Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
This book aims to bring Muslim theology into the present day. Rather than a purely academic pursuit, Modern Muslim Theology argues that theology is a creative process and discusses how the Islamic tradition can help contemporary practitioners negotiate their relationships with God, with one another, and with the rest of creation.
Book: Rowman
Martin Nguyen is Professor of Islamic Studies and Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Fairfield University in Connecticut. His scholarship revolves around Muslim theology, ethics, spirituality, Qur’anic studies, and the intersection of race and religion. His publications include Modern Muslim Theology: Engaging God and the World with Faith and Imagination (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and Sufi Master and Qur’an Scholar: Abū’l-Qāsim al-Qushayrī and the Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt (Oxford, 2012). Presently, he is working on theological responses to global mass displacement and modern structural racism. Prof. Nguyen is also co-leading several initiatives, including the “Constructive Muslim Thought and Engaged Scholarship” seminar with the American Academy of Religion and the “Muslim Moral Theology in Conversation with Future” project with the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University. More locally, he is involved with a local Asian American community organization called AAPI New Haven.
Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
2018 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice Magazine
An exploration of twentieth and twenty-first century U.S. Muslim womanhood that centers the lived experience of women of color
For Sylvia Chan-Malik, Muslim womanhood is constructed through everyday and embodied acts of resistance, what she calls affective insurgency. In negotiating the histories of anti-Blackness, U.S. imperialism, and women’s rights of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Being Muslim explores how U.S. Muslim women’s identities are expressions of Islam as both Black protest religion and universal faith tradition. Through archival images, cultural texts, popular media, and interviews, the author maps how communities of American Islam became sites of safety, support, spirituality, and social activism, and how women of color were central to their formation. By accounting for American Islam’s rich histories of mobilization and community, Being Muslim brings insight to the resistance that all Muslim women must engage in the post-9/11 United States.
From the stories that she gathers, Chan-Malik demonstrates the diversity and similarities of Black, Arab, South Asian, Latina, and multiracial Muslim women, and how American understandings of Islam have shifted against the evolution of U.S. white nationalism over the past century. In borrowing from the lineages of Black and women-of-color feminism, Chan-Malik offers us a new vocabulary for U.S. Muslim feminism, one that is as conscious of race, gender, sexuality, and nation, as it is region and religion.
Book: NYU Press
Dr. Sylvia Chan-Malik is a scholar of American studies, race and ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies, and religious studies. Her research focuses on the history and presence of Islam in the United States, with a specific focus on the lives of U.S. Muslim women, Black American Islam, and the rise of anti-Muslim racism in 20th-21st-century America. More broadly, she studies the intersections of race, gender, and religion, and how these categories interact in struggles for social justice. Sylvia is a core faculty member in the Departments of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and affiliate graduate faculty for the Department of Religion at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. In Spring 2021, she was Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies at Princeton University, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC) and the Shia Racial Justice Coalition. She is the author of Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color and American Islam (NYU Press, 2018), and is a primary advisor for the upcoming documentary project, American Muslims: A History Revealed. Her current book project, Sacred Struggles: Race, Religion, and the Soul of Ethnic Studies, examines the role of religion, faith, and the sacred in scholarly and activist discourses of racial justice. Sylvia speaks frequently on issues of U.S. Muslim politics and culture, Islam and gender, and racial and gender politics in the U.S., with her commentary appearing in venues such as NPR, Slate, The Guardian, Mic, The Intercept, Middle East Eye, The Daily Beast, PRI, HuffPost, Patheos, Religion News Service, and more.
Date: Thursday, October 7, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Location: In Person & Zoom
Multiplexity is derived from the age-old Arabic term ‘marātib’ which literally means hierarchy or levels. We devised the term “multiplexity” to refer to the multiple levels of existence, known as marāṭib al-wujūd, knowledge and truth. In social research, multiplexity would indicate a concept of the human being consisting of body, mind, and soul as well as a concept of social action (a’māl) at various observable and unobservable levels.
Diverse versions of what we call multiplex approach can be found in many world cultures and religions and it is also deeply rooted in the traditional Islamic disciplines including philosophy, kalām, fiqh, and taṣawwuf. Multiplex approaches stand in contradistinction to reductionist frameworks that rely on single-layered ontologies. In social sciences, such frameworks include social constructionism which reduces social phenomena to concepts or discourses, or behaviourism which tries to explain human behaviour solely in biological or psychological terms and considers human actions to be predetermined by fixed natural forces or biological qualities. Thus, we believe, exploring the idea of multiplexity will contribute to the critique of the reductionist ontologies emanating from positivism and idealism in the social sciences.
Prof. Şentürk holds a PhD from Columbia University, Department of Sociology (1998), and specializes in civilization studies, sociology of knowledge, human rights and Islamic studies with a focus on social networks, human rights, and modernization in the Muslim world. Among his books are in English, Narrative Social Structure: Hadith Transmission Network 610-1505 (2005); Malcolm X The Struggle for Human Rights (2019), Comparative Theories and Methods (2020), Human Rights In The Ottoman Reform: Foundations, Motivations And Formations (2020) and in Turkish; Modernization and Social Science in the Muslim World: A Comparison between Turkey and Egypt (2006); Ibn Khaldun: Contemporary Readings (2007); Open Civilization: Towards a Multi-Civilizational Society and World (2010); Human Rights are due for Humanity (2021). Prof. Şentürk’s work has been translated into Arabic, Japanese and Spanish.
