Critical Muslim Studies investigates the genealogies and complexities of Muslimness—its cognates and variants—in relation to decolonial impulses and their limits in a world scarred by genocide and authoritarian populism. As global ethnonationalism increasingly shapes political and cultural imaginations, understandings of Islam, the Islamicate, and Muslims continue to be haunted by entrenched forms of orientalism, positivism, and methodological nationalism. Critical Muslim Studies demands the cultivation of critiques drawn from diverse histories and positionalities, advancing logics of liberation from within the colonial-racial world towards a post-Western horizon.

The Critical Muslim Studies Summer Programme will take place in Istanbul, a city where threads of multiple histories, geographies, and politics weave together the many antagonisms and affinities of eurocentrism and anti-eurocentrism. This immersive and intellectually rigorous residential programme offers workshops, seminars, and classes designed to equip participants with the analytical tools and theoretical frameworks to decolonise eurocentrism. Participants will engage with leading scholars and academics in a dynamic, interdisciplinary, and intersectional space for dialogue, reflection, and learning. Through lectures, discussions, and workshops, the programme explores topics such as genealogy, counter-histories, gender, racism/anti-racism, coloniality, feminisms, political and cultural belongings, resistance, decoloniality, and political theology, while connecting with a global network of peers committed to critical inquiry.

The programme builds on the well-established intellectual community centred around ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies, the leading global platform for scholarship in Critical Muslim Studies.

The Critical Muslim Studies Summer Programme will benefit current and aspiring critical thinkers, including doctoral students, early career academics, researchers, and colleagues from all fields and backgrounds eager to engage with Critical Muslim Studies. Whether you aim to deepen academic knowledge, advance research interests, or connect with an intellectually diverse community, this programme seeks to decolonise and reorient our understanding of Muslimness and its relationship with the colonial-racial world against the background of post-Western futures.

Critical Muslim Studies Summer Programme Faculty include: Anne Norton, Salman Sayyid, Jasmin Zine, Hatem Bazian, Santiago Slabodsky, Abdoolkarim Vakil, Barnor Hesse and Sa’diyya Shaikh

Registration Summer Programme: £600 (Includes accommodation and meals).

APPLY VIA THE LNK BELOW:

Application Deadline: 14th February 2025

For any queries, please email reorient@leeds.ac.uk with the subject line: REO1