JASON IDRISS SPARKES
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Graduation and Dissertation Results

10/7/2020

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It has been a busy few months as you can see from the following summary of my activities:
  • successfully completed the Joint Laurier-Waterloo PhD in Religious Studies, with a concentration in Religious Diversity of North America
  • successfully defended dissertation, "Tradition as Flow: Decolonial Currents in the Muslim Atlantic," in May 2020
  • dissertation published online: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2300/ 
  • will be recognized at the upcoming Fall 2020 convocation ceremony
  • recipient of the Award for Outstanding Work at the Graduate Level by the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Laurier University 
  • for the public presentation of dissertation findings, published a series of five videos online: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC-Hd5dnAtd0U5wwbuwm2UKVMF8wyL-yt  (the last video is now posted)
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Dissertation Findings Video 4

9/2/2020

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My Dissertation is Available Online

8/28/2020

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My dissertation has been published online. To access it, please click here: Tradition as Flow: Decolonial Currents in the Muslim Atlantic.
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Dissertation Findings Videos 2 and 3

7/11/2020

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Here are videos 2 and 3 from the series summarizing my dissertation findings:

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Dissertation Findings Video 1

6/12/2020

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Here is video 1 of 5 presenting my dissertation findings. Yes, I successfully defended my dissertation on May 26th, 2020 (al-hamdulilah). The full text of the dissertation will be published and made available online this summer (in sha Allah). In the meantime, I am publishing videos presenting my research findings. Stay posted in the coming weeks for the other 4 videos of this series. Comments and questions are welcome. Enjoy!
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Islam, Coloniality and Tradition - Summer course in Morocco 2019

10/17/2018

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I am honoured to be teaching this summer course in Morocco with my mentor and friend, Professor Ali Zaidi.

It is a full-credit course for Laurier University undergraduates , offered jointly by the Global Studies Department and the Department of Religion and Culture.

Overview:

​Spring 2019, May  20-24 at Laurier
June 1-18 in Morocco

Stay in the capital, Rabat

Take excursions to Casablanca, Tangiers, Fez, Meknes, and UNESCO sites

Experience Ramadan and Eid during 5-day homestay

Witness the effects of coloniality, capitalism and the refugee-crisis


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Decolonizing canadian diversity

5/28/2017

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I am presenting a paper today at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the CSSR, part of the broader Congress of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Science, held this year at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Title of presentation:
Decolonizing Canadian Diversity: A View from the Internal Muslim Periphery

Abstract:
This paper examines human diversity in Canada from a decolonial Muslim perspective. First, it
examines the thought of Ramón Grosfoguel (UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies). He contends that
while post-colonialism represents a Eurocentric critique of Eurocentrism, decolonialism adopts
peripheral epistemologies to critique the modern/colonial world-system. Grosfoguel challenges
Muslim academics like the author of this paper to think critically from an Islamic perspective
rather than simply to think about Islam. Second, this paper applies Grosfoguel’s framework to
Canadian Muslims, situating them as one of many peripheral minorities living in the core of the
world-system. Eurocentric depictions divide Muslims into anti-modern fundamentalists and
progressive modernists. Unfortunately, many Muslims adopt these categories. Instead, this paper
argues that Canadian Muslims must reject such binaries and draw upon the dynamic, adaptable,
and pluralistic dimensions of their tradition to help build a decolonial future, in solidarity with
other peripheral communities, from far and wide.

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decolonizing north American islam

4/22/2017

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If we examine North American Islam from a social science and humanities angle, using the usual Eurocentric intellectual canon, we will end up asking very different questions than if we draw upon a canon of Muslim authors. In the first case we will enter a mandatory conversation with authors like Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Foucault, Derrida, Gramsci, Hodgson, Schimmel, Lewis, and Esposito. In the second case, we might choose from a list of names like ʿAbd al-Qâdir al-Jazâʾirî, `Abd al-Wāḥid Yaḥyā (René Guénon), Seyyed Hossein Nasr, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X), Abdal Hakim Murad (Timothy Winter), Aisha Al Adawiyya,  Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir, Anse Tamara Grey, and Hatem Bazian. Authors from both lists offer penetrating insight and rich conceptual tools for scholars of North American Islam. But they address similar issues in very different ways because they have very different concerns.
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Public Lecture on Islamophobia

10/23/2016

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“Decolonial Muslim Thought in the Face of Islamophobic Epistemicide”

4/24/2016

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This is the name of the paper I will present insha Allah at the Institute of Islamic Studies Student Council Graduate Student Symposium at McGill University in good old Montreal. The symposium lasts from April 28 to 29. I am scheduled to present at 11:15 on Friday 29.  Here is the link for the symposium: https://sites.google.com/site/miisscsymposium/2016-symposium/preliminary-program

Here is the abstract for my paper:
This paper explores the intersection between decolonialism and Islam in contemporary scholarship. It is inspired by the work of ethnic studies professor Ramón Grosfoguel (UC Berkeley). The first section introduces decolonialism as a type of world-systems analysis produced from peripheral epistemologies. Grosfoguel argues that this is different from postmodernism and postcolonialism, which remain epistemically Eurocentric critiques of Eurocentric modernity. For scholars of Islam, decolonialism entails responding to the problems facing humankind today as Muslims or with Muslims, rather than simply producing scholarship about Muslims. It entails considering Islam an epistemic perspective from which to actively generate critical thought, rather than a passive object of study. Moreover, decolonialism engages in inter-epistemic ‘pluriversal’ communication, and seeks to avoid Eurocentric universalism, Islamic takfiri discourse, and other forms of exclusivism. The second section examines Grosfoguel’s contention that epistemic Islamophobia is a constitutive element of the “modern/colonial capitalist/patriarchal western-centric/Christian-centric world-system.” He argues that modern social sciences and globalized structures of knowledge are deeply rooted in the four genocides/epistemicides of the long sixteenth century (against Jews and Muslims in Al-Andalus, indigenous peoples in the Americas, African victims of the transatlantic slave trade, and European women accused of sorcery). The third section discusses the contributions to decolonial Muslim thought by three intellectuals from Berkeley, California. After further consideration of Grosfoguel’s work, Hatem Bazian is introduced. He is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States, where he works as a professor of Islamic law and theology. Furthermore, he lectures on Islam in America and Islamophobia at UC Berkeley. Dustin Craun, the third figure to be discussed, is an anti-racist educator, communications consultant, editor, and writer. He is also the founder and CEO of Ummah Wide, a San-Francisco based digital media and film production start-up focused on Muslim issues.
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    Transdisciplinary scholar of Islam and Sufism.
    Applied linguist (teacher, translator, consultant, manager).
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