'Bodies of Text: Learning to be Muslim in West Africa'
The 2016 Cadbury programme at the Department for African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham, and culminating in an international conference on 30 June-1 July explores the practices, disciplines and debates through which West Africans learn to be Muslims. Focusing on the elaborate and complex systems of Islamic learning that have emerged in the region, we ask how knowledge about being Muslim is passed on and acquired through the circulation of ideas and texts, and through physical, emotional and social forms of discipline. In the often multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies of West Africa, how does one learn to be Muslim and differentiate oneself from non-Muslim others? And how does one develop a particular Islamic identity amongst many ways of being Muslim?
For more information, see:
http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/historycultures/departments/dasa/events/cadbury/index.aspx
www.knowingeachother.com, #bodiesoftext
or contact D.Kerr@bham.ac.uk
David Kerr
African Studies and Anthropology
College of Arts and Law
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT