Call for Papers: « A Different Approach to Debates on Political Islam – Micro-Level Studies International Conference », Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, June 2-4, 2008.

Since the late 1960s the prominence of Islamist movements and politics in the Middle East has attracted the interest of both scholars and non-specialist audiences. The challenges posed by Islamist movements to secular Arab regimes following the 1967 June War, the 1979 Iranian revolution and its ramifications, and the Afghan jihad against the Soviets during the 1980s, have, among other events, prompted a wide array of impressive and path-breaking studies on the nature and dynamics of political Islam and its related phenomena. These studies have situated Islamist movements and their respective ideologies within various historical contexts, and raised important questions about their compatibility with the institutional logic of secular capitalist modernity, their theological and legal underpinnings, and their changing relationships with state and society. More recently, issues relating to the "integration" of Muslim populations into European societies, as well as the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing "global war on terrorism," have redirected scholarly attention to the orientations and socio-cultural makeup of Islamist movements operating within the countries of Euro-America.

In recent years, the study of political Islam has been dominated by hermeneutic discussions of Islamic political thought as well as by an increasing concern over the threats of "Islamic terrorism." It is our feeling that these preoccupations have not only become ubiquitous but have also reached a saturation point, at least in academic circles.

The proposed international conference seeks to reinvigorate scholarly debate on political Islam by taking a different approach to this phenomenon. Our aim is convene scholars who currently work on micro-level studies of politically-oriented Islamic groups in the Muslim world and beyond. Such studies may be historical (e.g. a study of one group of Ikhwān on trial in Egypt in the 1960s, or of a group of clerics in Qom on the eve of the Iranian revolution); they may be anthropological (e.g. a study of contemporary madrasa students in Pakistan, or of a women’s study circle in Britain), or perhaps socio-economic (e.g. a study of a specific network of money transfers for radical organizations). Another option may be the study of a group of texts shared by a small community (a journal, or a specific website and its contents, linked to its producers). In some cases it could be the study of one family or even one person. As models for this approach we have in mind several micro-level studies such as Roy Mottahedeh’s Mantle of the Prophet in the field of Islamic studies, or, in related contexts, LeRoy Laddurie’s Montaillou, Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms and Melani McAlister's study on the Christian Evangelical Left Behind series.

We invite scholars with small-scale studies on political Islam to submit a one-page proposal. To encourage comparative perspectives, we also welcome small-scale studies on Christian and Jewish "fundamentalisms."

Please send proposals to Dror Zeevi (zeevi@bgu.ac.il) and Haggai Ram (hram@bgu.ac.il). The deadline for submission is 15 October, 2007.

Accepted submissions will be offered transportation and lodging throughout the conference.

All participants will be expected to submit in advance a working paper to be distributed among the other conference members. This will enable us to dedicate the conference to discussions on original papers rather than to lengthy presentations.

The conference will be held at Ben Gurion University on 2-4 June 2008.