The 6th edition of the Postcolonial Higher Education Conference (PHEC) organized by Habib University concluded. This globally recognized annual event, held at the university’s campus, gathered scholars, thinkers, activists, and writers from around the world to engage in enriching discussions under the theme
“The Ethical and The Spiritual in Islam: Pasts, Presents, and Futures.” mThe conference featured a distinguished keynote address by world-renowned author and scholar Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike, Associate Professor of African Religious Thought and Democracy at the University of Virginia. In his thought-provoking speech titled, “Against the Dying of the Light: The Perils and Imperatives of Decoloniality in Islamic Temporalities,” Dr. Ogunnaike highlighted the need to break free from colonial mindsets, urging the audience to appreciate and inhabit their place in the world beyond imposed formations.
Addressing the audience DrOgunnaike said “A colonial mindset forms the basis of where power, knowledge and being will exist in society. West made their knowledge model universal. We need to break out of these formations, away from our colonizer, so we can truly appreciate and inhabit our place in the world.” DrOgunnaike engaged the audience in a riveting presentation transforming the way decoloniality is considered and contemplated in the context of indigenous and western education. Panel discussions followed after the keynote, including
“The Politics of Spiritual Ethicality” and “Ethico-Spiritual Reorientations in an Age of Extreme Nihilism,” featured contributions from notable scholars such as Aaron Eldridge, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, Arsalan Khan, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, and Muhammad Faruque, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Cincinnati, and Dr. Nauman Naqvi, Asscociate Professor of Comparative Humanities at Habib University respectively.
Conference Chair, Dr. Nauman Naqvi, Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities at Habib University, delivered closing remarks, reinforcing the conference’s commitment to navigating modern challenges while preserving core values and traditions. As inherited systems of thoughtful self-cultivation face distortion and disarticulation globally, the ‘Islamic’ context emerges as a critical test-case, notably in the delegitimization, disarticulation, and misappropriation of ‘Sufism.’
