Call for papers: “Muslims Between Fragility and Hope in an Age of Existential Crisis” (Online conference, 29 September 2026)
Call for Papers
Online Conference (MS Teams), Tuesday 29th September 2026
Hosted by The MUSER Project, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Glasgow
How do Muslims understand and make sense of the multiple existential crises that face humanity in 2026? For the first time in human history, these crises present species-level threats to the future of life on our planet. They include (but are not limited to): the climate emergency, the rise of potentially malevolent Artificial Intelligence (AI), the prospect of nuclear annihilation through escalating international warfare, and future pandemic diseases. This one-day, online international conference will explore how Muslims experience, understand, and respond to these threats as well as to existential crisis more broadly conceived.
We invite abstract submissions from across the humanities and social sciences which explore how both ‘fragility’ and ‘hope’ are visible in the ways Muslims and the Islamic tradition engage with questions of existential risk. While studies that focus on the four ‘big risks’ listed above are welcome, we also encourage submissions that consider alternative epistemic perspectives on current existential crises, and which decolonise the literature on existential risk by critiquing the secular paradigm at the heart of the ex-risk literature and/or foregrounding Muslim perspectives on what constitutes ‘risk’. Such ‘alternative’ existential. risks that Muslims experience within the spiritual and intellectual realms in addition to physical risks could include: the widespread loss of imān and adab, the break-down of families, the ubiquitous riba–based economic system, disconnection from ‘ulamā, amongst others.
We therefore welcome papers which address one or more of the following questions:
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In Muslim contexts, how are existential risks defined and understood?
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What resources does the Islamic tradition offer on the question of humankind’s relationship to risk?
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How do questions of existential risk feature in Muslim eschatological futures?
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How do Muslims across diverse cultural, political, and geographical contexts experience and respond to risk differently?
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What conceptions of the human being’s relationship to the world and the cosmos underlie Muslim engagements with existential risks?
Across all these areas, we encourage submissions which explore ways in which Muslims perceive human fragility and vulnerability – as is emphasised by the Qur’an itself (Q 4.28, Q 35.15) – in connection to our current circumstances, and/or devise pathways to hopeful futures in spite of these challenges. The analytical categories of ‘fragility’ and ‘hope’ are themselves open to critical scrutiny and interrogation.
Papers may draw on empirical and/or textual methodologies and may engage historical as well as contemporary case studies. The focus can be on any geographical, social or political context around the world where Muslims live or have lived.
The language of the conference will be English. There are plans for conference proceedings to be published, and authors should indicate on submission of the abstract whether they wish their paper to be considered for inclusion.
Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words long, and should be submitted along with a one-page CV to muser@glasgow.ac.uk. The deadline for submissions is Monday 25th May 2026 at midnight BST.
