Call for Papers: The Journal of Islamic Law, Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School, November 1, 2021

The Journal of Islamic Law intends to publish a special issue exploring questions of racial justice and equality in a way that puts Islamic traditions in conversation with scholarship on contemporary Muslim communities.  As race continues to be a major fault line in today’s world and to impact the way Black people and other people of color–including many Muslims–are treated on a day-to-day basis, it is critical to understand how Islamic law and Muslim practice extending from it historically understood race and racial categories and to interrogate how resources from the history and traditions of Islam can or already do inform present-day conversations about racial justice and equality.  Possible topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Intellectual traditions and social movements challenging inequality and slavery or fighting for racial justice in historical Muslim communities
• The impact of structural racism, mass incarceration, policing practices, and the criminalization of immigration on Muslim communities, including the unique experiences and contributions of Black Muslims in the United States
• Islamic legal and ethical perspectives on emancipation, self-determination, intersectionality, reparations, antiracism, prison abolition/de-carceration, and other reforms of the criminal, immigration, and wider constitutional systems

The Journal of Islamic Law is interested in essays of between 6,000 and 8,000 words.  We will also consider articles of up to 25,000 words. To signal interest and a provisional paper submission pending peer review, please submit a proposed title and abstract of 250-500 words by Nov. 1, 2021. Once accepted, soon thereafter, the deadline for the submission of full drafts is February 1, 2022, after which we will go through a process of peer review, final acceptance, editing, and publication. This special issue of the Journal of Islamic Law is edited by Hedayat Heikal, Research Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Program in Islamic Law, and will be published in Spring/Summer 2022. Please refer to the Journal Submission Guidelines for guidelines on how to submit, what to include in your submission, and how to format citations. For questions, please contact us at pil@law.harvard.edu.