The Program in Islamic Law (PIL) has curated a list of panels from the Middle East Studies Association‘s (MESA) 2024 Annual Meeting schedule that are related to Islamic law and history, and data science. MESA’s fifty-eighth annual meeting will be held between November 11-15, 2024. The full program is available here. Register here. Is there a session missing that you’d like to see here? Send us a note at pil@law.harvard.edu.
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- Invisible Intimacies in Everyday Gendered Spheres in Egypt – November 11, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Heba M Khalil, Sexualized Bodies: Lawyers’ Everyday Battles in Egypt’s Courts.
2. Medieval Material Culture – November 11, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Taha Poonawala, The Art of Ostentation: Fatimid Coins as Markers of Authority, Ideology, and Identity;
- Husain Dungarpurwala, Color Contrast of Legitimacy: White Symbolism in the Fatimid Empire;
- Elias G. Saba, Text(iles): Dress and Fashion in Mamluk-Era Legal Sources;
- Umar Shareef, Taqyīd al-Mubāḥ and Tobacco: Between Ottoman Administrative and Legislative Authority;
3. Production of Knowledge – November 11, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Sezer Durak, Islam Encounters Nationalism: Mehmet Akif Ersoy on National Identity.
4. Gulf Practices of Citizenship and Labor – November 11, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Alex Boodrookas, Comrades Estranged: The Struggle for Noncitizen Rights in Postcolonial Kuwait;
- Lauren Clingan, “In Dubai, It’s Very Difficult:” Neoliberal Foreclosures and Gendered Sacrifices for Work and Family;
- Mahasin Saleh, Advocating for Family-Friendly Policies: First-Time Fathers’ and Mothers’ Recommendations for Parental Leave in Qatar;
- Keye Tersmette, Democratic Refusal: Silent Citizenship in Oman;
5. Feminism and Fabulations – November 11, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Hiba Ghanem, Translating Untranslatables: Women’s Rights through the Lens of Political Cartoons in Turkey, Iran, and Egypt.
6. Tradition and Change in Modern Islam – November 11, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Samaneh Oladi, Between Piety and Autonomy: Women’s Quest for Emancipation;
- Nareman Amin, A Shaykh in Gym Clothes: Abdallah Rushdy, Religious Authority and Gender in the Age of Social Media;
- Nesya Rubinstein-Shemer, Fatwās for an Unprecedented Minority: Sheikh Rāʾid Badīr and the Fiqh of Medical Transplantation for Muslims Living in Israel;
- Rezart Beka, Abdulla Bin Bayyah (b. 1935) and Neo-Traditionalism: A Critical Evaluation;
- Nadir Ansari, “Tradition Must Be Left Out”: Questioning of the Tafsīr Tradition by the Modernist Islamic Reformers and the Response from the Traditional “Islamist Tafsīr” – The Case of al-Bayḍāwī;
- Wael Abu-Uksa, The Language of Secularism in Arabic: Terminology, Semantics and Anatomy.
7. Justice and Human Rights – November 11, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Mansour Almaswari, Human Rights Violations During Wartime in Yemen: Unveiling the Reality of Abduction, Detention and Forcible Disappearance Between (2018-2023);
- John Miller, Rival Conceptions of Justice and the Critique of Patriarchy in Iran;
- Lillian Frost, Temporary Citizens: Precarious Gaza Refugee Rights in the Shadow of Jordan’s Law.
8. Environmental Challenges in the Middle East: A Comparative Analysis of Legislative and Governmental Policies in Iran and Lebanon (1900-Present) – November 11, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Saghar Sadeghian, Evolution of Forest Management: Analyzing the Actions of the First Five Iranian Constitutional Parliaments (1906-1926).
9. Feeling as Knowing: Affect, Intellect, and Embodiment in Islam – November 11, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Sara Omar, Indeterminate Bodies, Desire and Sexing Oneself in Muslim Legal Discourses.
10. Perspectives on Race and Unfreedom – November 11, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Benjamin Berman-Gladstone, “They Were Disobedient Slaves”: The 1943 Rebellion of Enslaved People in Shiḥr and Mukalla;
- Seong Hyun Kim, The Promise of Slave Trade Revival by the Egyptian Khedivate in East Africa: A Case of the Khedival Ambivalent Stance to Anti-Slavery in the 1870s;
- Alaa El-Shafei, Convicts and Conscripts: Race and Colonial Carcerality in Egypt and Sudan, 1880-1920;
- Thomas Kuehn, Slave Traders in the Service of Empire: Ottoman Imperial Governance in Yemen and the Red Sea Slave Trade, 1880-1914.
11. Muslim Pilgrimage: Sacred Spaces, Infrastructural Barriers, and Anti-Patriarchal Discourse – November 11, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Sarah Eskandari, Faith, Fight, Flight: Women and Counter-Patriarchal Discourse through Pilgrimage, 1850-1925;
- Yahya Nurgat, Between the Sacred and the Mundane: Ottoman Scholars and the Practicalities of the Early Modern Hajj;
- Karen C. Pinto, Through the Directionality of Pilgrimage and Prayer: Ways of Seeing Mecca, Medina, and Other Sacred Places.
