IIS Co-Sponsors Harvard Symposium on Shi’a Islam
The Second International Symposium on Diversity and Unity in Transnational Shi’a Islam at Harvard University, co-sponsored by the IIS, will take place on May 9-13, with several IIS academics speaking.
The symposium is organised by the Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs, chaired by IIS governor Professor Ali Asani, at the Harvard Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
Held online and free to attend, it will host five panels with leading scholars who study the diversity of Shi’a thought and communities across denominational lines, including Zaydi, Ismaili, Alevi, Alawite, Bektashi, and Twelver Ja’fari Islam.
Among the 25 scholars speaking are the following IIS academics:
- Dr Yahia Baiza - Ismaili History and Traditions in Afghanistan: A Sociological and Historical Analysis
- Dr Farhad Daftary - moderator of panel “The Imamate across Shi’a Traditions”
- Dr Dagikhudo Dagiev - Central Asian Ismailis and their Traditions
- Dr Maria De Cillis - Shiʿi Islam, Philosophy and the Greek Intellectual Legacy
- Hussain Jasani - Kalām-i Hazrat Sūltānil Aulīā or Kalām-e Maulā, a Satpanth Lyrical Text: Shared Heritage of Khoja Sunnis, Khoja Ithna 'Asharis and Ismailis from South Asia
- Dr Orkhan Mir-Kasimov - Ismaili and Sufi Doctrines of Messianic Age, 4th-7th/10th-13th Centuries
- Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda - moderator of panel “Comparative Approaches towards Shi’a Theology and Philosophy”
