Presented By: Global Islamic Studies Center
GISC Rabbi Elliott T. Spar Politics and Culture in the Muslim World Series. Muslim Women’s Rulings: Issuing Fatwas in Indonesia
Nor Ismah, CSEAS Visiting Scholar and Deputy Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Islam at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Indonesia
RSVP: https://bit.ly/MWRFatwas
When: Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 | 5:00 PM ET
Join University of Michigan visiting scholar from Indonesia Dr. Nor Ismah and the Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) on January 24th, 2024 at 5:00 PM for a talk on “Muslim Women’s Rulings: Issuing Fatwas in Indonesia.” The event is moderated by U-M Professor Daniel Birchok and is part of our GISC Rabbi Elliott T. Spar Politics and Culture in the Muslim World Series.
In this talk, Dr. Nor Ismah explores the pivotal religious and community roles of Muslim women in Java, Indonesia, who assume positions as ulama (scholars) and religious leaders and issue fatwas, Islamic arbitration decisions. Their fatwas incorporate women's perspectives and traditional and progressive Islamic textual interpretations, earning them religious authority comparable to male ulama. Despite gender constraints in areas involving authority over men, women ulama actively challenge male dominance in Islamic scholarship. Dr. Nor Ismah’s work sheds light on the transformative impact of female ulama, illuminating the nuanced dynamics of gender, authority, and knowledge production in contemporary Indonesian Muslim communities at the grassroots and national levels.
This talk is a part of the GISC Rabbi Elliott T. Spar “Politics and Culture in the Muslim World” series. Each talk in the series focuses on a different region or country in the Muslim world that is under-recognized in U.S. discourse on Islam and Muslims.
SPEAKERS:
Nor Ismah is Deputy Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Islam at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University in Indonesia. She holds a Master’s degree in Southeast Asian Studies from the School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, completing her studies in 2012 with the support of the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program. From 2016 to 2023, she pursued her PhD studies at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), sponsored by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia. Nor Ismah’s research focuses on Islam, women's knowledge production, and media. In recognition of her scholarly achievements, Nor Ismah was awarded the Co2libri Early Career Researcher Fellowship at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2023. She received the prestigious 2023-2024 Association of Asian Studies Gosling-Lim Postdoctoral Fellowship in Southeast Asian Studies, which is hosted by and has brought her to the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Daniel Birchok is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan-Flint. He is a historical anthropologist who studies religion in Indonesia, with a focus on Sufism, the Islamic historical imagination, ethics, and "old Islam" in public life. He is currently completing a historical ethnography of a family of Islamic saints in Aceh, Indonesia, focusing on the ways in which intercessionary practices associated with these saints might help scholars to rethink approaches to Islamic ethical life.
This event is brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and cosponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum (DISC), and the Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG).
Want to hear about similar events from U-M Islamic Studies? Sign up for the GISC Newsletter below! We send out a monthly newsletter in collaboration with the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, and the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum. Join our Email newsletter: https://myumi.ch/nbW83
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact islamicstudies@umich.edu, we would be happy to help! Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
When: Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 | 5:00 PM ET
Join University of Michigan visiting scholar from Indonesia Dr. Nor Ismah and the Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) on January 24th, 2024 at 5:00 PM for a talk on “Muslim Women’s Rulings: Issuing Fatwas in Indonesia.” The event is moderated by U-M Professor Daniel Birchok and is part of our GISC Rabbi Elliott T. Spar Politics and Culture in the Muslim World Series.
In this talk, Dr. Nor Ismah explores the pivotal religious and community roles of Muslim women in Java, Indonesia, who assume positions as ulama (scholars) and religious leaders and issue fatwas, Islamic arbitration decisions. Their fatwas incorporate women's perspectives and traditional and progressive Islamic textual interpretations, earning them religious authority comparable to male ulama. Despite gender constraints in areas involving authority over men, women ulama actively challenge male dominance in Islamic scholarship. Dr. Nor Ismah’s work sheds light on the transformative impact of female ulama, illuminating the nuanced dynamics of gender, authority, and knowledge production in contemporary Indonesian Muslim communities at the grassroots and national levels.
This talk is a part of the GISC Rabbi Elliott T. Spar “Politics and Culture in the Muslim World” series. Each talk in the series focuses on a different region or country in the Muslim world that is under-recognized in U.S. discourse on Islam and Muslims.
SPEAKERS:
Nor Ismah is Deputy Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Islam at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University in Indonesia. She holds a Master’s degree in Southeast Asian Studies from the School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, completing her studies in 2012 with the support of the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program. From 2016 to 2023, she pursued her PhD studies at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), sponsored by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education under the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia. Nor Ismah’s research focuses on Islam, women's knowledge production, and media. In recognition of her scholarly achievements, Nor Ismah was awarded the Co2libri Early Career Researcher Fellowship at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2023. She received the prestigious 2023-2024 Association of Asian Studies Gosling-Lim Postdoctoral Fellowship in Southeast Asian Studies, which is hosted by and has brought her to the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Daniel Birchok is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan-Flint. He is a historical anthropologist who studies religion in Indonesia, with a focus on Sufism, the Islamic historical imagination, ethics, and "old Islam" in public life. He is currently completing a historical ethnography of a family of Islamic saints in Aceh, Indonesia, focusing on the ways in which intercessionary practices associated with these saints might help scholars to rethink approaches to Islamic ethical life.
This event is brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and cosponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum (DISC), and the Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG).
Want to hear about similar events from U-M Islamic Studies? Sign up for the GISC Newsletter below! We send out a monthly newsletter in collaboration with the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, and the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum. Join our Email newsletter: https://myumi.ch/nbW83
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact islamicstudies@umich.edu, we would be happy to help! Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
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