YEAR IN REVIEW COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
CSMS CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF MUSLIM SOCIETIES
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CSMS CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF MUSLIM SOCIETIES
Founded in 2018, the Center for the Study of Muslim Societies (CSMS) is in its second year. This emerging collective acts as an umbrella for faculty collaborations in cutting-edge research, integrated programming, innovative teaching and new forms of public outreach across the related fields of research on Islam and Muslim societies at Columbia University. It addresses majority and minority Muslim societies, and their intersections with other religions, cultures and secular outlooks. CSMS crosses disciplines, area specializations and schools to create an institutional venue for faculty to collaborate on scholarly projects, build new initiatives and develop pedagogical tools. CSMS draws together over 80 Columbia scholars and 14 language lecturers concerned with aspects of Muslim societies, including those in the Middle East, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas. CSMS also benefits from strong student engagement and leadership in developing new programming and undertaking new research in the field.
During the 2020 calendar year, CSMS received a second year of funding from Columbia’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy to convene workshops and host new programming. At the end of the academic year, CSMS won a Dean’s Humanities War & Peace Initiative Grant for its proposal, “The Humanities in the Wake of War? Technologies of Power, Displaced Histories and Reconstruction,” which will bring faculty and fellows, students and scholars at risk, together with artists and archivists to consider the past and future role of the humanities in the wake of wars. The project is a response to the destruction witnessed in recent years in the Middle East in particular, and it is a recognition of our responsibility as much as our interest to rethink disciplinary knowledge and the role of the academy in the aftermath of a century of wars.
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CSMS.COLUMBIA.EDU
SPRING 2020 EVENTS The Making of Lissa: Comics, Gender, and Medicine in the Arab World January 23:
Sherine Hamdy, University of California Caroline Brewer and Sarula Bao, illustrator
Re-Approaching Architecture of the Lands of Islam Series: Conservation and Restoration February 10:
Igor Demchenko, GSAPP Columbia University
February 11:
Talk: Fiction as Islamic Historiographical Alterity
Shahzad Bashir, Brown University
Sameness, Difference, and Embodiments of Desire in 1001 Nights February 20:
Dr. Zayde Antrim, Trinity College
Book Talk: The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge March 3:
Darryl Li, University of Chicago.
Re-Approaching Architecture of the Lands of Islam Series: On Photographic Monumentalism March 9:
Ali Behdad, UCLA California
SPRING 2020 EVENTS - CONT. May 30:
New Moon Rising: American Muslim Artists Perform
Hosted by Kathryn Spellman Poots, Hisham Aidi & Hussein Rashid
CSMS was honored to be able to bring together the diverse musicians who shared their incredible talents in this concert. Their artistry broke through the confines of remote performance and touched people around the world. In solidarity with move-ments in protest of racial inequalities, racism and bigotry, their shared voices transcend boundaries and demonstrate how we can all unite.
Recording available here: https://www.mei.columbia.edu/news-spring2020/video-recording-new-moon-rising-concert
FALL 2020 EVENTS Wisdom Encoded: The Digital Kalīla wa-Dimna July 6, 13, 20, & 27:
Hanya Salah, Columbia Global Centers Matthew L. Keegan, Columbia University Beatrice Gruendler, Freie Universität Berlin Bilal Orfali, American University of Beirut Rima Redwan, Freie Universität Berlin
October 5:
Readings in the Khalidiyya
Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
October 1:
Film Screening and Q&A: "Islam De Cuba"
Marzia Rumi, Director
November 12:
Mawlid 2020: A commemoration of the birth of the Propet
Alhassan Abubakari, poet and reciter
SHARĪʿA WORKSHOPS īʿ
The shar a, or Islamic law, is an exceedingly rich and essential part of the wider Islamic tradition, and a focus of robust academic scholarship. At Columbia, the legacy of such work dates to renowned faculty members such as Richard Gottheil (1862-1936) and Joseph Schacht (1902-1969). CSMS, in collaboration with the MEI
īʿ
organizes the Shar a Workshop series to actively promote scholarly inquiry and
īʿ
debate in the field of Shar a Studies. This workshop brings together faculty and graduate students from Columbia and other universities in the region for intensive discussions of new research on topics related to Islamic law by leading specialists invited from the US and abroad.
