Islamic Trust Studies International Symposium

“Overcoming the Divide: Connectivity and Trust Building for Middle East Peace”

Organized by
MEXT Grant-in Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A)
“Connectivity and Trust Building in Islamic Civilization”(Islamic Trust Studies)

Date and Venue

February 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon), 2025
The Sanjo Conference Hall at The University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus)
7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
Access: https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/index.html#map

Conference Objectives

The research project “Connectivity and Trust Building in Islamic Civilization”* has sought to identify effective methods for building trust and alleviating divisions in the contemporary world by exploring various aspects of connectivity within Islamic civilization and beyond. Amidst a multitude of research topics—such as Islamic economies, historical Islamic state systems, the translation of knowledge and creation of strategic thought, migration and refugee issues, and peacebuilding—the question of Palestine and Israel has been a central focus of this research project. This reflects the complexity and contentious nature of the Israel–Palestine issue.
However, the events that unfolded in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, which began in October 2023, pose the most significant challenge to our research, raising serious questions about connectivity and trust building. Israeli genocidal violence has devastated Palestinian people’s lives and living conditions as well as connection with the outside world. The blatant double standards exhibited by major Western governments regarding human rights abuse and injustices in the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and Russia and Ukraine have undermined people’s trust in the West’s commitment to the values it once championed. In addition, the suppression of speech in daily life and academia regarding these issues in Western countries—which, in the past, have sharply criticized suppression in other countries—is threatening global intellectual and academic exchange. Even the dichotomous 19th-century rhetoric of colonialism, which differentiated between the “civilized” and “barbarians,” has been reactivated within political discourse, further widening cleavages in global society.
Indeed, there is an urgent need for scholarship on connectivity and trust building to contribute to the restoration of justice and peace by generating research-based knowledge and insights. Palestine serves as one of the central locations for Islamic, Jewish, and Christian civilizations. It possesses a multilayered religious, cultural, and social fabric that connects Palestinian people with each other and the outside world. Clarifying the history of the past and present world surrounding Palestine will help explain the origins of the current catastrophe and will contribute to envisioning an alternative global society that can be embraced by the people of the region and beyond. This symposium will shed new light on the interconnected spheres that extend outward from the Middle East and produce strategic knowledge by collecting and reorganizing diverse perspectives from around the world that respect the values of inclusion and coexistence.

Program(provisional)

DAY 1 (22 Feb)　 15:00-20:00

15:00–15:20
Opening remarks   Hidemitsu Kuroki (ILCAA) 

 

15:20-17:40
Session 1. A Genocide in Our Time: Palestine under Terrorism Discourse and Neoliberalism
Keynote Speeches

• Ghassan Hage (The University of Melbourne)

• James Renton (Edge Hill University)

Discussant: Hiroyuki Suzuki (The University of Tokyo)

 

18:00-20:00
Welcoming banquet at the restaurant at Kadoya Sanjo-tei, B1 Sanjo Conference Hall

 

DAY2 (23 Feb)　 10:30-19:30

10:30–12:30
Session 2. Multifold Magnetic Fields: Human Mobility and Connectivity to and from the Holy Land and Cities

• Eileen Kane (Connecticut College)

• Ilham Khuri-Makdisi (Northeastern University)

• David Brophy (University of Sydney) 

Discussant: Jin Noda (ILCAA/SRC)

 

12:30–14:00
Lunch break

 

14:00–16:00
Session 3. Knowledge for Alternative Systems: The Islamic International System, the Islamic Economy, and Strategic Thoughts on Culture 

• Layla Saleh (Demos-Tunisia Democratic Sustainability Forum)

• Shinsuke Nagaoka (Kyoto University)

• Maya Mikdashi (Rutgers University)

Discussant: Tetsuya Sahara  (Meiji University)

 

16:15-17:00 
Poster session

 

17:30-19:30 
Information exchange banquet at Capo Pellicano, School of Medicine Building

 

DAY3 (24 Feb)　 9:30-12:00

9:30-11:30
Session 4. Toward an Open Society: Countering Rule Based on Division

• Sumanto Al Qurtuby (Satya Wacana Christian University) 

• Kumiko Makino (IDE-JETRO) 

• Minao Kukita  (Nagoya University)

Discussant: Hiroyuki Tosa (Notre Dame Seishin University)

 

11:30-12:00
Closing session

 

Pre-registration is required.
https://forms.gle/4B1dtjrnYhT44XiE8
Registration deadline: Feb. 4, 2025, p. m. 15:00 

 

Supported by The Uehiro Project for the Asian Research Library (U-PARL) of The University of Tokyo Library System

Contact Islamic Trust Studies: Project Office (connectivity_jimukyoku[at]tufs.ac.jp)