Matters of Humanities

The art space has long been a  rich repository for all sorts of imaginings. We talk to Anusheh Zia, a  London-based Artist and Sumayya Vally South-African & UK-based Architect about envisioning futures from Muslim perspectives and how their work reflects those visions. Check out their work here: Counterspace - https://www.counterspace-studio.com/ Anusheh website - https://anushehzia.com/

Our final episode features Ouassima Laabich, Berlin-based PhD scholar, futurist and initiator of the Muslim Futures Lab Berlin. She shares the story behind the Muslim Futures Fellowship, and we reflect on what it means to be unapologetically Muslim in future-making spaces and why this work is more vital than ever. Check out her work here: https://muslimfutures.de/ *intro and outro sound attributio...

What do we mean when we talk about Muslim futures ? In the opening episode, we set the stage for a journey into imagination, resistance, and radical possibility. We unpack the concept of "Muslim futures", why it's necessary, what it challenges, and how centering Muslim experiences can reshape our collective visions of what's to come. From speculative fiction to community organi...

Join us as we explore Sci-Fi’s ability to tackle the ‘what ifs?’ and imagine bold futures. We discuss the genre’s roots in the Muslim world and how it has long been used to creatively imagine different possibilities, futures and push boundaries. Plus, a conversation with Singaporean sci-fi writer Hassan Hasaa’Ree Ali on how Islam shapes his storytelling- and a few of our favourite reads too! Book...

This episode takes on the dominance of technology-driven futures. We talk to James McGrail PhD candidate at Leiden’s Anthropology department whose work lies at the intersection of AI and Muslim futures in Singapore. We also dive in transhumanism, ethical AI and what all this means for Muslim imaginaries.  Some resources: Huxley, Julian (1968). Transhumanism. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 8 (1):...

Dr. Kate Bellamy and Dr. Andrew Wigman host the pilot podcast ‘Name That Language’, the podcast in which, with the help of an expert from the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), they explore the ins, outs, ups, and downs of one of the world’s 7000 or so languages. Each episode takes you on a journey of a specific language, investigating its history, grammatical features, and resources...

Dr. Kate Bellamy and Dr. Andrew Wigman host the pilot podcast ‘Name That Language’, the podcast in which, with the help of an expert from the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), they explore the ins, outs, ups, and downs of one of the world’s 7000 or so languages. Each episode takes you on a journey of a specific language, investigating its history, grammatical features, and resources...

Dr. Kate Bellamy and Dr. Andrew Wigman host the pilot podcast ‘Name That Language’, the podcast in which, with the help of an expert from the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), they explore the ins, outs, ups, and downs of one of the world’s 7000 or so languages. Each episode takes you on a journey of a specific language, investigating its history, grammatical features, and resources...

The eight episode of the podcast is about “The Big Green Tent” by Lyudmila Ulitskaya (born 1943), published in 2011. This final episode of the series focuses on a historical roman à clef. “The Big Green Tent” is a historical roman à clef about the post-Stalinist period, in particular the rise of the dissident movement in the 1960s and 1970s. While dissidents like Andrei Sakharov and Andrei Sinyavs...

The fifth episode of the podcast is about “The Pale Horse” by V. Ropshin (pseudonym for Boris Savinkov, 1879-1925), published in 1909. Boris Savinkov was a well-known terrorist in late imperial Russia. He was the mastermind behind the deadly bomb attacks on the Minister of Interior and Grand Prince Sergei Alexandrovich. But Savinkov also had literary ambitions and the necessary connections among p...

The sixth episode of the podcast is about “A ticket to the stars” by Vasili Aksyonov (1932-2009), published in 1961. Although Soviet officials vehemently denied its existence, after the Second World War the Soviet Union saw the emergence of a relatively independent youth culture.  Youngsters developed their own dress code, spoke in slang, and demonstrated an outspoken preference for Western music....

The seventh episode of the podcast is about “The Sad Detective” by Viktor Astafiev (1924-2001), published in 1986. Did the increased openness under Mikhail Gorbachev (in power from 1985 until 1991) also have a downside? Absolutely! Some writers seemed to relish the idea of depicting Soviet society as being completely ravaged by alcoholism and domestic violence without offering a shimmer of hope fo...

