Building on Edition 10 of the Melbourne Asia Review focused on Islam and Inter/Intra-Muslim Relations in Asia, this event examines current trends, and current debates, in the study of gender and minority affairs within Muslim contexts.

What shape have debates regarding gender and trans rights taken lately? Do the politics of race and racial difference partly differ in Muslim and non-Muslim contexts? What can we learn about the politics of gender and approaches to minority affairs from the lived experience—and activism—of Muslim communities?

Moderator Associate Professor Matthew J. Nelson from the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne will be joined by three speakers whose research examines these issues in depth:

Professor Jeff Redding, whose recent article in the Melbourne Asia Review focused on third-gender rights in Pakistan

Dr. Elizabeth Flynn, whose work and activist engagements focus on the politics of race and racial difference; and

Professor Karima Laachir, Director of the ANU Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at ANU, whose research considers the ways in which artistic and literary expression relate to contemporary activism across the Middle East.

Melbourne Asia Review and the participants would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the Traditional Custodians of this Land. Melbourne Asia Review and the participants would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present of the Kulin Nation and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians present.

Image credit: Janko Ferlic/Pexels.