Autumn School “Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies in the Digital Age”

Registration is closed.

In 2012, the noted scholar of literature and digital humanist Jerome McGann wrote than “traditional programs are graduating Ph.D. students with no programmatic training in the tools and resources that have already become a regular part of their scholarly and educational lives… If our curricula and students are to be taken seriously in a globally digitized world, our undergraduate and graduate programs of study will have to be critically re-examined and redesigned” (McGann, 2012: 65). Despite such prophetic calls, study programmes in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies have been slow to take up the challenge of reflecting on the ongoing shift to studying digital phenomena and to the digitization of research tools. The NISIS Autum School 2019 addresses these issues heads-on, by showcasing senior scholars of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies who have made digital methods a cornerstone of their research, and by inviting contributors to reflect on the digital dimension of their work. Topics to be addressed will include: fieldwork on the internet (digital Islam, online fatwas, Middle Eastern and Arabic websites, etc.); the analysis of Muslim digital networks; authority, gender and diversity in Muslim digital environments; technical aspects of doing research in the digital age (OA publishing and data management); the rise of Islamicate Digital Humanities (including a workshop introduction to some basic programming tools and web-based portals); and more.

We are very pleased to announce that the following scholars will deliver a keynote during the Autumn School: Dr. Mona Abdel-Fadil (University of Oslo), Dr. Bettina Gräf (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Dr. Cornelis van Lit (Utrecht University), Mirjam Shatanawi MA (Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen) and Prof. Jo Van Steenbergen (Ghent University).

Program

Monday, 28 October
12.00-12.45: Registration and lunch (Drift 21, Sweelinckzaal)
13.00-14.00: Keynote 1: Through the Looking-Glass: Going Beyond Using Your Monitor as an Image Viewer and Your Keyboard as a Typewriter. Cornelis van Lit, Utrecht University (Utrecht University Hall)
14.00-15.00: Keynote 2: Debates of Islamic art and culture – the digital turn in museums. Mirjam Shatanawi, Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Utrecht University Hall)
15.00-17.00: Panel 1 Mirjam Shatanawi (Drift 21, Sweelinckzaal)
17.30–19.00: Movie and panel Karlstraße 10: In Search for Muslims throughout Interwar Europe (Drift 25, room 1.02)
19.00: Conference dinner at Winkel van Sinkel

Tuesday, 29 October
9.30-10.30: Keynote 3: The Green Scare & The Politics of Affect. Mona Abdel-Fadil, University of Oslo (Utrecht University Hall)
10.45-12.30: Panel 2 Mona Abdel-Fadil (Drift 21, Sweelinckzaal)
12.30-14.00: lunch (Drift 21, Sweelinckzaal)
14.00-17.00: Panel 3 Jo van Steenbergen (Drift 21, Sweelinckzaal)
17.30-18.30: Keynote 4: Why I am not a digital humanist. Computational experiences and reflections of a Mamlukist (who doesn’t want to be a Mamlukist
either!). Jo Van Steenbergen, Ghent University (Utrecht University Hall)

Wednesday, 30 October
9.30-17.30: Workshop Digital Humanities Cornelis van Lit (Drift 21, Sweelinckzaal and Drift 23, room 0.12)

Thursday, 31 October
9.30-10.30: Keynote 5: “When They Read What We Write” in the Digital Age: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies as a Form of Self-Reflexive and Sentient Media Practice. Bettina Gräf, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Drift 21, Sweelinckzaal
11.00-12.30: Panel 4 Bettina Gräf (Drift 21; Sweelinckzaal)