Exploring links with South-East Asia
21 September 2007

Dr Siusana Kweldju, Director of International Affairs, State University of Malang, Indonesia and Dr Moncef Ben Abdeljelil

AKU-ISMC is beginning to explore the potential for collaboration and partnership with a number of institutions in South-East Asia, and throughout August has been involved in conferences and meetings with academics in both Indonesia and Malaysia.

Head of Educational Programmes, Professor Moncef Ben Abdeljelil, presented a paper entitled Reflections on the Genres of Early Arabic-Muslim Texts: Literary and Civilisational Texts at the Arabic Language and Islamic Literature: Curriculum and Development conference, held in Bandung, Indonesia from August 23 to 25, 2007.

In addition to this, Professor Abdeljelil presented an inaugural lecture at the State University of Jakarta and a lecture at the Islamic University of Malang. In the inaugural lecture, Professor Abdeljelil explored the idea of "reform" in the work of 19th century Muslim thinker, Muhammad Bayram V.

Professor Abdeljelil also visited the Islamic International University of Malaysia (IIUM) and The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC), both in Kuala Lumpur. Through such visits, AKU-ISMC hopes to extend its academic network and explore the possibility of partnerships with institutes in a variety of Muslim contexts.

In developing partnerships with academic institutions internationally, AKU-ISMC continues to endeavour to understand the character of Muslim civilisations as they have evolved over time and also to focus on the complex social, cultural and historical processes that they are undergoing in the contemporary world.