Online Publication of Methodos dedicated to “Argumentation and Arabic Philosophy of Language,” co-edited by IIS Researcher Walter Edward Young et al.
We are very pleased to announce publication of the latest online, open access issue of Methodos, dedicated to “Argumentation and Arabic Philosophy of Language,” co-edited by Shahid Rahman and Walter Edward Young, with chief editor Leone Gazziero and editorial secretary Anne Dourlens. The issue includes an introductory essay by Rahman and Young, followed by ten articles by authors in relevant fields—one of which includes a first-time critical edition of an intriguing text on dialectic.
Modalities of Argumentation, Scriptural Reasoning, and the Structural Characteristics of Early Islamic Theological Discourse
Abdessamad Belhaj
Al-Ashʿarī’s Adab al-jadal : A Few Remarks on its Genre
Ali-Reza Bhojani
Linguistic philosophy in modern uṣūl al-fiqh: al-Ākhund al-Khurāsānī (d. 1911) on seeking something without willing it to be
Alexander Lamprakis
Did the Arabic Tradition Know a More Complete Version of Alexander’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Topics? The Evidence from Ps-Jābir’s Kitāb al-Nukhab / Kitāb al-Baḥth
Abdurrahman Ali Mihirig
Analogical Arguments in the Kalām Tradition: Abū l-Ma‘ālī al-Juwaynī and Beyond
Necmettin Pehlivan & Hadi Ensar Ceylan
Old Rivalry, Eternal Friendship: The Story of an Opponent-al-Fuṣūl in the ʿilm al-naẓar
Jens Ole Schmitt
Preferring Formal Language over the Face? Avicenna on the Physiognomical Syllogism. Some Observations
Shahid Rahman & Walter Edward Young
In Existence and in Nonexistence: Types, Tokens, and the Analysis of Dawarān as a Test for Causation
Aaron Spevack
Defending Definitions: The Tools of Disputation in Logic of al-Fanārī
Walter Edward Young
On the Logical Machinery of Post-Classical Dialectic: The Kitāb ʿAyn al-Naẓar of Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (d. 722/1322)
The Majlis Podcast - Interview with Professor Pasha M. Khan
Prof. Pasha M. Khan was interviewed by Prof. Adnan Husain and Shahroze Khan about South Asian storytelling traditions and his book The Broken Spell(Wayne State University Press, 2019) on The Majlis podcast, by Muslim Societies Global Perspectives (MSGP) at Queen's University.
The Institute of Islamic Studies is proud to announce that graduating student, Hussain Awan has been named valedictorian in the Faculty of Arts. Hussain has served the Institute as president of WIMESSA and in many other ways.
Congratulations from the IIS Hussain! For an interview with Hussain, highlighting courses and of course the ISL, please click here to read the interview.
Professor Khalid Medani's "Black Markets and Militants" is Featured on Art's Life Magazine
Associate Professor Khalid Medani talks to about his research on informal economic markets in Sudan, Egypt, and Somalia and how his book serves as a modest contribution to ongoing public concerns.
Incoming president of WIMESSA (2022-2023) Yasmine El Dukar and IIS Director Michelle Hartman
WIMESSA executive (outgoing, 2021-2022) and IIS Director Michelle Hartman
On Tuesday May 3, WIMESSA hosted an end of the year BBQ at Parc Léo Pariseau, co-hosted by SPHR. Thanks to everyone who attended!
New publication, Memoirs of a Militant
The Institute of Islamic Studies announces the most recent publication of the Women’s War Stories project, led by IIS Profs Michelle Hartman and Malek Abisaab.
Translated from Arabic by Michelle Hartman and IIS MA student Caline Nasrallah, Memoirs of a Militant: My Years in the Khiam Prison is Nawal Qasim Baidoun’s memoir of her arrest and imprisonment in Khiam Prison in South Lebanon.
You can buy the book from the publisher here or in Canada here.
Congratulations to Caline, Michelle, and Malek!
New Interdisciplinary Initiative: “The Old Women of Nishapur”
The Institute of Islamic Studies is pleased to announce a new interdisciplinary initiative on “The Old Women of Nishapur” by a number of our members, IIS Profs Sara Abdel-Latif, Rula Jurdi Abisaab, and Setrag Manoukian, Associate Member Prof Katherine Lemons, and PhD student Kausar Bukhari.
A new installment in their inquiry into the old women of Nishapur is now available at the SSRC's website Immanent Frame. You can also read there the Introduction to the project, a translation of relevant texts, an etymology of ʿa, j, z and an essay by IIS Prof Sara Abdel-Latif. Furthermore, there will be a new essay posted each week for a total of ten original contributions. In addition to essays by Rula Abisaab, Kausar Bukhari, Katherine Lemons, and Setrag Manoukian, there will be five additional essays that explore the expression "The religion of the old women of Nishapur" from a variety of angles (ritual, medical, mystical, erotic, political...).
For the participants in the project, the old women have become an endless matrix of reflection and intellectual engagement, and they hope the project will be of interest and prompt further conversations in the broader IIS community and beyond.
Congratulations to Sherine Elbanhawy!
Congratulations to IIS MA student Sherine Elbanhawy on the publication of her short story, “Night Stencils,” which won the 2021 Summer Short Story Prize given by the Masters Review. You can read the story here.
Congratulations to Osama Eshera!
Congratulations to IIS PhD student Osama Eshera on the publication of his article “On the early collections of the works of Ġiyāṯ al-Dīn Jamšīd al-Kāšī”, in the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts. Please see the link below:
PhD candidate Aqsa Ijaz has been awarded the McGill Arts Graduate Student Teaching Award in recognition of her significant contribution to her classes. Well done Aqsa!
Generality and Exception in Islamic Legal Theory
The Institute of Islamic Studies is pleased to announce a lecture by Professor Omar Farahat, Faculty of Law, on the occasion of joining the IIS as an Associate Member.
Congratulations to MA student Đồng Bảo Ngân Hà on receiving a 2022 SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, for their project provisionally entitled, “ ‘Al-Haraka Baraka’: Palestinian Sportswomen’s Boycott as Movement-Building for Liberation.”
In-Person Book Launch Co-Sponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Islamic Studies
Khalid Mustafa Medani - Islamic Studies/Political Science
Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani - Chair of McGill University’s African Studies program, and Associate Professor in Political Science and Islamic Studies.
Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa
Understanding the political and socio-economic factors which give rise to youth recruitment into militant organizations is at the heart of grasping some of the most important issues that affect the contemporary Middle East and Africa. In this book, Khalid Mustafa Medani explains why youth are attracted to militant organizations, examining the specific role of economic globalization, in the form of outmigration and expatriate remittance inflows, plays in determining how and why militant activists emerge. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on ideology to explain militant recruitment. Based on extensive fieldwork, Medani offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of globalization, neoliberal reforms and informal economic networks as a conduit for the rise and evolution of moderate and militant Islamist movements and as an avenue central to the often, violent enterprise of state building and state formation. In an original contribution to the study of Islamist and ethnic politics more broadly, he thereby shows the importance of understanding when and under what conditions religious rather than other forms of identity become politically salient in the context of changes in local conditions.
Happy Nowruz!
Thank you to Behzad Borhan and Anaïs Salamon for the beautiful Haft-Sin table set up in the library to mark Nowruz this year. Please pass by and visit!
HAFT SĪN هفتسین
Denoting seven items beginning with the letter sin (س), Haft-Sīn is one of the components of the rituals of the New Year’s Day festival. Seven items symbolise purity, brightness, abundance, happiness and fertility for the new year. Typically, before the arrival of Nowruz, family members gather around the Haft-Sīn table and await the exact moment of the March equinox to celebrate the New Year. The center is normally occupied by a vase of flowers, customarily hyacinth (sonbol). Next to it are placed sabzeh and at least six more items starting with the letter sin (س) from the list below:
Samanū (sweet pudding made from wheat germ, Persian: سمنو)
Sīb (Apple, Persian: سیب)
Sīr (Garlic, Persian: سیر)
Somāq (Sumac, Persian: سماق)
Senjed (Persian olive, Persian: سنجد)
Sonbol (Hyacinth, Persian: سنبل)
Sekkeh (Coin, Persian: سکه).
Sabzeh (Persian: سبزه) – wheat, barley, mung bean, or lentil sprouts grown in a dish.
Sā’at (Clock, Persian: ساعت)
Congratulations to Professor Rula Abisaab
Congratulations to Professor Rula Abisaab for her new work, a collaboration between McGill and Matkab e-Tehran: Muḥammad Amīn Astarabādī, Dānishnāmah-yi Shāhī with an introduction, editing, and commentary by Rula Jurdi and Reza Mukhtari Khoei. Published by Institute of Islamic Studies of McGill University, Maktab-e Tehran, Iran, 2022.
«دانشنامه شاهی» اثر ملا امین استرآبادی با مقدمه، تحقیق و تعلیق رولا جردی (استاد دانشگاه مک گیل کانادا) و رضا مختاری خویی، توسط مؤسسه مطالعات اسلامی دانشگاه مک گیل - دانشگاه تهران منتشر شد.
In Memory of A Uner Turgay
The Institute of Islamic Studies is sad to announce today the passing of our colleague, teacher, mentor and friend Professor A Uner Turgay who passed away on Friday in Toronto.
