The American University of Sharjah (UAE) and the Université Interdisciplinaire de Paris (France) are pleased to announce The 2014 Islam & Science Summer School to be held from August 22 to 31, 2014, in Paris, France.

This event will gather 20 participants of one of the workshops we have conducted on “Islam and Science: an educational approach”, to undergo “final training” and become able to lecture, publish, and participate in the ongoing debates on Science and Islam/Religion.

It will consist of about 8 days of in-depth lectures by world-class experts, visits to scientific and cultural institutions in Paris, discussions, and a small project to be prepared by teams of two (some afternoons will be reserved for that work).

The lectures and Q & A’s will be conducted in English, no translation will be provided, but side discussions and projects can be conducted in Arabic or French.

The general themes of the Summer School span the following topics:

• Islam and the History & Philosophy of Science;
• Science and Qur’anic/Islamic Worldview;
• Islam & Modern Cosmology;
• Islam & Modern Biology (Evolution);
• Islam, the Environment, and Ethics;
• Islam & Practical Astronomy.

Lecturers

Ehab Abouheif

is Principal Investigator of the Abouheif Lab and Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Developmental Biology at McGill University. Dr. Abouheif’s lab integrates the fields of ecology and molecular, developmental and evolutionary biology in order to understand how genes and environments interact in order to generate genetic diversity and adaptations.

Denis Alexander

Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, a molecular biologist and an author on science and religion, also editor of Science and Christian Belief.

Philip Clayton

is the Ingraham Professor at Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California. Clayton has taught or held research professorships at Williams College, California State University, Harvard University, Cambridge University, and the University of Munich. His research focuses on biological emergence, religion and science, process studies, and contemporary issues in ecology, religion, and ethics. He is the recipient of multiple research grants and international lectureships, as well as the author of numerous books, including The Predicament of Belief: Science, Philosophy, Faith (2011); Religion and Science: The Basics (2011); Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society (2009); and In Quest of Freedom: The Emergence of Spirit in the Natural World (2009). He also edited The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science (2006).
In books and lectures, Clayton works to formulate constructive theological responses to developments in contemporary science and philosophy. He has also been a leading advocate for comparative theology and the internationalization of the science-religion dialogue. As P.I. of the “Science and the Spiritual Quest” program and as Provost of a multi-faith university, he worked to expand these fields to include Muslim and Jewish scholars, the Dharma traditions of India, and the religious traditions of Southeast Asia.

Nidhal Guessoum

Is Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Associate Dean at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates; he has published several books on science with direct or indirect relevance to Islam, as well as dozens of scholarly papers in astrophysics and numerous articles on science, education, and culture. He has also organized two conferences (and co-edited the proceedings) on the application of Astronomy to Islamic problems.

Bruno Abdelhaq Guiderdoni

Is Director of the Observatory of Lyon (France), his main research being in galaxy formation and evolution, with over 100 papers published in the field. He is also a prominent Muslim figure in France; from 1993 to 1999 he was in charge of a French public television program ‘Knowing Islam’; he is a member of the Board of Advisors of the John Templeton Foundation.

Usama Hasan

Is Senior Researcher in Islamic Studies at Quilliam, he has a PhD, MA & MSc from the Universities of Cambridge and London in Theoretical Physics and Artificial Intelligence, and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Also a traditionally-trained Imam with certification in Qur’an and Hadith, he is the author of a number of translations and academic papers in the fields of Qur’an, Hadith, Islamic law and ethics. He is a regular contributor to mainstream, international media.

Odeh Rashed Al-Jayyousi

Is the Vice President, Science and Research, of Jordan’s Royal Scientific Society. Prior to taking his current post, Professor Al-Jayyousi was the Regional Director at the West Asia/ Middle East Regional Office, of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).He was awarded his Masters and then in 1993 his PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago, in Urban Planning and Public Policy Analysis. He taught for 10 years at the Applied Science University, Jordan, where he became Professor of Water Resources and Environment and Dean of Research. Professor Al-Jayyousi has worked in the US, at the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning, and at the University of Illinois’ Center for Urban Economic Development. As a consultant, he has advised EU and UN agencies, the World Bank, and GTZ. He has published several scientific articles in international journals.

Jamal Mimouni

Is a theoretical physicist, with a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and currently a Professor at the University of Constantine1, Constantine, Algeria. He is also the Vice-President of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences. He is well-known in Arab Astronomy, both at the academic level and the amateur and educational levels presiding over one of the best known astronomy associations in Africa and the Arab world. He has also done much work on the educational fronts, disseminating proper understanding of science and an appropriate relationship between Islam/religion and modern science.

Jean Staune

With degrees in Philosophy of Science, Mathematics, Paleontology, Political Science, Computer Science, and Management, has taught at two Pontifical universities, in China at Shandong University, and is currently an adjunct professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; he is also the founder and General Secretary of the Interdisciplinary University of Paris, and has published several best-selling books on science, philosophy and religion in France.

Past Workshops

One of the main activities of this ‘Islam & Science’ project is the organization of a series of educational/training workshops of three days in various countries: Algeria, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Tunisia, as well as France and the United Kingdom. Twenty to twenty-five participants (students and young researchers) take part in each event.

Workshops aim at familiarizing the participants with the fields of ‘Science & Islam’ and ‘Science & Religion’, with their themes, their main voices, their scholarly productions (essential books, journals, websites, etc.) and, more importantly, at enabling the participants to follow the debates and, hopefully to contribute to them in the near future (after the summer school).

Each one of the workshops is organized in partnership with important institutions and personalities of the Muslim world, which helps guaranty that the workshop(s) – and the project overall – will have a significant impact both locally and globally.

For further information about these workshops and the umbrella project, please visit: http://islam-science.net/.

More info

• Information for Participants of the Summer School on Islam & Science, Paris, Aug. 22-31, 2014
• Program of the International Summer School in Islam & Science, Paris, Aug. 2014
• Speakers’ Talks at Summer School, Paris, Aug. 22-31, 2014
• Press Release International Summer School on Islam & Science, August 22 to 31, 2014

Photo Credit

Futuristic architecture by Zaha Hadid

Mobile Art Chanel, Facing the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

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