Date:
Location:
Harvard University, 16-18 February 2017
Texts, Knowledge, and Practice: The Meaning of Scholarship in Muslim Africa
Conference sponsored by:
Harvard Divinity School, and
The Center of African Studies
The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program
The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC)
The Islam in Africa Speaker Series
http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/islamafricaconference2017/home
Conference Conveners
Ousmane Kane, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion Harvard Divinity School and Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Matthew Steele, Ph.D student, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Executive Summary
Sitting at the intersection of African, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies, Islam in Africa has long suffered from a crisis of disciplinary identity. Perhaps because it is neither strictly area nor solely religious studies, Islam in Africa has only recently received attention within the academy. The shift is long overdue, for Africa has influenced scholarship throughout the Islamic World for more than a millennium. With the spread of Arabic literacy, African scholars developed a rich tradition of debate over orthodoxy and meaning in Islam. The rise of such a tradition was hardly disconnected from centers of Islamic learning outside of Africa. From Mecca to Sind, African scholars have played significant roles in the development of virtually every field of Islamic sciences.
Islamic scholarship in Africa remains just as significant today. By the end of the twentieth century, thousands of integrated curriculum schools and dozens of modern Islamic universities had redefined Islamic studies across Sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, the spread of communications technology has reshaped Islamic scholarship still further. New representations of Islamic scholarship have formed across Africa through teaching websites, mp3 and social media apps. The emergence of these new spaces, both physical and virtual, has the potential to recast notions of class, authority, canon, and orthodoxy common to the study of Islamic scholarship in Africa today.
This conference offers a venue for us to rethink how such an evolution occurred. It will be the first of two meetings intended to bring together specialists from Western academia and the Islamic World. The first meeting will explore the ways in which Islamic scholarship integrated Africa in the Islamic world, as well as the interconnections between West, North, and Saharan Africa on the one hand, and East Africa and Western Asia on the other. Conference participants from a variety of disciplines including history, Islamic studies, anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, and political science will explore six main themes:
- Panel 1: History, Movement and the Spread of Islamic Scholarship
- Panel 2: Courts, Colonialism, and Islamic Law in Africa
- Panel 3: Authors, Texts, and Islamic Scholarship:
- Panel 4: Contemporary Expressions of Islamic Scholarship in Africa
- Panel 5: Vernacular in Text and Verse
- Panel 6: Quranic Education in Africa
Conference schedule summary
click here for complete conference Information
Thursday, February 16 ~~ Sperry Room, Harvard Divinity School
6:45 – 7:00 PM: Introductory Remarks by David Hempton, Dean of Harvard Divinity School
7:00 – 8:00 PM: Keynote Address by Ousmane Kane, Alwaleed Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society at Harvard
Friday February 17 ~~ Sperry Room, Harvard Divinity School
8:30 – 10:30 AM Panel 1: History, Movement, and the Spread of Islamic Scholarship
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM Panel 2: Courts, Colonialism, & Islamic Law in Africa
2:00 – 4:00 PM: Panel 3: Authors, Texts, and Islamic Scholarship
4:00 – 6:00 PM Panel 4: Contemporary Expressions of Islamic Scholarship in Africa
Saturday February 18 ~~ Sperry Room, Harvard Divinity School
8:30 – 10:30 AM Panel 5: Vernacular in Text and Verse
11: 00 AM – 1:00 PM Panel 6: Quranic Education in Africa
1:15 – 1:30 PM Closing Remarks Matthew Steele, Ph.D. Student, Harvard University