Events
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Event Videos
Following is a list of all keynote speeches and public lectures by Prof. Ahmad.
BOOK REVIEW:RELIGION AS CRITIQUE:ISLAMIC CRITICAL THINKING FROM MECCA TO THE MARKETPLACE -Dr I Ahmad
Videos of some events.
Following is a list of all keynote speeches and public lectures by Prof. Ahmad.
BOOK REVIEW:RELIGION AS CRITIQUE:ISLAMIC CRITICAL THINKING FROM MECCA TO THE MARKETPLACE -Dr I Ahmad
Concretizing the woven politics of Islamophobia and “Domophilia” at TEDx UniGoettingen, Germany, 2019.
Academic Events
November 18, 2023
Ahmad, Irfan. 2023. “How (not) to Write Muslim Thoughts Notes on Shahab Ahmed’s What is Islam?” Paper for the Conference on Contemporary Muslim Thought. ISAM & İLKE Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey.
January 8, 2023
Discussant for session three of the symposium (Online) “ReOrient Special Issue: Hindutva and the Muslim Subject,” University of Leeds, UK.
December 9 – 10, 2022
“Destroying the Babri Masjid: Departure from the Era of Secularism or Pretense to Pluralism Unmasked?” for the online symposium “Afterlives of Babri Masjid: Thirty Years Later,” organized by South Asia Institute, Department of Religion & Department of History, Columbia University.
October 25 , 2022
Discussion on my coedited book The Nation Form in the Global Age: Ethnographic Perspectives (Palgrave, 2022); in Conversation with Political Scientist Dr. Heba Raouf Ezzat; department of Sociology, Ibn Haldun University.
September 16 – 18, 2022
“Five Theses On How Writing History Without Political Theory-Philosophy Is Boring,” for the Fourth International Süleymaniye Symposium on “The Mughal Empire: New Sources, New Approaches,” Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul
July 30 – 31, 2022
“Differentiated in ‘Occident,’ Integrated (Whole) in ‘Orient:’ Racist-Orientalist Tenets of ‘Holism’ in Anthropology and Elsewhere,” for the Conference Towards A Multiplex Relational Theory of Action: Why Do People Do What They Do” organized by Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul and John Templeton Foundation, Pennsylvania.
July 14 – 16, 2022
What Might a Global Political Anthropology of Islamophobia Might Look Like: On Domophilia, Vacuum and Globalism,” for the Inaugural Conference States of Islamophobia Studies, organized by International Islamophobia Studies Research Association (IISRA) and held at Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul
July 5, 2022
“Nationalism and Its Combat Concepts: Reflections on Violence and Indian Democracy,” for the VI. Uluslararası 15 Temmuz Sempozyumu, held and organized by Marmara University, Istanbul.
June 9, 2022
Public Conversation on Twitter Space with Annie Zaidi, novelist-poet, about “How to Construct a Political Language in Times of Crisis, ” moderated and organized by Francesca Recchia, editor of The Polis Project [due to sudden inaccessibility to Twitter space, Talal Asad, the key interlocutor, could not join]
May 20 –22, 2022
Keynote titled “Time in/of Modernity, Time in/of Islam” delivered at the sociology day symposium, department of sociology, Ibn Haldun University.
November 17, 2021
Presented paper titled “Anthropology is about the True and the Possible, Not Merely the Real” in the panel“The True, the Real, and the Possible: Truth in/of Anthropology,” organized by Yunus Telliel and chaired by me at the 2021 AAA Conference on Truth & Responsibility, Baltimore, USA, 17-21 November
November 17, 2021
Participated in the Roundtable on “Obeying God for the Nation: Religion, Citizenship and Struggles for Belonging,” organized by David Henig and Joyce Dalsheim at the 2021 AAA Conference on Truth & Responsibility, Baltimore, USA, 17-21 November
January 26, 2021
Paper titled “Recognizing Hindu Orientalism,” Zoom seminar, Department of Indology, University of Tübingen, Germany
July 03, 2020
Paper titled “Are Anthropology and Ethnography Equivalent?” Zoom seminar at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan
October 3 –4, 2019
“Beyond Mother Goddess: Imagining India as a Bouquet, Bride and Garden,” paper for the conference on “Rethinking Public Religion: Time, Space, Memory,” organized by the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life, Columbia University
June 12, 2019
“Another Genealogy of Critique: On Islam and Reason” Trinity Term Seminar Series, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Oxford University
March 28, 2019
“Indian Democracy and the Algebra of Warfare-Welfare: An Anthropological Outline,” CSSS (Sociology) colloquium, JNU, New Delhi
January 17, 2019
With Peter van der Veer, “Muslim Bare Life in India Today” for the Understanding New Hindutva workshop,” organized by Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen
November 17, 2018
Author Meets Critics panel on “Religion As Critique”at the American Academy of Religion Conference, Denver, Participants: Ilyse Fuerst, Ebrahim Moosa, Peter Gottschalk, Marcia Hermansen, Teena Purohit, and SherAli Tareen
November 16, 2018
Roundtable on “Religion As Critique” at the American Anthropological Association Conference, San Jose, Participants: Mayanthi Fernando, Robert Hefner, Nada Moumtaz, Yunus Telliel, and Dina Siddiqi.
