Multiversity Discussion at GU-Q Explores Profound Impact of Islamic Art
To further understand the historical impact of Islamic art on diverse cultures and societies across the region, QF partner Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) hosted a public book discussion of the publication, “The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art,” featuring the book’s editors, Radha Dalal, Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture, and Jochen A. Sokoly, Associate Professor of Art History of the Islamic World at VCUarts Qatar.
The virtual discussion is the latest research event organized by scholars of the Indian Ocean Working Group (IOWG) at GU-Q. The IOWG is a multiversity initiative that brings together scholars working in different disciplines from Qatar and around the world to explore the people and places of the Indian Ocean World, a zone of complex human interaction throughout world history.
“The IOWG is interested in all aspects of the Indian Ocean, and we constantly strive to examine issues that are under-represented or under-studied,” explained Dr. Uday Chandra, Assistant Professor of Government and the head of the IOWG at GU-Q. Art, he explained, plays a significant role in creating connections between diverse people across the Indian Ocean. “Art history is a much neglected area in the study of the Indian Ocean, and the book takes it into consideration in a serious way.”
Published by Yale University Press, the book is a collection of scholarly papers delivered at the 2019 Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. Case studies cover the globe and span centuries of Islamic history. Contributors examine the roles which importation and migration, travel, diplomacy, and gift giving have played in driving artistic innovation and changing the social, political, and religious institutions of an increasingly diverse Islamic world.
Dr. Chandra explained that the panel discussion was valuable for scholars as well as anyone interested in learning more about Islam, history, and the region. “Our audiences in Education City can acquire a sophisticated understanding of how Islamic art and aesthetics travel along with artisans and merchants, but we would also like scholars and laypeople alike to appreciate how later centuries saw a confluence of commerce and cosmopolitanism within an ‘Islamic sea.’”
As a Multiversity platform in Education City, added Dr. Chandra, the IOWG has engaged colleagues in Northwestern Qatar and Qatar University, as well as VCUarts Qatar and Qatar Museums. “The multiversity requires us to step outside our disciplinary silos and campus buildings to create something truly extraordinary for everyone in and outside Qatar to see.”
Since 2014, the Indian Ocean Working Group at GU-Q has convened researchers from Doha and across the world to build collaborative expertise across the boundaries of traditional area studies to remap the Indian Ocean World.