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Islam, Judaism, and Decoloniality with Santiago Slabodsky and Sanober Umar

Introductory Remarks by Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken, Moderated by Adi Saleem Bharat
Monday, April 12, 2021
10:00-11:30 AM
Off Campus Location
In this seminar on Islam, Judaism, and decoloniality, Santiago Slabodsky and Sanober Umar suggest some paths towards disrupting/decentering (Eurocentric) intellectual epistemic hegemonies in the broadly defined fields of Jewish Studies and Islamic/Muslim Studies. Together, they will reflect on how we can draw on Southern epistemologies to broaden the horizon of Jewish and Muslim studies. In particular, Professor Slabodsky, the author of Decolonial Judaism, connects Jewish history and thought with the histories and presents of anti-colonial and decolonial struggles, thus exploring what a decolonial Judaism would look like in the twenty-first century. Similarly, Professor Umar, who is writing a book on the histories and global politics of "racing" and gendering Islam, seeks to complicate and decolonize our ideas of the "Muslim World," specifically from a Global South/Indian Muslim perspective, foregrounding caste, racialization, and gender.

Santiago Slabodsky is the Robert and Florence Kaufman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Associate Professor of Religion at Hofstra University. He writes about intercultural encounters between Jewish and Global South social theories and political movements. His book Decolonial Judaism: Triumphal Failures of Barbaric Thinking received the 2017 Frantz Fanon Outstanding Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association. His research interests include Jewish thought and culture, colonialism and decoloniality, sociology of knowledge, Latin American, North African, and Middle Eastern histories, religion and politics, inter-religious conversations, Jewish-Muslim dialogue, critical theories of religion and society, and race and globalization.

Sanober Umar is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at York University. Her current work explores the relationship (and critical distinctions) between caste and racial hierarchies, and how these entanglements-along with gender and class dynamics-inform the figure of the Muslim in Indian and (neoliberal) world politics. For her upcoming project, Dr. Umar is investigating the histories and global politics of "racing" and gendering Islam as religion including mainstream and academic discursive productions of a universalized and flexible "Muslim World".

Advance Registration Required: https://umich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYsdumgqTwsGdAYqZxPsITs8rYl-kwkmQ0k
Building: Off Campus Location
Location: Virtual
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: Jewish Studies
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Judaic Studies, Global Islamic Studies Center

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