November 12, 2018
“Beyond the ‘Secular/Enlightenment’ Frame: Critique as an Everyday Practice among Muslims,” Book Talk at Global Politics and Religion Research Group, Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
September 15, 2018
“‘Freeing Anthropology from Critique’ or Critiquing Anthropology? On Critique and Islam,” Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, the UK, for the Imaginative Landscapes of Islamic Politics: Aspirations, Dreams, and Critique Conference
August 31, 2018
Book release by the ex-Vice President of India and Symposium with four panelists on Religion as Critique, India International Centre, New Delhi, organized by Oxford University Press
August 29, 2018
“Re-Orientalism, Media and the Eclipse of the Sachar Report,” Talk at Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
August 24, 2018
Symposium with four panelists-faculties of University of Hyderabad on “Religion As Critique,” Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad, India
March 6, 2018
Paper “Home, Homeland, Territorial Sacralization: Religion and Belonging across Europe and South Asia”, at the seminar Sacrality acting up in Secular space: scope and limits of the South Asian Muslim Groups in Europe and in Homeland,” Vrije University, Amsterdam
February2-3, 2018
“Notes on Indian Populism,” workshop organized by Georg Eckert Institute – Leibniz Institute for International Text Book Research, Leibniz–Zentrum Moderner Orient and Centre for Contemporary History (ZFF) at Leibniz–Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin
November 23, 2018
Book Talk “Religion As Critique,” Centre for Global South Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
November 13, 2017
“Ethnic Democracy: An Ethnographic Account of Terror of India’s Counter-terror Agencies,” Religious Diversity Colloquium, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen
November 09, 2017
Book Symposium on “Religion As Critique,” with Armando Salvatore, Ruth Mas and Peter van der Veer, Max Planck Institute, Göttingen
October 23, 2017
Seminar “Democracy as Rumor,” Institute for Ethnology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
October 17, 2017
Book Talk “Religion As Critique,” Leipzig University, Department of Ethnology, Winter Series
September 14, 2017
Organized workshop “Is ‘That is Enough about Ethnography’ Enough” on Tim Ingold’s writings, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen –My paper “Toward a Political Anthropology of Terrorism: An In-Disciplinary Approach”
April 11-13, 2017
Seminar titled “Inequality in the Era of ‘War on Terror’: On Underrepresentation of Minorities in Political Economy and Overrepresentation in Jail,” S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
February 24-25, 2017
Paper “Turn to the Right? The Indian Left and the ‘Muslim Question’ in Post-1947 India,” SouthAsia Conference: Inequality in South Asia, New York University, New York
November 18, 2016
Discussant for the panel “Being Muslim from South Asia,” American Anthropological Association Conference, Minneapolis
November 18, 2016
Speaker in the Roundtable “Anthropological Publics, Public Anthropology,” American Anthropological Association Conference, Minneapolis
August 14-15, 2016
“When Religion Becomes Something Else and Something Else Religion: Anthropology, Enlightenment, Religion and IR,” paper at Symposium “The Politics of Religious Freedom in the Asia-Pacific,”University of Notre Dame, Sydney
December 03, 2015
“Anthropology/Sociology and International Relations: The Importance of C. Wright Mills,” paper at Australian Anthropological Society Conference, held at University of Melbourne
July 07, 2015
“Democracy as Rumor: Media, Religion and the 2014 Indian Elections,” International Convention of Asia Scholars, ICAS, Conference in the panel “Acche din [Good Days]? Politics and Governance in India after One Year of the BJP”
January 21, 2015
“Rumor and Democratic Politics: Anthropological Notes on the 2014 Indian Elections,” Department of Sociology Seminar Series, Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), Delhi, India
January 13, 2015
“Democracy as Rumor: Media, Religion and the 2014 Indian Elections,” Department of PoliticalScience, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
May 2, 2014
“After Atrocity: Indian Democracy and Secularism in the Wake of the Gujarat Pogrom,” talk atIILAH Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia
January 14, 2014
“Margins of Knowledge: Nation-State, the “Other” and the Discplin(e)ing of Sociology/Anthropology,” Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad, India
January 13, 2014
“Theorizing Religion and Democracy: The Transformation of India’s Jamaat-e-Islami,” Public Talk at University of Hyderabad, India
December 22, 2013
“Islamic Reform”, Keynote Address at the Kerala Muslim Heritage Studies Conference, Calicut,Kerala, India
December 13-14, 2013
“Propose and Oppose: Islam in Asia Over Longue Durée,” paper for the workshop Reimagining Asia organized jointly by The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Sageand Teen Murti, New Delhi
June 20-21, 2013
“Bloody Democracy,” paper at the Conference Future of Democracy: Europe and Islam in the Twenty First Century, Monash University Centre at Prato, Italy.
