Producing Knowledge on Islam in Europe

Postgraduate Workshop

Producing Knowledge on Islam in Europe: Epistemology, Methodology, Reflexivity

This workshop will bring together established academics and postgraduate students at an advanced stage of their research to explore challenges and suggest solutions for researchers working in the field of Islam and Muslims in Europe. It is organised by postgraduates at SOAS and the University of Cambridge, and kindly sponsored by the British Association for Islamic Studies, the Department of Politics and International Studies (Cambridge), and the SOAS Doctoral School.

Registration

Please note that registration is for postgraduate students only.

Since we have limited spaces, we reserve the right to confirm registrants' postgraduate status and institutional affiliation, and kindly ask that you commit to attending the workshop when registering.

Note for Postgraduates:
If the event becomes sold out, please email us with your details (name, postgraduate status, institutional affiliation) if you would like to be put on the waiting list. Thank you.

Please direct queries and details about dietary requirements to the organisers: islamineuropeworkshop@gmail.com.

Overview

This inter-disciplinary workshop addresses the related themes of epistemology, methodology, and reflexivity, which have frequently arisen when problematising our respective productions of academic knowledge, such as the multiple forms of insider-outsider negotiation for both Muslim and non-Muslim researchers, various issues of access, trust and representation, and the politicisation of the Muslim subject in a security-saturated cultural context.

We anticipate engaging with some of the following questions:

• Epistemology: Which concepts are useful? For example, how can researchers critically engage with terms such as orthodoxy or Islamism? How can we make best use of paradigms rooted in other fields, without diluting the Islamic quality of the research object? What is the heuristic value and analytical relevance of the category ‘Islam’?
• Methodology: What consequences can choices about methodological praxis have for the production of knowledge in our research? How do we negotiate access, build trust and manage good fieldwork relationships in a politicised environment? What are the best strategies for managing limitations in methodological praxis?
• Reflexivity: How do researcher identities impact on research? How should researchers engage with social actors regarding the production of our work, and why? To what extent is it possible to manage research independence when working with organisations and institutions?

Objectives

The workshop aims to:

• Offer doctoral students from a range of disciplines an opportunity to share how they have navigated issues of epistemology, methodology and reflexivity, and receive feedback on how they can write it up.
• Bring together postgraduate students at various stages of their research for wide-ranging discussions about their roles and challenges as researchers.
• Learn from established academics about navigating and analysing these issues.
• Develop the state of knowledge and understanding of these issues through mapping and evaluating existing praxis.
• Develop the workshop findings – from presenters, discussants and the audience in general – into an article for wider reference.

Schedule

09:30 – 10:00: Registration

10:00 – 11:00: Keynote

• Dr Frank Peter (Hamad Bin Khalifa University)
  Local Islam in secular France: Modelling the processes of interaction
  

11:00 – 11:15: Break

11:15 – 13:00: Methodology

• Asma Khan (University of Cardiff)
  Reflections on Establishing and Maintaining Fieldwork Relationships As An Insider-Outsider Within a British Muslim Community

• Adela Taleb (Humboldt University of Berlin)
  Making strange what seems familiar: Ethnography in question

• Dr Paul Anderson (University of Cambridge), Discussant

13:00-14:00: Lunch

• Please note halal and vegetarian options will be provided. If you have any special dietary requirements please email us in advance.

14:00-15:45: Epistemology

• Hira Amin (University of Cambridge)
  Fundamentalists, progressives and everything inbetween: the perils of labelling ‘the Muslim’

• Emanuelle Degli Esposti (SOAS, University of London)
  Muslim Subjects or Subjects of Discourse? A Lacanian Approach to the Study of Muslim Identity in Europe

• Professor Humayun Ansari (Royal Holloway, University of London), Discussant

15:45 – 16:00: Break

16:00 – 17:45: Reflexivity

• Margot Dazey (University of Cambridge)
  Researching a highly-politicized topic: fieldwork politics on French Islam

• Alyaa Ebbiary (SOAS, University of London)
  ‘My people’: Ambivalence and Loyalty for the Insider-Outsider

• Dr Caroline Osella (SOAS, University of London), Discussant

17:45 – 18:00: Concluding remarks

• Dr Sara Silvestri (University of Cambridge)