12. (Post)Colonial Violence – November 12, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Moheb Zidan, Capital Punishment in Palestine during the British Mandate;
- Cyma Farah, Constitutionalism as Counterinsurgency: The Case of Lebanon’s 1926 Constitution.
13. Queer Pasts and Futures – November 12, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Fatima Al-Muntafik, Queerness in Islamic History;
- Berkant Caglar, Entangling Contentious Publics between Queers and Muslim Feminists in Legal Cases.
14. Islam and Imagination: Interpretation, Experience and Contestation – November 12, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Seyed Amir Asghari, Beyond Jurisprudence: Imagination as a Catalyst in Shia Political Philosophy.
15. Diplomacy through (Mis)Communication: Material and Discursive Perspectives from the Ottoman World, 18th and 19th Centuries – November 13, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Jelena Radovanovic, The Ghost of the Cadastre: Untranslatability in Diplomacy between the Ottoman Empire and Serbia.
16. Property, Proof, and Paper: Contestations of Legal Entitlement in Islamic Law – November 13, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Laura Emunds, Notarial Manuals as a Source for Manumission Practices in Mamluk Egypt;
- Omar Abdel-Ghaffar, Uncharitable Foundations;
- Ari Schriber, The Power of the Document: Constituting Proof of Land Ownership in Colonial-Era Morocco.
17. Feminist Consciousness and Social Movements – November 13, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Hajer Ben Hadj Salem, The Pilgrimage to Gender Equality in Tunisia after 2011: The Contentious History of a Founding Ideal.
18. The Graveyard of Law: Interdisciplinary and Transnational Approaches to Palestine – November 13, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Presenters: Dr. Lisa Hajjar; Dr. Aslı Bâli; Dr. Maya Mikdashi; Ms. Noura Erakat.
19. Gender Politics in Tunisia Following the Arab Spring – November 13, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Maro Youssef, Secular Feminist Coalitions during Democratization: Findings from Tunisia, 2011-2021;
- Hind Ahmed Zaki, Veiled Transgressions: Afterlives of the Hijab Ban and the Paradoxes of State Feminism in Tunisia;
- Khedija Arfaoui, Women’s Associations in Tunisia Today;
- Mounira M. Charrad, Top Down, Bottom Up: A Path Analysis of Gender Politics in Tunisia.
20. The Institution of Waqf: New Perspectives – November 13, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Reda Rafei, Dunia Wa Din: Gender Implications Of Waqf Establishment, Benefit, Management, And Pre-Mortem Planning;
- Madonna Aoun Ghazal, Waqf in Late Ottoman Beirut: Legal Practice and Gender;
- Dilyara Agisheva, Waqf in Transition and Shifting Legal Structures in Crimea Following the Russian Annexation in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries;
- Randi C. Deguilhem, Family Waqf as a Patriarchal Tool: An Upper Class Woman’s Endowment for Her Husband’s Nephews in 19th Century Damascus.
21. Political Parties and Democratic Struggles – November 13, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Aline Alencar, Emergence of a Democratic Islamist Movement.
22. New Explorations in Mamlūk History from Cairo to Jerusalem and Mecca: Archival Practices, Regional Perspectives, Autobiographical Sketches, and Legitimizing Biographies – November 14, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Bogdan Smarandache, “We Are with the Sultan”: Revisiting the Termination of the Frankish-Mamluk Truce of 682 AH/1283 AD.
23. Evolving Expressions of Belonging in the UAE – November 14, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Michael Ewers, Migrant Bargaining via Social Networks in the UAE: The Role of Wasta.
24. Legal Pluralism and Women’s Status in Muslim Majority/Minority Contexts – November 14, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Joel Hanisek, A Contemporary Analysis of Fatwas in Europe in Relation to Socio-religious Practice and National Policies;
- Nazife Kosukoglu, Resisting Impunity: Honor Killings and Ottoman Judicial Decision-Making in the Second Constitutional Period;
- Afrooz Maghzi, Religion-Based Legal Pluralism under Iranian Law and Its Impact on Women from Religious Minorities.
25. Expressions of the Medieval Self – November 14, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Gamze Akbaş, Contrasting Approaches to Women’s Power in Islamic Political Writing: ʿUmara al-Yamani’s History of Yemen and Nizam al-Mulk’s Book of Government.
26. Practical and Innovative Pedagogies in the Middle East Studies Classroom – November 14, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Presenters: Dr. Sean Foley; Dr. Victoria Hightower; Dr. Claire Panetta; Dr. Shuang Wen; Dr. Levi Thompson; Dr. Marcus Smith.
