Seminar New Directions

Last Updated on Tuesday, 04 May 2010 23:29

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This seminar titled Framing Muslims:New Directions was an afternoon workshop held in collaboration with the Ferguson Centre, Open University on June 25th 2009, it was held at the Open University buildings on the Milton Keynes Campus.

The Speakers included Madeline Clements, Maruta Herding, Peter Morey and Amina Yaquin, the event was hosted by Dennis Walder.

The papers presented covered topics such as the role of mapping in the writing of Kamila Shamsie, the emergence of an Islamic youth culture in Western Europe, Muslim Stereotypes in the mainstream Western media and locating transnational Muslim subjectivies therein.

Speaker Abstracts and Biographies

Madeline Clements
"Lunar streets and the Lonely Planet: locating Karachi in Kamila Shamsie's Kartography"

Biography: I took a BA in English at Oxford before specialising in postcolonial literature as a student on the NILE MA at London University's Institute of English Studies. In September I will begin work with Dr. Peter Morey at the University of East London on my PhD project 'Orienting Muslims: Mapping Global Spheres of Affiliation and Affinity in Contemporary South Asian Fiction'. I have been an active participant in the Framing Muslims network, worked as a literary researcher on BBC Religion and Ethics programme, and regularly review fiction for the TLS. I am currently researching a postcolonial biography for a US academic at the National Archives and acting as a researcher on an ISD research project into Muslims in the European media.

Maruta Herding
"'Pop-Islam': The Emergence of an Islamic Youth Culture in Western Europe"

Biography: Undergraduate and graduate studies in Sociology and Philosophy in Freiburg/Germany (MA thesis on 2005 riots in French suburbs), in between a year of studying abroad at the American University in Cairo/Egypt (Graduate Diploma in Middle East Studies), since 2007: PhD candidate in Sociology at Cambridge University, supervised by Goran Therborn, on the topic above.

Peter Morey
"How (not) to Recognise a Muslim Stereotype: the Spooks Controversy"

Biography: Peter Morey is Reader in English Literature in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London. He is the author of Fictions of India: Narrative and Power (Edinburgh UP, 2000) and Rohinton Mistry Manchester UP, 2004), co-editor of Alternative Indias: Writing, Nation and Communalism (Rodopi, 2006) and co-author (with Amina Yaqin) of Framing Muslims: Stereotyping anad Representation from 9/11 to 7/7 (Harvard UP, forthcoming). He has published extensively on colonial and postcolonial literature, including on the work of E. M. Forster and Salman Rushdie. He is the Director of the AHRC International Research Network, 'Framing Muslims: Structures of Representation in Culture and Society Post-9/11'.

Amina Yaqin
"What is a Muslim Diaspora? Locating Muslim transnational subjectivities in British media post 9/11"

Biography:
Amina Yaqin is Lecturer in Postcolonial Studies and Urdu in the Dept of South Asia at SOAS, University of London. She has published widely on themes of: Pakistani culture, language and communalism in India, gendered families in Salman Rushdie's novels, and feminist issues in Urdu poetry. Currently she is co-writing a book with Peter Morey on, Framing Muslims: stereotyping and representation from 9/11 to 07/07. She is also co-Director with Peter Morey of the international Research Network funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council entitled Framing Muslims: Structures of Representation Post-9/11.