Reading Muslims

Basit Iqbal explores methodological debates in anthropology that have centered on the varying role of texts. The conversation turns to the difference between an anthropology of Muslims and an anthropology of Islam; the vexed disciplinary relationship between theology and anthropology; and the capacity of textually-grounded concepts to offer unexpected perspectives. He recounts how the role of texts in his own ethnographic project shifted and also impasses he now faces in the writing of violence.

Host: Joud Alkorani

Date recorded: Dec 25, 2020

Dr. Fadel joins this special edition podcast to discuss his beginnings in academia, and his observations about the field of Middle Eastern studies over time. He is joined by Dr. Emon as the two come together to discuss their approaches to Islamic law and legal studies, where textuality (and debates about it) has been and will likely continue to be central to the field of Islamic Legal studies.

Recorded: June 2021

Dr. Nukhet Varlik discusses the history of the plague and epidemic diseases in general. She elaborates on how some of the terminology used in plague studies still carries a colonial legacy and how the discovery of the pathogen responsible for the bubonic plague has helped counter some of these biased and disconnected accounts of the disease. She also stresses the importance of interdisciplinarity not only in interpreting sources but also in the future direction of the field.

Host: Sara Ameri

Recording date: Jun 24, 2021

Dr. Fadel joins this special edition podcast to discuss his beginnings in academia, and his observations about the field of Middle Eastern studies over time. He is joined by Dr. Emon as the two come together to discuss their approaches to Islamic law and legal studies, where textuality (and debates about it) has been and will likely continue to be central to the field of Islamic Legal studies.

Recorded: June 2021

Dr. Fadel joins this special edition podcast to discuss his beginnings in academia, and his observations about the field of Middle Eastern studies over time. He is joined by Dr. Emon as the two come together to discuss their approaches to Islamic law and legal studies, where textuality (and debates about it) has been and will likely continue to be central to the field of Islamic Legal studies.

Recorded: June 2021

Dr. Ali Usman Qasmi joins the Reading Muslims podcast to discuss the poltiics of readership in a post-colonial context, and how this politics plays out specifically in Pakistan. He speaks to us about the epistemic paraphernalia of classic Islamic jurisprudence texts and how it is appropriated for the legal structures of the modern nation-state. He also speaks about how reading practices that align with state ideals of Muslim citizenship can be instrumental to the process of Othering marginalized Muslim identities, and how scholarship can be used to read against the grain.

Host: Aaisha Salman

Date recorded: Apr 13, 2021

Professor Amira Mittermaier describes how her trajectory from being a student of Islamic Studies in Germany to an anthropologist in North America has shaped how she approaches texts in her research today. She reflects upon the multitude of ways texts matter to Muslims in Egypt, providing examples of the ways she centers these written works in her fieldwork—by reading key texts alongside her interlocutors, for instance. Professor Mittermaier also introduces listeners to her latest project, Ethnographies of God, exploring how it helps trouble the demarcation between anthropology and theology, and considering what this unsettling means for anthropologists of Islam and their engagement of texts.

Recorded: Dec 17, 2020

Professor Suzanne Conklin Akbari joins the Reading Muslims podcast to discuss reading practices with regards to Islamic texts and how they have changed the way we traditionally study Islam. She speaks about the plural temporality of texts, and how they impact different time periods in history. This episode covers the politics of how we read Islamic texts and how we distinguish between the materiality and history of the texts within academia.

Professor Nada Moumtaz joins the Reading Muslims podcast to discuss anthropology’s relationship to textuality in modern day research and fieldwork. This episode covers the complexities and difficulties that come with trying to engage in a tradition of textuality that is incredibly vast, and nuanced. Professor Moumtaz speaks about the different approach to methods and ethnography that exist within the field, and how the field is actively changing to reflect new practices of scholarship.

Recorded: December 14, 2020

Professor Bahoora joins the Reading Muslims podcast to discuss the formation of new genres and new modes of reading that correspond to historical shifts that shaped the emergence of the modern Arab world. He discusses the implications of using the word “Islamic” to describe texts. While also discussing historical and current reading practices and how they were affected and transformed by the Nahda.

Recorded: Nov 24, 2020