27. Theorizing from a Crossroads: Ethnographic and Historical Approaches to Jordan – November 14, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Tariq Adely, Crafting Arabic: The Politics and Ethics of Making Language into Data in Amman’s Tech Sector;
- Alex Jreisat, The Adwani Connection: Affective Geographies of Smuggling Across the Jordan River.
28. Towards a Feminist Artificial Intelligence (AI): Critical Studies on LLMs, Surveillance, Algorithmic Bias, and Social Justice – November 14, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- VJ Um Amel, Surveillance AI, Occupation, and Glitch Resistance in Palestine;
- Azza El-Masri, A Gendered Approach to AI Translational Datasets: Examining Google Translate and ChatGPT’s Arabic-English Processes;
- Mai ElSherief, What Is a Feminist Language Model?.
29. Representing the State – November 14, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Nihat Celik, Jurist and Diplomat: The Life and Career of Müftîzâde Ahmed (d.1791);
- Charles L. Wilkins, Provincial Governors as Judicial Authorities: The Assessment and Collection of Legal Fines in 17th-Century Ottoman Aleppo and Diyarbakir;
- Marissa Smit-Bose, Between Venice and Rome: Re-assessing Mantuan-Ottoman Diplomacy in the Reign of Bayezid II;
- Thomas Carlson, Beyond Relevance or Irrelevance: The Social Function of Law and Jurists in Late Medieval Egypt;
- Geoffrey Levin, The Diplomat from Palestine: The Lost History (and Forgotten Archive) of Fayez Sayegh.
30. Legal Frameworks – November 14, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Abderrahmane Zaatri, Early Ẓāhirī Jurisprudential Exegesis: Notes on “Nukat al-Qurʼān al-dāllah ʻalá al-bayān fī anwāʻ al-ʻulūm wa-al-aḥkām” by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Karajī al-Qaṣṣāb;
- Grace Bickers, Knowledge and Testimony in Early Hanafi Fiqh;
- Mina Khalil, Defamed by Multitudes of Tongues: Defamation and the Making of Modern Egypt;
- Heather Sweetser and Zachary Manning, Haram to Halal: The Brewing of Coffee Consensus in Islamic Law.
31. Dynamics of Islamic Governance and Statehood in Zaydi Yemen: Legal Theory and Political Practice – November 15, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Ebrahim Mansoor, Between Tradition and Transition: Imām Sharaf al-Dīn’s Athmār al-Azhār and the Temporary Shift in 10th/16th Century Zaydi Fiqh;
- Ekaterina Pukhovaia, Innovating the Zaydi Political Order: The Will of Imam Yaḥyā Sharaf al-Dīn (d. 965/1557);
- Eirik Hovden, Who Can Appoint the Zaydi Imam? Changing the Rules ca. 1400-1550 CE;
- Kerstin Hünefeld, Zaydi Fiqh and Its Political Dimension: The Forced Conversion of Jewish Orphans as a Symptom of Insurgency against the Qāsimid State?.
32. The Politics and Discourses of Reform: Case Studies from the Middle East in the Arab Uprisings and their Aftermath – November 15, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Mulki Al-Sharmani, The Egyptian Religious Establishment and Post 2011 Reform Initiatives for the Family: What is Being Reformed?.
33. Surveys, Legal Briefs and Citizen Social Science: Producing Knowledge in the MENA – November 15, 2024 @ 11:30 am:
- Jonas Nabbe, Mapping Methodological Nationalism in Middle Eastern Studies: Toward a Transnational Understanding of the 2011 Arab Uprisings?;
- Hanna Baumann, Asking About “The Good Life” in Bad Circumstances: Citizen Social Science under Occupation and Violence;
- Kota Suechika, Electoral Fraud and Sectarian Oligarchy in Lebanon: Evidence from a Survey Experiment;
- Michael Samuel, The Nakba on Trial: Legalism, Denialism, and Pseudo-Moralism in Palestinian Deportations Cases From the 1950s.
34. Birth, Death and Taxes – November 15, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Nader Sohrabi, Of Petitions, Taxes and Democratization: Constitutionalism and the Public in Iran;
- Bita Mousavi, Property without Possession: Oil, Equality, and Nationalization in Iran;
- Navid Zarrinnal, State Formation and Adult Literacy in Iran (1925-1941);
- Can Gumus-Ispir, Sanitization as a Tool of Outsourcing the “Contingencies?”: Tax-Farming, Cholera, and Food Regulations in the Late Ottoman Istanbul;
- Bret Windhauser, Inspecting Corpses: Geographies of Health Centers and Officers in British Mandate Iraq.
35. Transmission of Islamic Knowledge: Structures and Networks – November 15, 2024 @ 2:30 pm:
- Maria Tedesco, Sitting in Doubt: American Muslims’ Redefinition of Authority and Epistemology within Islam;
- Omer Es, Structures of Rhetorical Delivery in the Qur’an: Formulaic Organization of Ceremonial, Legal, and Political Rhetoric.