Events

Jointly organised by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, The University of South Australia.

How have state and non-state efforts to distribute Muslims in time and space allowed for the containment of religious populations, or contributed to new manifestations of diversity and mobility? Did the contests between containment and connection generate new social, political, and ethical frameworks that might be construed through the explanatory framework of “Islamic cosmopolitanism”?

Islamic groups and individuals have long conceived of their faith as reflecting ideals of a broader universal community, a global umma. However, the actual practices and perceptions of what is considered the relevant boundaries and horizons of the Muslim community have varied across time and place. This international and interdisciplinary conference is designed to explore the interplay between projects of enclosure and the fashioning of cosmopolitan Islamic subjectivities in Asian contexts, historically and ethnographically. With the term “enclosure” we refer to those “productive” state and non-state projects designed to organize local populations within discrete geographic formations and homogenous religious communities. The term “Islamic cosmopolitanism” is used to denote a broad range of open-ended identities, affiliations, and engagements that allowed Muslims to stake out positions in a wider, global frame. The larger goal of the conference is to explore the relationship between efforts to control Muslims in the lightly regulated “wild spaces” of Asia, and paradoxically, the subsequent mobilities, connections, and ethical frameworks of mutual obligation that grew out of such efforts. Jointly hosted by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, The University of South Australia, this conference will bring together established and early-career researchers from around the world to explore these issues of enclosure and cosmopolitanism.

Specifically, the conference papers will address the following questions:

– How do colonial and post-colonial states attempt to territorialise lightly-regulated spaces? How do religion and Islam fit into this process of territorialization and regulation?
– How might the technologies of enclosure, paradoxically, generate reconfigured expressions of mobility, belonging and identification that transcend homogenized spatial and spiritual regimes?
– What constitutes “cosmopolitanism” in modern Muslim contexts? Should cosmopolitanism be construed strictly in terms of ethical, theological, and philosophical outlooks, or in a more practical and historical frame of mobility and border crossing? Where is this mobility located? What spatial forms are created and transcended in interactions between enclosure and cosmopolitanism?
– Can cosmopolitanism be a useful lens beyond urban middle and upper middle class circulations for understanding Muslims in lightly regulated “wild spaces”?

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. Kindly register early as seats are available on a first come, first served basis. We would gratefully request that you RSVP to Sharon at arios@nus.edu.sg indicating your name, organization, and email address.

CONTACT DETAILS

Conference Convenors

Dr Joshua GEDACHT
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Dr Amrita MALHI
International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, The University of South Australia

Assoc Prof Michael FEENER
Asia Research Institute, and Department of History, National University of Singapore

Prof AbdouMaliq SIMONE
International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, The University of South Australia

Secretariat

Miss Sharon ONG
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
E | arios@nus.edu.sg