McGill Islamic Studies Speakers Series

06/16/2025

Salaam everybody, we're merging with the McGill University - Institute of Islamic Studies page! 🔥 This page will become inactive or archived soon, so please follow the main Institute of Islamic Studies page for information about our upcoming Speakers Series.

Today, the Institute begins a new social media journey! You can follow us on Instagram and Bluesky @bsky.social, with a Mastodon account coming soon.

McGill University's Institute of Islamic Studies was founded in 1952 by Prof. Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916-2000). Prof. Smith had previously taught at Foreman Christian College (today's F. C. College) in Lahore, until the bloody Partition of Punjab.

02/07/2024

The Old Women of Nishapur Initiative on Gender, Knowledge, Religion

ECONOMY, CHARITY, FAMILY

A SEMINAR WITH PROF. NADA MOUMTAZ (U. of TORONTO)

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 6,
9:00 am --11:25 am
PETERSON HALL 108 (Critical Media Lab)

NADA MOUMTAZ is an Associate Professor in the Department for the Study of Religion and in the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Her fields of study intersect the Anthropology of Religion, Islamic Studies, and research on Culture & Politics. Her book, God’s Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State (2021), examines the contemporary Islamic revival of a centuries-old charitable practice of pious endowment in Beirut to shed new light on the secularization of religion through the lens of its separation from “the economy.”
To participate in the seminar please email: [email protected] to receive the pre-circulated readings that constitute the ground for the seminar discussion.

01/23/2024

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The Institute of Islamic Studies and the Old Women of Nishapour Initiative present:

Roundtable on the book:
"The Emergence of Shi'i Sufism: Sultan 'Ali Shah Gunabadi and His Commentary on the Qur'an"
Alessandro Cancian, Author, Institute of Ismaili Studies

Tuesday, January 30, 5 pm

Morrice Hall 328

Discussants: Reza Tabandeh (Brock University) & Saleh Pezhman (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill)

Chair of the panel: Setrag Manoukian (Institute of Islamic Studies and Anthropology, McGill)

Book description: The Bayan al-sa'ada fi maqamat al-'ibada (The Elucidation of Bliss concerning the Spiritual Stations of Worship) is a central work in the modern intellectual and religious history of Iran and Shi'i Islam. A Qur'anic commentary (tafsir) by Sultan 'Ali Shah Gunabadi (d. 1909), it represents a mature synthesis between Twelver Shi'ism and Sufism. In this first detailed study of Sultan 'Ali Shah's Bayan, Alessandro Cancian argues that this commentary represents the foundational act of modern Twelver Shi'i organised Sufism. Cancian first explores the intellectual contexts of Iranian Shi'ism and Sufism, before introducing the author and the text. The eponymous master of the largest branch of the Ni'matullahi Sufi order (the Gunabadiyya), Sultan 'Ali Shah was a religious scholar taught by some of the most authoritative Shi'i ulama of his time; a philosopher in the Akbarian/Sadrian tradition who studied with superstar Qajar philosopher Mulla Hadi Sabzawari (d. 1873); and a master of mysticism who drew from the classical tradition of Persian and Persianate Sufism. Cancian shows how these elements coalesced into the formation of a Shi'i Sufi tariqa, making a credible claim for Ni'matullahi Sufi legitimacy within the Twelver Shi'i establishment and influencing subsequent Qur'anic exegesis in Iran. Cancian then provides a thematic and genealogical analysis of the text alongside a study of its impact and legacy. A translation of Sultan 'Ali Shah's own introduction, outlining his hermeneutical approach and theological and philosophical principles, is provided in an appendix. This book will appeal to scholars in a range of disciplines within Islamic studies, including Qur'anic exegesis, Shi'i studies, Sufi studies, mysticism, and the intellectual history of Iran.

Dr Alessandro Cancian is Senior Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where he works on Shiʿi Sufism, Qur’anic exegesis and the intellectual and religious history of pre-modern Iran. A historian of religions and anthropologist by formation, he has published books and articles on religious education in Shiʿi Islam, Shiʿi Sufism and Qur’anic exegesis.

01/18/2024

This event is free but registration is required. Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/my-name-is-not-harry-a-conversation-with-haroon-siddiqui-tickets-794340663307

MISC and the Institute for Islamic Studies present esteemed journalist and author Haroon Siddiqui, who will discuss his new memoir, My Name Is Not Harry, offering commentary on contemporary Canada from the point of view of a reporter and columnist.

He will be joined in conversation by Professor Daniel Béland, Director of MISC and James McGill Professor of Political Science, for a wide-ranging discussion on issues such as our national consensus on immigration, the history of Muslims in Canada, and our country’s diversity.

They will then open the conversation to all audience members. The event will be followed by a reception.

01/18/2024

WEDNESDAY January 24, 2:30pm, SSOM Seminar Room

Social Studies of Medicine, the Department of Anthropology and the Institute of Islamic Studies present:

a talk by
Shireen Hamza (Northwestern University)
The Proximity of Masculinity: Gender, Space, and Medical Authority in Medieval Islam.
Masculinities shape intimacy, and vice versa. Across the medieval Islamic world, authors of medical texts could draw knowledge from multiple epistemic traditions. Often, their choices were shaped by which authorities they felt closest to and sought to emulate in their lives as well as their medical practice. Focusing on the regions surrounding the western Indian Ocean, I show how physicians and ulema were just as interested in how medical authorities lived as they were in what they knew. Their interest in these ancient and contemporary medical men helped them shape their own notion of an appropriate medical masculinity.

