"DECONSTRUCTING ISLAMOPHOBIA: Immigration, Globalization, & Constructing The Other"

"DECONSTRUCTING ISLAMOPHOBIA:
Immigration, Globalization, & Constructing The Other"

April 25 & 26, Friday & Saturday, all-day, 2-day conference, from 8:30am-6:30pm

In today’s world, Islam and Muslims are the feared “other” and the responses to the perceived threat they pose is already connected to every local, regional and global process.

The “othering Islam and Muslims” is already well underway with devastating consequences in Muslim communities, where virtual states of siege has set in, and in societies at large, where civil rights and protections have been severely curtailed in the name of “security.” Despite the manifold and variegated implications of Islamophobia as a structural organizing principle, the topic has yet to receive comprehensive treatment in the academy.

The conference seeks to provide an open scholarly exchange, exploring new approaches to the study of the current period, de-constructing the organizing processes that gave birth to Islamophobia, and studying its interconnectedness to existing and historical otherness in the areas of race, gender and “post-colonial” studies. The conference will explore and pose a number of questions that can be the springboard for further collaborative and multidisciplinary approaches to de-constructing Islamophobia.

How should we approach Islamophobia and how can we think of it within the field(s) of post-colonial studies and/or Ethnic Studies? What would be Islamophobia's impact on the move from a post-colonial into a de-colonization approach? What new or modified theoretical frameworks should be employed? How adequate are current methodologies in existing academic fields to the task of de-constructing Islamophobia. Can these methodologies be adjusted or do we need an entirely new paradigm? If so, then what, where and how?"


April 25-26, 2008

All-day conference

Lipman Room, Barrows Hall
UC Berkeley

For complete schedule see:
http://crg.berkeley.edu/

http://crg.berkeley.edu/pictures/CRG_Islamophobia_4-17.pdf


Speakers:

Mohammad Tamdgidi UMass Boston ∞ Mayanthi L. Fernando Washington Univ. in St. Louis ∞ Enrique Dussel University of Mexico ∞ Khaldoun Samman Macalester College ∞ Kathleen Moore UC Santa Barbara ∞ Salman Sayyid Univesity of Leeds ∞ Tariq Modood University of Bristol ∞ Peter Gottschalk Wesleyan University ∞ Ferruh Yilmaz UC San Diego ∞ Suad Joseph UC Davis ∞ Sunaina Maira UC Davis ∞ Rabab Abduhadi San Francisco State ∞ Louise Cainkar Marquette University ∞ Nelson Maldonado-Torres UC Berkeley ∞ Ella Shohat New York University ∞ Dina al-Kassim UC Irvine ∞ ∞Ula Taylor UC Berkeley ∞ Munir Jiwa Graduate Theological union ∞ Hatem Bazian UC Berkeley ∞ Evelyn Nakano Glenn UC Berkeley ∞ Samira Esmeir UC Berkeley ∞ Ramon Grosfoguel UC Berkeley ∞ Hamid Algar UC Berkeley ∞ Zaid Shakir Zaytuna Institute ∞ Parvez Ahmed CAIR ∞ Ferruh Yilmaz UC San Diego ∞ Sonia S'hiri UC Berkeley ∞ Angana Chatterji California Institute of Integral Studies


Cosponsored by: UC Berkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies ∞ Religion, Politics, and Globalization Program ∞ Berkeley Diversity Research Initiative ∞ Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union ∞ Arab and Muslim Ethnicities Diaspora Studies ∞College of Ethnic Studies, SFSU∞ Center for Race and Gender, University of California, Berkeley