Duke - UNC Conference

*******************

MARKETING MUSLIM WOMEN

an international conference

April 10 - 12, 2008

See bottom of web page for detailed conference schedule

TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE GO TO: www.regonline.com/63333_178133D

Brookwood Inn
800 716 6401
bidurham@hudsonhotels.com

Presenters and participants in this conference will explore images of Muslim women, such as the ubiquitous image of the veiled Muslim woman, that have gained international currency through circulation in the media. We will examine the cultural, political, and economic forces that manufacture such images for consumption and how women act as both producers and consumers of these images.

This conference has three broad goals:

1. To provide a forum for exploring how gender is constructed and contested in Islamic tradition and how certain images circulate both within and beyond Muslim cultures;

2. To bring Islamic Studies scholars into conversation with those in other disciplines whose work may not focus on Islam or the Muslim world but who share interests in gender, culture, and power;

3. To appeal to faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and community members and to provide opportunities for different levels and styles of engagement with these issues.

CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Tayyibah Taylor,"Azizah: Media from the Muslimah Perspective", April 10, 2008, 6:00 - 7:30 (The FedEx Global Education Center, UNC-CH)

Nawal El Saadawi,“Muslim Women in the Market”, April 11, 2008, 12:00 - 1:00 (French Family Science Center, Room 2231)

Shirin Ebadi, "Defending Human Rights in Iran: Challenges for the West, Women and Islam", April 11, 2008, 5:30 - 7:00 (White Auditorium, Duke University)

Minoo Moallem, "Scopic Economy and The Politics of Mediation", April 12, 2008, 12:15 - 2:00 (John Hope Franklin Center)

WORKSHOP TOPICS:

“Fashion” ~ Banu Gökariksel

This workshop will examine the current debates about Muslim women’s fashion. Our discussion will build on the recent special issue of Fashion Theory (Volume 11, Numbers 2-3, 2007) and conference papers. Our discussions will include multiple dimensions of Muslim women’s fashion: a) geopolitical (headscarf bans/unveiling, the production of ‘radical’/‘bad’ vs. ‘moderate’/‘good’ Muslims), b) economic (‘Islamic neoliberalism’, creating a consumer market and becoming consumers, employment), c) cultural (effects of commodification, shifting ideas about beauty and gender roles, new meanings and performances), and d) religious (debates about women’s dress and morality in Islam). Constructing and Representing the Islamic Consumer in Turkey; Competing Sartorial Assertions of Femininity and Muslim Idenity in Mali; Optional reading 1:Saba Mahmood, chapter in Politics of Piety Optional reading 2: Emma Tarlo (2007) "Islamic cosmopolitanism: the sartorial biographies of three Muslim women in London", Fashion Theory, 2/3, pp. 143-172.

"Historical Perspectives." ~ Lisa Pollard & Mona Russell

This workshop will examine current debates over Muslim women, their bodies, their fashion within the context of the advent of empire in the Islamic world and the rise of national identity. We will discuss both colonial views of Muslim women and their habits, and the manipulation of images of Muslim women by colonial and local elites. The goal of the workshop is to link current debates to their historical roots. Discussion will build on chapter 5 of Mona Russell's *Creating the New Egyptian Woman* ("Mrs. Consumer and the New Woman") and Chapter 4 of Lisa Pollard's *Nurturing the Nation* ("Table Talk or the Home Economics of Nationalism.") A further suggested reading might include Emily Rosenberg, "Consuming Women: Images of Americanization in the 'American Century'" in *Diplomatic History*, 23: 3, Summer 1999, pp 479-496.

“Commodities” ~ Ellen McLarney

This workshop looks at the global circulation of commodities related to gender and Islam. We will examine a central contradiction: the expression of the spiritual through the material, the marketing of religion through consumer goods, and the interpretation of piety through fetishized objects. The discussion will be based on recent work focusing on the consumption of Islamic products, their transnational flows within the ummah, and their role in the expression of Muslim culture, identity, and status. Readings: Ellen McLarney, "The Burqa in Vogue: Fashioning Afghanistan"; Olivier Saillard, "Masks Do Have a Face"; and Vicki Woods,"the sky's the limit". Images for workshop.

“Open Discussion” ~ miriam cooke

This workshop is open to those who would like to discuss the panels and keynotes in a more informal setting with one or more of the speakers.

CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS AND PAPERS (subject to change):

Representations
- Reina Lewis ~ London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London, “ Marketing Muslim Lifestyles”
- Mona Russell, East Carolina University, “The Woman Uncovered: The Body and Egyptian Advertising in Pre-Revolutionary Egypt”
- Amira Jarmakani ~ Georgia State University, “From Erased to Raced: Shifting Racialization in U.S. Images of Arab/Muslim Womanhood”
- Rana Sharif ~ University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Assistant Editor,“ Soft Talk or Soft Subversions?: An Analysis of the T.V Show, Kalam Nawa'im”

Fashion

Carla Jones ~ University of Colorado, Boulder, "Materializing Cultivation: The Gendered Work of Islamic Consumption in Urban Indonesia"
Siham Al-Foraih and Muna al-Hamar, “Souk Wajif (Harim Market)”
Majorie Kelly ~ American University of Kuwait, "Consuming Images and Expressing Identity: Dress in Kuwait"
Junko Toriyama, “The Impact of Global Consumerism on the ‘Authentic’ Female Muslim Body in Contemporary Cairo”

Literature
- Marilyn Booth ~ University of Illinois, "The Muslim Woman as Publisher Celebrity: Girls of Riyadh Go to New York"
- Juliane Hammer ~ University of North Carolina at Charlotte, “Marketing Our Voices: American Muslim Women Write Back”
- Brinda Mehta ~ Trefethen Chair, Professor of French and
  Francophone Studies, Mills College, Oakland, California, “Negotiating Arab-Muslim Identity and Gender Ideologies in the Parisian
  Housing Projects: Faïza Guène's Kiffe-Kiffe Demain”

Women's Studies

Roksana Bahramitash ~ Université de Montréal, Directrice à la recherche,“Women of the Market Instead of Marketing Women: Turning Mosques into Schools”
Nancy Gallagher ~ University of California, Santa Barbara, “The Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies and the Marketing of Muslim Women”
Rula Quawas ~ University of Jordan, “Women’s Studies Centers in Middle East: Marketing Scholarship”

Media
- Anne Meneley ~ Trent University, Muslim Fashion in the Canadian Comedy "Little Mosque on the Prairie"
- Noor Al-Qasimi ~ New York University, “Editing, Advertising and the Codes of Modesty in Saudi Arabian Television”
- Faegheh Shirazi, Pornography and Images of Muslim Women
- Shelina Kassam, “Marketing an Imagined Muslim Woman: Muslim Girl Magazine & the Politics of Representation”

Knowledge Production

Margot Badran ~ Georgetown University, “The Secular and Religious in Muslim Women's Lives and Knowledge Production”
Azza Basarudin ~ University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), "(Re)defining Faith, (Re) packaging Muslim?: Living Islam
in Malaysia in the 21st Century"
Sondra Hale ~ University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), “The Circulation of Muslim Women's Bodies: 'Female Circumcision,' International Celebrity Topics, and Colonial Discourse”

Conference Organizers:

Duke Islamic Studies Center, Duke University

miriam cooke (Professor, Asian & African Languages & Literature, Duke University)

Banu Gökariksel (Assistant Professor, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Curriculum of International and Area Studies at UNC, Professor
Adjunct Assistant Professor at Women's Studies at Duke University)

Ellen McLarney (Assistant Professor, Asian & African Languages & Literature, Duke University)

Journal for Middle East Women’s Studies

Conference Cosponsors:

Duke University Cosponsors: Duke Islamic Studies Center; Women's Studies; Asian & African Languages & Literature; Center for European Studies; Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies; Cultural Anthropology; Kenan Institute for Ethics; Department of English; International Comparative Studies; African & African American Studies; Department of History; Human Rights Center; Department of Religion; Program in Literature; Duke University Center for International Studies

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Cosponsors:

Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations; The Center for Global Initiatives; Department of Geography; African Studies Center; College of Arts and Sciences; Women’s Studies

Other Cosponsors:

