BRISMES 2021 Conference
The 2021 BRISMES Annual Conference was held online from 5 to 9 July 2021. This conference, which was originally planned to take place at the University of Kent in 2020, was postponed to 2021 and then moved online due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Keynote Talks
Caroline Rooney
‘The Revolution is a Woman’: From Woke Culture to the Arab Awakening.
This presentation will begin with a consideration of the manifesto launched last year by French scholars that makes the case that woke culture is responsible for extremist terror and that postcolonial studies is responsible for this in its promotion of identity politics. What will be maintained is that extremism and revolutionary radicalism are different formations, and the presentation will further clarify key differences between woke culture and the awakening of the Arab uprisings, particularly with respect to how women were at the forefront of these uprisings, hence the slogan: ‘The revolution is a woman.’
Recorded on 5 July 2021. Moderated by Nicola Pratt, University of Warwick.
amina wadud
Islamic Feminism: What’s in a Name?
This presentation will provide a overview of the historical development of a hybrid Islam combined with an intersectional feminism: Islamic Feminism. Islamic Feminism is a conflation of several factors impacting discourse, research and activism by and about Muslim women. Islamic Feminism is distinct from Muslim Feminism as a critical hermeneutical approach to texts in deference to contexts. It creates alternative readings to those canonized throughout Muslim history in order to remove Islam from the centuries long privileging of patriarchy.
Recorded on 7 July 2021. Moderated by Malaka Shwaikh, University of St Andrews.
Pinar Bilgin
Nowhere to run? Decolonising the study of the Middle East between Area Studies and International Relations
For years, we have come to think of the knowledge/power relationship in Middle East Studies in terms of the ways in which knowledge has served power via Oriental or Area Studies. More recently, we have come to understand the ways in which International Relations, too, has been shaped by concerns with ordering the world not only in terms of policy advice but also the shaping of concepts and theories. What does it take to decolonise the study of the Middle East when we are caught between two fields that are deeply implicated in concerns with ordering the world?
Recorded on 9 July 2021. Moderated by Neve Gordon, Queen Mary University of London.
BRISMES Campaigns Launch
Middle East Studies in Practice and Anti-Colonial Education
This panel is the public launch of BRISMES Campaigns Limited, the independent subsidiary of BRISMES, formed to honour the boycott resolution passed by BRISMES members at the AGM of 2019. An exciting line up of panellists will engage on vital issues of politics and power in contemporary education and Middle East Studies, and the purpose and campaigning agenda of BRISMES Campaigns will be explained, along with ways to get involved.
Recorded on 7 July 2021.
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