NISIS Conference in collaboration with Groningen University – 15 April, ’27

Beyond the Majority: Agency, Identity, and Memory among Non-Majority Communities in Muslim-Majority Contexts

This one-day conference, organized by NISIS and the University of Groningen,  invites researchers to explore the historical and contemporary experiences of non-majority communities in/from Muslim-majority contexts, particularly the Middle East. It focuses on religious, ethnic, linguistic, and sectarian communities that have often been studied through the categories of “minority,” “sect,” or “diaspora”.

Speakers

• Karène Sanchez-Summerer (RUG);
• Heleen Murre-van den Berg (RU);
• Antonia Bosanquet (UU);
• Ugur Ümit Üngör (UvA, still to be fully confirmed).

Panel

• Lucia Admiraal (RUG);
• Kiki Santing (RUG);
• Pieter Nanninga (RUG).

The conference encourages the following methodological reflection

1. How can young researchers work with oral histories, community archives, photographs, memoirs, religious texts, monuments, and digital sources?
2. What are the ethical challenges of researching communities affected by violence, displacement, or political vulnerability?
3. How can scholars avoid reproducing sectarian, nationalist, or colonial categories while still taking seriously the lived experiences of difference?

The conference will

• Critically examine the concepts of “minority,” “sectarianism,” “community,” and “non-majority” in relation to Muslim-majority contexts.
• Discuss how non-majority communities have negotiated state power, citizenship, violence, displacement, and belonging.
• Explore the role of memory, trauma, oral history, and intergenerational transmission in the preservation and transformation of communal identities.
• Highlight case studies of resistance, adaptation, coexistence, marginalisation, and diaspora formation across the MENA region and beyond.

Key questions

• How have non-majority communities in Muslim-majority contexts articulated agency under conditions of political, social, or religious asymmetry?
• How are categories such as “minority,” “sect,” “confession,” and “community” produced, contested, or rejected?
• What role do memory, trauma, and oral history play in preserving identity across generations?
• How do displacement, diaspora, and transnational networks reshape communal belonging?
• What kinds of sources and methods are best suited to studying communities whose histories may be fragmented, silenced, or dispersed across archives and oral traditions?

Programme

11:00-11:15: Doors Open

11:15-11:30: Welcome

11:30-12:15: Lecture 1 (30 minutes lecture + 15 minutes for questions)

12:15-13:00: Lecture 2 (30 minutes lecture + 15 minutes for questions)

13:00-14:00: Lunch Break

14:00-14:45: Lecture 3 (30 minutes lecture + 15 minutes for questions)

14:45-15:45: Lecture 4 (30 minutes lecture + 15 minutes for questions)

15.45-16.00: Break

16:00-17:00: Panel discussion

17:00-17:15: Closing

Register for this event:

NISIS Conference Beyond the Majority 15 April 2027

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