We will remember Professor Turgay fondly for his devotion to Institute students, his many years as Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies, and his friendly warm laughter. He served both the Institute and the McGill community devotedly and will be much missed.
We extend our deepest condolences to his partner Dr Minoo Derayah and entire family. Below is a link to his funeral service which can be attended remotely, on Wednesday March 23. The text of what appears on that page is also pasted below:
It is with deep sorrow to inform that on March 18th, 2022, our beloved Dr. Ali Uner Turgay passed away. Born September 14th, 1936, Dr. Turgay was a PhD graduate of Maddison-Wisconsin and a professor of History at McGill University from 1976 until 2010. He leaves behind his beloved wife, Dr. Minoo Derayeh, older sister Leyla, son Osman, grandchildren Aryanne and Johnathan; step daughter Dr. Rana Nasseri and step son Dariush Derayeh, and others. Known as Dr. T by many, Uner passed away peacefully from natural causes at age 86. Uner will be heavily missed by family, colleagues, students, and friends. The funeral service will be held at Elgin Mills Cemetery, Cremation, & Funeral Centres located at 1591 Elgin Mills Road East, Richmond Hill ON, Canada, L4S 1M9 from 13:00 to 15:00 on March 23, 2022. An online streaming service will be available for those unable to attend in person.
A link to the online streaming services will be uploaded on this page a few minutes before 13:00. Please refresh the page until the link appears on the screen.
Persianate Studies Colloquium Lecture Series: “Universal Religion: Persian and the Making of Modern Hinduism”
Abstract: The statement ‘Hinduism is not a religion’ has now gained the status of a truism. It is often accompanied by the claim that it is instead “a way of life”. This notion, still pervasive today, came into being just as Hinduism, under the colonial gaze, crystallized as a world religion. My talk historicizes this claim to a timeless and universal Hinduism by tracing a seemingly incongruous strand of its genealogy––the domain of Persian letters in colonial India. While the Mughal court had earlier sponsored a vibrant engagement with Indic texts and forms of knowledge, Persian translations commissioned by East India Company rulers played a key role in the colonial construction of religion in India. Drawing on select case studies, I explore how this neglected corpus of colonial Persian and Urdu writing offers new insights into the history of modern Hinduism.
Exhibition
Souq Stories: Reclaiming the Commons
Photographing Daily Life in Palestine’s Historic Markets
March 21 – April 7, 2022
Opening on March 21, 4:30 pm
Following the widespread uprisings and unprecedented unity sparked by the Sheikh Jarrah expulsions in East Jerusalem last spring, youth organizations across Palestine opened Souq Stories, a photographic installation in and about the historic souqs. Reclaiming the Commons is an extension of and meditation on that project, inviting us to imagine Palestine through its markets, to consider the possibilities of public space and the constitution of a body politic. In the face of ceaseless efforts to disarticulate lives spatially (in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the 1948 territories, and the diaspora) and generationally (those expelled in 1948, in 1967 and those under occupation now), the materials presented here weave together a collective and distinctly Palestinian narrative. Photography is the medium of liberation, the souq the space in which it happens.
Helga Tawil-Souri
Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
Keynote Lecture + Discussion with Souq Stories Curators
Please join us for a panel discussion of the personal, legal, and career implications of Law 21 on racial and religious minorities in Quebec. We are proud to host four panelists in person (with an online option). Rabbi Lisa Grushcow had testified against the law before the Assemblée Nationale. Faiz M. Lalani was one of the lawyers involved in the appeal against the law. Fatemeh Anvari was removed from her teaching position when the law was applied to her. And Zeinab Diab is currently studying the effects of Law 21 on minorities in Quebec.
Veuillez vous joindre à nous pour une discussion sur les implications personnelles, juridiques et professionnelles de la loi 21 sur les minorités raciales et religieuses au Québec. Nous sommes fiers d’accueillir quatre panélistes en personne (avec une option en ligne). La rabbin Lisa Grushcow avait témoigné contre la loi devant l’Assemblée nationale. Faiz M. Lalani était l’un des avocats impliqués dans le recours contre la loi. Fatemeh Anvari a été démis de ses fonctions d’enseignante lorsque la loi lui a été appliquée. Et Zeinab Diab étudie actuellement les effets de la loi 21 sur les minorités au Québec.
With/Avec:
Fatemeh Anvari
Former teacher & current Student Life Animator / Ancienne professeure & actuelle animatrice de vie étudiante, Chelsea Elementary
Rabbi Lisa Grushcow
Senior Rabbi / Grande Rabbine, Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom
Khalid Mustafa Medani joins ARD to discuss his recently released book, Black Markets and Militants Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021) in an event hosted by Stanford University.
Understanding the political and socio-economic factors which give rise to youth recruitment into militant organizations is at the heart of grasping some of the most important issues that affect the contemporary Middle East and Africa. In this book, Medani explains why youth are attracted to militant organizations, examining the specific role economic globalization, in the form of outmigration and expatriate remittance inflows, plays in determining how and why militant activists emerge. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on ideology to explain militant recruitment.
Based on extensive fieldwork, Medani offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of globalization, neoliberal reforms, and informal economic networks as a conduit for the rise and evolution of moderate and militant Islamist movements and as an avenue central to the often violent enterprise of state-building and state formation. In an original contribution to the study of Islamist and ethnic politics more broadly, he thereby shows the importance of understanding when and under what conditions religious rather than other forms of identity become politically salient in the context of changes in local conditions.
For Stanford University's event posting, please click here.
The Persianate Studies Colloquium with Professor Touraj Daryaee
To view the video of this event, please click here.
Persianate Studies Colloquium Lecture Series: “Saffron and Jasmine: The Early History of Persian Spice & Fragrance Trade”
This lecture, by Professor Touraj Daryaee of University of California, Irvine, will take place on Zoom from 3 to 4.30 PM on Tuesday, 15 February and be on:
Abstract: This presentation discusses the trade in aromatics and spices from the Iranian Plateau to Afro-Eurasia in late antiquity and the medieval period. The imprints of these Iranian commodities are found in the Persian terms which were used for them by neighboring civilizations, who received them via maritime routes and the Silk Road. While the practical nature of spices and fragrances are known, the talk also touches upon the complex nature of categorization of aromatics in the Zoroastrian tradition in Iranshahr.
Coordinated by Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy and Behzad Borhan, PhD Student - IIS
Persianate Studies Colloquium Lecture Series with Professor Domenico Ingenito
To view a video of the event on YouTube, please click here.
Congratulations to PhD student Aqsa Ijaz
Aqsa Ijaz has recently published a review entitled "Spiritual Bridges: Across Time and Space" on Thomas Harrison in the Marginalia Review of Books. A copy of the review can be found here.
Congratulations to MA student Sarah Abou-Bakr
This year’s Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec memorial award has gone to IIS MA student Sarah Abou-Bakr. Congratulations Sarah!
Abstract: Persian poetry and the visual arts of medieval Central Asia and Iran cannot be fully appreciated without considering the socio-cultural role of gardens in Persianate societies and the way they informed both the poetic breadth of figurative arts and the visual dimensions of lyric expression.
Early Persian poems of praise were usually introduced by descriptions of natural and amatory vignettes revolving around stylized depictions of princely gardens, palaces, and pavilions. Through such portrayals, poets staged the contrast between the architecturally domesticated space of gardens and the untamed natural settings in which cosmic cycles offered a background for the social festivities presided over by the ruler. Usually discounted as idealized representations that lack historical veracity, such descriptions deserve to be analyzed in the context of the relationship between material culture and the aesthetic impact of poetic creativity.
By focusing on the case of the understudied city of Balkh, the winter capital of the Ghaznavid sultanate, this talk explores the role of gardens in the representation of natural and architectural landscapes in the panegyric poetry of the early Ghaznavids (999-1040 CE). Nestled in a lush oasis that was crossed by a network of rivers and canals, Balkh provided Ghaznavid poets with a complex ecology in which nature and ephemeral architecture overlapped at multiple levels.
The material and symbolic veracity of “architectural” poems and natural descriptions composed by Farrukhi Sistani and ‘Unsuri Balkhi between 1015 and 1035 CE will be compared against evidence provided by geographical and historiographical sources such as Hudud al-‘ālam and Tārikh-i Bayhaqi. These comparisons will help us locate the topographic position of key Ghaznavid gardens in Balkh and explain how ephemeral architectural landmarks emerged through the interaction between urbanized natural contexts and spaces of wilderness.
Coordinated by Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy and Behzad Borhan, PhD Student - IIS
Congratulations to Prof. Prashant Keshavmurthy on The Eight Books
IIS professor Prashant Keshavmurthy and former IIS professor and colleague Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi's translation of Sohrab Sepehri, The Eight Books: A Complete English Translation has just been published in a bilingual edition by Brill. Congratulations to them!
PhD candidate Aqsa Ijaz has been awarded Ian Stewart Graduate Student Fellowship at the Centre for Studies in Religion & Society, University of Victoria for work on her project “Shaping the Language of Love: The Afterlives of Niz̤āmī Ganjavī’s Ḳhusrau u Shīrīn in Hindustān”.Congratulations Aqsa!
