​About the Conference

On the 9 -10 October 2009, the AKU-ISMC will hold a conference entitled Construction of Belief: Comparative Perspectives. The conference, for invited academics, will honour the work and ideas of Professor Mohamed Arkoun, one of the most influential scholars of Muslim philosophy and history.

Professor Arkoun has devoted his long intellectual career in an endeavour to re-think the Islamic past and present in the light of modern approaches of critical reflection and analysis. This endeavour has just begun to be noted and appreciated in the English-speaking world, provoking admiration as well as controversy.

The conference will involve eminent scholars from the fields of Philosophy, History and Religious Studies engaging with themes that extend or examine the work of Professor Arkoun. Speakers include:

Mohammed Arkoun
 Emeritus Professor, La Sorbonne
 
Ridwan Assayyid
 Professor, Lebanese University
 
Akeel Bilgrami
 Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Humanities Institute, Columbia University
 
Adel Daher
 Professor, Pace University, New York
 
Souleymane Bachir Diagne
 Professor, Columbia University
 
Aziz Esmail
 Governor, Institute of Ismaili Studies
 
Abdou Filali-Ansary
 Director & Professor, AKU-ISMC, UK
 
Ursula Gunther
 Research Fellow, University of Hamburg
 
R. Stephen Humphreys
 Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
 
Mark Sedgwick
 Associate Professor, Aarhus University
 
Stefan Wild
 Professor, University of Bonn
 
Joseph van Ess
 Emeritus Professor, University of Tübingen
 
Malika Zeghal
 Associate Professor, University of Chicago Divinity School