This event is a live, public event. You are invited to join us online or in-person. All attendees will receive a link. Please indicate in your registration if you will attend in-person, signaling that you agree to AIC’s COVID-19 policy. Please see AIC’s COVID-19 campus policy here.
In-person attendees: Proof of ID and vaccination will be checked by a trained and designated staff member upon entrance to the building. Those without proof of vaccination will be required to show ID and proof of a negative COVID test within 48 hours of the event. Live streaming of the event is available for those who do not wish to provide this information. Please note that these safety measures are to ensure the safety of everyone in attendance.
Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
The American Midwest is often thought of as uniformly white, and shaped exclusively by Christian values. However, this view of the region as an unvarying landscape fails to consider a significant community at its very heart. Muslims of the Heartland uncovers the long history of Muslims in a part of the country where many readers would not expect to find them.
This story of Syrian Muslims in Sioux Falls, Dearborn, Ross, Michigan City, and Cedar Rapids recreates what the Syrian Muslim Midwest looked, sounded, felt, and smelled like—from the allspice-seasoned lamb and rice shared in mosque basements to the sound of the trains on the Rock Island Line rolling past the dry goods store. It recovers a multicultural history of the American Midwest that cannot be ignored.
Edward Curtis is a publicly-engaged scholar of Muslim American, African American, and Arab American history and life.
His thirteen books have been called “essential,” “exemplary,” “approachable,” “groundbreaking,” “must-read,” “wonderful,” and “a model of clarity.” Muslims in America: A Short History (Oxford, 2009) was named one of the best 100 books of 2009 by Publishers Weekly, and his two-volume Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History was deemed one of the “best reference works of 2010” by Library Journal. Curtis’ most recent works include Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest (New York University Press) and Arab Indianapolis (Belt Publishing). In addition to works written for general readers, Curtis has penned scholarly articles for the Journal of American History, American Quarterly, the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and Religion and American Culture.
Curtis engages both national and local audiences in his work. He has contributed interviews and articles to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and the Associated Press, among other media outlets. He has also taught community college instructors and K-12 teachers how to integrate information about religion and Muslim American history and life across the curriculum. Curtis enjoys collaborating with multiple community partners, which include Nur Allah Islamic Center, Al Huda Foundation, and Masjid Al-Mu’mineen. He is currently directing the Arab Indianapolis community history project.
Dr. Curtis is William M. and Gail M. Plater Chair of the Liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies at the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. He is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Fulbright Scholar Program, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the American Academy of Religion, and the National Humanities Center.
Curtis holds a doctorate in religious studies from the University of South Africa, a master’s in history from Washington University, and a B.A. in religion from Kenyon College. He grew up in Southern Illinois. Learn more at: www.edward-curtis.com
Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
Nur Amali Ibrahim is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. He is broadly interested in the governance of populations and forms of citizen politics in the contemporary moment. His first book, Improvisational Islam: Indonesian Youth in a Time of Possibility (Cornell University Press, 2018), examines Muslim student activism in Indonesia following the nation’s political transition from authoritarianism to democracy.
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
The popular Arabic epic Sīrat ‘Antar, which spotlights the heroic exploits of the half-Ethiopian, half-Arab 6th-century warrior and poet ‘Antarah ibn Shaddād, is the most well-known source of its kind for modern readers in the Arabic-speaking world and beyond. It is also based on the life and words of a real historical figure. But what did it mean for ‘Antarah to be half-Black—both in his own lifetime and in his legendary legacy as an Arab-Muslim epic hero? This talk analyzes how racial constructs and the social structures that manage and perpetuate them change from the pre-Islamic period through Islam’s formative centuries, spanning when the historical ‘Antarah was alive and when the existence of his epic is first attested in the 1100s. Throughout the talk, we will explore the ways that using popular literary sources can illuminate aspects of racial representation that are not as present elsewhere in the premodern Arabic register, and consider why this might be so.
Rachel Schine holds a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. She is presently a postdoctoral associate and instructor of Arabic literature and culture at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations. Her current book project, Black Knights: Arabic Epic and the Making of Medieval Race, explores the origins, literary functions, and social histories of black protagonists in Arabic popular literature, and particularly in the language’s longest epic, Sīrat al-Amīra Dhāt al-Himma. She has published on topics relating to racialization and kinship in Arabic storytelling in, among others, the Journal of Arabic Literature and al-‘Usūr al-Wustā: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists.
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
Malcolm X’s biography opened a doorway to a forgotten story in Dr. Rahim’s family history–one that was lost due to the war, communism, and genocide. Dr. Rahim will share his personal tale about exploring his ethnic history and religious identity after converting to Islam in America.
