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AVACGIS Visiting Scholar Presentations with Raissa von Doetinchem de Rande and Sami Erdem
April 30, 2018 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Join us for a brown bag lunch as we close the semester with presentations by two of our current Visiting Scholars
Ms. Raissa Von Doetinchem de Rand (Princeton University)
“Greek Thought and the Limits of Fitra: Philosophical and Theological Debates Over Moral Knowledge from Ibn Sina to Ibn Tamiya”
Dr. Sami Erdem (Marmara University, Turkey)
“Perceptions of the Mecelle (Ottoman Civil Code) Through a Study of English Literature”
About the speakers
Raissa von Doetinchem de Rande
Raissa von Doetinchem de Rande is a Ph.D. student in Princeton University’s Religion Department and is currently in her fourth year of study. A native German, she received a B.A. in Theology from the University of Oxford (2012), a M.A.R. in Ethics from Yale University (2014) and a M.A. in Religion from Princeton University. During her time at the Center, she will be working on her dissertation entitled, “Greek Thought and the Limits of Fitra: Philosophical and Theological Debates Over Moral Knowledge from Ibn Sina to Ibn Tamiya”. Her research project examines the philosophical discussions of fiṭra as first nature and looks at their implications for the status of law and ethical values.
Sami Erdem
Sami Erdem is an Associate Professor in the Islamic Law department of Marmara University’s Faculty of Theology, Istanbul and is currently Senior Visiting Fellow at the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies. During his time at the Center, Erdem will be completing his research on “Perceptions of the Mecelle (Ottoman Civil Code) Through a Study of English Literature” and begin working on a new research topic, “Conceptions of Ijtihad in Late Ottoman Legal Thought”. While at the Center, Dr. Erdem led the planning and organization of the first graduate student colloquium on Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies co-sponsored with the Diyanet Islamic Research Institute in April 2017. His academic interests include late Ottoman law, Mecelle, codification of Islamic law in 19th and 20th centuries, caliphate, ijtihad and fatwa in modern times.