Among the many emotions that Russian literature has triggered over the past 200 years, the triad of outrage, disbelief, and moral panic has been a particularly stubborn phenomenon. Literary critics, state authorities, and even disconcerted readers have regularly demonstrated their obsession with the assumed impact of novels and other ideologically charged literature on the moral state of society....

The first episode of the podcast is about “Philosophical letters addressed to a lady” by Pyotr Chaadaev (1794-1856), published in 1830. Russia has always had a love-hate relationship with the West; the debate between the “Westernizers” and the “Slavophiles” in the nineteenth century is a case in point. Pyotr Chaadaev was a “Westernizer” who claimed Russia hadn’t contributed anything to world civil...

Episode two is about “What Is to be done?” by Nikolai Chernyshevsky (1828-1889), published in 1863. Chernyshevsky had no talent for writing but was well aware of it. For him, to write “beautifully” was far less important than putting yourself at the service of truth and building socialism. Despite his lack of literary talent, Chernyshevsky was one of Russia's most productive and influential a...

The third episode of the podcast is about The Kreutzer Sonata by Lev Tolstoy (1828-1910), published in 1890. This novella is one of the most confusing and controversial texts in Russian literature. Apart from arguing that modern marriage is a form of prostitution, Lev Tolstoy seems to implore us to abstain from any form of sex. Concerned readers flocked to their pens and asked their teacher for cl...

The fourth episode of the podcast is about “Sanin” by Mikhail Artsybasjev (1878-1927), published in 1907. In this year, Russia was swept by a wave of moral panic caused by Artsybashev’s novel “Sanin”. Russian youth was said to have united in secret sex clubs and eagerly indulge in debauchery. Where did these stories come from? And was any of it true? This episode takes the listener back to an extr...

Muslims have been living in eastern parts of Europe for centuries. Since the 1970s, the presence of Muslims has also become a fact of life in other parts of Europe. In this last episode we will discuss where Europe and its Islam stand in the twenty-first century. Is it a continuation of the past, or are Europe and its Muslims sharing different worlds? Matters of Humanities: History of Islam in Eur...

By the end of the first world war, the Ottoman Empire had ceased to exist, and few Muslims still lived in Europe. That changed in the 1970s, when new Muslim communities were established in Europe by means of migration. Matters of Humanities: History of Islam in Europe People are often surprised that the history of the Islam in Europe is so much more than a history of wars. It's also a story o...

In the eighteenth century, the Europeans became infatuated with all things 'Oriental' and 'Turkish'. At the same time, there was an increase in trade and diplomacy with the Ottoman empire. Matters of Humanities: History of Islam in Europe People are often surprised that the history of the Islam in Europe is so much more than a history of wars. It's also a story of diplomac...

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries one could hardly speak of Christian or European unity against a Muslim enemy. We have seen that this was because of the political divisions in Europe. In this episode we will discuss another reason for the lack of European unity, and that is religious divisions. Matters of Humanities: History of Islam in Europe People are often surprised that the history...

In the next three episode we will take a closer look at the relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. That period was dominated by the presence of the Ottomans, and in today's episode we will take a closer look at this new player in Europe, and how this empire related to other European states, and how its religiously mixed society looked...

King Otto had thrown out the Arab warlords from southern France. As a thank you, the pope crowned him king of the Christians in Europe, and Otto would build an enormous empire in central Europe that became known as the Holy Roman Empire. This same king Otto was trying to establish good relations with the Arab Muslims in Spain. Matters of Humanities: History of Islam in Europe People are often surp...

What did Europeans think of the Muslims who had been entering Europe since the eighth century? Was it just another group of warriors, like the Vikings in the north and the Huns in the east? Or were they seen as a new religion, perhaps even a challenge to Christianity? In the previous episode we talked about the wars of conquest and raids undertaken by the Muslim Arabs. We have seen that raiding an...

Were the Muslims set on conquering Europe? And how did Europeans respond? In this first episode, Maurits Berger tells the stories of the first encounters between Europe and Islam.  Matters of Humanities: History of Islam in Europe People are often surprised that the history of the Islam in Europe is so much more than a history of wars. It's also a story of diplomacy and trade, knowledge and a...