PLEASE NOTE NEW TIME AND DATE!
(Due to unforeseen circumstance, the lecture has been moved to Monday April 13, 2026 at 5:30 pm. Please see below for updated details)

Fifth Annual Imam Hussein (AS) Lecture on Social Justice

In the Footsteps of Imam Hussein: The Revolutionary Cosmopolitics of Malcolm X

We are delighted to announce this year’s Imam Hussein (AS) Lecture on Social Justice, featuring scholar, writer, and activist Dr. Fatima Siwaju.

Date: Monday, April 13, 2026
Time: 5:30–7:30 PM
Location: Humanities Quadrangle, HQ 136
320 York Street, New Haven, CT, 06511

A catered meal will follow the lecture.

Lecture Abstract

In the Footsteps of Imam Hussein: The Revolutionary Cosmopolitics of Malcolm X

May 19, 2025 marked the 100th birthday of Malcolm X, an organic intellectual whose life and legacy have left an indelible mark on humanity. Despite death threats and constant government surveillance, Malcolm X fearlessly advocated for the rights of the “wretched of the earth,” connecting the struggles of Black communities in the United States with the global plight of colonized peoples.

It is therefore not surprising that many have drawn parallels between the assassination of Malcolm X and the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, who refused to capitulate to the demands of a despotic caliph. In this lecture, Dr. Siwaju proposes that Malcolm X articulated a revolutionary cosmopolitics that reflects the Husseini ethos of enjoining good and forbidding evil, and of sacrifice in the service of truth and justice.

Drawing on her research on Islam in the Colombian Pacific, she will discuss how Afro-Colombian Shiʿi Muslims revere Malcolm X as a martyr, placing him within the spiritual lineage of Imam Hussein.

About the Speaker

Dr. Fatima Siwaju is an Assistant Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. A cultural anthropologist with fieldwork experience in Trinidad and Tobago and Colombia, her research and teaching explore Islam in the Americas, race and religion, the politics of belonging, and African diaspora intellectual traditions.

She is currently completing her first book manuscript, which maps the religious journeys of Black Muslims in the Colombian Pacific and examines how their religious transformations have shaped racial subjectivities, political solidarities, confessional attachments, and spiritual praxis.

Her research has been supported by the International Institute of Islamic Thought, the Crossroads Project on Black Religious Histories, Communities, and Cultures, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion.

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Siwaju earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology with a concentration in African American Studies from Princeton University (2023). She holds a Master of Arts in Religion from Syracuse University and a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.
 

This lecture is presented by the Muslim Leadership Lab at Dwight Hall at Yale and the Shia Racial Justice Coalition, with support from the Yale Chaplains’ Office and the Muslim Life Program.

The Imam Hussein (AS) Lecture on Social Justice brings together leading thinkers, scholars, activists, and cultural producers who draw on the Shia Muslim tradition to address contemporary social, economic, and political injustice. Inspired by the life and sacrifice of Imam Hussein, the lecture invites reflection on the enduring struggle against oppression and exploitation, and calls us to imagine and work toward a truly beloved community. The lecture is now in it's fifth year. 

File Attachments: SMLoct2025bw