Conference: Digital Islam Across Europe (27 & 28 May 2025, University of Edinburgh)

Featuring contributions from the five project research teams based in the UK, Spain, Poland, Sweden and Lithuania, alongside additional papers from scholars working across Europe. 

You can learn more about the Digital Islam Across Europe project here:  https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/digitalislameurope/ 

Limited places are available for colleagues with interests in the subject, whether academic, practioner or policy-focused. The conference is free to attend, but registration is essential. Attendance is possible for the whole conference, or just one day - depending on your availability.

If you have any questions about the confernece, or the research which underpins it, please contact us by email: digital.islam@ed.ac.uk

Conference Programme

Venue: Room 1.06 (Project Room), 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh, EH8 9JU.

CLICK HERE TO FIND VENUE 

Day 1: Tuesday 27 May

13:30: Registration and Refreshments

14.00: Digital Islam across Europe: Understanding Muslims’ Participation in Online Islamic Environments (CHANSE project)

Introduction

Frederic Volpi (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Approach & Methods

Gary Bunt (University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK), Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (Coventry University, UK), Göran Larsson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

Country Cases

United Kingdom – Anna Grasso (University of Edinburgh, UK) 

Sweden – Erika Willander (Umea University, Sweden) 

Poland – Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska (Warsaw School of Economics, Poland) 

Lithuania – Egdunas Racius, (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania)

Spain – Avi Astor (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) 

15.45: Coffee break

16.00: Critical perspectives on online interactions

'Street Fighter Sufis: Video Critique of Sufism' 

Rüdiger Lohlker (University of Vienna, Austria) 

'Allah is Sufficient for us, and He is the Best Disposer [of affairs for us]', Surveillance, Mobilisation, and the Paradoxes of Rupture 

Martijn De Koning (Radboud University, The Netherlands)

Veils, Crosses, and the Sin of Patriarchy: Digital Mediations of Islamic and Catholic Feminism 

Giulia Evolvi (Bologna University, Italy)

A Critique of the Postfeminist Rebranding of Muslim Femininity on Instagram

Laura Mora (Queen's University Belfast, UK)

17.45: End of Day 1

Day 2: Wednesday 28 May

9.15: Morning Coffee

9.30: Digital Islam across Europe: Understanding Muslims’ Participation in Online Islamic Environments (CHANSE project)

Virtual proximity and exposure to threats online: Findings from Sweden

Göran Larsson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Erika Willander (Umea University, Sweden)

Unconquered Space: The Impact of Polish and Lithuanian Islamic Organizations on Shaping Online Religious Authority

Mateusz Chudziak and Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska (Warsaw School of Economics, Poland), Arvydas Kumpis and Egdūnas Račius (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) 

Contemporary religiosity and the online-offline nexus: Distinguishing relationships of inception, complementarity, and substitution in digital religious engagement

Avi Astor, Berta Güell, Zouhair El-Hairan (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain)

Gendered Interactions Online

Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (Coventry University, UK), Anna Grasso (University of Edinburgh, UK), Joanna Krotofil (Jagiellonian University, Poland)

11.15: Coffee break

11.30: Critical perspectives on online interactions

Gendered Models of Islamic Authority: Social Media and the (Un)Popularity of Hadhrami Preachers in Indonesia 

Martin Slama (Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria)

Pink and Cute Islam: Islamic ballet on social media

Jonas Otterbeck (Aga Khan University, UK)

In the Event: Eventification and the Transformation of Religious Institutions

Henrik Christensen (Aarhus University, Denmark)

Digital Transformation Meets Islam: Education in Time of the WWW

Riem Spielhaus (University of Göttingen, Germany)

13.15: Networking Lunch

14.30: End of Conference