Event Write Up 2

My second event is an academic talk given by the first candidate to give a talk for the Islamics position in the Religious Studies Department. I did not plan on making this event my second write up, because at the time I was solely focusing on whether I thought this man would make a good professor for our department. However, looking back I realize there is plenty fodder for analysis, especially in terms of what was not said and who was not saying it.
I did not do my homework on the candidate before attending his talk. I know he had studied in Egypt at some point, and comes to us from Harvard where he is working on his dissertation on some aspect of Islamic law. Appropriately, the talk this young man gave was on Islamic law, and the tension between drawing authority from the Muslim community, versus drawing authority from the Qu’ran. The talk moved us from the days of Mohammad through two famous interpreters of Islamic law. It took the form of a factual, historical lesson, fleshed out with a couple humorous anecdotes. I listened to the question and answer session, filled out my evaluation on the candidate, and left, with no strong feelings about the experience.
Reflecting back, I realize that there were some important absences in the conversation. One such absence was the lack of discussion around gender, and lack of participation of women. The whole experience of the talk, as I remember it, was dominated by men. The male department chair introduced the male candidate, who spoke about a male prophet and two male legalists. Then, a series of males asked questions of the candidate, which he answered.
It is notable to me that I did not think about this absence of women until I decided to analyze the event for this class. I believe that this has a lot to do with my stereotypes of Islam, and the expectations I have in terms of race and gender when discussing this religion. The candidate who came and spoke with us was a man, and he also spoke with an accent and a familiarity with Egyptian immigrants in the US which led me to believe that he is either Egyptian himself or of Egyptian descent. Despite the fact that I have studied Islam and understand that there are people from all over the world who practice this religion, and that they come in ever gender, color and accent imaginable, I still associate the religion with people like this candidate – male, accented, and of darker complexion. My reaction reveals how ingrained our ideas of what traits belong to which people are, and how what we know does not always make it through to our perception.
Additionally, I believe that a more general conception I have of history, in which men did important things on important dates, came into play, with how easily I accepted the fact that women were only mentioned once or twice during the speech, and each time they were mentioned as nameless wives. Then there is the issue of asking questions. I am a senior religious studies major, and I have taken a course on Revelation and Tradition in Islam, which was more or less the topic of his talk. I certainly could have asked a question and engaged the candidate. But instead I sat silently. At the time I simply felt that I was tired and had nothing to say, but I think it is also possible that I felt intimidate by the masculinity of the atmosphere.
When I left this candidate talk, gender, race, sex and class were not on my mind. However, there was clearly plenty to think about in terms of gender and race, which I wouldn’t have thought about if it hadn’t been for this assignment. Forcing me to use my critical lens on academic talks and on my own reactions to them is exactly what this course is about, and I hope to continue to do that, even when I do not have to write about it for the class.