New Journal launched -- Re-Orient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies

After a long silence, there is some very welcome news to share in the form of the launch of a new academic journal that seeks to promote and stimulate the same strands of thinking and approaches to the study of Islam and the Muslim world as showcased on this website.

In their inaugural editorial, the board of Reorient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies explain the choice of the journal's main title as fellows:

ReOrient [...] signals a turning away from an Orientalizing gaze, and as such, it can be seen as belonging to the family of concepts and critiques associated with decolonial thinking and its call for delinking from the Western episteme.

In regards to its subtitle they observe:

Critical Muslim Studies is [...] characterized by a series of epistemological orientations, rather than by substantive properties, permanent categories, or persistent methodologies. 

In term of orientation, the journal seeks to remain committed to objectives that can be 'grouped into four broad currents within contemporary intellectual developments: The critique of a variety of Eurocentric registers; a suspicion of positivism; the recognised significance of the critique of Orientalism; and finally, the embrace of postcolonial and decolonial thinking.

The journal's maiden issue contains an article by the doyen of the study of Islamic history at Columbia University, Richard Bulliet, followed by a fascinating exchange with his fellow Columbian Gil Anidjar.


Reorient will be introduced at SOAS, on 2 December 2015, at 7pm: B102, Brunei Gallery.