Annual Meeting of the Belgian Association for the Study of Islam, Culture and Society – BASICS
We are pleased to invite you to the annual meeting of the Belgian Association for the Study of Islam, Culture and Society (BASICS). The purpose of the association is to favor scientific collaboration across Belgium, to provide a greater visibility for research done here internationally and locally, to provide well-informed expertise to policy-makers, citizens, and the media, to advocate for our disciplines, to support academic freedom, and to encourage the development of innovative pedagogical initiatives about the Middle East and related geographical areas, and Islam. Registrations are open until September 20.
Full programme:
09:30 – Welcome and registration (Lisa Franke and Aymon Kreil)
10:00–11:30 – Parallel panel sessions 1 (Anthropology, room 2.10) and 2 (History and Culture, room 2.11)
Anthropology: Social Reproduction under Displacement and Confinement: Intergenerational Perspectives on Mobilities
Organisers: Laura Stauth (UGent) and Rima Zaqout (UGent/University of Gothenburg)
Speakers:
- Laura Stauth (UGent): Intimate hierachies and gendered labor inside the home: Class an and changing economies in Cairo
- Rima Zaqout (UGent/University of Gothenburg): Gazan waves of displacement: social reproduction under genocide
- Yasmina El Jaouari (ULB): The Emotional Economy of Infrapolitical Subjectivations in a Context of (Im)Mobility
- Marwa Neji (UGent): Gendered Mobilities and Class Reproduction: Capital, Social Reproduction and Tunisian Women’s Migration Trajectories
Discussant: Ophélie Mercier (UGent)
History and Culture: Boundaries of Authority: Spatial and Social Frontiers in the Medieval Middle East
Organisers: Mena El Mahi (Ugent) and Angela Isoldi (Ugent)
Speakers:
- Bodgan Smarandache (ULiège): (Re)Turning Territory to Islam: The Case of the Frankish-Qalāwūnid Accords of 689/1290
- Menna M. El Mahy (UGent): Authority, Architecture, and the Syro-Anatolian Frontier of the Cairo Sultanate, 1260-1375
- Giacomo Mastrogregori (UAntwerpen) Diplomacy from Within: The Dragoman Taghri Birdi between the Mamluk Sultans and the Catholic Monarchs (1480-1510 ca.)
- Angela Isoldi (UGent): Redefining Power Boundaries in the City: Female Ownership, Waqf, and Urban Governance in Mamluk-Era Cairo (648-923 AH/1250-1517 CE)
11:30–12:00 – Break
12:00–13:00 – Keynote by Sherene Seikaly (UC Santa Barbara): Middle East Studies in the Age of Catastrophe
13:00–14:00 – Lunch Break
14:00–15:30 – Parallel panel sessions 3 (Islamic Studies, room 2.10) and 4 (Politics and Society, room 2.11)
Islamic Studies: Insights into the Study of Classical Arabic Texts in Belgium
Organisers: Arjan Post (KULeuven) and Gregory Vandamme (UCLouvain)
Speakers:
- Gregory Vandamme (UCLouvain): Akbarian Thought between Islamic Studies and Philosophy
- Mohamed Maslouh (UGent): The Curious Case of the Printed Rifāʿī Classics: Towards an Archival Reassesment of Early Rifāʿī History
- Kotoz Ahmed (UGent): Ḥisba and Interdisciplinarity
- Cécile Bonmariage (UCL): The relevance of the past
- Arjan Post (KULeuven): The Institutionalisation of the Early Qādiriyya Sufi Orders among the Ḥanbalīs.
Discussant: Christopher Markiewicz (UGent)
Politics and Society: Muslims and Politics: Between Participation, Contestation and Securitisation
Organisers: Imane Lechkar (VUB) and Corinne Torrekens (ULB)
Speakers:
- Lucas Faure (ULB): The ‘Green Shift’ of a Minority Group: Forms of Environmental Engagement among Muslims in Brussels
- Yehua Mekawi (ULB): The Politics of Visibility: Muslim Leadership and Public Recognition in Belgium and Switzerland
- Jihane Sliti (VUB) Securitisation Strategies in Belgian ‘Foreign Fighter’ Debates
- Almuhannad Allaham (ULiège): Artivism and Political Agency: Palestinian Artistic Practices across Fragmented Geographies
15:30–16:30 – Final discussion and wrap-up
16.30 – 17.30 Borrel/Apero