Sharia, Government, and Development
April 4-5, 2014, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Friday, April 4
8:30 a.m.: Coffee and Registration
8:45 – 9:00 a.m.: Welcoming Remarks
Beshara Doumani, Director, Middle East Studies, Brown University
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.: Jurisprudence, Interpretation, and Governance
Chair: Nathan Brown
Brinkley Messick: The Shari'a Archive
Mohammad Fadel: Agency, Representation and the Sunni Conception of Governance
Martha Mundy: Against ‘Islamic Law’: Imagining Normativity Outside Modern Sovereignty
10:30– 11:00 am: Coffee Break
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Legal Interpretation and Practice in the Ottoman Empire
Chair: Faiz Ahmed
Guy Burak: The Ottoman Introduction of Kanunto the Arabic-Speaking Middle East
Boğaç Ergene: Law and Legal Practice in a Period of Flux in Ottoman History (17thand 18thCenturies)
William Smiley: Legitimation, Legal Advice, and Statecraft: The Şeyhülislam and the Ottoman Law of Rebellion, 1769-1830
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch at Kim Koo Library (participants and hosts only)
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.: Approaches to Waqf
Chair: Kristen Stilt
Beshara Doumani: The Waqf as a Family Charter
Timur Kuran: Institutional Roots of Authoritarian Rule in the Middle East: Political Legacies of the Islamic Waqf
Kristin Diwan: Islamic Development and Islamist Politics: The Revival of Awqaf in Kuwait
3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Coffee Break
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.: Economic Rights, Social Justice, and Innovation
Chair: Martha Mundy
Maya Shatzmiller: Women’s Property Rights in Islamic Law and Society - Significance and Impact
Mahmoud El-Gamal: Neoliberalism, Islam(ism), and Social Justice in the Arab Spring
Ruth Miller: Bacterial, Computational, and Cloned Life? The Ottoman-Islamic Law and Politics of Nonhuman Vitality
6:30 p.m.: Dinner at Biltmore Hotel (participants and hosts only)
Saturday, April 5
8:00 a.m.: Coffee
8:15 – 9:45 a.m. Law-Making and Constitutional Processes
Chair: Maya Shatzmiller
Faiz Ahmed: An 'Islamic Rule of Law' in Afghanistan? The Case of the Nizamnama Reforms of Amir Amanullah Khan, 1919-1926
Nathan Brown: The Fate of Islamic Inflation after the Arab Uprisings of 2011
Kristen Stilt: Constitutionalizing Animals in Egypt
9: 45 – 10:15 a.m.: Coffee Break
10:15 – 11:45 a.m.: Open-Theme Discussion
Discussion Leader: Beshara Doumani
11:45 a.m.: Lunch in South Common Room (participants and hosts only)