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BEYOND THE ISLAMIC PUBLIC SPHERE IN AFRICA (conference website)April 4, 2014, 9:30 am- 5:30 pm, Stanford University, Encina Hall Central, CISAC Conference Room (616 Serra Street, Stanford, CA)What should we make of the usefulness of the concept of “public sphere” in the study of the Muslim world? What other theories might better describe the phenomena that have captured the attention of recent scholarship? What new frameworks might direct us towards unasked questions and understudied processes? This conference will explore these questions in the context of Muslim Africa during the last 100+ years. Presentations will address a variety of themes, including Salafism, civil society, media and new publics (paper abstracts).Programme9:30 am – 10:00 am: WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS10:00 am – 11:30 am: COMMUNICATION AND POWERChristopher Wise (Western Washington University), “Al Hajj Sekou Tall and Yambo Ouologuem: Violence and the Islamic Public Sphere in West Africa”Heike Behrend (University of Cologne), “Popular Photography, Public Spaces and the ‘Aesthetics of Withdrawal’ along the East African Coast”Alioune Sow (University of Florida), “Narratives, Religion and Morality”1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: COMMUNITIES OF CONCERNS AND PROCEDURESKai Kresse (Columbia University), “Reflections on discursive space in Swahili Muslim publics”Ousseina Alidou (Rutgers University-New Brunswick), “Muslim Women Leaders and Legal Reform Movements in Postcolonial Kenya”Noah Salomon (Carleton College), “When the State is Everywhere: Poetry and Public Deliberation in Contemporary Sudan”2:45 pm – 4:15 pm RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY AND POLITICAL RESOURCESLeonardo Villalón (University of Florida) “Democracy, Political Crisis, and the Reframing of Religious Authority in the Sahel”Abdulkader Tayob (University of Cape Town) “The Public between Habermas and al-Mawardi: Approaching Public Debates in Modern Muslim Societies”Dorothea Schulz (University of Cologne), “Public argument and the ‘common good’ in contemporary Mali”4:30 pm – 5:30 pm: CONCLUDING SESSIONFREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC[Sponsored by Stanford’s Sohaib &#38; Sara Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and Center for African Studies]&#160;