ISL Librarian Anaïs Salamon recognized
The Institute of Islamic Studies is pleased that Islamic Studies Librarian Anaïs Salamon's work has been recognized by naming her one of McGill's "unsung heroes." See the website where she is featured with others here.
IN-PERSON BOOK LAUNCH - Professor Khalid Medani - Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the book launch of Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani’s Black Markets and Militants has been postponed. A new date will be announced once restrictions have been lifted. —Prof. Pasha M. Khan
Based on long-term, immersive field research in Sudan, Somalia, as well as Egypt, Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani’s new book Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021) will be discussed by Prof. Malek Abisaab (History/Islamic Studies) and Prof. Juan Wang (Political Science). Please join us for this important in-person event.
Tuesday, January 11, 2022, 4:00pm
Morrice Hall 017 (TNC Theatre)
3485 Rue McTavish Facebook event here
Prof. Khalid Mustafa Medani is Chair of McGill University’s African Studies program, and Associate Professor in Political Science and Islamic Studies.
Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa
Understanding the political and socio-economic factors which give rise to youth recruitment into militant organizations is at the heart of grasping some of the most important issues that affect the contemporary Middle East and Africa. In this book, Khalid Mustafa Medani explains why youth are attracted to militant organizations, examining the specific role of economic globalization, in the form of outmigration and expatriate remittance inflows, plays in determining how and why militant activists emerge. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on ideology to explain militant recruitment. Based on extensive fieldwork, Medani offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of globalization, neoliberal reforms and informal economic networks as a conduit for the rise and evolution of moderate and militant Islamist movements and as an avenue central to the often, violent enterprise of state building and state formation. In an original contribution to the study of Islamist and ethnic politics more broadly, he thereby shows the importance of understanding when and under what conditions religious rather than other forms of identity become politically salient in the context of changes in local conditions.
Congratulations IIS student Michael Trindade Deramo on successfully completing his MA thesis entitled: "Crisis of the Mosques: State power and religious authority in Tunisia's transition". His MA supervisor was Professor Khalid Medani.
Podcast Book Launch - Professor Khalid Medani - "Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa"
My sincere thanks to Professor Marc Lynch for hosting me on the terrific Project on Middle East Political Science podcast to discuss the contributions of my new book, "Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa," to the important field of Middle East Political Science.
To see more information and the podcast please click here.
Monday, December 6, 2021
12:00 - 1:30pm
McKinney Conference Room, 111 Thayer Street
On October 25, 2021, Sudan witnessed a military coup that has threatened to reverse the country’s path towards a transition to democracy which first began in the aftermath of Sudan’s revolution of December 2018. In that year, following three decades of authoritarian rule, peaceful popular protests in Sudan successfully toppled former President Omar Bashir from power. The intifada (popular uprising) was a culmination of over six months of sustained protests that included Sudanese across the social, ethnic, and regional divide. This lecture will examine the underlying causes and consequences of the popular uprising of 2018 and 2019, the key factors that led up to the recent military coup, and the prospects for the resumption of a transition to a civilian democracy in the context of the ongoing wide-scale pro-democracy protests and non-violent forms of civil disobedience throughout the country. In addressing the obstacles as well as the prospects of a return to civilian rule, the lecture will address the important overarching question of whether Sudan will witness a return to a consolidated authoritarian regime or re-embark on a democratic transition by focusing on the levels (and nature) of popular mobilization, civil society cohesion, political party autonomy and legitimacy, the capacity of the coercive apparatus of the current military regime, and the role of external actors in Sudan’s current political crisis.
Dr. Khalid Mustafa Medani is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University, and he has also taught at Oberlin College and Stanford University. Dr. Medani received a B.A. in Development Studies from Brown University, an M.A. in Development Studies from the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the political economy of Islamist and Ethnic Politics in Africa and the Middle East. Dr. Medani is the author of Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Based on long-term, immersive field research, Black Markets and Militants traces the relationship between economic globalization, the expansion of informal markets and the rise of distinct forms of identity politics in Egypt, Sudan, and Somalia. Dr Medani is presently completing another book manuscript on the causes and consequences of Sudan’s 2018 popular uprising and the prospects and obstacles for democracy in that country. In addition, he has published extensively on civil conflict with a special focus on the armed conflicts in Sudan and Somalia. His work has appeared in Political Science and Politics (PS), the Journal of Democracy, the Journal of North African Studies, Current History, Middle East Report, Review of African Political Economy, Arab Studies Quarterly, and the UCLA Journal of Islamic Law. Dr. Medani is a previous recipient of a Carnegie Scholar on Islam award from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (2007-2009) and in 2020-2021 he received a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to conduct further research on his current book manuscript on the prospects for a civilian democratic transition in Sudan.
Persianate Colloquium Series event with Prof. Mahmood Fotoohi - November 9 .. A Resounding Success
To view the video of the event on YouTube, please see here
Arabic Literature in Translation Symposium
Institute of Islamic Studies PhD graduate Professor Dima Ayoub (Middlebury College), IIS professor Michelle Hartman, Prof. Alexandra Chreiteh (Tufts University) all participated in a symposium on Arabic literature in translation, organized by former IIS librarian Sean Swanick now of Duke University !
The video is available here below for your viewing
An Invitation to: The Persianate Studies Colloquium – Tuesday, November 9, 2021 – 3:00p.m. EST
Dr. Khalid Medani with Sudanese human rights activist at the University of California, Berkeley offering an update and analysis of the Military Coup in Sudan of October 25, 2021
Jadaliyya "Connections": Special Episode on the Coup in Sudan with Professor Khalid
Professor Khalid Medani is interviewed by Jadaliyya co-editor Mouin Rabbani about the coup in Sudan in a special episode of "Connections." You can watch the video interview here:
Tune into the podcast "Real Talk" of October 26, 2021, to hear prof. Khalid Medani talk about the military coup in Sudan. You can also read his analysis of Sudan's political economy in his new book, Black Markets and Militants, featured below.
Talk by Prof. Pasha M. Khan at the Lahore University of Management Sciences
Prof. Pasha M. Khan will be giving a talk at 7:30AM EST, October 29, 2021, entitled "Qissahs on Their Own Terms: Shifting Epistemologies between the Dastan, Romance, and Novel,” as part of the Syeda Mubarik Begum Urdu-Persian Studies Conference and Workshop hosted by the Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Congratulations to MA student Sherine Elbanhawy
Congratulations to MA student Sherine Elbanhawy for her new translation of Mohsen Mohamed’s poem, “The Light isn’t Surrounded by Guards” published by Arablit. You can find it here.
Congratulations to MA student Caline Nasrallah
Congratulations to MA student Caline Nasrallah for her article published by the Mediterranean Network for Feminist Information, “Show me How you Care: Birth Control, Is it (a) Right?” You can read it here.
SEDIMENTED URBAN FUTURES - On Housing and War Displacement, Beirut, Lebanon
October 25, 2021 - 12:30 - 14:00 - Presented by: HIBA BOU AKAR, Columbia University - see poster for more info:poster_-_october_25th.pdf
The Institute of Islamic Studies announces the publication of the co-translated novel, Without (Bedoon) by Michelle Hartman and Caline Nasrallah (London: Dar Arab, 2021).
From the publicity: “This novel, originally written in Arabic by Younis Alakhzami, tells the story of searching for belonging both in the world and within your own skin. Born in Saudi Arabia to a Yemeni family, the novel’s protagonist has been ill-at-ease since childhood, because she never felt like she was a girl. Alia’s alienation grows as she slowly comes to realise that she is, in fact, a man and begins the transition to live life as Ali.
This is a very important story to tell as it portrays the struggles of gender non-conforming people in society. The novel is sensitive and frank in how it approaches an intersex person’s struggles with the realities of love, friendship, and survival against the backdrop of a life lived between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and then later the UK. Without navigates complex issues in a very human way, painting an honest portrait of how people come to terms with challenges they never expected they would face. Told in a deceptively simple style, through a tightly woven and skillful narration, Without makes these struggles resonate with us all.”
The Institute of Islamic Studies is proud to announce the publication of Professor Khalid Mustafa Medani’s newly published book, Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa, (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
About this book: Understanding the political and socio-economic factors which give rise to youth recruitment into militant organizations is at the heart of grasping some of the most important issues that affect the contemporary Middle East and Africa. In this book, Khalid Mustafa Medani explains why youth are attracted to militant organizations, examining the specific role economic globalization, in the form of outmigration and expatriate remittance inflows, plays in determining how and why militant activists emerge. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on ideology to explain militant recruitment. Based on extensive fieldwork, Medani offers an in-depth analysis of the impact of globalization, neoliberal reforms and informal economic networks as a conduit for the rise and evolution of moderate and militant Islamist movements and as an avenue central to the often, violent enterprise of state building and state formation. In an original contribution to the study of Islamist and ethnic politics more broadly, he thereby shows the importance of understanding when and under what conditions religious rather than other forms of identity become politically salient in the context of changes in local conditions.
Congratulations Khalid!
Sad News - Dr. Max Kortepeter (IIS, MA, 1954)
Members of the Institute of Islamic Studies extend sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Kortepeter, past graduate of IIS who passed away on October 8, 2021. For more information please see obituary.
Congratulations to Dr. Hasan Umut on his essay
Congratulations to Dr. Hasan Umut, IIS graduate, on his short essay on Emeritus Professor Jamil Ragep. The essay entitled "New Questions, Methods, and Sources in Islamic Astronomy: Some Observations on F. Jamil Ragep’s Scholarship " is published in the Newsletter of Turkish Academy of Sciences. Professor Ragep was granted the Academy's International Award in Social Sciences and Humanities in 2019.
Congratulations to IIS MA student, Sherine Elbanhawy on the publication of her review of Nadia Wassef's memoir Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Book Seller. The review can be found on the Markaz Review at the link below. The book is published by Macmillan.
IIS Administrative Officer Anne Farray and Professor Khalid Medani featured in a recent Montreal Community Contact article on the Black Presence at McGill University. The article introduces the Dr Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus. https://mtlcommunitycontact.com/the-black-presence-at-mcgill-university/
Congratulations Zain Al-Attar
Congratulations IIS student Zain Al-Attar on successfully completing his MA thesis entitled: "Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī, Imkān, and the Problem of Divine Foreknowledge". His MA supervisor was Professor Robert Wisnovsky
Online lecture series ReOrienting the Global Study of Religion
Professor Jamil Ragep named Emeritus Professor
Congratulations to Professor Jamil Ragep on being named Emeritus Professor. Professor Ragep was the Canada Research Chair in the History of Science in Islamic Societies. He retired from McGill in 2020 and was the Director of the IIS from 2008-2013 and 2014-2015.
PhD Student Aqsa Ijaz on Stanford University Radio
Listen to PhD student Aqsa Ijaz in conversation with a Dante scholar, Prof. Robert Harrison on Stanford University’s radio show, Entitled Opinions. She speaks about Rumi’s ideas on love and separation in the context of such a difficult time we have been living through.
Congratulations to Sarah Abdelshamy on successfully completing her MA at the Institute of Islamic Studies. Her thesis, supervised by Prof. Michelle Hartman, is entitled: "Unspeakable Islam: The Sea, the Memory, the Life, and Afterlife of the Middle Passage."
Congratulations to Omar Edaibat
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Omar Edaibat on his successful PhD oral defense on July 27, 2021, entitled, “The Bā ʿAlawī Sāda of the Hadhramaut Valley: An Intellectual and Social History from Tenth-Century Origins till the Late-Sixteenth Century”. Omar's academic supervisor was Professor Rula Abisaab.
Congratulations to Fiona Williams and Sherwan Ali
Congratulations to two Master's Thesis students at the Institute of Islamic Studies, Fiona Williams and Sherwan Ali, for successfully completing their theses:
Fiona Williams: "Contesting occupations and negotiating home/land: indigeneity and settler colonialism in Arab-American fiction". Fiona's supervisor was Prof. Hartman.
Sherwan Ali: "Democratization under occupation: sectarianism and violence in post-2003 Iraq". Sherwan's supervisor was Prof. Medani.
Dr. Michelle Hartman's Latest Translation Published
Congratulations to Professor Michelle Hartman on the publication of her newest translation, All the Women Inside Me, Jana Elhassan's compelling first novel. The book is published by Interlink Publishing and is available here.
Congratulations to Đồng Bảo Ngân Hà
Congratulations to incoming MA student, Đồng Bảo Ngân Hà (Joint Honours, WIMES and Political Science, 2018), for their recent article published on Mondoweiss, “Striking Parallels: US Bombings of Vietnam and Israel’s aerial assault on Gaza.”
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Ms. Iyanu Soyege on being selected as one of two Black Graduation Valedictorians. The Black Students Network (BSN) hosted its 2nd Black Graduation event on June 7th. Ms. Soyege will be graduating with a double major in Political Science and African Studies (Faculty of Arts) on June 11th.
Congratulations to Professors Shabani-Jadidi and Keshavmurthy
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Professors Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi and Prashant Keshavmurthy for the first complete English translation of Sohrab Sepehri's Eight Books which should be in print from Brill sometime this year in a bilingual facing-page edition.
The Eight Books: A Complete English Translation is the first complete translation of the collected poems of Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980), a major Iranian modernist poet and painter and yet under-translated into English. The introduction takes up Sepehri's famously difficult if languidly beautiful style to explain it as a series of appropriations of global modernisms in poetry and painting. It offers close readings of how Sepehri's modernism follows and breaks with the jagged rhythms of Nima Yushij (d.1960), Iran's inaugural modernist poet. In keeping with this modernist framing, the translations replicate Sepehri's rhymes where possible, his fluctuations between formal and colloquial registers, his syntactic distortions, and his embeddings of governmental and other jargons. It also includes Sepehri's autobiography.
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Shahrouz Khanjari on his successful PhD oral defense on May 28, 2021 entitled "Rašīd Waṭwāt’s Innovations in Arabic and Persian Rhetoric in His *Ḥadāʾiq al-Siḥr fī Daqāʾiq al-Šiʿr (Gardens of Magic in the Minutae of Poetry)*, a long-consequential but under-studied 12th century manual of Persian-Arabic rhetoric". Shahrouz's academic supervisor was Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy.
Congratulations to Dr. Fateme Savadi on her dissertation prize
Congratulations to IIS alumna Fateme Savadi (Ph.D. 2019), whose doctoral dissertation on Qutb al-Din Shirazi has been awarded a 2021 Dissertation Prize by the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (Division of History of Science and Technology).
Fateme is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the IIS.
Congratulations to Professor Keshavmurthy
Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy has begun a 4-month fellowship at the "Temporal Communities" research group in Berlin's Freie University. This research group aims "aims to create a new theoretical and methodological take on literature in a global perspective that moves beyond the categories of nation and period and conceives of literature instead as a transcultural and transtemporal phenomenon in deep time." Here is description of his research project: https://www.temporal-communities.de/fellows/keshavmurthy/index.html
Congratulations to incoming MA student Sherine Elbanhawy on her translation of Mohsen Mohamed’s poem, “On the Bursh After Dinner” from his collection No One is Answering.
The Language(s) of Heaven: Persianate Islam in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Talk by Aslihan Gurbuzel
Wednesday, April 28
5 PM (Turkish time) | 10 AM EST
Congratulations to Dr. Shabani-Jadidi on the publication of her latest translation
Hafez in Love: A Novel
Iraj Pezeshkzad
Translated from the Persian by Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi & Patricia J. Higgins
Syracuse University Press, Middle East Literature in Translation Series
Shams al-Din Mohammad Hafez is in love. He is in love with a girl, with a city, and with Persian poetry. Despite his enmity with the new and dangerous city leader, the jealousy of his fellow court poets, and the competition for his beloved, Iran’s favorite poet remains unbothered. When his wit and charm are not enough to keep him safe in Shiraz, his friends conspire to keep him out of trouble. But their schemes are unsuccessful. Nothing will chase Hafez from this city of wine and roses.
In Pezeshkzad’s fictional account, Hafez’s life in fourteenth-century Shiraz is a mix of peril and humor. Set in a city that is at once beautiful and cutthroat, the novel includes a cast of historical figures to illuminate this elusive poet of the Persian literary tradition. Shabani-Jadidi and Higgins’s translation brings the beloved poetry of Hafez alive for an English audience and reacquaints readers with the comic wit and original storytelling of Pezeshkzad.
Congratulations to IIS alumnus Junaid Quadri (Ph.D. 2014)
Congratulations to IIS alumnus Junaid Quadri (Ph.D. 2014), whose revised doctoral dissertation on Muhammad Bakhit al-Muti‘i has just been published by Oxford University Press.
Junaid is currently Associate Professor of History and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Walter Edward Young
Congratulations to Walter Edward Young, Research Assistant with the Institute of Islamic Studies, on his publication of his article “Dialectic in the religious sciences” in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition (advance online update 2021-6; print fascicle coming in November 2021).
Congratulations to Professor Michelle Hartman on the publication of her newest translation of Shahla Ujayli’s Summer with the Enemy.
Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arab Fiction, Summer with the Enemy is an expansive historical novel based in Raqqa, Syria, that travels throughout the region to Germany and beyond. The novel follows the lives of three generations of Syrian women and the people who fill their lives.
The expression “the faith of the old women of Nishapur” recurs in many Islamic theological and mystical writings that address questions of knowledge. The expression captures a specific modality of practicing Islam, though scholars vary widely in their interpretations: some dismiss the faith of the old women while others praise it as the ultimate form of religiosity. Through an intellectual exchange between philology, history, anthropology, literary and religious studies, the workshop addresses the limits and possibilities of the “faith of the old women of Nishapur.” We will discuss the relationship between gender and knowledge, the use of gendered tropes, the historical context in which the expression was formulated and the current relevance of the questions it raises, establishing resonances and frictions between eleventh century Nishapur and twenty-first century Montreal. Overcoming the divide between past and present, between textual and contextual readings, between philological exactitude and conceptual concerns, the workshop poses a set of fundamental questions about Islam, gender, embodiment, and tradition.
Panelists:
Rula Abisaab (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University)
Sara Abdel-Latif (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University)
Kausar Bukhari (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University)
Katherine Lemons (Department of Anthropology, McGill University)
Setrag Manoukian (Department of Anthropology and Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University)
It is with regret that the Institute of Islamic Studies informs you of the passing of Mr. Andrew William Staples on March 14, 2021. Andrew was a past Administrative Officer in the Institute of Islamic Studies.
