In what ways can modern religious traditions come into constructive dialogue with critical theory? This Frankel Center lecture in collaboration with the Jewish-Muslim Research Network will seek to explore that question by looking at the concepts of time, history, and human agency in the thought of two 20th century thinkers, one Muslim and one Jewish: Muhammad Iqbal and Walter Benjamin. Instead of focusing on questions of “compatibility,” it will instead look to the generative ways in which creative (re)-interpretations of Muslim and Jewish themes and motifs can offer more capacious avenues for engaging religious traditions with critical theory in the pursuit of a better world.
Asad Dandia is a student, teacher, and organizer with an abiding interest in religious thought, critical theory, and radical politics. He is currently Community Program Coordinator at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, New York (CAIR-NY), an urban studies student at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU), and teaches at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research (BISR). He draws from his experience both as an academic and a community organizer to connect theory with praxis on a range of subjects. He graduated Columbia University with an MA in Islamic Studies with a thesis entitled, “Rethinking Islamic Studies: Muhammad Iqbal’s Philosophy as Decolonial Critique.”
