunderland
Venue: University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK
Call for papers deadline: 30 October 2009
If you wish to present a paper, please submit a proposal (maximum 300
words) by the due date to the contacts below.
Contact details
- Dr. Sarah Hackett
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0191 515 3043
Faculty of Education and Society, University of Sunderland, Priestman
Building, Green Terrace, Sunderland, SR1 3PZ, UK
- Dr. Geoff Nash
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Faculty of Education and Society, University of Sunderland, Priestman
Building, Green Terrace, Sunderland, SR1 3PZ, UK
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