Director's Seminar with Prof Alison Scott-Baumann

Accessibility

An access guide to Darwin Building, Lecture Theatre B40 can be found on AccessAble.

About the speaker

Alison Scott-Baumann is Professor of Society and Belief in the Centre of Islamic Studies in the Near and Middle East Department at SOAS and her work has two interrelated and also distinct research strands, social justice and philosophy.

Her research has recently been recognized and rewarded by world-class research grants from Leverhulme (2012-13), ESRC (2012-13) and AHRC (2015-18). With regard to social justice she is best known for her ongoing work on Islam in Britain that dates back to 1997. She has been consulted by government (2007 Siddiqui Report; 2008-10 Review of imam training) and has received HEA funding on several occasions.

In 2015 AHRC awarded Alison a major three year grant to research Re/presenting Islam on campus at SOAS, with an interdisciplinary academic team: Dr. Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (Coventry), Dr. Mathew Guest (Durham), Dr. Shuruq Naguib (Lancaster), Dr. Ashraf Hoque (postdoctoral researcher SOAS) and Mr. Kareem Darwish (administrator SOAS). This project will seek to redress the imbalance in current approaches towards Islam and towards the role of universities in a democratic state.

Alison applies philosophy to social justice issues, regarding Islam, higher education and feminist debates. She is also known internationally for her philosophical research and was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship for original research on Ricoeur, Kant and Sartre (2012-13). She works extensively on Ricoeur, and is an invited member of the Conseil Scientifique of the Fonds Ricoeur in Paris, and board member ofthreeinternational Ricoeur groups. She publishes regularly on Ricoeur and speaks frequently at international conferences in Europe and USA.

She is a Visiting Researcher in the Politics, Philosophy and Religion Department at Lancaster University and a Visiting Researcher at VU Amsterdam University in the Centre for Islamic Theology.

About this event series

Political turning points, 2024-2025: Causes, consequences, solutions

2024 and 2025 are crucial years for global politics, with a number of highly anticipated elections (in India, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere). These elections are coming at a time ofcoinciding with major armed conflicts (especially in Ukraine and Gaza), as well as rising levels of income inequality (globally and nationally), deflated living standards that still have not recovered to pre-Covid levels, crumbling healthcare systems, and fierce culture wars that are tearing up the fabric of our societies.

The sense of uncertainty and volatility is overwhelming and there is no way to predict what world we will live in two years from now. How can we understand thisthe causes and consequences of this overwhelming uncertainty and volatility? and what are the different components that define its causes and consequences? What is being done to mitigate for its effects and address the different challenges that emerge in it?

This series of Director’s Seminars and Soundbites will approach the question of uncertainty by exploring the complex range of practices and processes that define it today as a condition that is closely interlinked with economic, cultural, and environmental challenges.

Director's Seminars are an opportunity for audiences to get an in-depth theoretical perspective on sustainable and inclusive prosperity. These Seminars are given by academics who are pushing for new ways of thinking and new ways of researching society's grand challenges.

For more events in this series visit the series page ►