Workshop on "Conceptualising the Ummah," Royal Commonwealth Society

(Kuala Lumpur, 10-11 December 2014)

Abstract

This two-day event was organised by School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, the United Kingdom, the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, and Royal Commonwealth Society, Kuala Lumpur. The workshop was a part of the joint project between the Universities of Durham, Edinburg and Manchester, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom.

This project seeks to examine how Muslims have dealt with the ideas of interconnectedness and unity, as seemingly contradictory trends have unfolded– as states and parochial identities became entrenched in the Muslim world and as broader networks have emerged. It aims to access the ways in which one of the central concepts of Islam, the ummah (the community of faith), has been conceived of by diverse intellectual circles as well as in the everyday practice.