Weekend Scholarship Roundup

SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP

On Islamic Law

• In Muslim Women between Community and Individual Rights: Legal Pluralism and Marriage in South Africa (Springer, 2024), Fatima Mukaddam (University of Luzern, Switzerland) “presents an in-depth exploration of the intricate negotiations of married Muslim women within Cape Town’s Muslim communities, navigating the complexities of legal pluralism governed by Muslim Personal Law (MPL).”
• The American Journal of Comparative Law (vol. 118, 2024) recently published a symposium on Rabiat Akande‘s (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University) “An Imperial History of Race-Religion in International Law” that featured the following contributions:
• “Introduction to the Symposium on Rabiat Akande, “An Imperial History of Race-Religion in International Law” by S. James Anaya (University of Colorado Boulder Law School) and Adrien K. Wing (University of Iowa College of Law) provide a concise introduction to the symposium, describing Akande’s work as having “delved into historical perspectives on European nineteenth- and twentieth-century empire, especially in its encounter with Africa and the Muslim World.”
• “Nineteenth-Century Contextualization of “Race-Religion” by Oded Y. Steinberg (Hebrew University) focuses on “Akande’s reconstruction of the historical aspect of the ‘race-religion’ nexus.”
• “From One Paradigm to Another: The Jewish History of Race and Religion in International Law” by Samuel Moyn (Yale Law School) describes Akande’s work as “draw[ing] attention to the gap in frameworks of protection from religious discrimination, on the compelling rationale that much contemporary discrimination continues to work through racialization.”
• “Racing Religion in the Palestine-Israel Discourse” by Sahar Aziz argues that “Rabiat Akande’s thesis[] offer[s] valuable insights into the racialized boundaries of contemporary Palestine-Israel discourse in the United States.”
• “South Africa and the ‘Othering’ of the ‘Non-Euro-Christian’ Religions” by Ntombizozuko Dyani-Mhango (University of Pretoria) describes Akande’s work as “the problematization of international law as an enabler of the othering of ‘non-Euro-Christian’ religions,” and proceeds to apply that framework to South Africa.
• “Race-Religious Discrimination in South Africa’s Hindu Marriages” by Waheeda Amien (University of Cape Town) argues that “Akande’s observation that ‘Euro-Christian foundations of the legal regime of religious liberty’ excluded minority religions from legal protections in colonial settler situations resonates in South Africa.”
• “The Significance of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” by S. James Anaya (University of Colorado Boulder Law School) “responds to Akande’s treatment of the Declaration and overall sidelining of relevant developments internationally concerning Indigenous peoples.”

On Islam and Data Science

• In “Comparative Analysis of Islamic Family Law and Normative Law: Examining the Causes of Divorce in Purwokerto, Indonesia” (Samarah: Jurnal Hukum Keluarga dan Hukum Islam 8, no. 2 (2024)) Durotun Nafisah and others, conducting in-depth interviews, find that couples consider divorce in accordance with Islamic law as “a final option when mediation becomes unfeasible.”

FIELD GUIDE TO ISLAMIC LAW ONLINE: RECENT SOURCES

The Field Guide to Islamic Law Online is an ever-growing collection of links to hundreds of links to primary sources and archival collections around the world, online.We recently added new resources to this list:

• Moroccan Culture is a webpage maintained by the University of Tennessee Knoxville that compiles resources on Morocco, its law and culture, including Islamic law and its application.

UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

PIL & Harvard Calendar:

• Call for Applications: Harvard Medieval Studies Undergraduate Research Fellows Program, June 20, 2024.

Calendar:

• Position opening: Musawah Programme Officer for the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) Region, May 31, 2024.
• Call for Papers: The Medieval Academy at 100, The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, March 20-22, 2025 (deadline: June 3, 2024).
• Conference in Honour of Shaheen Sardar Ali: Modern Challenges to Islamic Law: Exploring New Pathways, Max Planck Institute Hamburg, June 6-7, 2024.
• Leiden Yemeni Studies Lecture Series: Mapping the Past, Imagining the Future: Heritage Politics in Ḥūthī Yemen, June 24, 2024.
• Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Surveying and documentation of the archaeological city of Barca (Al-Marj), June 26, 2024.
• Symposium on Copyright in Islamic Legal Tradition, Istanbul, June 28-29, 2024.
• Workshop: ASLH Early Career Virtual Workshop, June 30, 2024.
• Call for Papers: The XI Islamic Legal Studies Conference, University of Muenster, June 30, 2024.
• Symposium: Knowledge in the Islamic Court: Evidence, Proof, Procedure Symposium – May 14-15, 2025 (Rabat, Morocco), June 30, 2024.
• Prize: Best dissertation, Middle East Medievalists, June 30, 2024.
• Call for Papers: De Jure: Jurnal Hukum dan Syar’iah, June 2024.
• Call for Proposals: Hot Topics Program, 2025 Association of American Law Schools Meeting, October 14, 2024.
• Search for Editor: International Journal of Middle East Studies, until an appointment is made.
• Internship opportunity: The Executive Office of the President, White House, various deadlines.
• Position opening: Academic mentor and field researcher in Iraq, Cordoba Peace Institute-Geneva (CPI) & ETH Zurich, rolling basis.
• Position opening: Academic mentor for researcher in Mogadishu, Cordoba Peace Institute-Geneva (CPI) & ETH Zurich.
• Call for Papers: Special Section – Lifewriting Annual and Islam.
• Call for Manuscripts: Advances in the Study of Islam, Edinburgh University Press.