Professor Francesca Chubb-Confer - Nightingales and Falcons - February 26, 2026
Nightingales and Falcons: Iqbal, Metaphor, and the Poetic Imagination of Islamic Modernity
February 26, 2026 6:00 PM following iftari and maghrib
Morrice Hall room 328, 3485 McTavish Street, Institute of Islamic Studies
This talk examines how literary metaphor mediates the relationship between Islam and modernity in the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938). Focusing on the figures of the nightingale and the falcon in Iqbal’s Persian and Urdu ghazals, it argues that resources drawn from pre-modern Sufi poetry—especially ambiguity and paradox—were important tools for articulating modern Muslim selfhood.
These metaphors register the tensions between inherited traditions and the demands of colonial modernity in South Asia, while foregrounding the entanglements of religion, literature, and politics. The talk also highlights the importance of vernacular languages and literary genres often considered marginal to Islamic Studies.
Note: The talk will be in-person only, and will not be recorded.
The Montreal British History Seminar presents:
Gaza 1917
Professor Laila Parsons, Department of History and Classical Studies & Institute of Islamic Studies
Thursday, February 19
4pm - 5:30pm, Rm. 404, Thomson House (3650 McTavish)
Based on the second chapter of Laila Parsons' book manuscript, The British Occupation of Palestine 1917-1948, and drawing on British and Palestinian sources, this talk narrates the British invasion and conquest of Gaza in 1917. It frames the battles for Gaza not as a sideshow of the First World War but as the foundational moment in the colonization of Palestine, pointing to the ways in which the invasion and conquest were structurally linked to British colonial violence in Palestine after the war.
Congratulations to Andrew Sandock!
Congratulations to former IIS undergraduate student Andrew Sandock on the publication of his article "In Search of a Liberatory Appraisal for Palestinian Archives”, which was awarded the 2024 Dodds Prize by the Association of Canadian Archivists. After graduating from McGill, Andrew joined the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information where he received his Master of Information in the Spring of 2024. See the full Dodds Prize announcement.
Book Roundtable: Buddhism and Islam - Tuesday, February 10
The author Kieko Obuse (School of Religious Studies, McGill and Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Japan)
will discuss the book Buddhism and Islam : mutual engagements in Southeast Asia and Japan (Brill 2025) with
Mikaël Bauer (Director, School of Religious Studies, McGill University)
Prashant Keshavmurthy (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University)
Chaired by: Setrag Manoukian (Institute of Islamic Studies and Anthropology, McGill University)
Buddhist-Muslim relations are usually seen as inherently confrontational. This book challenges the view of Buddhism and Islam as fundamentally irreconcilable by exploring the diverse ways representatives of the two traditions have engaged each other in Southeast Asia-the global frontstage of contemporary Buddhist-Muslim relations-and Japan-a Buddhist-majority country whose 'Islam policy' played a significant role in its surge to global power status. It investigates the processes through which mutual perceptions and discourses have developed in response to shifting socio-political circumstances and via the intellectual interventions of leading personalities
Congratulations to PhD Student Jaleh Ebrahimi!
IIS Doctoral Student Jaleh Ebrahimi has been awarded the BLUE Fellowship at Building 21 for Winter 2026.
Her project is titled: Beings beyond Human Time
Building 21 at McGill University is a space in which unique, daring, beautiful, and rigorous ideas and scholarship are welcomed and nurtured. It is an innovative educational experiment that allows intrinsically motivated scholars to join an innovative, rigorous, and experimental culture of peers and mentors. This culture actively facilitates the development of both original scholars and original scholarship, inclusive of all ages, disciplines, and levels of expertise.
In collaboration with a global network of adjacent communities, Building 21 maintains a commitment to challenge, refine, and encourage a diversity of approaches, processes, and thinkers across the spectrum of human competencies.