The ESRC Digital British Islam project that I'm part of now has a temporary website: Digital British Islam This contains some basic info about the project, until we get fully up and running.
The Digital British Islam project now has three social media accounts, all in their early stages(!), but we'll be using them extensively as the project progresses:
I participated in the first session of this Lehigh conference organised by Rob Rozehnal (via Zoom), alongside Sana Patel and Ismail Fajrie Alatas, in a panel on Authority and Authenticity. It was interesting to hear their papers, and to to receive comments from respondent Dheepa Sundaram. I also caught Madelina Nuñez and Harold Morales presenting ...
Here's a significant thread instigated by Marc Owen Jones on the trolling of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe. Not surprising, but the data presentation on the toxic responses is sobering nevertheless. And it was highlighted by Carole Cadwalladr.
Hot off the press, Robert Rozehnal's edited volume 'Cyber Muslims' has arrived in my letter box. He has done a great job pulling together the 15 chapters into this volume, which I am sure will be of interest to anyone working on different aspects of Islam and the digital sphere.
I have a chapter in the book (The Net Imam Effect'). I'm looking ...
Here's a press release from UWTSD relating to a new collaborative research project on Digital British Islam, funded by the ESRC. I'm working as Principal Investigator with a team comprising academics from Coventry University and the University of Edinburgh. More details to follow:
I was pleased to see this review, published in 'American Religion' and written by Sahar Khamis (University of Maryland), describing 'Hashtag Islam' as: " ... a rich and comprehensive picture of the evolving Islamic discourses in cyberspace..."
"The Digital Religion Yearbook is a new publication compiled and published by the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies. It aims is to spotlight important ...
"The Iranian regime has been a considerable threat to global cybersecurity ever since 2012, when it committed cyberattacks on US financial institutions in retaliation ...
"Much has been written about the Taliban’s links to Al Qaeda since 2001, but there is little consensus. Based on more than 100 interviews with insurgent commanders and others, this report examines ...
I'm going back to individual posts on the Taliban situation in Afghanistan, as the evacuation phase is reaching its initial conclusion. You can track back on earlier posts by clicking the 'Taliban' category (above). The inordinate file sizes for the pages meant that they were becoming difficult to access. I am prepping a chapter on this for my next ...
New and noted: the new issue of the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture has several chapters relating to Islam and the internet. I don't have full access, but there are some free to download sections.
Collected links on the situation in Afghanistan, with a subtext on social media and internet concerns, are below. As always, posting does not necessarily mean endorsement. In line with the central area of my research, my focus is on internet use in relation to this situation (I'm not an Afghanistan expert). Please be patient with accessing this page, ...
I supervise students on environmental issues and Islam, and will be delivering module content on related issues, so this will be essential reading (albeit potentially depressing):
I'm pleased to say that Owen Watkin's PhD on A.J. Arberry is now available via the UWTSD Repository. I was Director of Studies, with Prof. Catrin Williams as co-supervisor. Do check it out:
I'll be on Unity FM at 5.10 today talking to Nassar Mahmoud about the UWTSD 'Islamic Responses to COVID-19: Authority and Religiosity in #Muslim Communities & Digital Worlds' conference. The interview is repeated tomorrow: 12.00-13.00.
Arab American Newspaper Archive
NC State University's Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies has established a database of its Arab American newspaper archive (from 1880s to mid 1900s). This is an open source research resource. Looks intriguing.
"The study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, titled Missing and Maligned, found that fewer than 10% of top-grossing films released between 2017-2019 from the UK, US and Australia featured ...
"On May 17, 2021, Tunisian military and security units announced they had killed five individuals from Katibat ‘Uqbah Bin Nafi (KUBN) in Jebel Chambi. Among them ...
I'm organising a one-day online conference is being held on 1st July 2021 between 11.00-19.00 BST on 'Islamic Responses to COVID-19: Authority and Religiosity in #Muslim Communities & Digital ...
Many congratulations to Dr Owen Watkin for obtaining his PhD for his thesis entitled “Arthur John Arberry (1905-1969): A Critical Evaluation of an Orientalist”.
A.J. Arberry is a significant but under-researched academic figure, famous in particular for his Qur’an translations, but also for many other works. Owen’s work goes a long way to ...
"Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, head of Iran's Islamic Seminaries, said: “Artificial intelligence is one of the future developments in the world and the field of meta-technology and extra-sectoral, ...
I'll be talking about Islamic 'influencers' with students tomorrow, with specific reference to Indonesia. This is one way of joining the dots between my research and teaching...
"Recent surveys indicate strongly that across the Middle East and Iran, almost half the population is loosening their ties to Islam. Governments have ...
Online Workshop, 15th – 17th September 2021, organized by Fouad Gehad Marei (University of Birmingham) and Gabriel Malli (University of Graz / University of Erfurt)
This represents some interesting challenges in relation to technology and religious authority. I'd be interested in supervising a PhD on this. There's lots of potential ...