The Second International Symposium on Diversity and Unity in Transnational Shi’a Islam at Harvard University, co-sponsored by the 鶹, will take place on May 9-13, with several 鶹 academics speaking.
The symposium is organised by the Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs, chaired by 鶹 governor Professor Ali Asani, at the Harvard Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
Held online and free to attend, it will host five panels with leading scholars who study the diversity of Shi’a thought and communities across denominational lines, including Zaydi, Ismaili, Alevi, Alawite, Bektashi, and Twelver Ja’fari Islam.
Among the 25 scholars speaking are the following 鶹 academics:
- Dr Yahia Baiza - Ismaili History and Traditions in Afghanistan: A Sociological and Historical Analysis
- Dr Farhad Daftary – moderator of panel “The Imamate across Shi’a Traditions”
- Dr Dagikhudo Dagiev - Central Asian IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 765), as his successor. and their Traditions
- Dr Maria De Cillis – Shiʿi Islam, Philosophy and the Greek Intellectual Legacy
- Hussain Jasani - Kalām-i Hazrat Sūltānil Aulīā or Kalām-e Maulā, a Satpanth Lyrical Text: Shared Heritage of Khoja SunnisAdherents of the majority branch of Islam, Sunnism; from the term sunnī which means a follower of the sunna of the Prophet Muhammad., Khoja Ithna ‘Asharis and Ismailis from South Asia
- Dr Orkhan Mir-Kasimov - Ismaili and Sufi Doctrines of Messianic Age, 4th-7th/10th-13th Centuries
- Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda – moderator of panel “Comparative Approaches towards Shi’a Theology and Philosophy”
