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Re-Imagining the Shari'a: Theory, Practice And Muslim Pluralism At Play

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13-16 SEPTEMBER 2009

Warwick in Venice - The Palazzo Pesaro-Papafava, Venice

The Palazzo Pesaro-Papafava

In a world, particularly the western world, where democratic pluralistic spaces for public discussion about Muslims and by Muslims, have become narrower and narrower, this conference intends primarily to expose and explore the assumptions underlying the range of modernization-theoretical discussion concerning Shari'a and Islam that has emerged in the new millennium. These largely assume an inevitable process toward secularization and liberal modernity whether political or economic, and equally the nation state with a particular structure and form of law.

This high profile international conference aims to bring together on one platform, cutting edge scholarship in diverse areas of the Islamic legal tradition to an international audience. These discussions will range across a number of conceptual debates as they affect law including debates about culture-deculturalization, the various concepts of civil society in an Islamic context, symbolization, re-contextualization of the religious, concepts concerning the character of construction of identities, a genealogical approach to legal knowledge and practice etc.

In order to address these challenging issues, the University of Warwick, in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, is holding this international conference at its Warwick in Venice venue – The Palazzo Pesaro-Papafava on 13 - 16 September 2009 on the theme Re-imaging the Shari’a: Theory, Practice and Muslim Pluralism at Play.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to open up spaces for dialogue and share cutting edge scholarship among Muslim and non-Muslim scholars, academics, researchers and the world at large. We believe that through an academic dialogue, positions and approaches towards Islam and Muslims in the world can be clarified and the gaps minimized. We believe that through the sharing of responses to contemporary issues regarding Islam and Muslims with a wider community, a deeper mutual understanding may be achieved.

Objectives

This conference will bring together scholars engaged in teaching and research concerning Islamic law. In the second half of the 20th century, one observes a re-emergence of Shari’a in a variety of ways in the legal systems of an increasing number of Muslim states as well as among Muslim diasporic communities worldwide. This globalisation of Islam has led to increased research on the many emerging aspects of Shari’a and its application in the modern legal context.

This conference has as its objectives inter alia the following:

To provide a forum to bring together new conceptualisations and theories concerning the global understanding and reach of Shari’a
To focus on the increasing engagement of Muslims with western governmental and financial institutions as well as their parallel need to be Shari’a compliant in all fields of life.
To highlight the more ‘observable’ areas – family law, finance – and the less observed areas – zakat, social welfare system in Islam, function of umma, the variety of fatwas administered & their constituencies, to name a few.

Outcome

Multiple outcomes are expected from this high profile international conference. We are in consultation with publishers to produce an edited collection of papers from the conference. Conference proceedings will be produced on a CD for conferees and conferences materials posted on the conference website. Drawing upon the conference delegates, a network of established and emerging scholars on Islamic Law will be one of the important follow ups of the conference and sustained through a continued engagement via the website.

Follow up

We envisage this inaugural conference to be the start of a continued and sustained engagement on this subject through the virtual network of scholars that will also act as a forum for developing the next workshops and conferences.

Warwick Law School, Dept. of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

At Warwick, various aspects of Islamic studies and law have been explored both in teaching and research across departments including PAIS, Law, History, Education, Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations (CRER), and School of Health and Social Studies (SHSS) and Languages. In 2004, the School of Law introduced an undergraduate module entitled, “Introduction to Islamic Law” which is also offered as a postgraduate option to students across the University. In PAIS, a full module has been offered for some years on the “Political Economy and International Politics of the Islamic World”. In CRER and SHSS, modules on offer include “Issues of Islam in Contemporary Societies”; “Race, Muslims and Politics in Britain”. In 2007, an MA in Islam in Contemporary Societies was launched bringing together academics at University of Warwick working in this field. A groundbreaking international project has been initiated in the School of Law since 2006 supported by the UK Centre for Legal Education (UKCLE), the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA), and the University of Warwick to develop teaching manuals and other resources in a range of Islamic law modules. Across academic departments and centres, a significant number of research students are engaged in doctoral projects on a range of Islamic law subjects. As part of the burgeoning community of Islamic Studies scholars, we seek to collaborate nationally and internationally to share our scholarship as well as engage with scholarship of others in the field. This conference is part of this aim to bring together the latest conceptualizations and theories of Shari'a and its impact in a global world.

Centre for European Islamic Thought, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen

At the beginning of October 2007, a new Centre for European Islamic Thought started its work based in the Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen. At its core is the professorship in European Islamic Thought and Modernity funded for five years by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF). The focus of the Centre is on Islamic religious thought in contemporary Europe, the processes and circumstances in which it is appearing, seeking to locate and understand it in the context both of the history of Islamic religious thought and of contemporary developments in Islamic thinking, and evaluate it as a response to the European environment specifically and to modernity more generally. The Centre will provide opportunities for comparative work on the contemporary development of both Islam and Christianity within the common European context. The Centre is a core element of the University of Copenhagen’s new research initiative on Islam (www.islam.ku.dk).

The conference will be structured as follows

There will be six plenary sessions with two speakers for each session. These sessions will be followed by parallel workshop sessions on all three days of the conference – see Draft Programme. There is an open call for papers for the parallel sessions and participants are encouraged to send their abstracts to the nominated session, in the first instance to Hansa Surti, Event Coordinator who will forward these to the Workshop Coordinators.

Conference organisers

Shaheen Sardar Ali, Warwick Law School, University of Warwick
Jorgen Nielsen, Islamic Studies, University of Copenhagen
Barbara Roberson, Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS), University of Warwick
Hansa Surti, Events Coordinator, UK Centre for Legal Education, Univeristy of Warwick.
H.Surti@warwick.ac.uk

The CALL FOR PAPERS is open until the 30th May 2009. You are welcome to send your abstracts to the Events Coordinator, Hansa Surti.

Early bird fee for booking by 30 June 2009: £200

Standard fee for booking after 30 June 2009: £250

Student fee: £100.

Note:
The above fees include refreshments and lunches throughout the conference and the conference dinner on Sunday 13 September only. The fees do not include accommodation and evening meals. Delegates should make their own arrangements for accommodation and evening meals during the conference. A list of hotels in Venice is available from the conference website here.

Click here for Online Booking Form