ISLAMICIZING SPACE IN THE COSMOPOLIS: A TRANSATLANTIC CONFERENCE

April 23-24, 2004 9:00AM- 4:00PM
Sultan Room, 340 Stephens Hall

Calling for a conceptual shift in the way Muslims in North America and Europe are conventionally written about by examining the manifestations of Islam as a global cultural paradigm in the spaces of the cosmopolis. The dynamics of how space – in its urban, architectural and built forms - is produced, represented and perceived is explored through two situated discursive frames of reference: Muslim narratives and multiculturalism. The first examines the new social relationships, contingencies, and meanings which constitute ‘Islamised space’. The formation of Muslim solidarities and identities is shown to be contingent on relations that transcend both religious and local boundaries. The second discursive frame provides a distinct legislative and ideological orientation which mobilizes a reassertion of Muslim political and cultural identity in the representation of space, but also forms a dynamic space of intercultural exchange challenging homogenizing tendencies. Whether such tendencies exist in the consumption of ‘Islamised space’ raises yet another question. It is these interpretations, in their cultural, social and spatial forms that this conference and its parallel activity to be held in the United Kingdom in the Fall seek to investigate in different national contexts and among different Muslim groups.

Participants:
“Cosmopolitanism and Islam”
Professor Jan Nederveen Pieterse
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

“Islam(ism) and the Postcolonial Cosmopolis”
Dr. Bobby Sayyid
University of Leeds

“Mecca in Modernity: Postcolonial Transformations of Muslim Sacred Space”
Professor Juan Campo
University of California, Santa Barbara

“Space Matters: The Adjudication of a Dispute Concerning an Urban Mosque”
Professor Akel Kahera
Texas Tech University

“Visualising Difference: The Production and Consumption of Islamic Space in Birmingham”
Professor Liam Kennedy
University of Birmingham

“Is the Global City Changing Islamic Religiosity?”
Professor Jocelyne Cesari
Harvard University

Funded by a grant from the Al-Falah Program and the Institute of International Studies