Tajikistan: Turbulent Present, Uncertain Future
Seminar
Sixteen years have passed since the signing of the peace agreement that brought an end to Tajikistan’s brutal civil war. There was great hope in 1997 that Tajikistan had been handed a fresh start, and a viable political future. However, the country’s present situation remains bleak. While…
Why Israel/Palestine peace talks now?
Lecture
There is widespread scepticism about the constructive results flowing from this latest phase of Israel/Palestine peace talks: the Netanyahu government does not seem willing to offer the Palestinians a state based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital; the Palestinian Authority writ…
Headscarf Controversy Goes Global
Lecture
In the early 1990s, Turkey was the only Muslim country where a headscarf ban in schools, universities and public institutions existed. In the aftermath of 9/11, especially in the West, there occurred a troubling exclusion of pious Muslim women from the public sphere in the name of secularism,…
Oil, Unions and Democracy after Saddam
Lecture
The majority of contemporary scholarship on Iraqi politics focuses on issues such as: the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of the Iraqi government; the obstinacy and ineptitude of many elements of Iraq’s political elite; the systemic corruption that is hollowing out the coffers of the…
The Syrian Uprising: Multiple Discourses on Drivers and Dynamics
Seminar
Research Seminar Series: CAIS is holding a seminar in the CAIS Research Seminar Series on 16 August 2013. The series is intended to generate discussion on current issues and reflect on experiences of CAIS graduate students and staff. The seminar will feature an informal,…
Islamic Formalism: Against the Ultimate Goals of Islam?
Lecture
The initial years of Islamic history, characterised in the first half century since the advent of Islam, are generally conceived as the foundation of Sunna (tradition). This era is also misconceived as a utopia by contemporary Islamic Fundamentalists who idealise the norms and practices of…
A Global Transformation of Islamic Activism? Why Post-Islamism Still Matters
Lecture
While recent events in the Arab world seem to herald the triumph of political Islam, this presentation will argue that we have in fact firmly entered the era of post-Islamism. Where some well known articulations of the post-Islamism thesis have tended to focus on the dilution and waning legitimacy…