Shireen Hamza is a historian and artist, and an educator with the Prison & Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP). She continues her research on the history of medicine in the medieval Islamic world through a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University.

Dr. Hamza is also leading a discussion seminar on masculinity in the premodern Islamic World on TUESDAY, January 23rd, 9:00-11:30am; write to [email protected] for the pre-circulated reading.

11/26/2023

Please join us for a film tribute to Saleem Kidwai at the Institute of Islamic Studies. (français à suivre)

Nov. 30 @ 6pm
Morrice Hall, room 328
3485 McTavish Street

Noted Indian historian Saleem Kidwai (1951-2021) lived in Montreal in the 1970s, and his formative experiences here shaped his contributions to the q***r movement in India. Gathering interviews from his friends and readings of his work, Falooda (a Montreal South Asian q***r history working group) has made a video commemoration to Kidwai, as a testimonial to him and his history in Montreal.

Following this screening, you are invited to stay for a discussion over refreshments. Please note this event will be in English.

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Rejoignez-nous pour un film hommage à Saleem Kidwai à l'Institut d'études islamiques.

30 novembre @ 18h00
Morrice Hall, salle 328
3485 Rue McTavish

Le célèbre historien indien Saleem Kidwai (1951-2021) a vécu à Montréal dans les années 1970, et ses expériences formatrices ici ont façonné ses contributions au mouvement q***r en Inde. En rassemblant des interviews de ses amis et des lectures de son travail, Falooda (groupe de travail de histoire q***r sud-asiatique de Montréal) a réalisé une vidéo commémorative de Kidwai, comme un témoignage de son personnage et de son histoire à Montréal.

Après la projection, vous êtes invité.e.s à rester pour une discussion autour d'une collation. Veuillez noter que cet événement se déroulera en anglais.

11/22/2023

ON GAZA
A SPEAKER SERIES

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF GAZA: SCREENING & DISCUSSION
Friday, November 24, 6-7:30pm (hybrid)
Critical Media Lab, Peterson Hall 108
When Things Occur (2016), Oraib Toukan, 28'
Vibrations in Gaza (2021), Rehab Nazzal, 16'
Discussion with Nadia Yaqub, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Moderated by Diana Allan, McGill University

HEALTHCARE IN GAZA: A ROUNDTABLE
Monday, November 27, 4:30-6pm (hybrid)
Leacock Building, room 232
Dr. Razan Elian, Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza
Dr. Ben Thomson. Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital
Krystel Moussally, Médecins sans frontières & Radboud University
Moderated by Dr. Mathew Hannouche, McGill University

INFRASTRUCTURAL RUINATION: A CONVERSATION
Friday, December 1, 6-7:30 pm (hybrid)
Leacock Building, room 219
Salem El-Qudwa, independent Architect and researcher
Helga Tawil-Souri, New York University
Deen Sharp, LSE Fellow in Geography and the Environment
In conversation with Norma Rantisi, Concordia University

The winter schedule for ON GAZA will be announced later in December

Registration required: https://linktr.ee/public_facing_events

Critical Media Lab

11/02/2023

Sertaç Sehlikoglu (UCL)
Genealogy, Critique, and Decolonization: Ibn Khaldun and Moving Beyond Filling the Gaps"

TUESDAY, November 7, 5-7pm Morrice Hall, Room 328.

The Old Women of Nishapur: an Initiative on Gender, Knowledge and Religion, together with The Institute of Islamic Studies and The Department of Anthropology at McGill

The aim of this talk is to locate critique at the intersections of the genealogy of knowledge in anthropological thinking and decolonizing movements. The paper approaches the decolonizing movement as one of the most crucial points in anthropological thinking, as it can go beyond filling the gaps in genealogies by engaging with non-Eurocentric scholarship and, additionally, by carrying the critical angles to the ways it engages with those non-Eurocentric scholarships. To illustrate, it uses the case of Ibn Khaldun, an Arab scholar of social sciences and historical analysis from the 14th Century - who is often referred to as the first sociologist. On the one hand, his influence on classical Western thinking is largely dismissed. On the other hand, as a counter-response to this dismissal, the new Islamic revivalist intelligentsia in the Muslim right engages with him in a selective manner that rejects that central critical thinking and, even worse, sanctions the local regimes of power, including that local canon. By locating his scholarship to multiple tropes in anthropological theory and reading his evolutionist thinking vis-à-vis the post-colonial literature in anthropology and sociology, Dr Sehlikoglu questions the limits and possibilities of critical thinking within and beyond the decolonizing movement.

Dr Sertaç Sehlikoglu is a social anthropologist and an associate professor at University College London’s Institute of Global Prosperity. Her work focuses on intangible aspects of human subjectivity that enable humans to change and transform social life. She is the recipient of a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (2019), the author of “Working Our Desire: Women, Sport and Self-Making in Istanbul” (2021) and the co-editor of several journal issues, including “The Everyday Makings of Heteronormativity: Cross-Cultural Explorations of S*x, Gender and S*xuality” (2020). She is also the editor of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies’ Reviews Section.