AMSS Thirty-second Annual Conference Bloomington, IN - September 26-28, 2003

Abstract

The Thirty-second Annual AMSS Conference, cosponsored this year by
Indiana University's Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies program and the
department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, analyzed "East
Meets West: Understanding the Muslim Presence in Europe and North
America." Katherine Bullock (program committee chair, University of
Toronto), Nazif Shahrani (professor of anthropology, director of Middle
Eastern and Islamic studies program, Indiana University), Patrick
O'Meara (dean, International Programs, Indiana University), and Louay
Safi (president, AMSS) welcomed attendees and made introductory
remarks.
Since the passing of Edward Said coincided with the beginning of the
conference, in his welcoming remarks Shahrani referred to this great
scholar's lasting legacy. In fact, many panelists during the course of the
conference talked about the importance of Said's research to their own
work.
Regular AMSS attendees such as myself would tell you that this conference
was a tightly organized orchestra of excellent sessions, one after the
other. The number of sessions was smaller than usual, and there were fewer
parallel sessions, probably because far more academic rigor had been exercised
in selectiong papers than had been the case in previous conferences.
A special delight on the first day was the lunch and jumu'ah prayer at
the Bloomington Islamic Center, catered and served by Bloomington
Muslim community volunteers. After these events, the conference began
in earnest. The opening panel, "A Political Philosophical Perspective on
Islam and Democracy," featured M. A. Muqtedar Khan (Adrian College),
who addressed the theoretical aspects of this debate, and Nazia Khandwalla
(University of Texas), who looked at the debate in an empirical
study of slum-dwelling women in Karachi ...