本次会议的论文征集截止日期为7月1日，即将达到。请有意愿参会并申请旅行资助的学者尽快投稿。
International Conference, SOAS, University of London
10 January 2014
Hosted by the Centre of Chinese Studies
Keynote speaker: Professor Jonathan Lipman
CALL FOR PAPERS
In recent years, with the rising global connectedness of China’s Muslims, the topic of Islam in China has become of greater interest to academics, policy makers, and Muslim communities in the West. Rapid changes are now occurring in religious beliefs and practices across China against a backdrop of great diversity in local histories of transmission, socio-economic factors, language and life-ways. There is a clear need for research into Islamic practices in contemporary China with a focus on the local production of meaning.
The aim of this conference is to draw together an interdisciplinary group of international scholars interested in the ethnographically grounded, theoretically informed study of local Islamic practices within Muslim communities across China. The conference will privilege sound as the key medium of investigation with the goal of providing new ways of understanding the nature of religious practice, meaning and power.
Soundscapes
Steve Feld (1996) coins the term "acoustemology," to denote "an exploration of sonic sensibilities, specifically of ways in which sound is central to making sense, to knowing, to experiential truth." The notion of a soundscape relates this focus on sound, body and meaning to the wider sphere of the social and physical environment: “as landscape is constituted by cultural histories, ideologies, and practices of seeing, soundscape implicates listening as a cultural practice” (Samuels et al 2010).
A growing body of work on “Islamic Soundscapes” brings this approach to bear on the world of Islam. Charles Hirschkind’s work on the reformist movement in Cairo (2006) traces ways of reconfiguring urban space acoustically through the use of Islamic media forms: cassette sermons in taxis, or Qur’anic recitation in cafés. Andrew Eisenberg focuses on the call to prayer, which “defines the spatial parameters of the community, and serves in the production of a broader—global—Muslim identity, both localizing and globalizing” (2009:98). Deborah Kapchan theorises festivals of sacred music, sites where audiences “attend to the sacred through sound”, creating “new transnational imaginaries that mediate religious sentiment” (2008:481).
The Chinese Islamic soundscape
The Chinese state seeks to orchestrate the Islamic soundscape, through control over sermons in mosques, organisation of national Qur’anic recitation competitions, local negotiations over, for example, the call to prayer, anti-religious extremism campaigns, and prohibitions on non-institutional religious practices.
Aspects of these same practices may be reconfigured as staged performance and promoted as ‘intangible cultural heritage’. What changes have occurred in ways of listening to these reconfigured practices?
Discussions of gender and Islam in China, as elsewhere, circulate around veiling practices. Can a focus on women’s voices in Islam help us to move beyond the stereotyping inherent in these debates, and permit a focus on women’s agency?
Kandiyoti and Azimova (2004) argue that rural Muslim women are neither ‘hapless victims’ nor ‘preservers of unspoilt Islamic identities’. In what ways can we hear local Islamic practices absorbing or reacting to currents of modernity?
Hirschkind (2006) describes the twentieth century Egyptian state’s attempts create a modern national auditory--an ear resonant with the tonalities of reason and progress while deaf to the outmoded noises of religious authority. What can the study of listening practices in religious teaching environments tell us about the production of Muslim citizens in China?
Reformist ideologies flow into China through various channels, and a range of actors may take on the role of propagating them. These new forms of Islam provide new ‘visions of transnational ethics’ (Jaschok 2009). How are Muslims in China accessing and interpreting transnational flows of sound and ideology?
In what ways can historical perspectives on listening practices shed light on contemporary realities?
Areas of Investigation
Listening to religious practices (the call to prayer, Qur’anic recitation, prayers, life-cycle and calendrical rituals, forms of religious expressive culture: stories, devotional songs, religious poetry, etc.)
Mapping the pious soundscape: where are the spaces for the production of Islamic sounds, and how are they being reconfigured in contemporary China
Ways of listening: embodied responses to religious sound
Media forms which transmit religious sounds and ideologies: DVDs or online videos of sermons or recitation
Religious education: the oral transmission of Muslim practices and knowledge
Blogs and websites: online debates on Muslim identity and faith
We welcome abstracts of 300 words on any of these or related topics. Please send abstracts to Rachel Harris, rh＠soas.ac.uk. Deadline: 1st June 2013.
