Fourth Annual Graduate Student Book Review Colloquium on Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at GMU

In collaboration with the Fall for the Book Festival

Friday, November 20, 2020 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM EST
Zoom Virtual Event

The Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University and The Maydan, the Center’s public-facing scholarship platform, present the fourth annual Graduate Student Book Review Colloquium on Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies to be held on November 20, 2020, in collaboration with the Fall for the Book Festival.

The Colloquium is organized by The Maydan, the public-facing scholarship platform of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies. The Maydan is dedicated to supporting Islamic Studies with the recognition that academic scholarship in this field of inquiry is currently in need of discussions and publications that are able to disseminate research to a larger audience. The Colloquium aims to foster a lasting conversation between academic and lay readership.

At the Colloquium, the accepted students will present their book reviews in pre-organized panels lasting 20 minutes, and then discuss their reviews with leading scholars in the field. The Colloquium will take place on a virtual platform. With such discussions, the colloquium will bring the reviewed books to the attention of the larger audience attending the Fall for the Book festival at George Mason University (http://fallforthebook.org).

Welcome & Introduction | 9:30 - 9:45 am (EDT)

Panel 1 | Politics, Jurisprudence and Law | Discussant: Peter Mandaville (George Mason University)| 9:45 – 11:15 am (EDT)

Alla Alaghbiri, University of Chicago | Book Under Review: The Foundation of Norms in Islamic Jurisprudence and Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2019) by Omar Farahat.

Huseyin Saglam, Istanbul University | Book Under Review: Child Custody in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice in Egypt since the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2018) by Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim.

Jeroen Vlug, Ibn Khaldun University | Book Under Review: Comparative Religious Law: Judaism, Christianity, Islam (Cambridge University Press, 2018) by Norman Doe.

Rana Osman, SOAS, University of London | Book Under Review: Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison (Cambridge University Press, 2019) by Ahmet T Kuru.

Panel 2 | Texts, Theology and Ethics | Discussant: Maria Dakake (George Mason University)| 11:30 am- 1:00 pm (EDT)

Abdullah Ridvan Gokbel, Istanbul University | Book Under Review: The Making of the Medieval Middle East: Religion, Society, and Simple Believers (Princeton University Press, 2018) by Jack Tannous.

Alex Hayes, George Mason University | Book Under Review: Modern Muslim Theology: Engaging God and the World with Faith and Imagination (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) by Martin Nguyen.

Hale Inanoglu, George Mason University | Book Under Review: Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Family, and Society (Columbia University Press, 2019) by Zahra Ayubi.

Owais Manzoor Dar, Jamia Millia Islamia | Book Under Review: Muslim Qur’anic Interpretations Today: Media, Genealogies and Interpretive Communities ( Equinox, 2019)by Johanna Pink.

Break: 1:00 - 2:00 pm (EDT)

Panel 3 | Middle East History & Political Islam | Discussant: Cengiz Sisman (University of Houston) | 2:00- 3:30 pm (EDT)

Abdullah Eren, Bogazici University | Book Under Review: Iran, Revolution, and Proxy Wars / (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) by Ofira Seliktar and Farhad Razaei.

Ibrahim Enes Aksu, University of Delaware | Book Under Review : Inside Tunisia’s al-Nahda: Between Politics and Preaching (Cambridge University Press, 2018) by Rory McCarthy.

Kylie Broderick, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | Book Under Review: Partitioning Palestine: British Policymaking at the End of Empire (University of Chicago Press, 2019) by Penny Sinanoglou.

Sawyer Martin French, University of Chicago | Book Under Review: Revolution and Disenchantment: Arab Marxism and the Binds of Emancipation (Duke University Press, 2020) by Fadi A Bardawil.