Nelson Institute associate dean for research and education and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor Anna Gade, was a featured speaker at the virtual symposium Environment and Ecology in Islamic Art and Culture. This event is being hosted by the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar and the Qatar Foundation, November 8-15, 2021.
Gade, who is the author of the book Muslim Environmentalisms : Religious and Social Foundations, spoke on the interaction of mosques and water flow during her November 9 presentation entitled, “Truth of Consequences: The Floating Mosque and Material Ethics.”
“With a focus on climate change ethics, the paper looks at infrastructure, aesthetics, and water resource management against the backdrop of Muslim understandings of environmental change, like sea level rise,” shared Gade. “The examples come mostly from islands of Southeast Asia, the region where I do much of my research.”
Other papers presented at the multi-day symposium explored topics such as Rights of Nature in Islamic Perspective, climate justice and art in the Middle East, ecologies of refugee crises, ‘green’ building and global eco-Islam, and much more.