A conference organised by the Jewish-Muslim Research Network (JMRN)

In Collaboration with the Sherman Conversations 2020, Centre for Jewish Studies 

The University of Manchester

May 19-20, 2020

Keynote Speakers: Najwa al-Qattan (Loyola Marymount University), Seth Anziska (University College London), Yulia Egorova (Durham University), and Brian Klug (Oxford University)

Call for Papers:

Beyond ‘Jewish-Muslim Relations’ invites scholars of Jewish and Muslim histories, cultures, politics, theologies and peoples to share comparative, transnational, and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of these topics as they relate to and come into contact with one another. Despite many theological and cultural similarities and frequent social proximity between Jews and Muslims, Jewish-Muslim relations in both contemporary societies and in diverse historical and geographic settings are often depicted in polarized binary terms. This conference aims to understand interactions and relations between Jews and Muslims in a wide variety of contexts beyond this binary. We encourage papers which offer innovative theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to the study of these topics, and in particular seek papers which adopt a critical approach to the terminology of ‘Jewish-Muslim relations,’ which might itself inadvertently invoke binary, possibly predetermined relations between Jews and Muslims qua Jews and Muslims, often within historical and socio-political frameworks that have reified categories of Jews, Muslims, and inter-ethnic/-religious relations.

We welcome papers on topics including, but not limited to:

• Historical cases of interaction between Jews and Muslims
• Representations and self-representations of Jews and Muslims
• Jewish and Muslim interfaith activism/dialogue
• Religion, tradition, secularism and innovation
• Antisemitism and Islamophobia
• Islamic and Jewish polemic and intellectual cross-fertilisation
• Critical theory and Jewish-Muslim relations
• Gender and sexuality
• Jews and Muslims in the arts, literature and media
• Multilingualism, translation and transnationalism 

Paper proposals should include abstracts of 250 words and a speaker biography of no more than 100 words. Speakers are allocated 20 minutes to present and 10 minutes for questions and discussion. Please address all proposals and queries to the organizers (Adi Bharat and Katharine Halls) at jewish.muslim@manchester.ac.uk

Deadline for submissions: December 1, 2019