This lunchtime seminar introduces the ongoing PhD research project Muslim Environmentalisms in Egypt: A Web of More-Than-Human Encounters and Entanglements. The term “more-than-human” is increasingly employed to draw attention to a world that is “more than the home of human beings,” emphasizing the ways in which human life is interconnected with and influenced by multiple non-human actors. By challenging human exceptionalism and addressing multispecies entanglements, it offers a theoretical framework for exploring different ways of knowing and being in the world. This approach follows the growing recognition that natural ecosystems and human sociocultural worlds can no longer be studied in isolation (Bubandt, Andersen & Cypher 2022).
Quranic cosmology also draws on a more-than-human reality, encapsulating a world animated by vibrant animate, inanimate, and supernatural beings that are interactional, performative, and communicative. Scattered Quranic verses mention diverse beings - plants, trees, celestial bodies, mountains, thunder, all moving animals- as performing acts of worship (tasbih) (see for example Q. 13:13; 16:48; 17:44; 22:18; 24:41; 38:18-19). These statements are often accompanied by reminders that these acts of worship are not detectable by human perception.
Bringing the more-than-human conceptualization into critical and constructive conversation with contemporary Islamic eco-theology forms the main theoretical frame of the ongoing research in the Egyptian context. The project draws on data gathered from fieldwork in Egypt, with particular attention to the functioning (if any) of Islam in environmental practices. Approached through a more-than-human and multispecies lens, and informed by decolonial and indigenous research methodologies, the project is situated at the intersection of environmental humanities, Islamic (ecological) studies, and lived religion.
Please bring your own lunch, coffee will be served.
Marita L. Furehaug is a PhD Fellow at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo, where she is researching Islamic eco-theology and Muslim environmentalism in Egypt. She holds an MA in Religion and Society from the University of Oslo and a BA in Arabic Language and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Copenhagen. Recent publications include the book chapters: “Differing Ethical Approaches to Consuming Modest Fashion” in The Routledge Handbook of Global Islam and Consumer Culture (Gauthier & Krawietz, 2024) and “Apocalypticism in Islamic Environmental Thought” in The Environmental Apocalypse: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Climate Crisis (Kowalewski, 2023).