CFP: Materiality, Rituals and Senses: The Dynamic World of Lived Shi‘i Islam

The organizers of a conference exploring the material, ritual and sensory forms of expression that constitute and shape the experiences of Shi‘i Muslims in diverse geographies and different time periods are seeking proposals. Submissions are due by April 15, 2022.

Organizers welcome contributions that interrogate, problematize, and question these theoretical debates through empirically or historically informed research. They encourage cross-disciplinary work that embraces different fields, spaces, times, technologies, and actors encompassing but not limited to:

• Devotion and ritual practice and its multiple sensory, material, embodied and aesthetic forms
• Shi‘i art forms and material cultures such film, theater, visual arts, architecture, literature, poetry, miniatures and music
• Dynamics and processes of Shi‘i heritage-making in majority, minority and diasporic contexts
• Historical analysis of the continuities and transformations of Shi‘i rituals, art forms and material expressions of piety
• Gendered dimensions of Shi‘i cultural production
• Actors involved in the production and circulation of Shi‘i modes of cultural production
• Influences of globalization, sectarianization, and diasporas on Shi‘i cultural production
• Translocal and transnational entanglements and flows of ideas, capital, and people
• Influences of technological advances (e.g. satellite broadcasting, the Internet, digital technologies and new media) on Shi‘i cultural production
• Political economy of Shi‘i cultural production
• Influence and impact of regional and world politics on content and form in Shi‘i cultural production.

Research on various subdivisions of Shi‘i Islam is welcome, including the Twelver, Ismaili, and Zaidi subbranches, as well as research on Alid piety and different forms of devotion to ahl al-bayt more generally. Scholars of all career levels and disciplinary and interdisciplinary backgrounds are encouraged to submit an abstract, including from Anthropology, Area Studies, Cultural Studies, History, Islamic Studies, Media Studies, Political Science, Religious Studies, Sociology, Ethnomusicology and other relevant and related disciplines and fields.