Shia Minorities in the Contemporary World: Migration, Transnationalism and Multilocality

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

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If you use Twitter, the conference’s hashtag is #shiaminoritiesconference2016.

Day 1: Friday 20 May

09:00 – 09:30: Registration and refreshments

09:30 – 10:00: Welcome

• Rob Warner, Executive Dean Faculty of Humanities
• Oliver Scharbrodt, Director Chester Centre for Islamic Studies

10:00 – 11:00: Keynote Lecture 1:

• Sabrina Mervin (EHESS/Centre Jacques Berque), Linking Shia Minorities to the Shii Core: History, Rituals and Religious Authority

11:00 – 11:15: Tea/Coffee break

11:15 – 12:45: Session 1

Performing Shiism: Rituals and Practices I

Chair: Chiara Formichi (Cornell University)

Discussant: Kathryn Spellman Poots (Aga Khan and Columbia University) 

• Marios Chatziprokopiou (Aberystwyth University), Performing Muharram in Piraeus: the Lamentation for Imam Hussein in a Migratory Context

• Yafa Shanneik (University of South Wales), Shia Devotional Poetry in the 20^th and 21^st Century from the Gulf to Europe

• Noor Zaidi (University of Pennsylvania), “Still we long for Zaynab”: South Asian Shias and the Shia Shrines

• Reni Susanti (Tilburg University), Taklif Ceremony: Women Ritual and the Creation of Future Shii Generations in Indonesia

12:45 – 14:00: Lunch

14:00 – 15:30: Session 2

Performing Shiism: Rituals and Practices II

Chair: Chris Heinhold (University of Chester)

Discussant: Yafa Shanneik (University of South Wales)

• Ekaterina Kapustina (European University at St. Petersburg), Moharramlik and the Modern Shia community of Derbent in Translocal Reality

• Chiara Formichi (Cornell University), Performing Religion across the Indian Ocean: Ashura Commemorations in Indonesia

• Kathryn Spellman Poots (Aga Khan and Columbia University), Temporary Marriage in the UK: Debates and Practice among British Shii Muslims

15:30 – 15:45: Tea/Coffee break

15:45 – 17:15: Session 3

Diasporic Shia Minorities: Transnationalism and Multilocality

Chair: Roswitha Badry (University of Freiburg)

Discussant: Reza Gholami (Keele University)

• Samra Nasser (Western New Mexico University), Transnational Impact of Events in the Middle East on Post-Migratory Shia Minorities: The Case of Shia Lebanese in Metropolitan Detroit

• Zahra Ali (University of Chester), Being a Young Devout Shii in London: Religiosity and Multiple Senses of Belonging between the UK and Iraq

• Chris Heinhold (University of Chester), Who is Hussain: Contemporary Campaigning at the Glocal Level

17:15 – 17:30: Tea/Coffee break

17:30 – 18:30: Book Launch

Chair: Sabrina Mervin (EHESS/Centre Jacques Berque)

• Mara A. Leichtman (Michigan State University), Shi’i Cosmopolitanisms in Africa: Lebanese Migration and Religious Conversion in Senegal (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015)

18:30: Dinner

Day 2: Saturday 21 May

9:00 – 10:00: Keynote Lecture 2

• Liyakat Takim (McMaster University), Fiqh for Minorities: Shi'i Law in the Diaspora

10:00 – 10:15: Tea/Coffee break

10:15 – 11:45: Session 4

Diasporic Shia Minorities: Identities in Transition

Chair: Samim Akgonul (Université de Strasbourg – CNRS)

Discussant: Chris Heinhold (University of Chester)

•  Reza Gholami (Keele University), Cultures of Integration: Pride, Shame and New Religious Identities among UK Iranians

• Emanuelle Degli Esposti (SOAS), Living Najaf in London: Diaspora, Transnationalism, and the Sectarianisation of the Iraqi-Shia Subject

• Mayra Soledad Valcarcel (University of Buenos Aires) and Mari-Sol Garcia Somoza (University of Buenos Aires/EHESS), Mi corazón late Husayn: Identity, Politics and Religion in a Shia Community in Buenos Aires

• Roswitha Badry (University of Freiburg), From a Marginalized Religious Community in Iran to a Government-sanctioned Public Interest Foundation in Paris: Remarks on the Ostad Elahi Foundation

11:40 – 12:00 Tea/Coffee break

12:00 – 13:30: Session 5

Shia Communities in Formation

Chair: Yafa Shanneik (University of South Wales)

Discussant: Sufyan Abid (University of Chester)

•  Piro Rexhepi (Max Planck Institute), The Bektashi Tariqa and the Postsocialist Politics of “European Islam” in Southeastern Europe

• Arun Rasiah (Holy Names University), Ideas in Motion: The Politics of Knowledge and Patronage in Indian Ocean Islam

•  Emiko Stock (Cornell University), Comfortably sitting in-between: Grains of Cham ‘Alid Piety to Rethink the Shi’a / Sunni Divide

•  Anas P. A (Aligarh Muslim University), Cultural Representation of Shiism in Malabar Coast of Indian Ocean: A Case Study on The Social Life of the Kerala Muslims

13:30 – 14:45: Lunch

14:45 – 15:45: Keynote Lecture 3

• Seyyed Fadhil Milani & Mohammad Mesbahi (Islamic College London), Muslim Migration to Europe, Challenging (European) Modernity and the Necessity of the ijtihadi Approach

15:45 – 16:00: Tea/Coffee break

16:00 – 17:30: Session 6

Shia Transnationalism between Global and Local Dynamics

Chair: Arun Rasiah (Holy Names University)

Discussant: Zahra Ali (University of Chester)

•  Hafsa Oubou (Northwestern University), Transnational Conversion and Global Networks among Moroccan Shia Converts

•  Sufyan Abid (University of Chester), An Alternative umma: The Construction and Development of Shia Globalism among South Asian Shia Muslims in London

•  Iman Lechkar (University College Brussels), Interpreting Khamenei and Fadlallah in Brussels: the Religious and Social Impact of Middle Eastern Clerical Leaders in the Capital of Europe

•  Robert Riggs (University of Bridgeport), Global Networks, Local Concerns: Investigating the Impact of Emerging Technologies on Shii Religious Leaders and Constituencies

17:30 – 18:00: Concluding discussions

18:00: Dinner