Islam & Science Workshop 2013
FINAL CALL: Deadline extended to 9am on Monday 14th January 2013
Quilliam, in association with the American University of Sharjah, Université Interdisciplinaire de Paris and Muslim-Science.com, are pleased to announce a workshop entitled, “Islam and Science: A Reasoned Approach” for students and young researchers to be held on 18th-20th January 2013 at a prestigious location in Central London, UK.
This event will be the latest in a series of educational workshops that have previously been held in Algiers, Paris and other locations. A “reasoned approach” will be taken to Islam and Science: one that is well informed, balanced and constructive. The workshop will represent a unique opportunity for Muslim students and young researchers to discover the contemporary field of ‘science and religion’ through lectures by, and in-depth discussions with, internationally-recognised thinkers and experts in this field, including Prof. Nidhal Guessoum, Prof. Jean Staune, Prof. Bruno Guiderdoni, Ehsan Masood, Dr. Athar Osama and Dr. Usama Hasan.
Participants can attend the workshop by invitation only. There will be 20 invitations and in order to be selected, potential participants must complete and submit this application form (also below) and an accompanying essay on a subject that directly relates to the general theme of the workshop and to the topic of ‘Islam and Science.’
The eligibility criteria to apply for an invitation to the workshop are as follows:
• Participants must be either senior undergraduate students, graduate students, or young researchers (post-doctoral fellows or equivalent).
• The essays submitted by potential participants must be 1000-2000 words in English with an abstract of roughly 150 words.
• The essays must present an argument representative of the author’s opinion. They must be written in an academic style and include bibliographic references for every citation or factual statement, while avoiding being a summary or compilation of ideas expressed by other people.
• Potential participants should try to be consistent with the “reasoned approach” of this workshop and project on the theme of “Islam and Science.” In their essays, potential participants must avoid excessively focusing on “separationist” approaches which relegate religion to people’s private lives and science to the material world, or “concordist” approaches which “find” specific science in the scriptures and end up merely trivialising Islamic culture and its relationship to science.
• All essays must be submitted by email to workshop@QuilliamFoundation.org by 9am on Monday 14th January 2013. Essays received after this time will not be considered.
• Telephone interviews may be conducted to complete the selection process and to verify participants’ interest in, and familiarity with, the subject.
• The best essays may either be presented verbally by their authors during the workshop or published on the project website.The 20 participants who demonstrate their aptitude to fully benefit from the workshop will have all of their expenses paid (including transport, hotel accommodation and catering) and receive valuable educational material (books, articles, DVD, etc.).
Application Form
Islam & Science Workshop in London
18-20 January, 2013
Full name: ………………………………………………………………………..
Date of Birth: …………………………………………………………………………………..
Postal Address: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Telephone Number:…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Current educational / employment status:……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Academic Qualifications (include college and university attended): …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Email Address: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Website (if applicable): ………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Important: Please attach this form to a short essay of between one thousand and two thousand words, include an abstract of roughly one hundred and fifty words, and send to the following email address: Workshop@QuilliamFoundation.org by 9am on Monday 14th January 2013.
LECTURERS:
Nidhal Guessoum: Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Associate Dean at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates; he has published several books on science with direct or indirect relevance to Islam, as well as dozens of scholarly papers in astrophysics and numerous articles on science, education, and culture. He has also organized two conferences (and co-edited the proceedings) on the application of Astronomy to Islamic problems.
Bruno Abdelhaq Guiderdoni: Director of the Observatory of Lyon (France), his main research being in galaxy formation and evolution, with over 100 papers published in the field. He is also a prominent Muslim figure in France; from 1993 to 1999 he was in charge of a French public television program ‘Knowing Islam’; he is a member of the Board of Advisors of the John Templeton Foundation.
Ehsan Masood: Science policy expert, writer, teacher, journalist, and broadcaster. He is the editor of Research Fortnight and Research Europe and teaches at Imperial College London. Masood’s latest book is Science and Islam: A History, in which he tells the story of how science developed during Islam’s imperial period, from 800 to 1500; the book was the official tie-in to a three-part documentary series on BBC Television presented by the award-winning Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey.
Jean Staune: with degrees in Philosophy of Science, Mathematics, Paleontology, Political Science, Computer Science, and Management, he has taught at two Pontifical universities, in China at Shandong University, and is currently an adjunct professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; he is also the founder and General Secretary of the Interdisciplinary University of Paris, and has published several best-selling books on science, philosophy and religion in France.
Usama Hasan: Senior Researcher in Islamic Studies at Quilliam, he has a PhD, MA & MSc from the Universities of Cambridge and London in Theoretical Physics and Artificial Intelligence, and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Also a traditionally-trained Imam with certification in Qur’an and Hadith, he is the author of a number of translations and academic papers in the fields of Qur’an, Hadith, Islamic law and ethics. He is a regular contributor to mainstream, international media.
Athar Osama: Science and innovation policy consultant and advisor. He is the founder of Muslim-Science.com and the Pakistan Innovation Foundation.
Others TBC
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