Inaugural Khōjā Studies international Conference: Religious identities in the construction of communal Khōjā historical memory – The World Federation of KSIMC, Florida International University, EHESS – 15/16 December 2016

This conference is the inaugural event in the collaboration among Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CNRS- CEIAS) in Paris, The World Federation of Khoja Shia lthna-Asheri Muslim Communities (WF of KSIMC) in London. Its focus is to develop a rigorous transdisciplinary international program of research on the history of the Khoja peoples through scientific research of manuscripts, printed texts, oral traditions and material culture. The preservation of multilingual materials in Sindhi, Kacchi, and Gujarati are important links that bridge the premodern-modern divide of Khoja historiography. Coordinating ways to preserve these materials and make them available for academic research is a priority that necessitates international coordination and cooperation. This gathering will explore religious and social transformations that occurred as a result of migration and cosmopolitanism. It seeks to be inclusive of various modern academic interpretations of Khoja identity and history in conversation with one another on the frames used in the interpretation of primary texts. Moreover, the Khoja cannot be understood in isolation therefore research on related communities, such as the Lohana and Bohra, are particularly welcome as this helps to better contextualize what is sometimes a more insular Khoja self-articulation of identity narratives.

This conference was organized with the help of Dr. Michel Boivin, Dr. Hasnain Walji, Sheikh Kumail Rajani and Dr. Iqbal Akhtar and is in honor of the great French scholar Françoise Mallison.

For more information, http://www.khojastudies.org/

Co-sponsored by the FIU Department of Religious Studies, Centre d’Études de l’lnde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS) and The World Federation of KSIMC.

Agenda

A two-day conference with a public keynote bringing together interdisciplinary Anglophone and Francophone scholars in the humanities, generally defined, to present and discuss the development of Khōjā identity over the past three centuries among transnational communities in South Asia, East Africa, Western Europe, and North America. The output of the conference will be two edited volumes.

Date: 15-16 December 2016

Venue: Le Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS)
Centre for Studies in India and South Asia
École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences

UMR8564 – CNRS / EHESS
190-198 avenue de France
75013 Paris
France

Attend the conference

To attend the conference, please register for a ticket at: http://lnk.wf/KHOJASTUDIES

MORE INFORMATIONS / WEBSITE OF THE CONFERENCE