Dr Irfan Ahmad - Researcher Profile

Irfan Ahmad

Address

School of Political & Social Inquiry
Faculty of Arts, Clayton

Biography

Irfan Ahmad is an anthropologist and lecturer in politics at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Before he joined Monash University in early 2009, he taught at Utrecht University and University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) from where he earned his doctorate (cum laude) in Anthropology. On completing his doctorate, Irfan won the prestigious Rubicon Grant from Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to work as a Rubicon postdoctoral fellow at Leiden University. He is the author of Islamism and Democracy in India: The Transformation of the Jamaat-e-Islami (Princeton University Press, 2009which was short-listed for the 2011 International Convention of Asian Scholars(ICAS) Book Prize for the best study in the field of Social Sciences. It has been widely and appreciatively reviewed in over twenty-five leading journals as well as in the media. The Turkish translation of Islamism and Democracy in India will appear this year (2012).

Initially educated in Madrasa Islāmīa ‘Arabīa (Islamic Seminary) in his native village of north Bihar, India, Irfan Ahmad later went to a state-run Hindi-medium Middle and High School and subsequently to B.N. College, Patna. He earned his Bachelor’s in Sociology (Hons.) from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi where he was a university topper. To pursue his higher education, he joined Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi where he completed his Masters and M.Phil. (in Sociology).

Irfan Ahmad's numerous research articles have appeared in leading international/global journals such as Anthropological Theory, Citizenship Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, Modern Asian Studies, Philosophy and Social Criticism, Seminar and The Annual of Urdu Studies. He is a contributor to the prestigious The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Irfan is on the Editorial Committee of South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (and its Reviews Editor) and Associate Editor of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (both from Routledge).

Irfan Ahmad held visiting fellowship at Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany. In the past he wrote for the Urdu media and magazines like Qaumī Avāz, Qaumī< Tanzīm, Rāshtriya Sahārā, Sangam, Chāoñ, Gulābi Kiran, and contributed to leading South Asian English magazines and semi-academic journals such as Himal: South Asian Magazine, Mainstream, The Radical Humanist, The Third Concept, Business Today and World Fcous. He actively contributes to important debates in such media as Al-Jazeera (English), The Times of India, and The Hindu. His interviews have appeared in Dutch, English, Hindi, Malayalam, Turkish and Urdu (BBC) media.

Qualifications

ANTHROPOLOGY
Institution: University of Amsterdam
Year awarded: 2005
ARTS (SOCIOLOGY)
Institution: JNU, New Delhi
Year awarded: 1996
ARTS HONOURS (SOCIOLOGY)
Institution: Jamia Millia Islamia, India
Year awarded: 1994

Publications

Books

Ahmad, I., 2009, Islamism and Democracy in India: The Transformation of Jamaat-e-Islami, Princeton University Press, New Jersey USA.

Book Chapters

Ahmad, I., 2012, Between moderation and radicalization: Transnational interactions of Jamaat-e-Islami of India, in Indian Diaspora and Transnationalism, eds Ajaya Kumar Sahoo, Michiel Baas, Thomas Faist, Rawat Publications, Jaipur, India, pp. 271-296.

Ahmad, I., 2010, Genealogy of the Islamic state: reflections on Maududi's political thought and Islamism, in Islam, Politics, Anthropology, eds Filippo Osella and Benjamin Soares, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK, pp. 138-155.

Ahmad, I., 2009, The Indian Jama'at-I-Islami Reconsiders Secular Democracy, in Islam in South Asia in Practice, eds Barbara D Metcalf, Princeton University Press, UK, pp. 447-455.

Ahmad, I., 2008, Power, purity and the vanguard: educational ideology of the Jama'at-I Islami of India, in Madrasas in South Asia: Teaching terror?, eds Jamal Malik, Routledge, UK, pp. 142-164.

Ahmad, I., 2004, The Jewish hand: the response of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, in Media, War, and Terrorism: Responses from the Middle East and Asia, eds Peter van der Veer and Shoma Munshi, RoutledgeCurzon, UK, pp. 137-154.

