by Salman Hameed
If you are in the area, please join us at Hampshire College this Monday evening for a panel discussion featuring three fantastic scholars: George Saliba, Asad Ahmed, Ehab Abouheif. The event is free and open to the public. This is also the launch of our new Science and Islam Videos Portal, but more on that in a separate post. Here are the details of the panel discussion:
Center for the Study of Science in Muslim Societies (SSiMS) Presents:
The Muslim world is currently going through enormous changes. This is not entirely surprising, as more than half the population in the Middle East, and in much of the larger Muslim world, is under the age of 25. This is also the first generation to have been fully affected by the spread of mass education in the region and the global technological revolution of the past two decades. It is therefore not a leap to predict that this generation will interpret Islam and shape its relation to the modern world for decades to come, and that these interpretations will be influenced by global concerns and technological developments. This panel brings together three eminent scholars from the fields of history of science, Islamic studies, and evolutionary biology to talk about ways Muslims have engaged with the sciences both historically and in the contemporary world. This event coincides with the launch of an online portal, designed by SSiMS, that provides a content evaluation of approximately 200 online videos on the topic of Islam and Science (Please visit the portal site atwww.scienceandislamvideos.com).
Panelist biographies:
Dr. George Saliba is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. Dr. Saliba is considered one of world's leading authorities on the history of Arabic and Islamic Science. He is the author of Late Arabic Scientific Commentaries: Their Role and Their Originality (2014) and Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (2007).
Dr. Asad Ahmed is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Ahmed specializes in early Islamic social history and pre-modern Islamic intellectual history, with a special focus on the rationalist disciplines, such as philosophy, logic, and astronomy. His current focus is the period ca. 1200-1900 CE, especially with reference to the Indian subcontinent. He is the author of The Religious Elite of the Early Islamic Hijaz (2011) and Avicenna’s Deliverance: Logic (2011).
Dr. Ehab Abouheif is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Developmental Biology in Department of Biology at McGill University, Canada. Dr. Abouheif's primary research focuses on the evolution of ants and his articles have been published in prestigious journals, like Science. He is also the co-director of McGill Centre for Islam and Scienceand is actively engaged in dialogue over Islam and evolution.
Moderator: Dr. Salman Hameed is the Director of SSiMS. He is also the Charles Taylor Chair and Associate Professor of Integrated Science and Humanities at Hampshire College.
For more information on SSiMS, please visit www.hampshire.edu/ssims/
This event has been made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
If you are in the area, please join us at Hampshire College this Monday evening for a panel discussion featuring three fantastic scholars: George Saliba, Asad Ahmed, Ehab Abouheif. The event is free and open to the public. This is also the launch of our new Science and Islam Videos Portal, but more on that in a separate post. Here are the details of the panel discussion:
Center for the Study of Science in Muslim Societies (SSiMS) Presents:
A Panel Discussion on
Historical and Contemporary Muslim Engagements with Science
Panelists include:
Dr. George Saliba, Columbia University
Dr. Asad Ahmed, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Ehab Abouheif, McGill University
Moderator: Dr. Salman Hameed
Monday, October 5th, 2015
5:30p.m., Franklin Patterson Hall, Main Lecture Hall
Hampshire College
The Muslim world is currently going through enormous changes. This is not entirely surprising, as more than half the population in the Middle East, and in much of the larger Muslim world, is under the age of 25. This is also the first generation to have been fully affected by the spread of mass education in the region and the global technological revolution of the past two decades. It is therefore not a leap to predict that this generation will interpret Islam and shape its relation to the modern world for decades to come, and that these interpretations will be influenced by global concerns and technological developments. This panel brings together three eminent scholars from the fields of history of science, Islamic studies, and evolutionary biology to talk about ways Muslims have engaged with the sciences both historically and in the contemporary world. This event coincides with the launch of an online portal, designed by SSiMS, that provides a content evaluation of approximately 200 online videos on the topic of Islam and Science (Please visit the portal site atwww.scienceandislamvideos.com).
Panelist biographies:
Dr. George Saliba is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. Dr. Saliba is considered one of world's leading authorities on the history of Arabic and Islamic Science. He is the author of Late Arabic Scientific Commentaries: Their Role and Their Originality (2014) and Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (2007).
Dr. Asad Ahmed is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Ahmed specializes in early Islamic social history and pre-modern Islamic intellectual history, with a special focus on the rationalist disciplines, such as philosophy, logic, and astronomy. His current focus is the period ca. 1200-1900 CE, especially with reference to the Indian subcontinent. He is the author of The Religious Elite of the Early Islamic Hijaz (2011) and Avicenna’s Deliverance: Logic (2011).
Dr. Ehab Abouheif is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Developmental Biology in Department of Biology at McGill University, Canada. Dr. Abouheif's primary research focuses on the evolution of ants and his articles have been published in prestigious journals, like Science. He is also the co-director of McGill Centre for Islam and Scienceand is actively engaged in dialogue over Islam and evolution.
Moderator: Dr. Salman Hameed is the Director of SSiMS. He is also the Charles Taylor Chair and Associate Professor of Integrated Science and Humanities at Hampshire College.
For more information on SSiMS, please visit www.hampshire.edu/ssims/
This event has been made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
Very interesting, look forward to the video.
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note you may have heard about Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz's new book "Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue". Harris has said that his views about pluralism in Islam have somewhat changed after his dialogue with Nawaz. There's also a video on the internet of a talk in Harvard they had on the book. Would like to hear your comments on the book/talk :)
Regards,
Asad
Thanks Asad. And yes, I do know about the book. I will try to get through their book and talk (from his articles, I find several Maajid Nawaz's points problematic as well). Later today I will also be posting an excellent discussion on New Atheism and Islam by Glenn Greenwald - and he talks about Sam Harris and his changing positions.
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