Conference on “The Changing Social Role of Islam in Post-Soviet Eurasia”

March 20-21, 2009
Harvard University
Project on Islam in Eurasia
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

The Project on Islam in Eurasia will hold a conference on “The Changing Social Role of Islam in Post-Soviet Eurasia” on March 20-21.  The conference will gather a number of the scholars who have been most focused on trying to understand the social transformations in which Islam plays a role in the post-Soviet period.  The purposes of the conference are to assess the current state of scholarship and identify key issues that deserve further investigation.

Since we announced the conference, we have had a tremendous response, and we have as many attendees signed up as we can accommodate (indeed, there are many whom we would have liked to include, but space does not allow it).

The following is a list of those who will present papers at the conference with their paper titles, and the discussants, who will also play a major role in the conference.

Paper Presentations:

Bakhtiyar Babadjanov (Institute of Oriental Studies, Tashkent)
-- “Forms of Soviet Rhetoric in the Paradigms of Re-Islamization in Central Asia”

Vladimir Bobrovnikov (Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow)
-- “Shari’a between Ritual and Custom in the Daghestani Countryside after the Time of Kolkhozes”

Habiba Fathi (Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, Aga Khan University (International), London)
-- “Harm, Illness, Belief and Spiritual Therapy amongst Muslim Women of Uzbekistan”

Baris Isci (Washington University, Saint Louis)
-- “The Debate over Islam and Kyrgyz Traditions: What Is It Really About?”

Morgan Liu (Ohio State University)
-- “‘Halal’ Business and Just Society in Southern Kyrgyzstan: A Framework for Inquiry on Central Asian Islams in a Post-Cold War Neoliberal World”

Maria Louw (Aarhus University)
-- “Navigating Ambiguous Secularisms”

Aleksei Malashenko (Carnegie Center, Moscow)
-- “Problems of Islam in Tatarstan and Other Parts of Russia from the 1990s to the Present”

Makhach Musaev (Institute of History, Makhachkala)
-- “New Developments in Islamic Education in Daghestan”

Nabi Rahimov (Khujand State University)
-- “Islam and the Idea of Nation in Tajikistan”

Rufat Sattarov (Free University, Berlin)
-- “Production and Transmission of Islamic Knowledge in Azerbaijan: Between Traditional Authorities and New Actors”

Edward Schatz (University of Toronto)
-- “Global Politics and the Local Construction of Muslimness in Central Asia”

John Schoeberlein (Harvard University)
-- “A Critique of Conceptual Frameworks for Assessing Post-Soviet Islam”

Mukaram Toktogulova (American University of Central Asia, Bishkek)
-- “Diverse Visions of Islam in Kyrgyzstan”

Discussants:

Laura Adams (Harvard University)
Tone Bringa (University of Bergen)
Jocelyne Cesari (Harvard University)
Michael Hall (Open Society Institute, New York)
Pauline Jones Luong (Brown University)
Terry Martin (Harvard University)
Emily O'Dell (Harvard University)
Balihar Sanghera (Univ. of Kent)
Thomas Simons (Harvard University)
Eren Tasar (Harvard University)
Berna Turam (Hampshire College)
Anna Zelkina (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)

Those Wishing to Attend

We have already received a very large number of registrations for the conference, and there is no possibility that we will be able to include anyone who has not already registered.  We regret that we are not able to include any additional attendees.

Project on Islam in Eurasia
Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
1730 Cambridge Street, Room S-320
Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
islam-eurasiafas.harvard.edu
+1/617-496-2643 | +1/617-495-8319 (fax)
© 2008 President and Fellows of Harvard University