Conference and Panels Description - Islam, Asia, Modernity Conference, Univ. of Washington, May 5-8, 2005

Islam, Asia, Modernity Conference
Simpson Center Evaluation

Critical Evaluation

Along with multiple sponsors, chief among them the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Asia Centers of the Jackson School of International Studies presented “Islam, Asia, Modernity”, a 3 day conference addressing issues of religion, politics, culture and art relating to Islam and Asia, May 5-8, 2005. In actuality, this is a much larger event than the three day conference, in that it included: a Teachers as Scholars event; a series sponsored with the World Affairs Council of 4 teacher training events leading up to the conference; and a pedagogy workshop for graduate students the day after the conference. All of these events meant that “Islam, Asia, Modernity” in its totality specifically served both UW and non-UW faculty and students, area K-12 teachers, and the general public.
The ability to bring scholars working on Asian Islam from all over the world to the University of Washington was the strongest feature of this conference. The University community and the wider Seattle community was introduced to the importance of Islam in Asia and the great diversity of approaches to both the practice of Islam as well as the study of it. We have created a community of scholars that should be nurtured over the coming years. We found that synergies naturally arise when so many people are brought together who share similar interests and concerns about the important issue of representations of Islam at this critical moment in time. The vision shared by all of the organizers was to allow scholars from the region to bring current issues in Asian Islam directly to the Seattle community and this was the highlight of the program.
The collaborative nature of this event meant that its reach and impact are difficult for any one person or even the main group of organizers to assess. The conversations started between conference presenters, faculty and student attendees, and the general public are likely to be the most important impacts of this event. The cross-regional and cross-disciplinary panels created new linkages and lines of communications, and spurred participants and attendees alike to think outside their usual frames of reference about the issues raised at the conference.

Audience Feedback

The observations below are gathered both from in person conversations at the conference, and from our online evaluation system, to which all attendees and participants were invited via email and in person to contribute.

General feedback during and immediately following the conference was extremely positive.

A professor from New York told one of our conference organizers that this was by far the most successful conference he had seen at integrating Central Asian subject matter into the wider study of Asia. He indicated they had tried to do something similar at a prestigious eastern university last year with Central Asia specialists and Middle East specialists, and it didn't work nearly as well. He said they would like to borrow our model to use with future SSRC Eurasia events.

In response to two key questions posed on our online evaluation system, we received the following replies:

Q: How will you use the knowledge gained at this conference?

“I have forwarded the notes to various colleagues to show them that it is not always necessary to draw up a conversation about Islam within the usual normative parameters. I hope they will be inspired to give increasing credence to areas of the world not always treated extensively. “

“I think this knowledge will do a lot to inform my thinking about Islam and responses to Islam in our society and the media, I will certainly have a more nuanced and accurate idea of what Islam means in different parts of the world. “

Q: Have your impressions of Islam changed after attending this conference? If so, how?

I knew that there is no one 'Islam', but rather 'Islams'. However the conference helped me to have a clearer view of the rich varieties of these different forms of Islams, and also how social, cultural, aesthetic influences travel across different communities, leading to the evolution of amazing form[s] of cultural patterns.”

“…not having an extensive background knowledge of Islam, this conference did a wonderful job for me of demonstrating the many faces of Islam that one is unlikely to see in public, mainstream discourses.”

UW History Professor Laurie Sears taught one the Simpson Center's Teachers as Scholars seminars, one before and one directly after the conference. She was able to use materials pertaining to Southeast Asia from the conference to enrich the second of these workshops. To be able to give teachers something so rich and fresh was very inspiring for her and them.

The “Beyond Islam” series presented with the World Affairs Council included evaluation for each event and of the series as a whole for those teachers who registered for all 4 sessions. This feedback indicates that, while many came with extensive knowledge of Islam in the Middle East, the series helped them broaden their teaching on Islam to include Asia.

This feedback demonstrates that this conference is already having an impact on university and pre-collegiate teaching and research as well as on public knowledge about this important topic.

