Ijtihad Network Being Wise and Faithful Muslim in the Contemporary World
The American Society of Islamic Philosophy and Theology’s fourth annual conference will be held December 2 – 4, 2022. It will be a hybrid conference, with some papers presented online via Zoom, and some in person on the Harvard campus. More details about the conference are forthcoming.
Submission Guidelines
The theme of this conference is “Islamic Philosophy and Theology in Contemporary Engagements”. This year’s conference aims to explore the interface between Islamic Philosophy and Theology and contemporary issues. Submissions can be normative, constructive, or descriptive provided that they are academically rigorous. We invite academic studies of scholars, methods, institutions, texts, and topics typically considered within the domain of philosophy, as well as those that treat kalam-theology, Islamic legal philosophy (usul al-fiqh), or other intellectual trends that at times may be seen as distinct from philosophy. Papers may be within specific disciplines (Philosophy, Islamic Theology, Religious Studies, etc.) or may be interdisciplinary. Active engagement with contemporary issues via the methods of various forms of Islamic philosophy is also welcomed.
This conference is open-ended and invites applications from a wide variety of topical settings. Topics need not be limited to those suggested below.
Paper topics can be broad in their approaches. Example questions include:
What is the Islamic conception of natural theology or theology of nature in the modern age?
Can science help with the engagement or enrichment of Islamic theology or philosophy?
What kind of (physical) ontology should/does Islam subscribe to, if any (atomism, archetypes, hylomorphism)?
How does Islamic thought intersect with the discussion of scientific realism in philosophy of science?
What should the relationship of Islam and Science be like?
Focus on more localized areas of investigation are also welcome. For example:
How can developments in neuroscience explicate understandings of human consciousness/spirituality?
How might Islamic conceptions of theological anthropology be affected by developments in AI and/or evolutionary biology?
What challenges to Islamic theological doctrines would discovery of extraterrestrial life (aliens) bring about?
Does the multiverse raise any theological conundrums?
We welcome co-authored abstracts involving scholars from different disciplines, panel proposals, as well as individual proposals. Each paper session will have 20 minutes to present followed by a Q/A session.
Abstract Deadline
Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words excluding bibliography by October 20, 2022 to https://asipt.org/conferences/conference-paper/. If accepted, papers will be eligible for publication in the Journal of Islamic Philosophy. All participants must be registered for the conference to present their papers, with the requirement that the finalized articles must be submitted prior to the conference.
Contact Information
Questions should be sent to Conference Director, Dr. Aaron Spevack at islamphil@gmail.com.
The conference is sponsored by the Journal of Islamic Philosophy, the American Society of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Harvard’s Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Brandeis’ Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. Generous funding for this conference has been provided by the Templeton Foundation.