Andrew received his MA in Theology from Concordia University, and worked for the Faculty of Arts for 25 years, including serving in ISID, Interdisciplinary Studies, Institute of Islamic Studies and as the Faculty Affairs Officer for the Dean. We will miss him for his dedication, collegiality and kindness.
The Institute of Islamic Studies, Faculty of Arts extends its condolences to his family: Andras Molnar, his life partner and brothers James and Bruce (Ross) Staples in Ontario.
Congratulations to Professors Michelle Hartman and Malek Abisaab
Congratulations to Michelle Hartman and Malek Abisaab for their recently published book (in Arabic), Memoirs of a Militant: the Years in the Khiam Prison for Women, by Nawal Qasim Baidoun (Mudhakkarat al-Munadila: Nawal Qasim Baidoun fi Mu’taqal al-Khiyam). It was released by Dar Abaad in Beirut last month.
This book is part of their large SSHRC-funded Women’s War Stories: Building an Archive of Women and the Lebanese Civil War. Look out for the announcement of the English translation of this book, forthcoming from Interlink Publishing later in 2021!
Congratulations Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab, her novel Camera Obscura (fī ʿulbat al-ḍawʾ) has been selected to be a finalist for the Khayrallah Prize for Best Artistic Expression of the Lebanese Diaspora. Camera Obscura (fī ʿulbat al-ḍawʾ) appeared from Dar al-Adab in 2017, and is being translated by Maia Tabet.
Arabic Philology in Ottoman Istanbul: Practices of Textual Edition in a Manuscript Culture
Lecture by Prof. Aslıhan Gürbüzel as part of the Inaugural Michael Marmura Lecture in Arabic Studies
January 15, 2021, 3 PM EST
Hosted on Zoom Meeting ID: 8853 8832 3665
Aslıhan Gürbüzel is Assistant Professor of Ottoman History at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. She is currently working on a monograph entitled “Taming the Messiah: Formation of an Ottoman Political Public Sphere, 1600-1700.” Her research focuses on Ottoman Sufi orders, particularly the Mawlawīs, and their contribution to the formation of early modern knowledge in diverse fields such as politics, philology, and medicine. This talk is a part of her research on the role of Sufi authorities in the circulation and textual criticism of manuscripts.
Online lecture series ReOrienting the Global Study of Religion Event
Dyala Hamzah, Université de Montréal
(De)commissioning Ibn Khaldun? Sufis, Statesmen and Publicists during the Long Nineteenth century
January 7, 2021, 1:30 PM EST (UTC -5)
Hosted on Zoom Meeting ID: 890 3358 7339 Passcode: 1234
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab on her Arabic-language novel “Fi ʿulbat al-ḍawʾ” [A Box of Light] being selected as a Semi-Finalistfor the 2020 Khayrallah Prize for Best Artistic Expression of the Lebanese Diaspora. The winner will be announced in January.
Rhodes Scholarships for Faculty of Arts students
The Institute of Islamics Studies would like to send a warm congratulations to Abdel Dicko, a U3 Joint Honours Political Science and African Studies student, and Ffion Hughes, a U4 Honours in History student, both have been named 2021 Rhodes Scholars. Please see link below by Neale McDevitt, Editor, McGill Reporter for more details.
The launch will begin with a conversation with the editor moderated by Anaïs Salamon, Head, Islamic Studies Library, McGill University, followed by a panel discussion featuring authors of selected chapters:
Persian Linguistics in Cultural Contexts - 1st Edition - Alireza Kora - Routledge & CRC Press
Korangy and Sharifian’s groundbreaking book offers the first in-depth study into cultural linguistics for the Persian language. The book highlights a multitude of angles through which the intricacies of Persian and its many dialects and accents, wherever spoken, can be examined.
WIMES Arabic Minor Student Ian Greer Wins in CMCC Essay Competition
Ian Greer, a double-major in PoliSci and Geography with an Arabic language minor, was one of seven international winners in the undergraduate essay competition held by the Centre for Muslim Contribution to Civilisation (CMCC) at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalif University. The subject of this year’s competition was ‘Muslim Intellectual Life in 2nd Century Hijri/8th Century CE Baghdad.’, and Ian entered his essay with the title “Zindīq Heresy and the Transmission of Hellenism in Barmakid Baghdad”.
Ian describes the work on his entry as a long but rewarding process that took months of work, and credits some students at the Institute of Islamic Studies for their contribution: “I really could not have done it without the valuable reading suggestions and academic writing tips of a number of current and former graduate students at the Institute, namely Osama Eshera, Brian Wright, Fariduddin Attar, and Zain Alattar, the last of whom loaned me a huge stack of books sitting on his carrel on the very last day of physical access to the Islamic Studies library before the Coronavirus shut everything down.”
The award Ian received for his work is USD 5,000. Congratulations, Ian, from everybody at the Institute of Islamic Studies!
Congratulations to Sajjad Nikfahm-Khubravan and Dr Fateme Savadi
Congratulations to IIS PhD student Sajjad Nikfahm-Khubravan and IIS Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Fateme Savadi (PhD 2019), on the publication of their critical edition of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s al-Risālah al-Muʿīniyyah, along with Ṭūsī’s supplementary Ḥall-i Mushkilāt-i Muʿīniyyah (Tehran: Miras-e Maktoob, 2020). The volume includes a preface by recently retired IIS professor F. Jamil Ragep.
Zoom Panel: 'Sociological and Pedagogical Aspects of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages'
The Persian Program at McGill University, represented by Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, is inviting to a Zoom panel discussion on Sociological and Pedagogical Aspects of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages. Please consult the document for details and registration: Social and Pedagogical Aspects of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages
Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi at Webinar on Persian Pedagogy
Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi has been invited to co-organize a webinar and present a paper at a panel on Persian Pedagogy in University of North Carolina (UNC). The virtual panel discussion will take place on Thursday, October 15, 2020, 11 am - 1 pm EST. For information, please see here: Persian Pedagogy UNC.
Congratulations to Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Dr. Shabani-Jadidi on the publication of The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy of Persian. It offers a detailed overview of the field of Persian second language acquisition and pedagogy. The Handbook discusses its development and captures critical accounts of cutting edge research within the major subfields of Persian second language acquisition and pedagogy, as well as current debates and problems, and goes on to suggest productive lines of future research.
Congratulations to our Islamic Studies MA student Caline Nasrallah
McGill University’s Institute of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF) has awarded Institute of Islamic Studies MA student Caline Nasrallah for one of this year’s Friends Best Paper Prizes for her paper “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Shift between Two Worlds". Congratulations Caline on behalf of the IIS community!
Congratulations to Professor Aslihan Gürbüzel
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Prof. Gürbüzel who has received an Insight Development Grant from SSHRC for her new project, entitled “Medical Knowledge and Political Power: Sufism and the Making of Ottoman Medical Knowledge (1500-1800).” The project studies the involvement of Ottoman Sufi orders in the production and circulation of medical knowledge and in everyday provision of medical care. The broad aim of the project is to demonstrate the social significance and political nature of healthcare and medical knowledge in the pre-modern Ottoman context. This project aims to be the first study that underline the importance of healthcare as a source of authority for sub-state social networks in the Ottoman context in particular, and in Islamic societies in general.
Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Sajjad Nikfahm Khubravan
Congratulations to IIS PhD student Sajjad Nikfahm Khubravan, whose article "The Gnomonic Application of Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s Linear Astrolabe" has just been published in the Iranian Journal for the History of Science (Tarikh-e Elm). It is available online via this link.
Congratulations to Professor Michelle Hartman
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Michelle Hartman on receiving the College Language Association’s Award for Creative Scholarship for 2020 for her book, Breaking Broken English: Black-Arab Literary Solidarities and the Politics of Language.
College Language Association, founded in 1937 by a group of Black scholars and educators, is an organization of college teachers of English and foreign languages which serves the academic, scholarly and professional interests of its members and the collegiate communities they represent.
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Professor Michelle Hartman
Congratulations to Michelle Hartman on the publication of her newest article, “Zahra’s Uncle, or Where are Men in Women’s War Stories?” which appeared in the winter 2020 edition of the Journal of Arabic Literature in a special issued dedicated to our late IIS colleague and professor, Dr Issa Boullata. It is part of the Women’s War Stories project with Prof. Malek Abisaab, and available open access on the JAL website:
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Dr. Veysel Şimşek on the publication of a volume of collected essays, which he co-edited as a Festschrift for Professor Virginia H. Aksan: Ottoman War and Peace: Studies in Honor of Virginia H. Aksan, edited by Frank Castiglione, Ethan Menchinger and Veysel Şimşek. The book was published by Brill (Leiden).
Quebec City mosque shooting: McGill remembers the victims, three years later
On January 29, members of the McGill and Montreal community gathered in the mezzanine of the Macdonald Engineering Building to honour the victims of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City (CCIQ) shooting. It marked the third anniversary of the tragic incident in which a lone gunman killed six men and injured numerous others following evening prayer at the mosque in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood of Quebec City.