Journal Articles

Ahmad, I., 2012, Modernity and its outcast. The why and how of India's partition, South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies [E], vol 35, issue 2, Routledge, London, United Kingdom, pp. 477-494.

Ahmad, I., 2012, Theorizing Islamism and democracy: Jamaat-e-Islami in India, Citizenship Studies [P], vol 16, issue 7, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 887-903.

Ahmad, I., 2011, Democracy and Islam, Philosophy and Social Criticism [P], vol 37, issue 4, Sage, United Kingdom, pp. 459-470.

Ahmad, I., 2011, Immanent critique and Islam: anthropological reflections, Anthropological Theory [P], vol 11, issue 1, Sage, United Kingdom, pp. 107-132.

Ahmad, I., 2011, The categorical revolution: Democratic uprising in the Middle East, Economic and Political Weekly: a journal of current economic and political affairs [P], vol 46, issue 44 & 45, The Economic and Political Weekly, India, pp. 30-35.

Ahmad, I., 2010, Is there an ethics of terrorism? Islam, Globalisation, Militancy, South Asia-Journal Of South Asian Studies [P], vol 33, issue 3, Routledge, London, UK, pp. 487-498.

Ahmad, I., 2009, Genealogy of the Islamic state: reflections on Maududi's political thought and Islamism, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute [P], vol 15, issue s1, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, UK, pp. S145-S162.

Ahmad, I., 2009, The Secular State and the Geography of Radicalism, Economic and Political Weekly: a journal of current economic and political affairs [P], vol 44, issue 23, The Economic and Political Weekly, India, pp. 33-38.

Ahmad, I., 2008, Cracks in the 'mightiest fortress': Jamaat-e-Islami's changing discourse on women, Modern Asian Studies [P], vol 42, issue 2/3, Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 549-575.

Ahmad, I., 2005, Between moderation and radicalization: Transnational interactions of Jamaat-e-Islami of India, Global Networks-A Journal Of Transnational Affairs [P], vol 5, issue 3, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, USA, pp. 279-299.

Other

Ahmad, I., 2013, Aligarh, The Princeton Encylcopedia of Islamic Political Thought, vol dictionary, Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp. 38-40.

Ahmad, I., 2012, Jamaat-e-Islami, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, vol dictionary, Princeton University Press, Princeton, US, pp. 50-52.

Ahmad, I., 2012, Mawdudi, Syed Abul al-A'la, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, vol dictionary, Princeton University Press, Princeton, US, pp. 112-115.

Ahmad, I., 2012, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, vol dictionary, Princeton University Press, Princeton, US, pp. 27-28.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Supervisors:
Bezhan, F (Main), Ahmad, I (Associate), Wattanapenpaiboon, N (Associate).
Program of Study:
(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
An analytical approach to the Islamic thought and ideology of Bernard Lewis and John Esposito.
Supervisors:
Yucel, S (Main), Ahmad, I (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Contrasts in development: China and India 1950-1980.
Supervisors:
Ahmad, I (Main), Sun, W (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Neither Shall They Grieve: The role and significance of the 'middle people' (umma wasat) and the ' moderate people (umma muqtasida) in the version of quranic pluralism.
Supervisors:
Yucel, S (Main), Ahmad, I (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Prophethood and The Prophet: A Critical study of Muhammad Iqbal and Bediuzzaman Said Nursi.
Supervisors:
Yucel, S (Main), Ahmad, I (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Shi'ism in a Sunnite Milieu: the making of Jalaluddin Rakhmat as a popular intellectual in Indonesia.
Supervisors:
Ahmad, I (Joint), Millie, J (Joint-co), Barton, G (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
The Gulen movement's educational philanthropy: Schools as Social Business Enterprises.
Supervisors:
Barton, G (Main), Ahmad, I (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
The Self- Interested State in a Cosmopolitan World.
Supervisors:
Howie, L (Main), Ahmad, I (Associate), Walter, J (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
The ontology of the concepts of Me, Us and Them in the wake of 9/11.
Supervisors:
Janover, M (Main), Ahmad, I (Associate).
Program of Study:
(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Yoga in Melbourne.
Supervisors:
Ahmad, I (Main), Smith, W (Joint).