Religion

The University of Florida Center for Global Islamic Studies

Fall 2016 Conference

Is today’s world secular? Many argue that it is not – religion is as prominent in politics, culture, and socio-economic life as ever. Others still believe that secularism is an achievement of modern times that we cannot simply ignore. Muslims are divided on the issue, and in recent years we have seen the emergence of new ideas and discourses about how to re-think and implement secularism. This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to raise the question “Whereto from here and now?” as a way of imagining and embracing futural perspectives that seek to open up new frontiers for addressing the inescapable encounter of Islam and secularism in today’s and in future realities . In addition to hosting talks that will provide a general overview of the issues at stake, the conference will also provide insights from a variety of contexts, approached from different disciplinary angles.  

Keynote

Carrie Wickham, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Emory University:Humanist Islam as a Catalyst of Democratic Transformation: Some Preliminary Reflections on the Tunisian Case. 

Panelists

Ovamir Anjum, mam Khattab Endowed Chair of Islamic Studies at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Toledo: Secularism as a Problem in Islamic Tradition

Anouar Majid, Director of the Center for Global Humanities, University of New England: Secularism and the Dilemma of Faith 

Cecelia Lynch, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Irvine: A Neo-Weberian Approach to Islam and Secularism Among Muslim Humanitarians.

Badredine Arfi, Professor of Political Science, University of Florida Rethinking Political Legitimacy at the Scale of Global Post-Secularization

Tamir Sorek, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Florida. Muslim and Jewish secularisms in the Palestinian Communist Party

Discussant

Bruce Lawrence, Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor Emeritus of Religion, Duke University

The conference is co-sponsored by the UF Office of Research, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere with support from the Yulee Fund, the Raymond and Miriam Ehrlich Chair in the Department of the Political Science, the Department of Political Science, and the Center for European Studies.