The IASG will sponsor the following panels at the 68th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in Atlanta, GA:
Thursday, November 11
Author Meets Critic: Textual Life: Islam, Africa, and the Fate of the Humanities
Session Time: 3:45 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: International 5 (International Level)
Chair: Mamadou Diallo, Columbia University
Book Title: Textual Life: Islam, Africa, and the Fate of the Humanities
Author: Wendell Marsh, Rutgers University
- Mbaye Lo, Duke University
- Shobana Shankar, Stony Brook University
- Mauro Nobili, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Ariela Marcus-Sells, Elon University
- Oludamini Ogunnaike, University of Virginia
Friday, November 21
Islamic International Legal History in Africa
Session Time: 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM
Room: M301 (Marquis Level)
Chair: Rabiat Akande, University of Maryland
Discussant: Idris Fofana, Harvard Law School
- Kutub Al-Aman (or Safe-Conducts) in 19th Century West Africa (Mauro Nobili, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
- Land “Ownership” and Inter-State Relations in Pre-Colonial Senegambia (Joyman Lee, University of New South Wales)
- A Friend, Forger, or Fraud?: The Intriguing Case of El-Hadj Abd el-Kader ould Bokar and Early French Colonialism in West Africa (Amir Syed, University of Virginia)
- Unveiling the Significance of Diplomatic Protocols, Laws, and Policies over Borders in Pre-Colonial Africa (Ousmane Makhroufi Traore, Pomona College)
Intellectual Networks, Travelogues, and Transregional Scholarly Communities across the Maghrib and Muslim West Africa c. 1450-1800
Session Time: 10:15 AM – 12:00 PM
Room: International B (International Level)
Chair: Abdulbasit Kassim, Stanford University
Discussant: Oludamini Ogunnaike, University of Virginia
- Nomads, Law, and Territoriality: Istighrāq al-dhimma in the Islamic West (Sabrina Amrane, University of California, Berkeley)
- Medieval and Early Modern Islamic Thought in the Maghrib and Muslim West Africa: The Doctrinal Writings of Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī al-Tilimsānī (d. 1504-5) (Abdulbasit Kassim, Stanford University)
- Echoes of Maghribī Devotion in the “Land of Million Poets”: Sīdī ʿAbd Allāh al-Qādī al-ʿAlawī’s Madīḥ ode on the Sandals (Niʿāl) of the Prophet Muḥammad (Abubakar Abdulkadir, University of Alberta)
- Text, Travel, and Transformation: Al-Kashnāwī—A Student in Africa and A Polymath Scholar in the Middle East (Umar Sheikh Tahir, Columbia University)
- Of Text and Transit: Searching for Grammar in the Far Reaches of the Sahara (Clay Lemar, University of California, Berkeley)
Saturday, November 22
Debating Knowing: Ulama, Science, and Governance in West Africa
Session Time: 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM
Room: L504 (Lobby Level)
Chair: Mauro Nobili, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Discussant: Mauro Nobili, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- The Cosmology of Science and Superstition in Islamic West Africa (Ariela Marcus-Sells, Elon University)
- Managing Disaster Emergency: Ulama Appraisal of Maqasid Shariah in Ghana in Times of Covid-19 (Yunus Dumbe, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology)
AfricaNow! Islam in Africa New Books Showcas
Session Time: 1:30 PM – 3:15 PM
Room: L506 (Lobby Level)
Sponsored by: Islam in Africa Studies Group & Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa
Group Presentation Chair: Zachary Wright, Northwestern University in Qatar
- Mauro Nobili, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Kimberly Wortmann, Wake Forest University
- Wendell Marsh, Rutgers University