Full article by Neale McDevitt (Editor, McGill Reporter) please click here.
Congratulations to Mr. Muhammad Ahmad Munir
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Mr. Muhammad Ahmad Munir on his successful PhD oral defense on January 17th, 2020, entitled, “Development of Khul‘ law: Legal, judicial and interpretive trends in Pakistan”. Muhammad's academic supervisor was Professor Pasha M. Khan.
Congratulations to IIS MA student Caline Nasrallah
MA student Caline Nasrallah has been awarded a Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s) from the SSHRC for her studies at the IIS. Congratulations Caline!
Please join the Institute of Islamic Studies for a talk commemorating the 2017 Quebec mosque shooting:
ISLAMOPHOBIA AS RACISM A Critical Phenomenology of Muslim Women's Racialization
A talk by Alia Al-Saji, Associate Professor, Philosophy Department
Friday January 31, 2020
15h00
Morrice Hall - Room 017 (TNC Theatre)
3485 McTavish Street
Congratulations to Ms. Anne Farray, Administrative Officer - IIS
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Ms. Anne Farray on receiving her service award pin for 40 years of employment at McGill University. The pin was presented at the Dean of Arts Brunch - December 17, 2019.
Congratulations to Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi on the publication of her new book The Routledge Advanced Persian Course: Farsi Shirin Ast 3.
The Routledge Advanced Persian Course: Farsi Shirin Ast 3 aims to help students of higher-level proficiency continue elevating their proficiency level to achieve near-native level. Key features include:
Authentic texts on a variety of topics related to Iran’s history, geography, arts, literature, culture, religions, society, and people.
Each lesson includes a prominent poet and their most representative poem familiarizing students with the Persian literary canon, while indirectly learning the higher order registers used in the language of poetry.
Lessons end with a Persian proverb and the story behind it, so that students will not only master the language but also the culture of the language and reach a near-native level of linguistic and cultural proficiency. The proverbs and some of the classical poetry are written in the calligraphy form to make students get used to reading handwritten texts resembling calligraphy.
Audio files are provided so that learners who are studying on their own can have access to correct pronunciations.
This textbook continues the series from The Routledge Intermediate Course in Persian and is ideal for Advanced or B2-C1 level students of Persian.
Nathan is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Islamic philosophy at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.
Congratulations to IIS alumnus Carl Sharif El-Tobgui (Ph.D. 2013)
Congratulations to IIS alumnus Carl Sharif El-Tobgui (Ph.D. 2013), whose revised doctoral dissertation on Ibn Taymiyya has just been published electronically by Brill. For more info: https://brill.com/view/title/55796 . Carl is currently Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, and Director of the Arabic Language Program, at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Ministry of Religious Affairs in Indonesia - visit to the Institute
Visitors from the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Indonesia (and graduates of the IIS!) meeting with Professors Malek Abisaab and Khalid Medani (Graduate Program Director) on December 3, 2019.
New Book by Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi and University of Oxford's Associate Professor Dominic Parviz Brookshaw on the publication of their new book The Routledge Introductory Persian Course.
Congratulations to Professor Jamil Ragep on his Turkish Academy of Sciences Prize
The Institute of Islamic Studies extends congratulations to Professor Jamil Rapep on his Turkish Academy of Sciences Prize in Social Sciences and Humanities. For more info on this prize please see here.
Conversations: African Studies, Black Studies, and Islamic Studies present:
A conversation on our shared past, present and future
Please enjoy photos of our recent event from the Islamic Studies 2019-2020 Speakers Series "A conversation on our shared past, present and future". Thank you to everyone who attended.
Congratulations to our PhD students
Congratulations to IIS PhD students Sajjad Nikfahm-Khubravan and Osama Eshera, whose jointly authored article, "The Five Arabic Revisions of Autolycus’ On the Moving Sphere (Proposition VII)" has just been published in the Iranian Journal for the History of Science (Tarikh-e Elm). It is available online via this link.
Congratulations to Mr. Hasan Umut
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Mr. Hasan Umut on his successful PhD oral defense on October 25th, 2019 entitled, "Theoretical Astronomy in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire:
ʿAlī al-Qūshjī’s Al-Risāla al-Fatḥiyya". Hasan's academic supervisor was Professor Jamil Ragep.
Image by Sarah Lessard.
Congratulations to Professor Pasha M. Khan
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Professor Pasha M. Khan, the Chair in Urdu Language & Culture, on his new book, The Broken Spell: Indian Storytellers and the Romance Genre in Persian and Urdu.
The Broken Spell tells the story of the rise and fall in popularity of “romances” (qissahs)—tales of wonder and magic told by storytellers at princely courts and in public spaces in
India from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. It points to the worldviews that lay beneath the popularity of Urdu and Persian qissahs, before Islamicate and Western colonial rationalist epistemologies came to prominence in India.
For more information from Wayne State University Press and to purchase please click here.
Conversations: African Studies, Black Studies, and Islamic Studies present:
Slaves, Generals, and Rulers: East Africans in India
This event is part of a lecture series titled "Conversations: African Studies, Black Studies, and Islamic Studies." The series is sponsored by the Institute of Islamic Studies, the History and Classical Studies, and the African Studies program. The cosponsor are the SSHRC Climate Change association, the Rathlyn Lecture Series on Disability Studies, the Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at McGill, the Black Students' Network at McGill, and the African Studies Students Association
Join us for Professor Sylviane Diouf's lecture titled "Slaves, Generals, and Rulers: East Africans in India." Sylviane A. Diouf is an award-winning historian of the African Diaspora. She is Visiting Professor at Brown University's Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience Maison des Esclaves project on Goree Island, Senegal.
A social historian, Dr. Diouf focuses on uncovering essential stories and topics that were overlooked or negated, but which offer new insights into the African Diaspora. She has a special interest in the experience of the Africans deported, through the international slave trade, to the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds, including the particular experience of African Muslims.
Dr. Diouf is the author of Slavery’s Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons (NYU Press, 2014); and Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas
Tuesday October 22, 2019 at 4:30 p.m.
3485 McTavish Street
Morrice Hall - Room 017
Conversations: African Studies, Black Studies, and Islamic Studies
Black Madness :: Mad Blackness, The Lost Chapter
This event is the first in a series titled "Conversations: African Studies, Black Studies, and Islamic Studies." The series is sponsored by the Institute of Islamic Studies, the History and Classical Studies, and the African Studies program. The cosponsor are the SSHRC Climate Change association, the Rathlyn Lecture Series on Disability Studies, the Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at McGill, the Black Students' Network at McGill, and the African Studies Students Association.
Join us for Professor Therí Picken's discussion of her latest book Black Madness :: Mad Blackness, The Lost Chapter wherein she rethinks the relationship between Blackness and disability, unsettling the common theorization that they are mutually constitutive. Pickens shows how Black speculative and science fiction authors such as Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, and Tananarive Due craft new worlds that reimagine the intersection of Blackness and madness. These creative writer-theorists formulate new parameters for thinking through Blackness and madness. Pickens considers Butler's Fledgling as an archive of Black madness that demonstrates how race and ability shape subjectivity while constructing the building blocks for antiracist and anti-ableist futures. She examines how Hopkinson's Midnight Robber theorizes mad Blackness and how Due's African Immortals series contests dominant definitions of the human. The theorizations of race and disability that emerge from these works, Pickens demonstrates, challenge the paradigms of subjectivity that white supremacy and ableism enforce, thereby pointing to the potential for new forms of radical politics.
** Professor Pickens' latest book will be available for sale at the event
Tuesday October 15, 2019 at 4:30 p.m.
3485 McTavish Street
Morrice Hall - Room 017
For more details click on Facebook event page here.
Photos from the Black Madness :: Mad Blackness, The Lost Chapter lecture on Oct. 15, 2019.
Congratulations to Professor Robert Wisnovsky on being awarded a grant by the John Templeton Foundation
Congratulations to Professor Robert Wisnovsky on being awarded a grant by the John Templeton Foundation. The three-year grant, totaling $307,510 (USD$233,159), will fund two postdoctoral researchers to assist Prof. Wisnovsky in preparing a new edition, English translation, and source-critical analysis of a major work of late post-classical Islamic philosophical theology: Muḥammad ʿAbduh’s Supercommentary on al-Dawānī’s Commentary on al-Ījī’s Creed.
Congratulations to Professor Michelle Hartman on her 2019 Honorable Mention - Teaching Modern Arabic Literature in Translation - Teaching Literature Book Award
Professor Michelle Hartman awarded an Insight Development Grant
Congratulations to Michelle Hartman on being awarded an Insight Development Grant as co-applicant with colleague and Principle Investigator, Professor Rosalind Hampton of OISE, University of Toronto. Their project is titled, “Coalition Building by and with Black Students at Canadian Universities from 1960-2000."
Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab second issue of Mitra
Congratulations to Professor Rula Jurdi (Abisaab) on the publication of the second issue of Mïtra. Rula Jurdi is a co-founder and co-editor of this multilingual literary and artistic electronic magazine, issued once a year. She is joined by Nadie Ltaif, George Bou-Hsab, Yasmine Hajj, and Yasmine Nachabe. Alia’ Kawalit was a main inspiration behind its formation. Here, please find the link to the first and second issues:
Congratulations to Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, our Senior Lecturer of Persian Language and Linguistics, co-organized and gave a talk in the first American Association of Teachers of Persian (AATP) Professional Development Workshop at the University of Maryland and Georgetown University in August 5-7, 2019. Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, who is the current President of the AATP (2018-2020) gave a talk on "Peer Correction and Learner Metacognitive Awareness Raising in Teaching Persian as a Second/Heritage Language."
Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab shortlisted for the Magpie Poetry Award
Congratulations to Rula Jurdi on her poem, “Oral,” being shortlisted for the Magpie Poetry Award, Pulp Literature Magazine
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Ms. Peiyu Yang on her successful PhD oral defense on August 8, 2019 entitled “Triangular translation: Interpreting Nahdawi literary production on China”. Her academic Supervisor was Professor Michelle Hartman.
Congratulations to Professor Michelle Hartman on her recent co-authored article (with Rosalind Hampton, University of Toronto) published in the Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, “Whose Values: Who’s Valued?: Race and Racialization in Quebec."
Demonstration against Quebec's Bill 21 on religious symbols - Monday, June 17, 2019 in front the Montreal office of Premier Francois Legault (McGill College Avenue & Sherbrooke Street)
Image by Demonstration against Bill 21.
Congratulations to our newest graduates!
We celebrated convocation 2019 with a lunch reception for staff, students, and their families at IIS following the ceremony on Monday, June 3.
A special congratulations to Arts Valedictorian Ommu-Kulsoom Abdul Rahman, who delivered a powerful and inspiring speech.
Congratulations to Professor Pasha M. Khan
The Institute of Islamic Studies extends its warmest congratulations to Professor Pasha M. Khan on his attainment of tenure and his promotion to the rank of Associate Professor.
Congratulations to our PhD student Sabeena Shaikh for winning a 2019 Graduate Student Teaching award! An excerpt from her citation from the Faculty of Arts:
Sabeena Shaikh has taught and is currently teaching two full-year levels of the Urdu-Hindi language course at the Institute of Islamic Studies. She has breathed life into the Urdu-Hindi language program through her learned, effective, and passionate teaching. The innovations she has introduced into these courses have made the learning of the language a cultural experience. She communicates her infectious enthusiasm for South Asian culture through her teaching methods.
The Institute of Islamic Studies is pleased to announce the 2019 Annual International Workers Day Lecture, hosted by Le Centre Culturel Lebanais, given by our Professor Khalid Medani and introduced by Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab.
This lecture was held on May 4, 2019. For more details on the lecture, please see poster here.
It is with regret that the Institute of Islamic Studies informs you of the passing of Professor Emeritus of Arabic Literature, Issa J Boullata Mark, on Wednesday May 1 2019, at the age of 90.
Professor Issa J Boullata was a quiet, hardworking professor whose dedication has educated generations of students in Arabic language and literature at McGill University. His prolific research and literary output has helped to put McGill on the map in the field of Islamic Studies. Throughout his career, Professor Boullata remained an inspiration to students and colleagues in the classroom and in his published work. We have lost a colleague who greatly enriched the life of our institution for many years.
The Institute of Islamic Studies, Faculty of Arts extends its condolences to his family, including his daughter Barbara, his three sons, Joseph, David, and Peter, his brother Kamal, sister Souad and sisters-in-law Therèse and Annette.
Thank you all to those who attended Michelle Hartman's book launch of Breaking Broken English: Black-Arab Literary Solidarities and the Politics of Language on Friday April 26, 2019 at Librarairie Eugélionne, it was a great success! For those of you who were unable to attend and would like to purchase the book, please click here.
Please join IIS Professor Michelle Hartman in a conversation about her new book, Breaking Broken English: Black-Arab Solidarities and the Politics of Language at its Montreal Launch. It is on Friday, April 26 from 18h00-20h00 at the Librarairie Eugélionne (across from Beaudry Metro station). Click here for more information.
Katherine Lemons - Book Launch
Please join IIS Associate Member, Professor Katherine Lemons at the launch of her new book:
Divorcing Traditions: Islamic Marriage Law and the Making of Indian Secularism
on April 30, 2019 at Paragraphe Bookstore, 16h30. For more details click here
Congratulations to Ms.Fateme Savadi
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Ms. Fateme Savadi on her successful PhD oral defense on April 9, 2019, entitled “The historical and cosmographical context of Hay'at al-ard with a focus on Qutb al-Din Shirazi's Nihayat al-Idrak". Photo of Dr. Savadi and Professor Rula Abisaab.
Congratulations Professor Michelle Hartman
Congratulations Professor Michelle Hartman, whose edited book Teaching Modern Arabic Literature in Translation, has been nominated for the 2019 Teaching Literature Book Award, a prize for outstanding scholarship on teaching literature at the undergraduate or graduate level. This nationally juried award, the only one of its kind, is overseen and conferred every other year by the faculty in the graduate programs in English and the Teaching of English at Idaho State University. Congratulations also to Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab who has a chapter in the book.
For information about the award, please click here.
Congratulations to Mr. Brian Wright
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Mr. Brian Wright on his successful PhD oral defense on April 2, 2019, entitled “Homicide and Islamic criminal law in 19th century Muslim jurisdictions”. His academic supervisor was Professor Pasha M. Khan.
Australianama: Narrating South Asian and Muslim Presence in Australasia in the Wake of the Christchurch Attacks
Please join us for an event comprising two talks by Dr. Samia Khatun, Associate Professor at the University Liberal Arts Bangladesh and author of the new book Australianama: The South Asian Odyssey in Australia; and Dr. Uzma Jamil, Visiting Scholar at the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies, and Fellow in Muslim Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary. Drs Khatun and Jamil will speak about the long history of South Asians and Muslims in Australia and their relations with Aboriginal people, and about whiteness and violence in the nation.
These talks come in the aftermath of the attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which a white supremacist gunman from Australia murdered 50 Muslims and injured as many others. The Institute of Islamic Studies condemns these murderous attacks. We would like to express our sadness and offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims, and all others affected by it. We continue to stand in solidarity with Muslim communities worldwide and reaffirm our ongoing condemnation of Islamophobia in all of its forms.
Tuesday April 16, 2019
Morrice Hall - Room 017
3485 McTavish Street
2:45pm
Angelical Conjunctions: Crossroads of Medicine and Religion, 1200-1800
Angelical Conjunctions: The Intersection of Religion and Medicine 1200-1800 brings together twenty-five scholars who focus on the late medieval and early modern periods. The conference invites us to see the connection between religion and medicine not as an inconvenient deviance of past societies, let alone as a necessarily adversarial relationship, but as a key phenomenon that enlightens a given society’s conceptions of the mind and the body, and how the society negotiates these competing conceptions. The connection between medical and spiritual practices took many forms over the centuries, from the pious provision of health care (in person or through endowed charity), to the archetypal figure of the healing prophet. Yet despite decades of specialized research, a coherent and analytical history of the "angelical conjunction" itself remains elusive.
Taking an inter-cultural and long-term perspective, Angelical Conjunctions investigates how Islamic, Christian, and Jewish traditions interpreted, produced, and shaped medical knowledge. We aim to develop methodological and theoretical perspectives on the "angelical conjunction(s)" of these two spheres.
Keynote Event April 12th, 2019 - Prof. Lauren Kassell
‘Universal Medicine’: Lessons from Seventeenth Century England
McGill Department of Rare Books & Special Collections
McLennan Library Building 4th Floor - 3459 McTavish Street
Event Time: 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Congratulations to Professor Katherine Lemons
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates associate member Professor Katherine Lemons on her new book Divorcing Traditions: Islamic Marriage Law and the Making of Indian Secularism.
Divorcing Traditions:Islamic Marriage Law and the Making of Indian Secularism is an ethnography of Islamic legal expertise and practices in India, a secular state in which Muslims are a significant minority and where Islamic judgments are not legally binding. Katherine Lemons argues that an analysis of divorce in accordance with Islamic strictures is critical to the understand of Indian secularism.
"Katherine Lemons has written a powerful and compelling book that reshapes our understanding of secularism, Muslim law, and divorce in contemporary India." - RACHEL STUMAN, Bowdoin College
For more information from Cornell University Press and to purchase please click here.
Congratulations to Ms.Salua Fawzi
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Ms. Salua Fawzi on her successful PhD oral defense on March 13, 2019, entitled “Experiencing Islam in America: Muslim Students Associations". Her academic supervisor was Professor Setrag Manoukian.
poster_-_october_25th.pdf
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Omar Edaibat on his successful PhD oral defense on July 27, 2021, entitled, “The Bā ʿAlawī Sāda of the Hadhramaut Valley: An Intellectual and Social History from Tenth-Century Origins till the Late-Sixteenth Century”. Omar's academic supervisor was Professor Rula Abisaab.
Congratulations to Professor Michelle Hartman on the publication of her newest translation, All the Women Inside Me, Jana Elhassan's compelling first novel. The book is published by Interlink Publishing and is available here.
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Ms. Iyanu Soyege on being selected as one of two Black Graduation Valedictorians. The Black Students Network (BSN) hosted its 2nd Black Graduation event on June 7th. Ms. Soyege will be graduating with a double major in Political Science and African Studies (Faculty of Arts) on June 11th.
