Zulfikar Hirji Lecture

When:
Wednesday,
27 November 2019
Time:
6-7pm
Where:
Fox Lecture Hall, Arts Building, UWA
Cost:
Free
Audience:
General Public, Faculty/Staff, Students, Alumni

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Islam: an Illustrated Journey

Re-presenting Islam and Muslims Post 9/11: Images, Words and Refusals

A public lecture by Zulfikar Hirji, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, York University, Toronto.

In a Post-9/11 world of evermoving words and images, how do we respond to negative and stereotypical representations of Islam and Muslims? Zulfikar Hirji discusses the perennial challenge of decolonizing and deorientalising portrayals of Islam and Muslims by drawing upon and theories of ‘recognition’ and ‘refusal’ articulated by Indigenous scholars in North America, and by reflecting upon his journey through academia and experience of producing Islam: An Illustrated Journey (2018), a book that explores the diverse histories of Islam and Muslims over more than 1400 years.

Zulfikar Hirji (DPhil, Oxford) is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at York University, Toronto. Professor Hirji’s scholarly interests are on Islam and Muslims in historical and contemporary contexts and on issues of knowledge production, representation and identity, visual and material culture, and critical pedagogy. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in South Asia, East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe and North America. His publications include The Ismailis: An Illustrated History (2008), Diversity and Pluralism in Muslim Contexts (2010), Between Empires (2012), Islam: An Illustrated Journey (2018), and Approaches to the Qur’an in sub-Saharan Africa (2019).