CIS Public Talks – Sadek Hamid on “ Contemporary British Muslim Arts and Cultural Production: Identity, Belonging and Social Change‘ CIS Public Talks – Abdelwahab El-Affendi on ‘ The Barbaric Science of Civilised Company: Revisiting the Perennial Crisis of the “Science” of Things Political‘

A virtual symposium hosted by the American Journal of Islam and Societies (AJIS) – published by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).From Konkan to Coromandel – Dr Tiziana Lorenzetti on “ The Vīraśaivas / Liṅgāyats of 12th century Karnataka: Conflict, Transformation, and the Genesis of a New Creed’‘ Ahmed Keeler is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge, and was a Distinguished Fellow at The Faculty of Leadership and Management, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia in 2016. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Bolton in 2016. CIS-DHF Malabar series– Julia A. B. Hegewald on ‘ Jaina Temple Architecture of Coastal Karnataka: Climatic Dependencies and Artistic Freedoms‘ This year, BLF is honoured to welcome the celebrated calligrapher Haji Noor Deen Mi Guang Jiang for a very special workshop. The acclaimed artist will demonstrate his peerless calligraphic technique, a remarkable fusion of Chinese and Arabic art. He will also offer insights into the form and function of his calligraphy. Abdelwahab El-Affendi is Professor of Politics, Provost and Acting President of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar. El-Affendi has served as the Head of the Politics and IR Program at the Institute (2015-2017), and was founder and Coordinator of the Democracy and Islam Program at the University of Westminster (since 1998). He is also head of Promotion Committee and the Institute. El-Affendi also served as a diplomat in the Sudanese Foreign Ministry (1990-1997), London-based journalist, including editor or managing editor of several publications (1982-1990).

A multi-media dramatic presentation that will challenge your perceptions and transform your understanding of Islam and the West. Ahmed Keeler was born in 1942 and christened Paul Godfrey. He was brought up during the 1940s and 50s in a conservative, upper middle-class, Anglo-Catholic family. He belonged to the last generation that was educated to serve an empire which, however, was in the final stages of dissolution. On leaving school he became deeply involved in the cultural movements of the 1960s that were in open revolt against the society that had nurtured him. A chance meeting with a master musician from India introduced him to a wonderful new cultural realm; in response he formulated and organized The World of Islam Festival that took place in London in 1976, was opened by Her Majesty the Queen, and was the most comprehensive exposition of Islamic culture ever to have taken place in the West. Six months before the festival opened he embraced Islam. Naveeda Khan is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology. She received her BA in History from Vassar College, her MA in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research and her PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. Shahzia Sikander changed the game of the art world with her breakthrough at the Whitney Biennial in 1997. This year, Salman Toor, debuted his first solo museum exhibition at the Whitney, How Will I Know. In June, Sikander will open a career retrospective, Extraordinary Realities, at the Morgan Library & Museum co-organised with the RISD Museum. Centered on issues of gender, identity, global affiliations, appropriation, and narrative, this conversation engages the relationship between two artists on how they have navigated the shifting worlds of New York and Pakistan. In dialogue, we will pause and reflect over how we got here and anticipate where we are going.Increasing use of the deep state concept by experts on the MENA suggests that it may be more than just an omnibus conspiracy theory employed by detractors of a particular government; that it may accurately describe political reality in at least some MENA and possibly non-MENA countries; and that it may be a useful concept with which better to understand politics and even economics in those countries. Robert Springborg will excavate under contemporary MENA political economies in search of their deep states and consequences. Anand’s research and teaching focus on the religious and cultural traditions of South Asia, specializing in the anthropological study of contemporary Islam, Indian popular culture, and inter-religious relations between Muslims and Hindus. From Konkan to Coromandel – Mr Arthur Millner on “ A Cosmopolitan yet Local Tradition: Glazed Tiles in the Deccani Sultanates‘‘