[Upcoming Seminar] Watching Our Tongues: Scholarship on Islam In Southeast Asia in the Digital Age

Title: Watching Our Tongues: Scholarship on Islam In Southeast Asia in the Digital Age

Speaker: Saskia SCHÄFER (Freie Universität Berlin)

Date and time: 11 November 2016, 1:00 – 2:30 pm

Venue: Room 11 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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Based on empirical work on the use of online media in the self-presentation of marginalized Muslims such as Ahmadiyya and Shia, as well as atheists, in Indonesia and Malaysia, this presentation also draws on recent literature on religious freedom and on scholarship on “Cyberbalkanization” to argue for a more cautious use of categories and terms. I cast a critical view on the long history of classifying and categorising Islam in the archipelago. For instance, how can we adequately historicise the terminology disseminated by Clifford Geertz and what precautions can we develop for our own research and knowledge production? 

Saskia Schäfer completed her doctorate at the Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research has focused on contemporary public discourses on religious liberty, deviance, and factions within Indonesian and Malaysian Islam, as well as Islam and politics in Indonesia and Malaysia, discourse and media analysis, religious and political authority, secularism, public morality, and Islamic feminism.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME!

(A light lunch will be served at 12:30 pm. First come first served.)

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[Gentle Reminder] The Friday Seminar by Prof. Sita VENKATESWAR, entitled "Making Millets Matter: Food Resilience in Contemporary India", scheduled on 18 Nov (Fri) has been cancelled.