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Professors Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi and Prashant Keshavmurthy for the first complete English translation of Sohrab Sepehri's Eight Books which should be in print from Brill sometime this year in a bilingual facing-page edition. 
Congratulations to incoming MA student Sherine Elbanhawy on her translation of Mohsen Mohamed’s poem, “On the Bursh After Dinner” from his collection No One is Answering.
Congratulations to incoming MA student Sherine Elbanhawy on her translation of Mohsen Mohamed’s poem, “On the Bursh After Dinner” from his collection No One is Answering.
Hafez in Love: A Novel
Hafez in Love: A Novel
Congratulations to Professor Michelle Hartman on the publication of her newest translation of Shahla Ujayli’s Summer with the Enemy.
It is with regret that the Institute of Islamic Studies informs you of the passing of Mr. Andrew William Staples on March 14, 2021. Andrew was a past Administrative Officer in the Institute of Islamic Studies.
Congratulations to Michelle Hartman and Malek Abisaab for their recently published book (in Arabic), Memoirs of a Militant: the Years in the Khiam Prison for Women, by Nawal Qasim Baidoun (Mudhakkarat al-Munadila: Nawal Qasim Baidoun fi Mu’taqal al-Khiyam). It was released by Dar Abaad in Beirut last month.
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab, her novel Camera Obscura (fī ʿulbat al-ḍawʾ) has been selected to be a finalist for the Khayrallah Prize for Best Artistic Expression of the Lebanese Diaspora. Camera Obscura (fī ʿulbat al-ḍawʾ) appeared from Dar al-Adab in 2017, and is being translated by Maia Tabet. 
Aslıhan Gürbüzel is Assistant Professor of Ottoman History at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. She is currently working on a monograph entitled “Taming the Messiah: Formation of an Ottoman Political Public Sphere, 1600-1700.” Her research focuses on Ottoman Sufi orders, particularly the Mawlawīs, and their contribution to the formation of early modern knowledge in diverse fields such as politics, philology, and medicine. This talk is a part of her research on the role of Sufi authorities in the circulation and textual criticism of manuscripts.
Please join us for the book launch of The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy of Persian (2020) edited by Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, Senior Lecturer of Persian Language and Linguistics, McGill University.
Ian Greer, a double-major in PoliSci and Geography with an Arabic language minor, was one of seven international winners in the undergraduate essay competition held by the Centre for Muslim Contribution to Civilisation (CMCC) at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalif University. The subject of this year’s competition was ‘Muslim Intellectual Life in 2nd Century Hijri/8th Century CE Baghdad.’, and Ian entered his essay with the title “Zindīq Heresy and the Transmission of Hellenism in Barmakid Baghdad”.
Please see the 
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Dr. Shabani-Jadidi on the publication of The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy of Persian. It offers a detailed overview of the field of Persian second language acquisition and pedagogy. The Handbook discusses its development and captures critical accounts of cutting edge research within the major subfields of Persian second language acquisition and pedagogy, as well as current debates and problems, and goes on to suggest productive lines of future research.
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Michelle Hartman on receiving the College Language Association’s Award for Creative Scholarship for 2020 for her book, Breaking Broken English: Black-Arab Literary Solidarities and the Politics of Language.
Congratulations to Michelle Hartman on the publication of her newest article, “Zahra’s Uncle, or Where are Men in Women’s War Stories?” which appeared in the winter 2020 edition of the Journal of Arabic Literature in a special issued dedicated to our late IIS colleague and professor, Dr Issa Boullata. It is part of the Women’s War Stories project with Prof. Malek Abisaab, and available open access on the JAL website:
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Dr. Veysel Şimşek on the publication of a volume of collected essays, which he co-edited as a Festschrift for Professor Virginia H. Aksan: Ottoman War and Peace: Studies in Honor of Virginia H. Aksan, edited by Frank Castiglione, Ethan Menchinger and Veysel Şimşek. The book was published by Brill (Leiden).
ISLAMOPHOBIA AS RACISM
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi and University of Oxford's Associate Professor Dominic Parviz Brookshaw on the publication of their new book The Routledge Introductory Persian Course.
Please enjoy photos of our recent event from the Islamic Studies 2019-2020 Speakers Series "A conversation on our shared past, present and future". Thank you to everyone who attended.
The Institute of Islamic Studies congratulates Professor Pasha M. Khan, the Chair in Urdu Language & Culture, on his new book, The Broken Spell: Indian Storytellers and the Romance Genre in Persian and Urdu.
This event is part of a lecture series titled "Conversations: African Studies, Black Studies, and Islamic Studies." The series is sponsored by the Institute of Islamic Studies, the History and Classical Studies, and the African Studies program. The cosponsor are the SSHRC Climate Change association, the Rathlyn Lecture Series on Disability Studies, the Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at McGill, the Black Students' Network at McGill, and the African Studies Students Association
This event is the first in a series titled "Conversations: African Studies, Black Studies, and Islamic Studies." The series is sponsored by the Institute of Islamic Studies, the History and Classical Studies, and the African Studies program. The cosponsor are the SSHRC Climate Change association, the Rathlyn Lecture Series on Disability Studies, the Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at McGill, the Black Students' Network at McGill, and the African Studies Students Association.
Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab second issue of Mitra
Congratulations to Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, our Senior Lecturer of Persian Language and Linguistics, co-organized and gave a talk in the first American Association of Teachers of Persian (AATP) Professional Development Workshop at the University of Maryland and Georgetown University in August 5-7, 2019. Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, who is the current President of the AATP (2018-2020) gave a talk on "Peer Correction and Learner Metacognitive Awareness Raising in Teaching Persian as a Second/Heritage Language."
Congratulations to Rula Jurdi on her poem, “Oral,” being shortlisted for the Magpie Poetry Award, Pulp Literature Magazine
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Ms. Peiyu Yang on her successful PhD oral defense on August 8, 2019 entitled “Triangular translation: Interpreting Nahdawi literary production on China”. Her academic Supervisor was Professor Michelle Hartman.
It is with regret that the Institute of Islamic Studies informs you of the passing of Professor Emeritus of Arabic Literature, Issa J Boullata Mark, on Wednesday May 1 2019, at the age of 90.
Please join IIS Professor Michelle Hartman in a conversation about her new book, Breaking Broken English: Black-Arab Solidarities and the Politics of Language at its Montreal Launch. It is on Friday, April 26 from 18h00-20h00 at the Librarairie Eugélionne (across from Beaudry Metro station). Click here for more information. 
Please join IIS Associate Member, Professor Katherine Lemons at the launch of her new book:
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Ms. Fateme Savadi on her successful PhD oral defense on April 9, 2019, entitled “The historical and cosmographical context of Hay'at al-ard with a focus on Qutb al-Din Shirazi's Nihayat al-Idrak". Photo of Dr. Savadi and Professor Rula Abisaab.
Congratulations Professor Michelle Hartman, whose edited book Teaching Modern Arabic Literature in Translation, has been nominated for the 2019 Teaching Literature Book Award, a prize for outstanding scholarship on teaching literature at the undergraduate or graduate level. This nationally juried award, the only one of its kind, is overseen and conferred every other year by the faculty in the graduate programs in English and the Teaching of English at Idaho State University. Congratulations also to Professor Rula Jurdi Abisaab who has a chapter in the book.
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Mr. Brian Wright on his successful PhD oral defense on April 2, 2019, entitled “Homicide and Islamic criminal law in 19th century Muslim jurisdictions”. His academic supervisor was Professor Pasha M. Khan.
Please join us for an event comprising two talks by Dr. Samia Khatun, Associate Professor at the University Liberal Arts Bangladesh and author of the new book Australianama: The South Asian Odyssey in Australia; and Dr. Uzma Jamil, Visiting Scholar at the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies, and Fellow in Muslim Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary. Drs Khatun and Jamil will speak about the long history of South Asians and Muslims in Australia and their relations with Aboriginal people, and about whiteness and violence in the nation.
Angelical Conjunctions: The Intersection of Religion and Medicine 1200-1800 brings together twenty-five scholars who focus on the late medieval and early modern periods. The conference invites us to see the connection between religion and medicine not as an inconvenient deviance of past societies, let alone as a necessarily adversarial relationship, but as a key phenomenon that enlightens a given society’s conceptions of the mind and the body, and how the society negotiates these competing conceptions. The connection between medical and spiritual practices took many forms over the centuries, from the pious provision of health care (in person or through endowed charity), to the archetypal figure of the healing prophet. Yet despite decades of specialized research, a coherent and analytical history of the "angelical conjunction" itself remains elusive.
Divorcing Traditions: Islamic Marriage Law and the Making of Indian Secularism is an ethnography of Islamic legal expertise and practices in India, a secular state in which Muslims are a significant minority and where Islamic judgments are not legally binding. Katherine Lemons argues that an analysis of divorce in accordance with Islamic strictures is critical to the understand of Indian secularism.
The Institute of Islamic Studies would like to congratulate Ms. Salua Fawzi on her successful PhD oral defense on March 13, 2019, entitled “Experiencing Islam in America: Muslim Students Associations". Her academic supervisor was Professor Setrag Manoukian.