ILEM

Academic Studies Association (ILEM)was founded in 2002 with a view to train and support scientists and intellectuals who are expected to suggest encompassing solutions for those problems that have been taking place over two centuries. Studies within ILEM are planned with a comparative and multi-dimensional interdisciplinary approach to assist the training of sapient and sagacious scholars who understand zeitgeist and main dynamics of their own civilization. With this regard, one of the main objectives of ILEM is conducting scientific research to suggest solutions for the questions of humanity by laying a ground for training scientists who preserve our tradition of science. ILEM hopes its scientific studies to inspire varied groups in Turkey and abroad.

The biennial ILEM International Summer School aims to serve as a forum for discussion of major issues concerning the Islamic world by bringing together academics, researchers and artists from diverse backgrounds. The broader theme of the 8th edition of the summer school will be Rethinking Art and Aesthetics in the Islamic World: Concepts, Theories, and Practices.

The summer school will explore Islamic arts, which are usually analyzed in connection with the notions of “tradition” or “mystical experience” in contemporary intellectual and artistic circles, from theoretical, conceptual, and socio-political perspectives, and open up for discussion the “axial shifts” or even the absence of axis, observable on both ontological and epistemological planes. The purpose here is to shed light on what is beyond the conditional and prejudiced forms of artistic expression. This can be expressed as an attempt to study the possibility of producing aesthetic formulas as the golden middle to save the beautiful from the vortex of two extreme poles of “acculturation” and “cultural schizophrenia.”

This is also an attempt to build an aesthetic bridge between the distant past and the future by considering cultural differences as richness. Indeed, the successful result of this attempt is directly proportional to the level of awareness about the recent past and present. Is the juxtaposition of the terms “Islam” and “art” fully comprehended and theoretically justified? How are the aesthetic values and the understanding of beauty, which are intended to be passed on from the past to the future, reflected in various arts today? From which perspective is the notion of universality addressed, if addressed at all, in the art events that directly or indirectly deal with Islamic aesthetics?

To this end, the summer school will be interested in the analysis of relevant issues from three main perspectives

Conceptual content: The analysis of the concepts such as “innovation”, “tradition”, “classical”, and “perennial wisdom”, etc. to enrich and clarify the theoretical interpretations of the metaphysical background of Islamic aesthetics.
Theoretical discussions: Discussing the current theories on Islamic arts in terms of their origins and content; examining “the Islamic” by considering contemporary issues such as digitalization; exploring the possibility of bringing traditional values and contemporary interpretations of art together on a common ground in line with their aesthetic principles.
Socio-political implications: The treatment of Islamic aesthetics from the perspective of social life; discussing whether Islamic arts have any specific mission in the context of the issues of enculturation, cultural diplomacy, propaganda, the problem of environment etc.

Important Note:

Applicants must declare that the papers submitted to the IISS-8 are original, have not been published before and are not currently being considered for publication.

Applicants must provide us a proposal, not less than 900 words or up to maximum 1200 words and the deadline to submit abstracts is May, 2023. Also it should include 5-7 keywords. Since at that stage the topic proposed might not have been explored in sufficient detail, the initial proposal can consist of an outline of the study proposed. The proposed area of research and methodology, including aims of the research, context and justification and research question should be written in the proposal. Accepted applicants will be expected to participate and present a paper in the program.

There must not be any information about the author in the text. If any information, by which the author would be revealed, is found in the paper, the conference proceeding will be eliminated without having any content review because it does not comply with the Congress’s blinded review policy.

The proposal must be uploaded to the congress system until May , 2023. Applications made via e-mail will not be accepted.

Proposal not written according to the IISS writing rules will be rejected without having any content review.