As the first quarter of the twenty-first century approaches, East Asia’s heterogenous Islamic landscapes are undergoing a radical transformation. In Central Asia and China, state-led securitization and localization campaigns are rupturing and remolding expressions of piety while silencing the visibility of the faith, expressed in the most extreme form in the ongoing crisis in Xinjiang. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, indigenizing currents and immigrant influxes are re-shaping the presence of Muslims and their wider societal environment, all under cautious and technologically sophisticated state monitoring and management. Constantly upgraded technological mediums and innovations, while facilitating communications and migrations across borders, also operate to limit and eradicate mobility on the most granular level. These changes are informed by contradictory trans-regional trends and discourses – the forces of globalization and state-led economic outreach (i.e. the Belt and the Road Initiative), the popularization of visions of 'nationalized Islams', the specter of the War on Terror, and the successes and failures of political Islamism – as well as more local dynamics such as xenophobia and demographic angst, among others.
Against this backdrop, the workshop “Islamic Pasts and Futures in East Asia’s Worldmaking” brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to reflect on the current moment and futures of Islam(s) and Muslims across East Asia. With an eye toward the millennium-long histories of Muslim presence in the region, we want to redraw the geographies of Islam in and beyond East Asia, and trace patterns of continuity and change across time. The themes of the workshop include visions and instrumentalizations of Islam in Asia, community and crisis in Altishahr/Xinjiang, transnational minoritization of Muslims, the aesthetics of 'acceptable' Islam, and tensions and opportunities between 'nationalized Islams' and global Islamic landscapes.
Venue:
Historische Sternwarte, University of Göttingen, Geismar Landstraße 11, 37083 Göttingen
There is a limited number of seats for attendance onsite. Please direct inquiries to xiaoyang.zhao[at]stud.uni-goettingen.deProgram:
September 23, Friday
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11:00 - 11:20 |
Opening and Introduction Dominic Sachsenmaier (University of Göttingen) Janice Hyeju Jeong (University of Göttingen) Mohammad Alsudairi (King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies) |
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11:30 - 14:00 |
Panel I. Visions and Instrumentalizations of Islam in Asia: Historical Trajectories Chair: Janice Hyeju Jeong (University of Göttingen) |
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Hale Eroglu (Bogazici University) The Awakened Muslim: Turkish Modernity in Chinese Muslim Reformist Thought |
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15:30 - 16:30
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Keynote Address by Selcuk Esenbel (Bogazici University) Islam and East Asia in World-Making: Local and Regional Maps Embedded into a Globalizing World |
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17:00 - 18:45 |
Panel II. Crisis, Community, and Control in Altishahr/Xinjiang Chair: Cemil Aydin (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) |
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September 24, Saturday
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10:00 - 11:45
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Panel III. The Question of “Muslim” Ethnicities and Minorities in “non-Muslim” Asia Chair: Selcuk Esenbel (Bogazici University) |
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13:00 - 14:45 |
Panel IV. The Politics of “Acceptable” Islam: Aesthetics and Public Visibility Chair: Liu Kang (Duke University) |
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15:00 - 16:00
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Keynote Address by Engseng Ho (Duke University) Mobile Muslims and Majoritarian States: Open and Shut Cases |
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16:30 - 18:15 |
Panel V. Dwelling in Migration and Displacement: Tensions and Opportunities between Global Expanses and Westphalian Borders Chair: Zhu Guohua (East China Normal University) |
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