Ehab Galal: The Sacred and the Secular on Islamic Television
27 November 2013
Time: 2:00-4:00 pm
Room: A7.3, Harrow Campus (tube stop: Northwick Park)
University of Westminster
Registration per e-mail until Monday, Nov 25: [log in to unmask]
Title: The Sacred and the Secular on Islamic Television
Ehab Galal
Assistant Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies,
University of
Copenhagen, Denmark.
Abstract: With the appearance of around 50 Arab Islamic
satellite-television-channels the
number of television preachers presented in different programs and talk
shows has increased
dramatically. This growing presence of religious talk on TV could be
seen as what some have
defined as a process of re-sacralization or de-secularization. However,
several aspects of the
programming may point in opposite directions where preaching is turned
into lifestyle
guidance being just as secular as sacred in its expression and form.
Hence, the main question
of my presentation is how Islam on Arab Islamic satellite-channels is
mediated through
religious lifestyle programming offering the audience not only a
position as Muslim, but also
a position as consumer and citizen within a modern and secular public
sphere.
Ehab Galal is a full-time Assistant Professor in Media and Society in
the Middle East at
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at University of
Copenhagen. He has for
the last three years been part of ‘the New Islamic Public Sphere
Programme’. His research
focuses on Arab and Muslim media in the Middle East as well as
transnationally. Currently,
he is completing a comparative and qualitative research project on
audience responses to
Arabic Islamic Television including conducting fieldwork and research
interviews in Egypt,
the UK, Denmark and Saudi Arabian. The project is funded by the Danish
Council for
Independent Research. Dr. Galal has published several peer-reviewed
articles in wellestablished
journals and in edited volumes by well-know publishers. He has since the
beginning of 2010 presented about 30 papers at international conferences
in Europe, the
Middle East and the US.
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