Emad Rahim is a Khmer American and survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields whose life was turned into the short documentary “Against the Odds“: (F.A.M.E. ‘US International Film Festival’s 2016 Bronze Award Winner), and adapted into a theater production titled “Tales from the Salt City,” which is an extension of the acclaimed Undesirable Elements series written by celebrated playwright and Presidential National Medals of Arts Award recipient, Ping Chong. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, Rutgers’ The Humanist, Forbes, CEO Magazine, WorldClass Magazine, The Post Standard and covered by BBC and NPR.
Rahim was born in a concentration camp in the Killing Fields of Cambodia. He arrived to the United States with his family as a refugee living in Brooklyn New York and was raised in Syracuse NY. After struggling with street violence, gangs, drugs, poverty, family abuse and dyslexia as an adolescent, he found his way through higher education to become an award-winning educator, entrepreneur, author and community leader.
Rahim currently serves as the Kotouc Family Endowed Chair and Professor at Bellevue University and Dean of Social Impact at Claremont Lincoln University. He is an award-winning entrepreneur, educator, Fulbright Recipient and TEDx Speaker. He was the former Dean at Colorado Tech and Strayer University, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Oklahoma State University and Syracuse University, and Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University.
For more info: www.emadrahim.com
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
Dr. Muna Ali holds a PhD in anthropology from Arizona State University. Her research focuses on American Muslims, Western Muslims, religion in the public sphere, and on the social determinants of health. She has authored articles and book chapters on Muslim Americans and on Islam and bioethics. Her book titled “Young Muslim America: Faith, Community and Belonging” focuses on the perspectives of diverse younger generations of Muslims on identity and on their assessment of the American Muslim community and society.
Dr. Ali also holds a doctorate in physical therapy. She co-founded the Islamic Center of North East Valley, the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Arizona, the Arizona Muslim Historical Society, and the Rumi Center.
Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm talk, followed by Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
Get Her Book: The Mind of an Entrepreneur: Discover Mental Strategies For Navigating The World of Business
Podcast: The Mind of An Entrepreneur
Wendy is an International Entrepreneur. She is currently President and the Director of Business Affairs for the Minimally Invasive Vascular Centers where, along with her Business Partner, she has developed a progressive new business model for outpatient surgery centers and micro-hospitals. The brand has recently expanded to major markets throughout the U.S. and Africa. Their state-of-the-art facilities have revolutionized the delivery of advanced healthcare services to marginalized communities around the world.
Wendy is a Franchisee Partner that owns and operates an Award-Winning Massage Envy in Downtown Silver Spring Maryland. She was recently nominated for Franchisee of the Year 2019 and also sits on the National Franchisee Advertising Board for Massage Envy.
Wendy is the creator and developer of the Mind of an Entrepreneur™ brand that currently produces and facilitates books, radio shows and film projects on business development and mental strategies for navigating the world of business. The Mind of an Entrepreneur™ brand also focuses on helping members of marginalized communities open the pathways to wealth and abundance through owning and operating businesses and introducing much needed goods and services into their communities.
Wendy has also expanded her Business Consulting Practice to include Hospital Investments, Turnaround Consulting and Healthcare Acquisitions. One of her new exciting ventures includes the reclamation and renovation of a turn of the century mansion that was once the former home of the Honorable Elijah Muhamad. The building will be the new home of the Mind of an Entrepreneur™ that will serve as a cultural exhibit as well as, a training and development center for entrepreneurs from marginalized communities around the world.
As a Business Consultant, Executive Project Manager and Business Thought Leader, she has trained thousands of entrepreneurs and emerging leaders and managed over $500 million in Projects. She has served as Crisis Manager for many Corporations, Executives and Celebrities.
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2020
Time: 6:30 pm -7:30 pm talk including Q & A
Online Platform: Zoom
Laila Al-Arian is an Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker, investigative journalist, author and executive producer of “Fault Lines,” a U.S.-based documentary and current affairs program on Al Jazeera English. In her talk, she will discuss what led her to journalism, including the coverage of Islam, Muslims and the Middle East when she was growing up in the 80s and 90s, the challenges she has faced along the way, how storytelling can be effective and the importance of having Muslims involving, working and leading in one of the most influential spaces in public life.
Laila Al-Arian is a Washington DC-based journalist and the executive producer of Fault Lines, an award-winning current affairs program on Al Jazeera English. She has produced documentaries on subjects ranging from the Trump administration’s Muslim ban to the impact of the heroin epidemic on children and an investigation into factory conditions producing garments for Walmart and Gap in Bangladesh. For her work, she has been honored with two News and Documentary Emmys, a Peabody Award, a Robert F Kennedy Award in journalism, Overseas Press Club award, National Headliner Award, and has been nominated for 14 News and Documentary Emmys.
Prior to joining Fault Lines, Laila worked for Al Jazeera English for four years, covering everything from Guantanamo Bay’s youngest detainee to the re-settlement of Iraqi refugees in the U.S. She received a BA in English literature from Georgetown University and an M.S. from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. Her work has appeared in The Nation, Salon, The Independent, and other publications, and she is co-author of the book Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians.