Reading Edward Said and Saba Mahmood in Today’s Context

Reading Edward Said and Saba Mahmood in Today’s Context
Thursday, November 1 (5:00-7:00 pm)
Room 2-5, Business Building, University of Alberta (map)

You are invited to a panel discussion sponsored by the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies, Department of Political Science, and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (MEIS) research group.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), the passing of a distinguished Muslim scholar and a renowned feminist theorist Saba Mahmood (1962-2018), and the passing of the Orientalist historian Bernard Lewis (1916-2018). How relevant are the ideas of Said and Mahmood today? To what extent a critique of Orientalism, Orientalism in reverse, autocratic and militant secularism, and Empire’s War on Terror help us to understand today’s crisis of the Middle East and Muslim majority societies. Please join MEIS for a lively panel discussion of the experts:

Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Political Science
The Legacies of Orientalism

Ann McDougall, History & Classics
The Legacy of Bernard Lewis (1916-2018): A Critique

Cressida Heyes, Political Science
Decolonizing Agency: The Influence of “The Politics of Piety” in Feminist Theory

Joseph Hill, Anthropology
Remembering Saba Mahmood (1962-2018)

Michael Frishkopf, Music
Orientalism in Orient

Siobhan Byrne, Political Science
Orientalism as Critique: Identity Politics and Israel’s New ’Nation-State’ Law

Mojtaba Mahdavi, Political Science
Post-Islamism and its Discontents: Reading Said and Mahmood in Today’s Muslim Context

This is a free event, and all are welcome to attend.