USHA SANYAL

CONFERENCES AND SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Joint Princeton-Sciences Po workshop entitled “Sunnis, Shias, Sufis and Other Muslims in India.” Paris, France, June 12, 2019: Presented paper entitled “Becoming a Barelwi Woman: Identity Formation in an Indian Girls’ Madrasa”.

Princeton University workshop on Islam and Politics in India. Oct. 26, 2018: Presented paper entitled “Everyday Politics among Indian Muslims in Shahjahanpur, U.P.: A Subaltern View”

The 25th European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS), Paris, France: July 2018. Presented paper “Sayyids, Pathans, and the Awaam: Intra-Community Relations among Indian Barelwis” at the panel on Sayyids

Annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association at Washington, DC:  Nov. 30, 2017.  Presented paper entitled “Knowledge Transmission, Memorization, and the Embodiment of Islamic Learning among South Asian Women.”

46th Annual South Asia Conference at the University of Wisconsin, Madison: October 2017. Organized panel on  “Do Maslaks Matter? The Construction of Sunni Muslim Identities in South Asia.” Presented paper entitled “How Do Maslaks Matter? Comparisons between Barelwis and Al-Huda.”

Association of Asian Studies Conference, Seattle: March 30-April 3, 2016. Organized panel entitled “South Asian Women’s Expressions of Piety through Everyday Food Practices and Fasting.”  Presented paper entitled “Fasting, Feasting, and Everything in Between: Social and Religious Food Practices at a Barelwi Girls’ Madrasa in India.”

Princeton University, November 20, 2015. Conference on “Islam and Its Divisions in South Asia.” Conference organizer: Christophe Jaffrelot, CNRS & Sciences Po (France); Princeton Global Scholar. Presented paper titled: “Dini Ta‘lim among South Asian Barelwi and Al-Huda Girls and Women.”

Columbia University, Sept. 2015. Conference on “Rethinking Islam, Democracy, and Identity in Pakistan and India: The Role of Sufism.” Presented paper entitled “Sufism through the Prism of Shari‘a: Gendered, Public–Private Space at a Barelwi Girls’ Madrasa in Shahjahanpur, U.P.”

43rd Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Madison, Wisconsin: October 2014. Organized panel entitled “The Internet, Social Change, and Women in South Asia.” Presented paper entitled “Al-Huda International Quran Online Classes and Muslim Women’s Lived Experience.”

Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, University of Toronto: May 2014. Presented paper entitled “Learning for Life: Religious Education at a Muslim Girls’ Seminary in North India.”

41st Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Madison, Wisconsin: October 11-14, 2012. Organized panel entitled “South Asian Muslim Women’s Education, Nineteenth Century to the Present.”  Presented paper entitled “Home Away from Home: A Barelwi Girls’ Madrasa in U.P., India.”

University of Pennsylvania: April 2012. Conference on Religion, Patronage, and Reform in Modern South Asia. Presented paper entitled “Patronage and Changing Patterns of Authority in South Asian Muslim Education: Twentieth-Century Barelwi Madrasas and Al-Huda Online Classes Compared.”

Association of Asian Studies Conference, Toronto: March 2012.  Presented paper, “Reading against the Grain: Discerning the Everyday Lives of Barelwi Women from ‘The Garden of Sharia.’”

Center for Islamic Studies Conference, Baton Rouge, Louisiana: February 2011. Presented paper entitled “Al-Huda: Creating an On-Line Community of Pious Selves, One Woman at a Time.”

University of Michigan: September 2009. Conference in honor of Barbara Metcalf. Spoke on “The Sunni Bihishti Zewar: A Barelwi/ Ahl-e Sunnat Guide for Women.”

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France: May-June 2007. Gave a series of four seminars on Islam in South Asia.

Islamic Center for Education and Research, California: June 2005. Presented paper on “Ahmad Riza Khan: His Scholarship, Spirituality, and Love of the Prophet.”

International Workshop, Islamic Education and Learning in South Asia, University of Erfurt, Germany: May 2005. Presented paper on “Ahl-e Sunnat Madrasas: The Madrasa Manzar-e Islam, Bareilly, and Jamia Ashrafiyya, Mubarakpur.” (Published 2008)

Rockefeller Institute conference on “South Asian Islam and the Greater Muslim World,” Chapel Hill, NC: May 1996. Presented paper on “Family and Genealogy in the Ahl-e Sunnat (“Barelwi”) Movement in the Context of Tajdid.”

Social Science Research Council Conference on “The Making of a Fatwa,” Granada, Spain: January 1990. Presented paper on “Are Wahhabis Kafirs? Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi and His Sword of the Haramayn.” (Subsequently published.)

Social Science Research Council (New York)’s Committee on the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies (jointly with the American Council of Learned Societies). Workshop on current graduate research on Muslim societies in different parts of the world, at Tangier, Morocco: June 1987.