April 19-21, 2013
“Margins of Knowledge: Nation-State, ‘the Other’ and the Disciplin(e)ing of Sociology/Anthropology,” key lecture for the conference “Questioning Marginality,” Brown University, Providence, USA.
November 29, 2012
“Toward an Anthropology of Critique: Secular, Religious, Immanent, Transcendental…” South Asia Center, University of Chicago
November 21, 2012
“Toward an Anthropology of Critique: Secular, Religious, Immanent, Transcendental…” Committee on Religion Seminar Series, City University of New York, The Graduate Center.
July 11-13, 2012
“Kafka in India: Terrorism, Media, Muslims,” paper at the 9thBiennial Conference of Asian Studies Association, University of Western Sydney, presented in the Panel (convened byIrfan Ahmad) Leadership Matters: Elites, Media, Nationalism and Religion in South Asia
July 7, 2012
“One Movement, Three Countries, Seven Decades: The Trajectory of Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asia”, paper at the Workshop “Following the Path of the Prophet Muhammad: Islamic Piety, Social Movements and Political Organization,” Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany, Department of Anthropology, Cluster of Excellence, Normative Orders
November 23, 2011
“How Not to Talk About Secularism and Islam”. Paper at the conference Ethics in a Multi-Faith Society: Muslims and Christians in Dialogue, held at and organized by Australian Catholic University, and Australian Intercultural Society, Melbourne
October 20, 2011
“Anthropology of Nationalism, Nationalism of Anthropology: Notes on the Idea and Practice of Indian Anthropology”. Anthropology Colloquium,Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
September 27-28, 2011
“Kafka in India: A Short Essay on Three Big Ts –Terrorism, Treason, Technology”. Paper at the conference Islam in Modern South Asia organized by Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore.
September 16, 2011
“Re-theorizing Democracy and Islam”. Public lecture at Centre for the Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
June 16-17, 2011
“In Defense of Ho(s)tel: Islamophobia, Domophilia and the West”, paper at Globalization, Illiberalism, the West and Islamconference, Monash University Prato Campus, Italy.
April 28-30, 2011
“De-Democratization in Muslim Societies”. Paper at the conference Spirited Voices from the Muslim World: Islam, Democracy, Gender Rights, University of Sydney, Australia.
April 2-8, 2011
“The Revolt of the Young: An Essay on Revolting Injustice”. Paper at the advanced seminar The 9/11 Generation: Young Muslims in New World Order, School of Advanced Research, New Mexico, USA.
February, 8, 2011
“Writing Anthropology of India: Notes on Methodological Nationalism,” Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany.
December 18-19 2010
“Democracy, Theo-democracy, Nation: Re-reading Maududi and Jamaat-e-Islami,” paper at Transcending Binaries: Conference on Islam & Politics in South Asia, BRAC University,Dhaka, Bangladesh.
October 27, 2010
“Islam and Democracy: Some Anthropological Reflections”. Paper at Australian National University. Department of Anthropology.
July 05-08, 2010
“Writing Anthropology of India: Notes on Methodological Nationalism”. Paper at the 18th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, University of Adelaide, South Australia.
May 19-24, 2010
“Islam and Democracy: Some Anthropological Reflections.” Paper at the conference Realigning Liberalism: Pluralism, Integration and Identitiesorganized under the banner “Philosophers Bridge the Bosphorous” by Reset Dialogue on Civilizations, Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul.
March 22-23, 2010
“Writing Anthropology of India: Preliminary Notes on Methodological Nationalism”. Paper at the workshop Studying Spaces of Non-Existence: Methodological Concerns, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia
February 11, 2010
“Culture and Critique”. Seminar at the Centre for the Study of Social System, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
December 2-6 2009
“An Outline of Abul Kalam Azad’s Cosmopolitan Theology”, paper at the 108thAnnual Conference of American Anthropological Association, Philadelphia; Panel on Muslim Cosmopolitanism and the End/s of Secularism? Movement, Identity, and Contemporary Reconfigurations.
