Appel à communications : Panel “Islamic Predestination in Changing Worlds: interdisciplinary perspective”, BRISMES Annual Conference, University of Sussex, 16-18/06/2014 — LIMITE : 17/12/2013

Panel Organisers: Alice Elliot (University of Leuven) and Laura Menin (Zentrum Moderner Orient)

As part of a broader reflection on abiding ideas and forces shaping people’s imaginations and their existential quests, this panel aims to trigger a critical interdisciplinary dialogue on the meanings and poignancy of ‘Islamic predestination.’ Predestination acquires particular significance in the contemporary Middle East, where increasingly restrictive migration policies both in the Gulf and Europe, severe international economic crisis, and deep political unrest are compelling people to confront overwhelming forces and powers that are beyond personal and collective agency. This panel contends that the specific historical conjuncture the MENA region is confronting today calls for a serious reflection on the efficacy, significance and role of Islamic predestination, drawing on different disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological traditions.

The notion of “predestination”, along with its complex relations with ideas of personal agency and freedom, has long been at the very core of the study of Islamic practices, reflections and debates, as well as powerfully emerging in various forms of artistic and cultural production. Conversely, ‘predestination’ is frequently identified by scholars from a range of disciplines as being integral to ‘common sense’ knowledge, everyday practicalities, and popular religiosities in Muslim worlds. However, a sustained dialogue between different historical and scholarly approaches on the topic has yet to be achieved. This panel calls scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. history, theology, anthropology, philosophy, literature, art, etc.) to contribute papers that trace the role of Islamic predestination both in current and historical contexts, particularly at moments of personal, social, or political ruptures.

How has ‘predestination’ been discussed and conceptualised within different Islamic traditions and theological currents, and how have these traditions and currents reckoned with, or worked towards, political and social transformation? How has the tension between freedom and predestinations been articulated in literature, poetry and public culture in different times and places? How do people contextually mobilize the notion of predestination to make sense of focal events in their lives, as well as of broader historical upheavals, in increasingly uncertain times? Bringing together different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, the panel aspires to develop a nuanced and critical analysis of Islamic predestination within a rapidly changing Middle East.

Please submit by Tuesday 17 December a 250 word abstract to alice.elliot@soc.kuleuven.be & laura.menin@zmo.de. Please include full name, contact details, and affiliation of authors.