Princeton University Workshop: "De-Centering Shi‘ism?"

Workshop of the Princeton/Oxford collaborative project: Traditional authority and transnational religious networks in contemporary Shi‘i Islam: Results from recent empirical research

De-Centering Shi‘ism?

To be held at Princeton University, October 3–5, 2013.

Conveners: Morgan Clarke (Oxford) and Mirjam Künkler (Princeton)

Religious authority in Usuli Twelver Shi‘i Islam is generally seen as concentrated in the hands of the “sources of emulation,” the maraji‘ (sing.marja‘) al-taqlid, and as paradigmatically based in the established centers of Shi‘i learning of Najaf (Iraq) and Qom (Iran), from where it is projected out to the “peripheries”. Shi‘i Islam thus often appears in academic discourse as relatively monolithic, whereas the diverse, disparate, even fragmented nature of Sunni Islam would seem to be more widely documented. This workshop, sponsored by the Princeton/Oxford collaborative grant “Traditional authority and transnational religious networks in contemporary Shi‘i Islam: Results from recent empirical research,” seeks to question such a monolithic account and ask whether we need to de-center our picture of Shi‘i Islam. To be held at Princeton University October 3-5, 2013, the workshop will bring together 10-15 scholars of Shi‘i religious authority and networks from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds (anthropology, sociology, history, political science, Islamic and Middle Eastern studies) to allow them to discuss results from recent field or archival research and rethink current academic understandings of Shi‘i religious authority.

Please visit website for full details: http://www.princeton.edu/nes/news/archive/?id=10345.