20/05/2024 12:15 - 16:30

HALL: FATESI - MAUROLICO B

Proponent: Minders J.

Chair: Torrekens C.

Speaker: Gaillard J., La Forgia E.M., Mekawi Y., Mihara R., Minders J., Torrekens C.

This panel aims to foster an epistemological discussion on researching Islam in secularized democracies. The securitization of Islam raises concerns as to how surveillance mechanisms (Laurens and Neyrat, 2010) constrain the work of researchers. Over-politicization of Islam often compels researchers to take a stance "for" or "against" their subject (Lascoumes, 2009 ; Musso, 2008). Although, the "Islamological" (Dakhli, 2006) current gives little rise to a reflexive critique on the conditions of (im)possibility of field research. Influenced by gender and decolonial studies (Behl, 2017), a new generation has come to question their contribution to social hierarchies (Aldrin et al., 2022). In response to the underrepresentation of voices from minority groups (Abu-Lughod, 2002), the notion that only researchers sharing socio-cultural traits with their research subjects are capable of drawing accurate interpretations, is increasingly debated in academic contexts. In European secularized democracies, Islam is both a minority religion and subject to hybridizations (Göle, 2015; Torrekens, 2016). How do assumed "insider" or "outsider" positions shape researchers' understanding (Favret-Saada and Isnart, 2008)? How to address the pitfalls of speaking in the name of subalterns (Spivak, 1985) on the one hand; of reifying culture and essentializing individual's experience on the other, while navigating Islam as a research topic?