Lessons learned
One of the most successful features of the conference was the organization of the panels according to themes. Thus, each panel had representatives from several world areas. This allowed the paper-givers as well as the audience to learn from contrasts as well as from content. The inclusion of all regions of Asia, including the former Soviet republics and China, provided many fascinating discoveries. Scholars of each region could see debates that had been or were currently important in their field and see how these debates played out in different ways in different world areas. One other very successful area was the use of junior faculty to serve as discussants for the panels. There was a freshness to the conference because of this, and new people were drawn in to the conference who might not have attended if these junior faculty had not been on the program.
Some panels were more successful than others. One of the least coherent panels was the one on gender and sexuality, despite some good papers and an excellent discussant. This points out that this area of research in the field of Asian Islamic studies needs much greater attention. On the other hand, papers by women offered on other panels were excellent, indicating that women’s attentions have more often been drawn to crucial legal and economic issues. The panel devoted to masculinity was a very successful one, and the contrast of views from a Swedish Muslim, a Central Asian, and an Indonesian scholar proved very productive.
Probably the most difficult part of this conference was the amount of energy that had to be devoted to fund-raising. Concerns about the budget were ever-present, and the great complexity of the budget where monies were raised from dozens of different sources and the many different sponsoring units meant that the organizers had to expend great energies to make sure the different needs were met and that all the outstanding items were covered. This process is still going on. We are not sure how this could be alleviated in the future unless there were to be one large funding source rather than so many smaller ones.
We were actually quite amazed at how smoothly things worked and this is due to the competent work of the Associate Directors of the area studies centers. They worked tirelessly to make sure that the conference was well publicized, guests and attendees were well cared for, funders’ needs were met, food was abundant, and audiovisual equipment worked efficiently. The quality of the food and the effort to make sure that the menus were carefully planned so as to accommodate the dietary needs of the visitors was also outstanding. We must thank the Simpson Center for allowing the Katz funding to be used to provide the final reception as well as the excellent conference dinner. Having the luxury to get together in an informal atmosphere and talk to colleagues from all over the world was a very important part of the series of events.

