Negotiating Islamic Selfhood: Romance and Censorship in Middle Eastern and South Asian Cinema

As a modern form of popular culture and artistic experience, cinema has always engaged in the production of meanings that shape what Islam means today. This mini-conference focuses on Middle Eastern and South Asian film industries to examine how cinema functioned as supplemental public spheres where filmmakers explore Islam as a human and historical phenomenon characterized and constituted, not merely by immense variety and diversity, but by the prodigious presence of outright contradiction shaped by Muslims and Non-Muslims. Close attention is paid to how filmmakers negotiate metaphors representing Islam in relation to questions of modernity, Islamic selfhood, Islamic history, religious reform, censorship practices, romance, as well as political polarization.
A free webinar, hosted by Heba Arafa Abdelfattah, ISM fellow.
Presented in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies, and the MacMillan Center: Council on Middle East Studies and South Asian Studies Council.