Workshops: “Tribal Villages in Mamluk Palestine: Exploring the Haram Al-Sharif Documents" January 30:
With Yossef Rapoport (Queen Mary University of London)
Roundtable Discussion: New Work in Sharia September 24:
Roy Bar Sadeh (Columbia), Lorenzo Bondioli (Princeton), Aaron Glasserman (Columbia), Sohaib Khan (Columbia), Aseel Najib (Columbia), Ian VanderMeulen (NYU)
Sharia Roundtable: The Ḥawza and the Sharia October 22
with Seyed Masoud Noori (NYU Law School), Aun H. Ali (University of Colorado), Aria Nakissa (Washington University, St. Louis), Ali Moughania (Columbia University)
THE ADAB COLLOQUIUM The adab Colloquium brings together scholars of Islamicate languages who study the cross-cultural, transregional phenomenon of adab. The term adab, usually translated as “literature” in the post-colonial world, had a much wider range of ethical and generic connotations in pre-colonial contexts. The MEI & CSMSsponsored adab Colloquium at Columbia is a platform for scholars whose work engages with the range of adab practices of reading, writing, and performance from the 6th century down to the 19th century. The colloquium brings together faculty and graduate students from Columbia and other universities in the region for intensive discussions of new research by leading specialists invited from the US and abroad.
Workshops: The conceptual resonance of Arabic Literary terms through the prism of Jinas December 18:
Hany Rashwan, University of Birmingham
Re-Reading Rekhtah: Vali Dakkani And The Origins Of Urdu Ghazal November 18:
Sara Hakeem Grewal, MacEwan University
Classical Arabic Poetics And The Rise Of An Aesthetic Of Wonder October 28:
Lara Harb, Princeton University
The Imprint Of The Era In The Adab Of The Times: Circulation And The Persianate At Empire’s End September 23:
Mana Kia, Columbia University
MA DUAL DEGREE PROGRAM In December 2019, CSMS and MEI officially launched the new Dual Degree program in Islamic Studies and Muslim Societies with our partner, the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations (ISMC) at Aga Khan University. The first class of students was admitted for the Fall 2020 semester. Building on the success of our free standing one-year MA in Islamic Studies, the partnership brings together two leading institutions in the study of Muslim societies, historically and in the contemporary era, with interdisciplinary and global perspectives. This 21st century Muslim Cultures degree will provide students with the tools and frameworks to understand Muslim cultures in a comparative and historical context to deepen their understanding of the richness and complexity of the religious and intellectual traditions of Islam and the diverse regional histories, cultures, and social formations of Muslim societies around the world. The dual program unites a cutting-edge scholarly community of over one hundred specialized faculty members and language instructors and gives students access to the distinctive academic resources of both universities.
Carl Amrhein (left), Provost of Aga Khan University, shakes hands with Ira Katznelson, Columbia’s Interim Provost
Provosts Carl Amrhein and Ira Katznelson.
Faculty leadership at Columbia and Aga Khan's AKU-ISMC
Dual degree core course All students begin with the core seminar, Foundation to Islamic Studies and the Study of Muslim Societies, an interdisciplinary course addressing key methodological and theoretical issues in the comparative study of the Muslim world.
What people are saying about the program
“This partnership will foster the development of the theoretical and practical perspectives needed to understand how Muslim societies are responding to pressing global challenges. At this moment in history, such an endeavor is especially important.” -
Ira
Katznelson,
Columbia
University’s
Interim
Provost
and
Ruggles
Professor of Political Science and History.