December 01, 2009
“Islam and Democracy in India: Some Anthropological Reflections” seminar at Michigan State University, Lansing, USA. Invited Talk based on my book Islamism and Democracy in India.
July-18-19, 2009
“In Defense of Hotel: Notes on Why Islamophobia Should Be Read as Homephilia,” paper at the Conference on Islamophobia: Fear of the Other,Monash University, Melbourne.
November 28-29, 2008
“Outline of a Theory of Immanent Critique”. International Workshop on “Understanding Immanent Critique: Cultural Politics and Islamic Activism”, ISIM, Leiden University, The Netherlands
July 9-11, 2008
Ahmad, Irfan. “Genealogy of the Islamic State: Reflections on Maududi’s Political Thought and Islamism,”20thEuropean Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Manchester, UK
October 19-20, 2007
“The Show Boy, Hindus’ Imam, an Apostate, or a Nationalist? A Preliminary Outline of Abulkalam Azad’s Cosmopolitan Theology,”Contemporary Muslim Cosmopolitanisms Conference, Cambridge University
September 06, 2007
“How Practice Transforms Theory: Immanent Critique and Jamaat-e-Islami’s Changing Discourse”. Weekly seminar at Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
May 25, 2007
“Genealogy of the Islamic State: Reflections on Maududi’s Political Thought and Islamism”, paper for the Conference on Cool Passion: The Political Theology of Conviction, University of Amsterdam
December 01, 2006
“Cracks in the ‘Fort of Islamic Culture’: Jamaat-e-Islami’s Changing Discourse on Women”, South Asia Seminar, Department of Anthropology, University of Sussex, UK
November 15, 2006
“Cracks in the ‘Fort of Islamic Culture’: Jamaat-e-Islami’s Changing Discourse on Women”, 105thAnnual Conference of American Anthropological Association, San Jose, California; Panel on Islam, Politics and Modernity: Anthropological Perspectives
October 13-15, 2006
“‘If We Don’t …Wage Jihad, What Will We Do?’ Explaining Radicalization of Young Islamists in India”, Conference on Youth and the Global South: Religion, Politics and the Making of Youth in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Dakar, Senegal
April 6-9, 2006
“Erosion of Secularism and Explosion of Jihad: Explaining Islamist Radicalization in India”, Panel on “Ideology of Transformation, Transformation of Ideology: The Many Faces of the Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asia” for Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, San Francisco
February 20, 2006
“Is Genre Sovereign: Poetry and Limits of Islamism?” Public Culture Colloquium, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin
May 26-27, 2005
“Between Moderation and Radicalization: Transnational Interactions of Jamaat-e-Islami of India”, Workshop on Islamic Reform Movements in South Asia, SOAS, University of London
May 19-21, 2005
“Familiar Discourse in an Unfamiliar World: Conflict, Protest and Democratization in a Tahriki Madrasa of North India”, International Workshop on Islamic Learning in South Asia, Erfurt University, Germany
October 25, 2004
“Should Ideology Remain an Orphan in Movement Theories: Ideological Mutation and Islamist Movement in India?” Paper for the Workshop with James Jasper on Protest: Theory and Practice after the Paradigms, ASSR, University of Amsterdam
November 21 2003
“‘Ninety Nine Percent Individuals of this Qaum are Ignorant of Islam, Ninety Five Percent Are Deviant…’ Discourse of Purity and Purity of Discourse”, Dutch Anthropological Association Conference, 105th year, Leiden. Panel: Postcoloniality and the Search for Purity
May 6 2003
“Understanding Religious Nationalist Movement in India: How (Ir)relevant is the Contentious Politics Model”, Workshop with Sidney Tarrow on Contentious Politics: Identity, Mobilization and Transnational Politics, University of Amsterdam
July 15-28 2001
“Mapping Religious Nationalism: The Jamaat-e-Islami in India”, Summer Institute Workshop on Public Spheres and Muslim Identities, Wissenschaftskolleg Zu, Berlin.
May 28 2001
“Politicize Islam, Islamize Politics: Electoral Process and the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind”, Conference on Cultures of Voting held at Centre d’Etudes et de Recherché Internationales, Paris.
February 24-28 2000
“In the Name of Islam: Construction of Cultural Identity in Nazir Ahmad’s Novel, IbnulVaqt” at the Annual Cultural Studies Workshop held at Bharatpur and organized by Center for Studies in Social Science, Calcutta.
Event Calendar
February 11, 2010