Saturday, November 3

9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Thompson Room, Barker Center

John Bowen, Washington U. in Saint Louis:
"Ibn Ashur in Aceh and Paris: Adapting Sharî`a by way of its Objectives"

Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Princeton:
"Religious Authority and the Language of Ijtihad in Contemporary Sunni Islam"

Asef Bayat, Leiden University:
"Fun and Fundamentalism"

12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
Barker Center
Free Middle Eastern lunch reception for members of the Harvard community

2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Thompson Room, Barker Center

Said Arjomand, SUNY-Stony Brook:
"Islamic Constitutionalism: Paradoxes and Pitfalls in the Appropriation of the Islamicate Political Tradition"

Farid Esack, Harvard:
"Redeeming Islam – Constructing the Good Muslim Subject in Contemporary Religious Studies"

Omid Safi, UNC-Chapel Hill:
"Reforming Islam in the 'Axis of Evil': Contesting Islam in Post-Revolutionary Iran"

Sunday, November 4

9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Thompson Room, Barker Center

Mahmood Mamdani, Columbia:
"Distinguishing Bigotry from Blasphemy in Contemporary Freedom of Speech Debates"

David Cook, Rice University:
"Faith and Fornication: Behind the Murji’a Debate in Contemporary Islam"

Sherman Jackson, University of Michigan:
"Ibn Taymîya and Black Theodicy"

12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Barker Center
Concluding remarks by Roy Mottahedeh, Director;
Closing reception;
Performance by Boston Village Gamelan Group