“This is an excellent opportunity for students to experience two world-class programs which complement and add value to each other in many ways. Now more than ever, we need to educate people to become leaders who have a deep and nuanced understanding of Islamic issues, enabling them to offer clear and thoughtful insight and guidance. The depth and breadth that this new program offers is unique and will prepare a group of young people to tackle some of the most important and pressing issues of their generation.” - AKU-ISMC Dean, Professor Leif Stenberg.
“The partnership of Columbia's Middle East Institute (MEI) with the Aga Khan University's Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations marries two of the strongest Islamic Studies programs in the world. Columbia's historic depth in the field, which begins in the nineteenth century, and AKU's wide-ranging breath, with its extensive academic networks from Central Asia to East Africa and even North America, will offer students and the public unparalleled opportunities for learning new and important knowledge about the Muslim world,” - Lisa Anderson, special lecturer and dean emerita at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
PEOPLE AT CSMS Lila Abu-Lughod, Joseph L. Buttenwieser
Zainab Bahrani, Edith Porada Professor
Professor of Social Science,
of Ancient Near Eastern Art and
Anthropology
Archaeology
Manan Ahmad, Associate Professor of
Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser
History
Professor of Philosophy
Hisham Aidi, Lecturer SIPA
Sarah bin Tyeer, Assistant Professor MESAAS
Nora Akawi, Assistant Professor, Cooper Union
Hiba Bou Akar, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia GSAPP
Atefeh Akbari, Term Assistant Professor, English, Barnard College
Zeynep Çelik, Adjunct Professor, History
Muhsin al-Musawi, Professor MESAAS
Kaoukab Chebaro, Head, Global Studies, Columbia University Libraries
Mohamed Amer Meziane, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, IRCPL
Alessandra Ciucci, Assistant Professor of Music, Ethnomusicology
Lisa Anderson, James T. Shotwell Professor Emerita of International
Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian
Relations; Dean Emerita of SIPA
Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature
Amale Andraos, Dean of GSAPP S. Bachir Diagne, Professor of French Gil Anidjar, Professor of Religion, the
and of Philosophy
Department of MESAAS and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society
Mamadou Diouf, Leitner Professor MESAAS
Marwa Elshakry, Associate Professor of
Brinkley Messick, Professor of
History
Anthropology and MESAAS
Katherine Ewing, Professor of Religion
Timothy Mitchell, William B Ransford Professor MESAAS
Najam Haider, Associate Professor in the Department of Religion, Barnard
Manijeh Moradian, Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies,
Ziad Jamaleddine, Assistant Professor of
Barnard
Architecture and Urban Design, Columbia GSAPP
Hussein Rashid, Lecturer, The New School
Matthew L. Keegan, Assistant Professor,
Jerusha Rhodes, Assistant Professor of
Moinian Chair in Pre-Modern Middle
Islam & Interreligious Engagement, Union
Eastern Cultures and Civilizations,
Seminary
Barnard Dagmar Riedel, Columbia University Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of
Seminars, Religion and Writing
Modern Arab Studies History & MESAAS A. Tunç
Şen, Assistant Professor of
Mana Kia, Assistant Professor MESAAS
History
Brian Larkin, Professor of Anthropology,
Avinoam Shalem, Riggio Professor of the
Barnard
History of the Arts of Islam
Peter Magierski, Middle East and Islamic
Kathryn Spellman Poots, Visiting
Studies Librarian
Associate Professor, Middle East Institute
Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman
Pier Mattia Tommasino, Assistant
Professor of Government; MESAAS; and
Professor of Italian
Anthropology Elaine van Dalen, Assistant Professor of Gregory Mann, Professor of History
Classical Islamic Studies & MESAAS
CSMS CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF MUSLIM SOCIETIES CSMS.COLUMBIA.EDU
606 West 122 Street Knox Hall - 3rd Floor New York, New York 10027