Call for Papers – Collaborative Partnerships between universities and Muslim institutions

Call for Papers
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 5pm, 28th February 2013

Collaborative partnerships between universities and Muslim institutions: dismantling the roadblocks

23rd May 2013, Senate House, London
27th June 2013, Birmingham University, Birmingham

Funded by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
http://www.derby.ac.uk/collaborative-partnerships-project

This is a call for papers for two conferences that are being organised as part of an ESRC funded follow-on project exploring Collaborative Partnerships between universities and Muslim institutions. This project builds on previous research around Muslim faith leadership, Islamic Studies in pluralist British contexts, women’s education and learning Arabic. Our research findings indicate that it is possible to address these issues at higher education level, focusing particularly on ways to forge a more cohesive society for Muslims and other Britons. This work will bring together Islamic Studies academics, scholars and practitioners (including professionals who may have aspects of Islamic studies in their work) to facilitate increased collaborative partnerships and linkages between UK universities and Muslim institutions, and is aimed both at academia and Muslim communities. We hope to publish a selection of these papers.

We welcome papers that explore any aspect of Islamic education at the HE (Higher Education) and FE (Further Education) levels, both in validated and non-validated sectors in Britain and beyond. We are particularly keen to include papers that incorporate the following themes:
1.      Islamic Education for cohesion, pluralism and inter-faith dialogue
2.      Collaborative educational models in the UK and beyond
3.      Barriers to collaborative partnerships and possible solutions
4.      International and local best practice
5.      Approaches to theological training in other faiths
6.      Teaching and learning Arabic

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, along with a short biography (150 words) to
Dr Sariya Contractor (s.contractor@derby.ac.uk) and Dr. Alison Scott-Baumann (alisonscottb@gmail.com) by 5pm on Thursday 28th February, 2013. Non-academics are welcome to submit abstracts. To enhance the accessibility of our work particularly to community groups we are running conferences in two different venues. Papers will be allocated thematically to each venue, if however you have a venue preference, please indicate this in your e-mail. For further details please visit our website –
http://www.derby.ac.uk/collaborative-partnerships-project or contact the Project
Administrator Michelle Wood by email on
m.wood@derby.ac.uk or by phone on 01332 592896.