Conference Presentations

2026. “Democracy from Below: New Democratic Movements in the Middle East”

Colloquium talks, Department of Philosophy, Dalhousie University.

2026. “Phenomenological Politics and the Power of the Public”

The Atlantic Provinces Political Studies Association (APPSA) Conference, Political Science Department, Cape Breton University.
Political phenomenology has developed primarily as a descriptive and diagnostic approach to lived political experience, but has yet to develop a coherent normative theory of political power, governance, and institutional order. This paper distinguishes political phenomenology from “phenomenological politics,” which seeks to develop a phenomenological account of political power and its legitimate organization. Drawing on thinkers such as Hannah Arendt, John Wild, and Claude Lefort, it explores public assemblies as sites of collective power beyond the conventional ruler–ruled model, with examples from Brazil and Egypt. The paper outlines the foundations of this emerging approach and identifies key questions for developing a phenomenological theory of political order.

2026. “The Secular Essence of Islamic Philosophy, Farabi and Abu Zayd”

Canadian Philosophical Association’s (CPA) Annual Meeting, Dalhousie University.
This presentation argues that what is commonly called “Islamic philosophy” is better understood as a secular philosophical tradition that developed within Islamic societies. Through the cases of al-Farabi and Nasr Abu Zayd, I examine how philosophical reason, human language, and historical context create a critical distance between philosophical inquiry and religious doctrine. link

2026. “The Right to Rebellion against Imam”

Emerging Challenges for Liberal Democracy. Queen’s University.
This presentation examines the possibility of a Muslim subject’s right to rebel against an unjust Imam in Islamic political philosophy. It explores classical accounts of political authority, including those of al-Farabi and al-Ghazali, as well as the Shiʿi conception of the Imamate, and argues that a hermeneutical reinterpretation of divine law through natural law can open a path toward a liberal right of rebellion. Link.

2025. “Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd: The Spinoza of Islam and the Secularization of the Scripture”

The Oxford Spinoza Conference, Oxford University.
link

2024. “Body as Political Entity”

Atlantic Region Philosophers’ Association, University of Prince Edward Island. Link.

2023. “Participatory Democracy and Headless Revolutions in the Middle East.

3rd Bucharest Conference in Analytical Political Theory, Bucharest Center for Political Theory, University of Bucharest. Link.

2023. “What is Digital Democracy?” Philosophy Café, Cape Breton University.

2023. “Phenomenology against the Tortured.” North American Sartre Society Annual Meeting, virtual meeting. Link.

2018. “Middle Eastern Existentialism.” The International Reception of Existentialism Conference, Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna and Sartre Society in Germany, Vienna University.

2016. “Existentialism and the Collapse of Values in the Middle East.” North American Sartre Society Annual Meeting, University of North Carolina.

2016. “Incommensurability in Global Ethics.” Canadian Philosophy Association Annual Conference, University of Calgary.

2014. “Meta-Ethics and Normative Ethics in Islamic Philosophy.” Centre on Value and Ethics, Carleton University.

2013. “Moral Immorality: A Moral Dilemma between Muslims and the United States in 2012.” Centre of Ethics, University of Toronto.