ASA 2024

The IASG will sponsor the following panels at the 67th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in Chicago, IL:

Thursday, December 12

Author Meets Critic. Faith-based Student Activism in Togo and Benin: Muslims and Christians on University Campuses

Session Time: 12/12/2024, 10:15 AM – 12:00 PM

Session Room: Purdue (6th floor)

Chair: Katrina Daly Thompson, UW-Madison

Book Title: Religious Activism on Campuses in Togo and Benin: Christian and Muslim Students Navigating Authoritarianism and Laïcité, 1970–2023

Author: Frédérick Madore, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient

  • Ebenezer Obadare, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Benjamin Lawrance, University of Arizona
  • Leonardo Villalón, University of Florida
  • Marius Kothor, Harvard University

Roundtable: The History of Islam and Muslim Societies in Africa in Question, Part I

Session Time: 12/12/2024, 1:30 PM – 3:15 PM

Session Room: Houston (5th floor)

Chair: Benjamin Soares, University of Florida

  • Wendell Marsh, Rutgers University-Newark
  • Mauro Nobili, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Rabiat Akande, York University
  • Felicitas Becker, University of Ghent

Roundtable: The History of Islam and Muslim Societies in Africa in Question, Part II

Session Time: 12/12/2024, 3:45 PM – 5:30 PM

Session Room: Houston (5th floor)

Chair: Wendell Marsh, Rutgers University

  • Britta Frede, Bayreuth University
  • Shobana Shankar, Stony Brook University
  • Kimberly Wortmann, Wake Forest University
  • Ngala Chome, University of Ghent

Friday, December 13

Historical Narrative Construction in Two West African Kingdoms

Session Time: 12/13/2024, 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM

Session Room: Ohio State (6th floor)

Chair: Rebecca Shereikis, Northwestern University

  • Another look at the Second Appendix of the Chronique du Chercheur (Ali Diakité, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library)
  • Scholars and Sultans in the Seventeenth-Century Tārīkh Ibn al- Mukhtār (Zachary Wright, Northwestern University in Qatar)
  • Vassals and Slaves in the Nineteenth-Century Tārīkh al-fattāsh (Mauro Nobili, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Author Meets Critic. Entangled Domains: Empire, Law and Religion in Northern Nigeria

Session Time: 12/13/2024, 10:15 AM – 12:00 PM

Session Room: Watertower (10th floor)

Chair: Noah Salomon, University of Virginia

Book Title: Entangled Domains: Empire, Law and Religion in Northern Nigeria

Author: Rabiat Akande, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

  • Oludamini Ogunnaike, University of Virginia
  • Alexander Thurston, University of Cincinnati
  • Kimberly Wortmann, Wake Forest University
  • Wendell Marsh, Rutgers University-Newark

Mediating Islam: Voices, Visions, and Journeys in Africa and Beyond

Session Time: 12/13/2024, 1:30 PM – 3:15 PM

Session Room: Minnesota (6th floor)

Chair: Frédérick Madore, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient

  • Muslim Women on the Air and in the Workplace: Insights from Ethnographic Work at a Tanzanian Radio Station (Katrina Daly Thompson, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • The circulation of print press between Cairo and West Africa at the turn of the 20th century (Siga Maguiraga, European University Institute)
  • Mobility, Migration, Genealogy, and Religious Authority: The Qadiri Branches of Ndankh and Ndiassane, Senegal (Maria Grosz-Ngaté, Indiana University)
  • Spiritual Counterclaims and Contested Sovereignty: Religion and Politics in the Nineteenth-Century World of ʿUmar Tall and Ahmad al-Bakkay (Amir Syed, University of Virginia)

Islamic Poetry of West Africa

Session Time: 12/13/2024, 3:45 PM – 5:30 PM

Session Room: Minnesota (6th floor)

Chair: Oludamini Ogunnaike, University of Virginia

  • Reimagining West African Arabic Poetry: Politics, Satire, and Global Citizenship in Malik Siwār’s “Anīn al-Waṭan” (Jibril Gabid, University of Wisconsin)
  • “If They Depicted Me in Reality”: Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse’s Islamic Love Poem Ṭabībī (Nicholas Judt, Harvard University)
  • Love for the Sandals: Ibn Razikah’s Qasidah and its legacy (Abubakar Abdulkadir, University of Alberta)

Saturday, December 14

Cross-border Dynamics and Local Responses in the Sahel: Security, Religion and Diplomacy

Session Time: 12/14/2024, 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM

Session Room: Northwestern (6th floor)

Chair: Frédérick Madore, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient

  • Borders, faith and security: understanding resilience strategies in the Sahel (Fousseyni Touré, Faculté des Sciences Administratives et Politiques de Bamako and Mohamed Lamine Diakité, Faculté des Sciences Administratives et Politiques de Bamako)
  • Between jihadism and religious diplomacy: navigating the security crisis in the Sahel Bakary (Fouraba Traore, Faculté des Sciences Administratives et Politiques de Bamako)
  • Religion, Radicalisation and Resilience: Perspectives on Cross-Border Security in the Sahel (Seyni Mamoudou Ibrahim, University of Bayreuth)
  • Gender and the Just-War Tradition of al-Hajj Umar Tal (Joseph M. Bradshaw, Augusta University)

Roundtable. Building Maktaba: Reflections on a West African Arabic Manuscript Translation and Access Project

Session Time: 12/14/2024, 10:15 AM – 12:00 PM

Session Room: Minnesota (6th floor)

Chair: Zekeria Ahmed Salem, Northwestern University

  • Paul Naylor, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
  • Ragy Mikhaeel, Northwestern University
  • Rebecca Shereikis, Northwestern University
  • Mauro Nobili, University of Illinois