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


09:00 - 18:30
09:00 - 18:30
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 20th and 21st 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