2025 Program

Saturday, November 8

4 – 5pm:

Exhibition Opening Reception: Yee I-Lann, paths of the wind weave
shadows bare bones of a mat, curated by Chase Westfall.

5 – 6:30pm:

Keynote Address: Yee I-Lann, The Surface Remembers: Decolonial
Groundwork from the Archipelago. Discussants: Hala Auji and Radha Dalal.

Sunday, November 9

8:30am:

Symposium registration, with coffee available.

9 – 10am:

Curating from Doha: Islamic Art for Contemporary Asia.
Speakers: Shaika Al-Nassr, Mounia Chekhab-Abudaya, and Nicoletta Fazio.
Introduced by Fatima Al-Kuwari and Yara Al-Kamali, Art History Majors,
VCUarts Qatar;discussants:Hala Auji and Radha Dalal. 

10:10am – 1pm:

Panel 1 – Unsettled Pasts, Urban Futures.
Introduced by Charlotte Hanson, Art History Graduate Student, VCUarts
Richmond;discussants: Hala Auji and Radha Dalal. Each presentation is
20 minutes.  There will be a coffee break during this panel and a one-hour
discussion following the break.

History as Reparative Practice, Kishwar Rizvi
The Omani Prayer Hall in Quanzhou: Restoration or Reinvention? Sylvia Wu
Contested Spaces in Singapore’s MBF Mosques (1977–1995): Rethinking
Islamic Architecture and Aesthetics Through Governance, Identity, and
Heritage, Hadi Osni
Migrant Muslims in a Non-Islamic Society: Identity, Space, and Art in
Korea, Soojeong Yi

1 – 2pm:

 Lunch will be provided.

2:10 – 4:45pm:

Panel 2 – Acts of Faith, Sounds of Resilience
Introduced by Hayley Secrist, Art History Graduate Student, VCUarts
Richmond; discussants: Hala Auji and Radha Dalal.  Each presentation is
20 minutes.  There will be a coffee break during this panel and a one-hour
discussion following the break.

Faith and Form: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, Wulan Dirgantoro
Beyond Formalism: Contemporary Artistic Expressions of Lived Islam in
Patani, Muhammad Arafat
Indigeneity, Allyship, and Art in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts, Melia
Belli Bose
Faith, Fury, and Feminism: Voice of Baceprot’s Musical Resistance, Leonie Schmidt

Monday, November 10

8:30am:

Symposium registration with coffee available.

9 – 10am:

Karak on the Bisat (كرك على البساط): Symposium keynote speaker Yee
I-Lann with curators Chase Westfall and Meriem Aiouna.

10:15 – 1pm:

Panel 3 – Gestures of Memory, Reimagined Terrains.
Introduced by Maryam Salem, Art History Major, VCUarts Qatar;
discussants: Monica Merlin and Michelle Yee.  Each presentation is 20
minutes.  There will be a coffee break during this panel and a one-hour
discussion following the break.

Rethinking Ecologies in “Of Mountains and Seas,” John Tain
 平行绿洲与多极游牧：新疆现当代艺术生态式样和实践 (Parallel
Oases and Multinodal Nomadism: Ecological Patterns and Practices in
Contemporary Art from Xinjiang), Zeng Qunkai
Beyond the Hijab: Hair, Memory and Intimacy in Contemporary Art of
Indonesia, Boreth Ly
Faith in the Unknown, Anissa Rahadiningtyas and Syaheedah Iskandar

1 – 2pm:

Lunch will be provided.

2:10 – 4:45pm:

Panel 4 – Tracing Presence, Blurring Boundaries
Introduced by Grace Figueroa, Art History Graduate Student, VCUarts
Richmond; discussants: Monica Merlin and Michelle Yee.   Each
presentation is 20 minutes.  There will be a coffee break during this panel
and a one-hour discussion following the break.

Personal Effects, Roberto Jamora
That Which At First Tastes Bitter, Charwei Tsai
I Love You, Arahmaiani

4:45 – 5:45pm:

Closing Remarks, followed by a closing reception.