中国伊斯兰教的声音景观
国际会议，伦敦大学亚非研究学院
2014年1月10日
主办单位：中国研究中心
征稿启事
近年来，随着中国穆斯林与国际的联系不断增加，西方的一些学者、政策制定者以及穆斯林社团对中国伊斯兰教的话题表现出了更为强烈的兴趣。目前，在不同的历史变迁、社会经济因素、语言和生活方式的背景下，中国的宗教信仰和习俗发生了迅速的变化。
因此，对当代中国伊斯兰教的习俗，尤其是对当地意义的成果的研究显然是非常必要的。
该会议的目标是将一些对中国穆斯林社团的民族志考察与理论研究感兴趣的国际学者聚集成一个跨学科的研究小组。会议将声音作为调查研究的关键媒介，以此提供新的方式去理解宗教习俗的性质、意义和力量。
音景
1996年，Steve Feld创造了术语"acoustemology,"表示“一种对声波感受能力的探索，这是一种将声音作为感受、了解体验真理的核心的特殊方法。”声音景观的概念聚焦于广泛的社会与物质环境中的声音、身体与意义。景观是由文化历史、意识形态和观察实践构成的，而声音景观则是将聆听作为一种文化实践。
越来越多的人从事“伊斯兰声音景观”的研究，将这种研究方法带到了伊斯兰的世界。Charles Hirschkind在对开罗改革运动的研究中，探索了通过在听觉上运用伊斯兰媒体的形式（如：在出租车里播放布道音乐，或在咖啡厅朗诵古兰经）对城市的空间进行重新配置的方法。Andrew Eisenberg则侧重于祷告，“定义了社区的空间参数，并且涉及一个更广泛的全球穆斯林的身份的产生,包括本地化和全球化”。Deborah Kapchan在观众“通过建声音参与神圣”的地方建立了宗教音乐节日的理论，创造了新的跨国构想，以此调和宗教情感。”
中国伊斯兰教音景
中国试图对清真寺的布道、国家古兰经朗诵比赛组织以及当地谈判，例如祷告、反宗教极端活动和禁止非制度性的宗教习俗等方面进行改革。这些方面的习俗被改造成舞台表演和被提升为“无形的文化遗产。在这些改革实践中，聆听的方式发生了怎样的变化？
和其他方面一样，关于在中国性别与伊斯兰的探讨，主要围绕女性带面纱的习俗。关注伊斯兰教中女性的声音是否可以帮助我们超越以往论辩中的刻板印象，并且允许关注妇女的作用？
Kandiyoti and Azimova认为农村的穆斯林妇女既不是“不幸的受害者”，也不是“未受损害的伊斯兰身份的保护者”。通过怎样的方法我们可以听到那些吸引人的或反映现代潮流的当地伊斯兰习俗？
· Hirschkind 描述了20世纪埃及政府试图建立一个现代的国家听觉。研究宗教教育环境可否告诉我们一些有关中国穆斯林产生的信息？
改革派意识形态通过各种渠道流入中国。中国穆斯林是如何使用和解释这种跨国的声音和意识形态的？
通过哪些方法，聆听实践的历史实践可以阐明当代的现实？
调查的领域
·聆听宗教习俗（祷告，古兰经朗诵，祷告者，生命周期，历法仪式，宗教表现文化的形式：故事,祷告歌曲，宗教诗歌等）
·绘制宗教声音景观图：伊斯兰教声音产生的空间，以及这些声音在当代中国是如何被重建的。
聆听方式：呈现对宗教声音的反应
传播声音和意识形态的媒体形式：DVD或者网上布道和朗诵的视频
· 宗教教育：穆斯林习俗和知识的口头传承
· 博客与网站：在网络上有关穆斯林身份和信仰的讨论
我们欢迎各位学者提交相关主题的英文摘要（300字）。请将摘要提交给Rachel Harris，邮箱：rh＠soas.ac.uk。截止日期：2013年7月1日
详细的内容请见：http://www.soas.ac.uk/music/events/islamic-soundscapes-of-china/
