The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library.

Seeing Muslimness: An interdisciplinary conference

Thu 27 June 2024

Alison Richard Building

In ‘What is Islam’, Shahab Ahmed challenges the impact of colonial epistemologies, contending that they reshaped Islam into a rigid structure defined by religious laws and a simplistic dichotomy of what’s allowed and what’s forbidden. Drawing inspiration from Ahmed’s notion that the idea of Islam existed as an involvement with quotidian before modern times, we aim to consider the word ‘Muslim’ as an adjective. Muslim-ness thus becomes a dynamic and malleable mode of existence, at times having high visibility and being confrontational, while at other times, being determined by its absence. Its multifaceted manifestations and the varied perspectives through which it is observed render it as having multiple and often contested meanings. Our focus shifts towards exploring the diverse expressions of Muslimness, looking beyond the doxa of Islam. We see Muslimness as an embodied, lived experience, a guiding inquiry that extends into various realms – from art and architecture to politics to the digital landscape. Thus, this interdisciplinary conference, entitled ‘Seeing Muslimness’, seeks to explore the ‘presence’ of Muslimness in (extra)ordinary life. It brings together practitioners and academics from a variety of disciplines, mirroring the range of activities in which the experience of ‘being Muslim’ has a bearing on its existence.

Cost: Free