Social Sciences and Humanities Graduate Seminar

The Graduate Subject Seminar for Social Sciences and Humanities is taking place on 25 November at 6pm in Simpkins Lee. Followed by drinks in Monson room after for those who attended. All the LMH community are invited to come along. 

The speakers will be:

Muhammad Umar Ramadhan (DPhil Theology and Religion)

Ḥadīth Criticism and Scholarly Authority in Modern Sunnī Islam: Al-Albānī and the Ghumārī School

“This talk offers a comparative study of ḥadīth criticism in the modern Sunnī Muslim world through an examination of Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn Al-Albānī (d. 1999) and the Moroccan scholar ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ṣiddīq Al-Ghumārī (d. 1993).

It investigates how these scholars assessed the authenticity, authority, and legal significance of Prophetic reports, and how their approaches reflected competing understandings of scholarly authority, tradition, and reform.

While both traditions claimed fidelity to the Qurʾān, Sunnah, and classical sciences of ḥadīth, they differed sharply in their treatment of inherited scholarly judgments, narrator criticism, corroborating evidence, and communal acceptance of reports.

By placing al-Albānī and the Ghumārīs in direct conversation, the study contributes to the study of modern ḥadīth scholarship, Salafism, traditionalism, and Islamic legal authority. It shows that disputes over individual reports were also disputes over who may interpret the Prophetic legacy, how classical authority should be used, and how Islamic tradition is renewed in the modern age.”

Milo Edwards – (DPhil, Education)

Whose universities, whose histories? Using history to queer narratives of LGBTQ+ student experience at English universities

“In my DPhil research (funded by the ESRC), I used archival materials in interviews to discuss and consider university belonging with LGBTQ+ students. The materials shared with students highlight LGBTQ+ student experiences from the 1970s onwards at their respective universities (Oxford, Bristol and Sussex). In this presentation, I will focus on findings from the Oxford case study.

The findings I will present address university uses of history and how university histories impact students’ feelings of belonging at those institutions in various ways and to different extents. This relates to literature on why/how institutions use histories and the effects of this on stakeholders. The findings also consider how students narrate their experiences in relation to the past and the potential for archives to prompt new articulations of the present as well as concepts of more inclusive universities in the future.”