MEICON 2025 Is Here!

Complete Schedule of Events and Panels from Friday, 14 March to Monday, 17 March 2025

Friday, 14 March - DAY ONE: SFU HARBOUR CENTRE - FIRST AND SECOND FLOORS

Registration; 9 - 9:30 am - Room 2065

Opening Remarks: Dr. Adel Iskandar; 9:30 - 10:00 am - Room 2270

Student Panel 1: Intra-Continental Entanglements in Asia; 10:05 - 11:15 am - Room 2270

Beyond the Nation State: Transnational Muslim Identities Across the Middle East and China - Zhe Xi (David) Tu (Simon Fraser University)

Between Soviet and Capitalist Modernity: Contested Meanings of Urban Space in Dushanbe - Tahmina Inoyatova (Simon Fraser University)

China and the Graveyard of Empires: Understanding Chinese Political and Economic Interests in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan - Adam Robert Ivanovic (Simon Fraser University)

Discussant: Dr. Janice Jeong (Simon Fraser University)

Student Panel 2: Continuity and Rupture after the Iranian Revolution; 11:25 - 12:40 pm - Room 2270

Iranian Left and the Women's Issue in the 1979 Revolution - Aso Javaheri (Simon Fraser University)

Memory regimes and conflicting social imaginaries in Iran: Afterlives of a Revolution - Nastaran Saremy (Simon Fraser University)

On the Iranian Teachers’ Movement - Hossein Rahmati (University of Victoria)

Discussant: Dr. Nazanin Shahrokni (Simon Fraser University)

Break; 12:40 - 1:25 pm - Room 2065

Student Panel 3: Ottoman Modernities in the Long Nineteenth Century; 1:30 - 2:40 pm - Room 2270

Civilizationism: Prescribing Modernity and Reform - Ismail Noyan (Simon Fraser University)

American Missionary Activity in the Ottoman East: Negotiations and Interactions in a Transnational Context, 1880–1920 - Hamid Incidelen (Simon Fraser University)

The Egyptian Spectacle: Understanding Egypt’s Role at the Great Exhibition of 1851 - Morgan Jennings (Simon Fraser University)

Discussant: Dr. Spyros Sofos (Simon Fraser University)

Student Panel 4: Instruments of Struggle for Palestine; 2:50 - 4:00 pm - Room 2270

The Insidious Friendly Foe: The UN’s Role in Materializing the Zionist Imagined Geography - Maisaloon Al-Ashkar (University of British Columbia)

Red-taped into silence: weaponized bureaucracy in university-Gaza protest encampment interactions - Sarah Kamal (University of British Columbia)

History to the Tune of Rocket Fire: Pedagogy and Defiance in Palestinian Resistance Music - Bassam Abun Nadi (Simon Fraser University)

Discussant: Kylie Broderick (UNC Chapel Hill)

Student Panel 5: Migration, Diaspora, and Belonging Across the Indo-Pacific; 4:10 - 5:20 pm - Room 2270

From Homelands to Hostlands: Exploring Middle Eastern Diasporic Belonging on Coast Salish Lands - Marianne El-Mikati (University of British Columbia)

Rohingya Women's Transnational Exposure to Multiple Vulnerabilities in Malaysia: Assessing Imposed Precariousness in Domestic and Public Spheres - Tanjila Afrin Sejuty (Simon Fraser University)

Expectations and Actual Experiences of Iranian Immigrants in Canada - Yaser Riki (University of Victoria)

Discussant: Dr. Maral Aguilera-Moradipour (Simon Fraser University)

Keynote Lecture: Dr. Esmat Elhalaby; 5:30 - 7 pm - Room 1400 Segal Centre

"Third World Study: Empire and the Decolonisation of Knowledge”

Iftar/Dinner; 7:15 pm - Room 1400 Segal Rooms

Saturday, 15 March - DAY TWO: SFU HARBOUR CENTRE - SEVENTH FLOOR

Registration; 9:30 - 10:00 am - Room 7400

Student Panel 6: Public Institutions, Power, and Narrative Communication; 10:05 - 11:15 - Room 7000

The Rohingya Crisis and the Representation of the Refugees: Discourse Analysis Relating to Public Communication by Major Humanitarian Organizations Working with/for Them - Firoz Mahmud (Simon Fraser University)

Cinematic Mobilization: The Role of Sacred Defense Cinema in Shaping Iran’s Regional Strategy - Mehmood Ali Khan (Philipps-Universität Marburg)

Assad falls, Syrians rise: How can the national healing process over crimes of politicide inform studies on desectarianization? - Mariam Al Barazi (UBC Okanagan)

Discussant: Dr. Daniel Ahadi (Simon Fraser University)

Student Panel 7: Intercultural Currents and Islamic Thought; 11:20 - 12:40 - Room 7000

What Lies at the End of Formulas? Repetition and Reception in Islamic New Media Art - Mélika S. Hashemi (University of Waterloo) and Yasmeen Nematt Alla (Wayne State University)

The Manifestation of Imaginal Aesthetics in Cinema: A Mystical Perception - Niusha Hatefinia (Simon Fraser University)

Mystical Parallels: Sufism, Surrealism, and Influence on Modern Design History (1924 – Present) - Shafira Rezkita Vidyamaharani (Simon Fraser University)

Mapping the idea of the dignity of humankind from the Quran to twelfth century Muslim thought and its impact on the European Renaissance - Sikeena Karmali Ahmed (Warburg Institute)

Discussant: Dr. Laura Marks (Simon Fraser University)

Break; 12:40 - 1:25 - Room 7400

Book talk with Shahrzad Mojab: Kurdish Women Through History; 1:30 - 3 pm - Room 7000

Discussant: Nastaran Saremy (Simon Fraser University)

Moderator: Aso Javaheri (Simon Fraser University)

Student Panel 8: Anti-Colonial Subjectivities; 3:10 - 4:20 - Room 7000

Racial Invention at the Terrifying Frontiers: On Black/Indigenous/Palestinian Transgressions - Devon Clifton (Brown University) and Sherena Razek (Brown University)

Gendered Orientalism and Israeli Media: Representations of Palestinian and Israeli women - Hafsa Maqsood (University of Calgary)

Dialogue between Negro-African Cultures and Islam: The role of religious syncretism in anti-colonial resistance; Black Islam against racism - Mamadou Ba (Simon Fraser University)

Discussant: Dr. Adel Iskandar (Simon Fraser University)

Combating Academic Unfreedom & State Repression: SFPIRG x Embark Sustainability Discussion Panel; 4:30 - 6 pm - Room 7000

Speakers: Sara Kishawi (Vancouver Island University), Balqees Jama (Simon Fraser University), and Dr. Zeyad el Nabolsy (York University)

Moderators: Marie Haddad (Embark Sustainability) and Noëll Cousins (SFPIRG)

Monday, 17 March - LAST DAY: SFU HARBOUR CENTRE - SEVENTH FLOOR

Echoes of Defiance - A Lecture by Dr. Shahrzad Mojab; 6 pm - 8 pm - Room 7000