The College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) hosted Dr. Wael Hallaq, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and award-winning author, for a special talk titled “What is Post-Orientalism?” on January 10, 2023.

In his address, Dr. Hallaq argued that while post-orientalism is integral to many academic disciplines, it should nevertheless be remolded for the present day and freed of its malevolent tendencies.

“We have not begun to scratch the surface in terms of decolonizing our knowledge. To decolonize scholarship…means to decolonize much more than the world we perceive to be outside us. It is much more than the critique of universalist, racist and hegemonic things,” Dr. Hallaq said.

Moderated by Dr. Joseph Lumbard, Associate Professor of Qur’anic Studies, CIS, Dr. Hallaq’s talk is the latest in CIS’s Dean’s Foresight Talks, a series of enlightening conversations on subjects from across the vast spectrum of Islamic scholarship featuring renowned experts and thought leaders.

Prior to the talk, Dr. Lumbard also hosted Dr. Hallaq for a special session of his course on Islamic Thought and Postcolonial Studies, which was open to both faculty and students. “Contemporary academia treats Islam as an object to be studied from a Western perspective. Dr. Hallaq proposes that we must instead see Islam as a subject, drawing upon its teachings to address the global crises humanity confronts. Dr. Hallaq’s work guides us in the process of reorienting Orientalism to draw upon Islamic principles and apply them to contemporary exigencies,” he said. 

The Dean’s Foresight Talks will be a regular series, with the next discussion taking place on January 17, 2023, with Dr. Yasir Qadhi speaking on “Dealing with Anxiety in Light of the Sirah.” Each talk serves as a progressive platform for prominent voices reshaping contemporary religious narratives. 

CIS is a result of a visionary approach to Islamic studies and the thought leadership that defines its contributions on the national, regional, and global scales. 

You can read more here: cis.hbku.edu.qa.