Qur'an Unit

Call for Proposals

The Qur’an Unit welcomes papers on all aspects of the Qur’an, including its text; literary, aesthetic, and material forms; oral and written transmission; liturgical use, role in the lives of Muslims; tradition of commentary and exegesis; and its influence in the world more broadly. We welcome proposals that represent the full range of how the Qur’an can be approached in terms of academic methods, as well as the full range of ways in which the Qur’an is interpreted and interacted with in Islamic tradition.

For the 2022 annual meeting, we are especially interested in proposals highlighting new or developing areas of research in relation to the Qur’an, and/including the following topics:

The Qur’an in Africa and African diaspora communities
The Qur’an and apocalypse, catastrophes, and/or the natural world
Global or transregional dimensions of the Qur’an
Shi`ite Qur’an interpretation, especially Safavid tafsir
The Qur’an and Gender
Pedagogy and teaching the Qur’an

Statement of Purpose

This Unit seeks to provide a forum for comprehensive scholarly discussion of the Qur’an, its commentaries, and its role in Muslim and world societies through a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives. We particularly welcome student-scholars, scholars from all areas of the academy, and scholars of diverse backgrounds in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and religion to help us achieve our goals of promoting an understanding of the Qur’an.

Chairs

Lauren Osborne, Whitman College

osbornle@whitman.edu

1/1/2019 - 12/31/2024
Samuel Ross, Texas Christian University

s.ross@tcu.edu

1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027

Steering Committee Members

Shuaib Ally, University of Toronto

shuaib.ally@utoronto.ca

1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
George Archer, Iowa State University

garcher@iastate.edu

1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
Halla Attallah, Georgetown University

ha409@georgetown.edu

1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
Ash (Aisha) Geissinger, Carleton University

ashgeissinger@cunet.carleton.ca

1/1/2019 - 12/31/2024
Hadia Mubarak, Queens University

mubarakh@queens.edu

1/1/2020 - 12/31/2025
Walid Saleh, University of Toronto

walid.saleh@utoronto.ca

1/1/2019 - 12/31/2024

Method

PAPERS

Review Process

Proposals are anonymous to chairs and steering committee members until after final acceptance/rejection

Review Process Comments

Evaluation of proposals to the Qur’an Unit are done by the Steering Committee through anonymous evaluation based on the quality and clarity of the proposal without regard to issues of the presenter’s age, status in the profession, gender, religious or ideological affiliation or other factors beyond the quality of the proposal. Regardless of topic, each proposal should reflect an interaction with past and current scholarship and should advance the academic knowledge of aspects of the Qur’an. Proposals should describe presentations that reasonably can be delivered within the time limits imposed by the session lengths allotted by the AAR. This means that a paper should be limited to fifteen minutes to allow the maximum number of participants and time for questions and discussion. When considering a proposal, please pay attention to the presentation format so that the presentation will be accessible to individuals with visual and/or auditory impairments. It is the aim of the Qur’an Unit to make our presentations accessible and available to the greatest possible number of members of the American Academy of Religion.

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