Robertson Scholars Program; Trent Foundation

*Friday, April 11, 2008*
9:00-11:30 p.m.	Extended Registration ~ John Hope Franklin Center Rm. 130
12:00-1:00 p.m.	Keynote: Nawal El-Saadawi “Muslim Women in the Market” French Family Science Center, (West Campus) Duke University ~ Rm. 2231
1:00-2:00 p.m.	Box Lunch ~ pickup John Hope Franklin Center Rm. 130
1:00-2:00 p.m.	Discussion ~ John Hope Franklin Center Rm. 240
2:15-4:15 p.m.	Representations Panel (plenary session) Priscilla Wald (Moderator) ~ John Hope Franklin Center Rm. 240
	Reina Lewis ~ London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London, “ Marketing Muslim Lifestyles” Amira Jarmakani ~ Georgia State University, “From Erased to Raced: Shifting Racialization in U.S. Images of Arab/Muslim Womanhood” Rana Sharif ~ University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Assistant Editor,“ Soft Talk or Soft Subversions?: An Analysis of the T.V Show, Kalam Nawa'im”
4:30-5:15 p.m.	Travel to East Campus and Shirin Ebadi reception ~ East Duke Parlors (East Campus)
5:30-7:00 p.m.	Shirin Ebadi talk ~ White Auditorium (East Campus)
7:15 p.m.	Take Central Campus bus to Trent Drive to return to Franklin Center
7:30-9:00 p.m.	Dinner & workshops ~ John Hope Franklin Center
	Fashion ~ John Hope Franklin Center Rm. 240 (Pick up dinner outside of Rm. 240)
	Historical Perspectives ~ Rm. 130 (Pick up dinner outside of Rm. 240)
	Commodities ~ Rm. 028 (Pick up dinner in front of basement café)
	Open Discussion ~ Rm. 016 (Pick up dinner in front of basement café)
*Saturday, April 12, 2008*
9:00-9:45 a.m.	Breakfast ~ Basement Café ~ John Hope Franklin Center
10:00-12:00 p.m.	Concurrent Panels
	Fashion ~ miriam cooke (Moderator) ~ Rm. 240
	Carla Jones ~ University of Colorado, Boulder, "Materializing Cultivation: The Gendered Work of Islamic Consumption in Urban Indonesia" Siham Al-Foraih and Muna al-Hamar, “Souk Wajif (Harim Market)” Majorie Kelly ~ American University of Kuwait, "Consuming Images and Expressing Identity: Dress in Kuwait" Junko Toriyama, “The Impact of Global Consumerism on the ‘Authentic’ Female Muslim Body in Contemporary Cairo”
	Literature ~ Nadia Yaqub (Moderator) ~ Rm. 130
	Marilyn Booth ~ University of Illinois, "The Muslim Woman as Publisher Celebrity: Girls of Riyadh Go to New York" Juliane Hammer ~ University of North Carolina at Charlotte, “Marketing Our Voices: American Muslim Women Write Back” Brinda Mehta ~ Trefethen Chair, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Mills College, Oakland, California, “Negotiating Arab-Muslim Identity and Gender Ideologies in the Parisian Housing Projects: Faïza Guène's Kiffe-Kiffe Demain”
	Women’s Studies ~ Rebecca Stein (Moderator) ~ Rm. 028
	Roksana Bahramitash ~ Université de Montréal, Directrice à la recherche, “Women of the Market Instead of Marketing Women: Turning Mosques into Schools” Nancy Gallagher ~ University of California, Santa Barbara, “The Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies and the Marketing of Muslim Women” Rula Quawas ~ University of Jordan, “Women’s Studies Centers in Middle East: Marketing Scholarship”
12:15-2:00 p.m.	Box Lunch ~ pickup Rm. 130 (drinks outside Rm. 240)
12:15-2:00 p.m.	Keynote: Minoo Moallem John Hope Franklin Center ~ Rm. 240
2:15-3:15 p.m.	Workshops
	Fashion ~ Rm. 240
	Historical Perspectives ~ Rm. 130
	Commodities ~ Rm. 028
	Open Discussion Sexuality ~ Rm. 016
3:30-5:30 p.m.	Concurrent Panels
	Media ~ Negar Mottahedeh (Moderator) ~ Rm. 240
	Anne Meneley ~ Trent University, Muslim Fashion in the Canadian Comedy "Little Mosque on the Prairie" Noor Al-Qasimi ~ New York University, “Editing, Advertising and the Codes of Modesty in Saudi Arabian Television” Faegheh Shirazi, Pornography and Images of Muslim Women Shelina Kassam, “Marketing an Imagined Muslim Woman: Muslim Girl Magazine & the Politics of Representation”
	Knowledge Production ~ Omid Safi (Moderator) ~ Rm. 130
	Margot Badran ~ Georgetown University, “The Secular and Religious in Muslim Women's Lives and Knowledge Production” Azza Basarudin ~ University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), "(Re)defining Faith, (Re) packaging Muslim?: Living Islam in Malaysia in the 21st Century" Sondra Hale ~ University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), “The Circulation of Muslim Women's Bodies: 'Female Circumcision,' International Celebrity Topics, and Colonial Discourse”

Duke Islamic Studies Center