Peasants, poppies, and popular expressions of Turkish nationalism amid the first salvo in America's 'war on drugs'

Kyle T. Evered, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Geography
Department of Geography, Environment, & Spatial Sciences
Michigan State University

Trained to study geographies of the Middle East and North Africa and the former Soviet states of Eurasia, most of Kyle Evered's research deals with topics associated with geographies of Turkey and its neighboring states.  In particular, he has published on the cultural and historical geographies, political geographies, and cultural ecologies of the country and its wider regions.  Some of his recent research concerns include geographies of the opium poppy, of health and wellbeing, and identity-place constructs (such as nationalism, territoriality, and regionalism).

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://msu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYodOyoqTgvG9dMd6mx2wrjLKs3TlwUeg9K

What The Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

Book Discussion

Tuesday, October 13, 7:00 pm ONLINE
Discussion led by Prof Stephen Gasteyer

Michigan State University Muslim Studies Program is hosting an international conference on Islam, Environmental Science and Conservation. This conference aims to foster understanding of the nexus between Islam, environmental science, and conservation. The conference will take place on October 15-16, 2020.

Thursday, October 15, 2020: 

https://msu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYrde6ppzIuHtfpFGIlkKMwvcCNlenoQ8lD

Co-Sponsors: James Madison College, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, African Studies Center, African Studies Center, Honors College, Department of Religious Studies, and Citizen-Scholars Program, Department of Forestry

Michigan State University Muslim Studies Program is hosting an international conference on Islam, Environmental Science and Conservation. This conference aims to foster understanding of the nexus between Islam, environmental science, and conservation. 

Friday, October 16, 2020: 

8:00am-9:45am: Indonesian Scholarship on Islam, Conservation, and the Environment 

Gatot Supangkat (Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta), "Muhammadiyah's Perspective on Environmental Management and Protection Sustainability" 

Muhammad Tri Ramdhani (Universitas Muhammadiyah Palangka Raya), "The Role of Islam in the Cultural Ceremony of the Tiwah Dayak Ngaju People of Central Kalimantan"   

Siti Maimunah (Universitas Muhammadiyah Palangka Raya), "The Role of Islam in Developing a Forest Case Study in Mungku Baru Palangka Raya" 

Atus Syahbudin (Universitas Gadjah Mada), "Is there an Islamic Tree Species?" 

10:00am-11:45am: Global Case Studies: Indonesia, Gambia, and Afghanistan 

Karyanti (Universitas Muhammadiyah Palangka Raya) (co-author: Lilik Kholisotin), "The Role of Women in Forest Conservation: The Case of Ibu Siti Maimunah of the Muhammadiyah" 

Abdoulie Jabang (Michigan State University), "Transforming and 'Healing' the Environment: Founders, Migrants, Farmers, Muslim holy men, Women rainmakers, and Colonial Meteorologists in the River Gambia, 1890-1970" (via Zoom) 

Shah Mahmoud Hanifi (James Madison University), "A Deep History of Water in Afghanistan" 

M. Jamil Hanifi (Michigan State University), "An Historical Ethnography of Water in Pre-Industrial Kabul" 

11:45am-12:00pm: Closing Remarks   

Outsiders at Home: 
The Politics of American Islamophobia

Book Discussion with author Nazita Lajevardi

Discrimination against Muslim Americans has soared over the last two decades with hostility growing especially acute since 2016 - in no small part due to targeted attacks by policymakers and media. Outsiders at Home offers the first systematic, empirically driven examination of status of Muslim Americans in US democracy, evaluating the topic from a variety of perspectives. To what extent do Muslim Americans face discrimination by legislators, the media, and the general public? What trends do we see over time, and how have conditions shifted? What, if anything, can be done to reverse course? Answering each of these questions, Nazita Lajevardi shows that the rampant, mostly negative discussion of Muslims in media and national discourse has yielded devastating political and social consequences.

Language Accommodation:
Analyzing the Role of Attitudes in Interdialectal Arabic Encounters
Webinar lecture by Brahim Chakrani
Associate Professor of Arabic
November 17, 12:00 pm
Brahim Chakrani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Languages.  He obtained his B.A. in English Literature from the University of Cadi Ayyad in Marrakech, Morocco and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While completing his graduate work, Dr. Chakrani also obtained a Certificate of Advanced Studies in the program of Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) at UIUC.  Prior to joining MSU, he taught at UIUC and Parkland College in Champaign and served as supervising Teaching Assistant in the African Language program at UIUC.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://msu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAod-GrrzwuE9B7AAsqOtlcENmPJmi04SL6

Muslim Women Jurists

Rosemary Admiral, PhD

Assistant Professor of History

The University of Texas at Dallas

Research Interests: Middle Eastern and North African history, pre-modern Moroccan history, Islamic legal studies, gender and feminism

Quote: "Women today have complex relationships with Islamic law. I wanted to see how these relationships mapped onto the past, particularly in the case of North Africa. My research found women engaging with the law in creative and strategic ways, not only through the courts but also by way of a number of less-formal community spaces that they carved out for themselves.

MUSLIM JOURNEY BOOK DISCUSSION - Laury Silvers

'The Lover: A Sufi Mystery' 

Zaytuna just wants to be left alone to her ascetic practices and nurse her dark view of the world. But when an impoverished servant girl she barely knows comes and begs her to bring some justice to the death of a local boy, she is forced to face the suffering of the most vulnerable in Baghdad and the emotional and mystical legacy of her mother, a famed ecstatic whose love for God eclipsed everything. The Lover is a historically sensitive mystery that introduces us to the world of medieval Baghdad and the lives of the great Sufi mystics, washerwomen, Hadith scholars, tavern owners, slaves, corpsewashers, police, and children indentured to serve in the homes of the wealthy. It asks what it means to have family when you have nearly no one left, what it takes to love and be loved by those who have stuck by you, and how one can come to love God and everything He's done to you.

Registration link coming soon!

2021 Muslim Studies Program Student Research Showcase