Islam Asia Modernity Conference May 5-8, 2005 Walker Ames Room, Kane Hall - University of Washington campus 8:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Sponsored by the Henry M. Jackson School at the University of Washington
Islam, Asia, Modernity Conference Simpson Center Evaluation Critical Evaluation Along with multiple sponsors, chief among them the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Asia Centers of the Jackson School of International Studies presented “Islam, Asia, Modernity”, a 3 day conference addressing issues of religion, politics, culture and art relating to Islam and Asia, May 5-8, 2005. In actuality, this is a much larger event than the three day conference, in that it included: a Teachers as Scholars event; a series sponsored with the World Affairs Council of 4 teacher training events leading up to the conference; and a pedagogy workshop for graduate students the day after the conference. All of these events meant that “Islam, Asia, Modernity” in its totality specifically served both UW and non-UW faculty and students, area K-12 teachers, and the general public. The ability to bring scholars working on Asian Islam from all over the world to the University of Washington was the strongest feature of this conference. The University community and the wider Seattle community was introduced to the importance of Islam in Asia and the great diversity of approaches to both the practice of Islam as well as the study of it. We have created a community of scholars that should be nurtured over the coming years. We found that synergies naturally arise when so many people are brought together who share similar interests and concerns about the important issue of representations of Islam at this critical moment in time. The vision shared by all of the organizers was to allow scholars from the region to bring current issues in Asian Islam directly to the Seattle community and this was the highlight of the program. The collaborative nature of this event meant that its reach and impact are difficult for any one person or even the main group of organizers to assess. The conversations started between conference presenters, faculty and student attendees, and the general public are likely to be the most important impacts of this event. The cross-regional and cross-disciplinary panels created new linkages and lines of communications, and spurred participants and attendees alike to think outside their usual frames of reference about the issues raised at the conference. Audience Feedback The observations below are gathered both from in person conversations at the conference, and from our online evaluation system, to which all attendees and participants were invited via email and in person to contribute. General feedback during and immediately following the conference was extremely positive. A professor from New York told one of our conference organizers that this was by far the most successful conference he had seen at integrating Central Asian subject matter into the wider study of Asia. He indicated they had tried to do something similar at a prestigious eastern university last year with Central Asia specialists and Middle East specialists, and it didn't work nearly as well. He said they would like to borrow our model to use with future SSRC Eurasia events. In response to two key questions posed on our online evaluation system, we received the following replies: Q: How will you use the knowledge gained at this conference? “I have forwarded the notes to various colleagues to show them that it is not always necessary to draw up a conversation about Islam within the usual normative parameters. I hope they will be inspired to give increasing credence to areas of the world not always treated extensively. “ “I think this knowledge will do a lot to inform my thinking about Islam and responses to Islam in our society and the media, I will certainly have a more nuanced and accurate idea of what Islam means in different parts of the world. “ Q: Have your impressions of Islam changed after attending this conference? If so, how? I knew that there is no one 'Islam', but rather 'Islams'. However the conference helped me to have a clearer view of the rich varieties of these different forms of Islams, and also how social, cultural, aesthetic influences travel across different communities, leading to the evolution of amazing form[s] of cultural patterns.” “…not having an extensive background knowledge of Islam, this conference did a wonderful job for me of demonstrating the many faces of Islam that one is unlikely to see in public, mainstream discourses.” UW History Professor Laurie Sears taught one the Simpson Center's Teachers as Scholars seminars, one before and one directly after the conference. She was able to use materials pertaining to Southeast Asia from the conference to enrich the second of these workshops. To be able to give teachers something so rich and fresh was very inspiring for her and them. The “Beyond Islam” series presented with the World Affairs Council included evaluation for each event and of the series as a whole for those teachers who registered for all 4 sessions. This feedback indicates that, while many came with extensive knowledge of Islam in the Middle East, the series helped them broaden their teaching on Islam to include Asia. This feedback demonstrates that this conference is already having an impact on university and pre-collegiate teaching and research as well as on public knowledge about this important topic. Lessons learned One of the most successful features of the conference was the organization of the panels according to themes. Thus, each panel had representatives from several world areas. This allowed the paper-givers as well as the audience to learn from contrasts as well as from content. The inclusion of all regions of Asia, including the former Soviet republics and China, provided many fascinating discoveries. Scholars of each region could see debates that had been or were currently important in their field and see how these debates played out in different ways in different world areas. One other very successful area was the use of junior faculty to serve as discussants for the panels. There was a freshness to the conference because of this, and new people were drawn in to the conference who might not have attended if these junior faculty had not been on the program. Some panels were more successful than others. One of the least coherent panels was the one on gender and sexuality, despite some good papers and an excellent discussant. This points out that this area of research in the field of Asian Islamic studies needs much greater attention. On the other hand, papers by women offered on other panels were excellent, indicating that women’s attentions have more often been drawn to crucial legal and economic issues. The panel devoted to masculinity was a very successful one, and the contrast of views from a Swedish Muslim, a Central Asian, and an Indonesian scholar proved very productive. Probably the most difficult part of this conference was the amount of energy that had to be devoted to fund-raising. Concerns about the budget were ever-present, and the great complexity of the budget where monies were raised from dozens of different sources and the many different sponsoring units meant that the organizers had to expend great energies to make sure the different needs were met and that all the outstanding items were covered. This process is still going on. We are not sure how this could be alleviated in the future unless there were to be one large funding source rather than so many smaller ones. We were actually quite amazed at how smoothly things worked and this is due to the competent work of the Associate Directors of the area studies centers. They worked tirelessly to make sure that the conference was well publicized, guests and attendees were well cared for, funders’ needs were met, food was abundant, and audiovisual equipment worked efficiently. The quality of the food and the effort to make sure that the menus were carefully planned so as to accommodate the dietary needs of the visitors was also outstanding. We must thank the Simpson Center for allowing the Katz funding to be used to provide the final reception as well as the excellent conference dinner. Having the luxury to get together in an informal atmosphere and talk to colleagues from all over the world was a very important part of the series of events.	Home Page Photos Continuing Activities Evaluation Summary Conference Panels Speaker Biographies Paper Abstracts Schedule Pedagogy Workshop Sponsors
Send mail to: asiaismo@u.washington.edu Last modified: 5/26/2005 4:00 PM