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Political upheaval in the Middle East and larger Muslim world, from the Arab Spring to recent protests against a film denigrating Muhammad, leave us with the impression that the peoples of the Middle East—and of the wider Muslim world—are increasingly becoming anti-American and anti-Western in their sentiments. At the same time, analysis of news and commentary from the United States and Europe shows a marked rise in anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Professor Ali Asani, Director of Harvard’s Islamic Studies Program, and Professor Malika Zeghal, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life, will discuss the background and the political and cultural dimensions that underlay this crisis of “(mis)understanding,” and the ways in which it affects perceptions of the “Other.”
Participation and Session Format
This webinar is open to those working on education at the K-12 level. The session will be run via an AdobeConnect virtual classroom and can be accessed from any computer equipped with the latest version of Flash. Run a test of your computer's operating capabilities for the webinar here. Use of an external headset and microphone is recommended but not required.
The hour will include time for presentations from Professors Asani and Zeghal, as well as discussion and questions from participants. All participants are asked to submit questions for the two presenters related to their goals and objectives for attending the webinar in advance of the session.
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About the Speakers
Ali Asani is Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures at Harvard University, holding a joint appointment in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department and on the Committee for the Study of Religion. He also serves on the faculty of the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. He has taught at Harvard since 1983, offering instruction in a variety of languages such as Urdu/Hindi, Sindhi, Gujarati and Swahili as well as courses on various aspects of the Islamic tradition. He is particularly interested in the comparative study of Islam and Muslim societies in local contexts, particularly in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the United States, with an emphasis on artistic and literary expressions of Muslim devotional life. Professor Asani is the current Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard. His books include: Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Literature of South Asia; The Bujh Niranjan: An Ismaili Mystical Poem; The Harvard Collection of Ismaili Literature in Indic Literatures: A Descriptive Catalog and Finding Aid; Celebrating Muhammad: Images of the Prophet in Muslim Devotional Poetry (co-author); and Al-Ummah: A Handbook for an Identity Development Program for North American Muslim Youth.
Malika Zeghal is the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life at Harvard University the Committee for the Study of Religion. She is a political scientist who studies religion through the lens of Islam and power. She is particularly interested in Islamist movements and in the institutionalization of Islam in the Muslim world, with special focus on the Middle East and North Africa in the postcolonial period and on Muslim diasporas in North America and Western Europe. She has more general interests in the circulation and role of religious ideologies in situations of conflict and/or dialogue. She has published a study of central religious institutions in Egypt (Gardiens de l'Islam. Les oulémas d'al-Azhar dans l'Egypte contemporaine [Presses de Sciences Po, 1996]), and a volume on Islam and politics in Morocco (Islamism in Morocco: Religion, Authoritarianism, and Electoral Politics [Markus Wiener, 2008]), which has won the French Voices-Pen American Center Award.
Contact: Anna Mudd
Sponsors: Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program at Harvard, Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies Outreach Center