Thursday, January 10, 2008

MSA Conference February 17th, 2008

Islam and the Environment

The conference aims at presenting lectures on Islam's understanding of the natural world, its position towards the causes of its degradation-notably globalization and consumerism-and what the religion views as the solution to creating a sustainable way of life for all living beings.

Where: University of Winnipeg. Greetings in front of Riddell Hall, Lectures in the Theatre 4M31 A, Prayer in the Bulman Centre, and Lunch and Dinner at Riddell Hall.

When: Sunday, February 17th, 2008

Time: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM. Dinner is from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Official Conference Poster:



Speakers:

Dr. Timothy Gianotti

A revert to Islam, Professor Gianotti obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in Medieval Islamic Philosophy & Theology with his undergraduate and graduate studies including several periods of residence in the West Bank and Jordan, where he studied literary Arabic, Islamic History, and eventually took graduate courses at the University of Jordan’s College of Islamic Studies. Dr. Gianotti is the author of “Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul,” a study of controversies surrounding the soul and the afterlife in medieval Islam. He is currently working on two new book projects: “Encountering Islam: A Prelude to the Study of an Abrahamic Religion,” and a second scholarly book titled, “Walking the Way of the Afterlife: al-Ghazali on the Jurisprudence of the Heart (fiqh al-qalb).”

Dr. Maged Senbel

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Dr. Senbel has a Ph.D. in Urban Planning, from the University of British Columbia. He is currently professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning. Dr. Senbel has been dedicated to environmental sustainability for many years now. Inspired by the ongoing quest for environmental and social justice Dr. Senbel traverses the space between architecture and planning, between design and public decision-making. His research focuses on analytical methods for making cities more ecologically sustainable as well as the deliberative and participatory processes that contribute to implementing sustainable designs. His professional experience is in the areas of architecture, planning and urban design; and his teaching experience is in architecture, urban design, planning, landscape architecture and creativity. Interdisciplinarity and enhancing the reciprocity between theory and practice are the continuous threads that weave together the various strands of his work.