# Event Details - **Event Name**: Nature & Islamic Creative Expressions Conference - **Event Start and End Date**: Fri, 06 Feb, 2026 at 09:30 am – Fri, 06 Feb, 2026 at 04:30 pm - **Event Description**: Nature & Islamic Creative Expressions February 6-7, 2026 Cahoots, 206 E Huron St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 Visit https://myumi.ch/9p8xx for full conference details & registration. The Nature and Islamic Creative Expressions conference, organized jointly by Aliyah Khan, Director of the Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) and Associate Professor, and Christiane Gruber, Professor in the Department of the History of Art and founder of Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, will be held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on February 6-7, 2026. A dozen scholars and practitioners of global Islamic art and narratives will examine Islam’s relationship to the natural world over the centuries and consider how Islamic thought and Muslim traditions offer alternative solutions to today’s ecological challenges. We study and leverage the intersections of ecology and spirituality by drawing on the deep knowledge of diverse fields, including art history, Islamic philosophy and theology, Muslim cultural studies, literary studies, architecture, and community activism in locales from the Ottoman Empire to Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Trinidad. Our aim is to identify what historical and contemporary Islamic perspectives on nature offer to unfolding global conversations about the earth and our shared and symbiotic human, animal, and plant futures, thus building sustainable futures and potentially interrupting the Anthropocene. Featuring the work of: Christiane Gruber | University of Michigan, Organizer Aliyah Khan | University of Michigan, Organizer Omolade Adunbi | University of Michigan Katherine Bartsch | University of Adelaide, Australia Patricia Blessing | Stanford University Gohar Dashti | Visual Artist Anna M. Gade | University of Wisconsin, Madison Sune Haugbølle | Roskilde University, Denmark Charlotte Maury | Louvre Museum, Paris Mohamed Amer Meziane | Brown University Amanda Phillips | University of Virginia Elizabeth Rauh | The American University in Cairo Saleema Waraich | Skidmore College SCHEDULE Friday, February 6, 2026: Past and Present Welcome (9:30AM-10AM): Christiane Gruber and Aliyah Khan Morning Panel 1 (10:00AM-12:00PM): Collecting, Draining, and Drowning in Water Patricia Blessing, “Indoor, Outdoor, and in Between: Water in Ottoman Mosques” Elizabeth Rauh, “Draining Eden: The Ecocide of the Iraqi Wetlands” Aliyah Khan, “Muharram in the Caribbean: Drowned Model Tombs and the Oceanic Return to Karbala” Moderator: Charlotte Karem Albrecht, Director, Arab and Muslim American Studies Program Lunch (12:00PM-1:30PM) Afternoon Panel 2 (1:30PM-3:30PM): Plant Vitalities Amanda Phillips, “Perfection in Bloom: Ottoman Writing About Flowers, 1650-1750 CE” Christiane Gruber, “God's Greenhouses: Agricultural Mosques and Phyto-Aesthetics in Rural Anatolia” Charlotte Maury, “Visual Representations of the Vital Force of Plants in Islamic Art and its Relation to Animality” Moderator: Paroma Chatterjee, Chair, Department of the History of Art Saturday, February 7, 2026: Futurities Morning Panel 3 (10:00AM-12:00PM): Green Futures Saleema Waraich, “From the ‘City of Gardens’ to ‘Smog Capital of the World’: Ecological Dystopias and Imaginaries in Lahore, Pakistan” Mohamed Amer Meziane, “Who Makes the Anthropocene: Islam, Ecology, and the Environmental History of Orientalism” Gohar Dashti, “Geometries of Belonging: A New Look at Nature Through an Eastern Perspective” Moderator: Aseman Talebi, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of the History of Art Lunch (12:00PM-1:30PM) Afternoon Panel 4 (1:30PM-3:30PM): Oil and Desert Ecologies Omolade Adunbi, “The Art of Oil Resistance in the Niger Delta” Katherine Bartsch, “Ephemeral Mosques: Mapping a Network of Faith in Australia’s Unforgiving Desert Interior” Sune Haugbølle, “Neom/Nature: Regreening and Sociotechnical Imaginaries in Saudi Arabia” Moderator: Sena Duran, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of American Culture Break (3:30PM-3:45PM) Closing Remarks (3:45PM-4:30PM): Anna Gade The Nature and Islamic Creative Expressions conference is free and open to all University of Michigan students, faculty, staff, and the public. All sessions will be held at the Cahoots Ann Arbor Event Space, 206 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. This conference is brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center and the Department of the History of Art, and cosponsored by: the Institute for the Humanities, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the Department of American Culture, the African Studies Center, the Arab and Muslim American Studies Program, the Program in the Environment, the Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies and the Islamophobia Working Group. *Accommodation: If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Email: -- islamicstudies@umich.edu - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/ann-arbor/nature-and-islamic-creative-expressions-conference/200029603163806 - **Event Categories**: art, business, conferences, literary-art, fine-arts, nonprofit - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 2 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket URL**: https://myumi.ch/9p8xx?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=ann+arbor-events ## Event venue details - **city**: Ann Arbor - **state**: MI - **country**: United States - **location**: Cahoots Coworking - **lat**: 42.28105 - **long**: -83.7469 - **full address**: Cahoots Coworking, 206 E Huron St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1922, United States ## Event Organizer details - **affiliate_id**: 2 - **organizer**: University of Michigan Global Islamic Studies Center (https://allevents.in/org/university-of-michigan-global-islamic-studies-center/27426897) ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: banner - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/f2c38258d5412496402b6df2ed86114dd9f99369da126660c216b84ea0c0042b-rimg-w1200-h1855-dcdfded9-gmir?v=1769901126 - **Alt text**: thumbnail - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/affc1f3d0751999188f5d16e842727f98ad6817ca8c11766d99318df4fb50d0f-rimg-w300-h300-dce0dfda-gmir?v=1769901126 ## FAQs - **Q**: When is the event happening? - **A:** Fri, 06 Feb, 2026 at 09:30 am - **Q**: Where is the event happening? - **A:** Cahoots Coworking, 206 E Huron St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1922, United States - **Q**: Who is organizing the event? - **A:** University of Michigan Global Islamic Studies Center - **Q**: What type of event is this? - **A:** art, business, conferences, literary-art, fine-arts, nonprofit - **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about Nature & Islamic Creative Expressions Conference ? - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "Nature & Islamic Creative Expressions Conference", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/f2c38258d5412496402b6df2ed86114dd9f99369da126660c216b84ea0c0042b-rimg-w1200-h1855-dcdfded9-gmir?v=1769901126", "startDate": "2026-02-06", "endDate": "2026-02-06", "url": "https://allevents.in/ann-arbor/nature-and-islamic-creative-expressions-conference/200029603163806", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Cahoots Coworking", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "206 E Huron St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1922, United States", "addressLocality": "Ann Arbor", "addressRegion": "MI", "addressCountry": "US" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "42.28105", "longitude": "-83.7469" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "Nature & Islamic Creative Expressions\nFebruary 6-7, 2026\nCahoots, 206 E Huron St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104\nVisit https://myumi.ch/9p8xx for full conference details & registration.\n\nThe Nature and Islamic Creative Expressions conference, organized jointly by Aliyah Khan, Director of the Global Isl", "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "University of Michigan Global Islamic Studies Center", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/university-of-michigan-global-islamic-studies-center/27426897" } ] } ] ```