UNC
Reli 299/Duke Rel. 280
Instructors:
Carl Ernst & Bruce Lawrence
Tuesdays,
7-9:30, alternating between Franklin Center 028 (Duke) and Graham Memorial
038 (UNC).
Prerequisites/Permission:
graduate standing and permission of instructor
Exams/Papers:
1.
Syllabus: the main written work will consist of the formulation of
a syllabus for a course about Islam. Syllabi
presented in the seminar are available here.
This should be fully detailed in terms of resources, schedules, assignments,
and evaluation. Each student
is to make a short presentation of the syllabus towards the end of
the semester (70 percent of
grade).
2. Brief paper on the contribution of an early
scholar of Islamic studies or Orientalism,
also to be briefly presented in the seminar (10 percent).
3. Participation: discussion and active engagement
with the work of the seminar is also an essential factor (20 percent).
Texts:
miriam
cooke and Bruce B. Lawrence, ed., Muslim Networks: Medium, Method,
and Metaphor (UNC Press, 2004).
Carl
W. Ernst, Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary
World (UNC Press, 2003).
Bruce
B. Lawrence, New faiths, old fears: Muslims and other Asian immigrants
in American religious life (Columbia University Press, 2002).
Melani
McAlister, Epic encounters: culture, media, and U.S. interests
in the Middle East, 1945-2000 (University of California Press,
2001).
Emran
Qureshi and Michael A. Sells, ed., The New Crusades: Constructing
the Muslim Enemy (Columbia University Press, November 2003).
Brannon
Wheeler, ed., Teaching Islam (Oxford University Press, 2002).
Additional
recommended background and resources:
Marilyn Waldman, "Islamic World," Encyclopaedia Britannica
(electronic
reserve) (a great historical survey)
articles
on Islam in HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion, pp. 498-539
The
Qur'an: Resources for Study (from Carl Ernst's Resources
for Islamic Studies web page)
The
Ellen-Fairbanks D. Bodman Collection of Middle Eastern and Islamic
World Films (UNC Media Resources Center, Undergraduate Library)
IRANIAN
FILMS available at UNC and Duke
UNC Films
on Sufism and Saints
A
short list of recommended films on Islam/Islamic cultures
Course
Description:
This
course is a distinctive outgrowth of the collaborative
graduate program in Islamic studies at Duke and UNC. It is designed
as a new "gateway" course for the field of Islamic studies
in the UNC graduate program in Religious Studies. It will be a prerequisite
for teaching assistants (from any department or specialization) who
plan to work in large introductory undergraduate courses on Islamic
civilization (Reli 25, 26) at UNC. It is also a required core course
for the graduate field in Islamic Studies at Duke.
At both Duke and UNC, this course will be an important teacher training
experience, to help qualify graduate students in Islamic studies for
teaching in this field and to give them a competitive edge on the
academic job market. This course will also provide background and
ready-made syllabus preparation to graduate students in other fields
of religious studies (or other disciplines) who wish to be prepared
to teach a course on Islam. This has been offered twice previously
as a "topics" course, but with the formal establishment
in 2003 of an Islamic
studies graduate field at UNC, in partnership with the Islamic
studies concentration at Duke, and with a growing cadre of interested
graduate students at both UNC and Duke, the need for a periodic offering
of this course is evident.
Principal topics will include: the
history of Islamic studies, in relation to Orientalism, area studies,
and religious studies; problems of anti-Islamic bias and stereotypes;
use of textbooks, primary sources, novels, films, and the Internet;
teaching the Qur'an; Muslim presence in Europe and America; contemporary
reflection on "classical" sources; modern Muslim thinkers;
gender studies; and other related subjects.
To illustrate the concept of Islamic
studies as "a global, interdisciplinary, and comparative approach
to the study of Islamic religion and Muslim cultures," this course
will feature regular visits and conversations with scholars in related
fields of study, generally during the first hour of our weekly meeting.
That interdisciplinary conversation will then be followed by detailed
discussion of the texts used in the course, plus student presentations.
Tentative
Schedule:
(D)
1. Jan. 13. Introductions
Reading: Ernst, Following Muhammad
(CH)
2. January
20. Islamic studies and Middle Eastern history.
Guest: Sarah Shields*
(UNC)
Note:
This meeting will start at 7 p.m. with two lectures for the Great
Decisions program, "Diversity in Islam": Carl Ernst on "Unity
and Variety among Muslims today" and Sahar Amer on "Muslims
in Europe," in Carroll Hall 111; then shift
to Graham Memorial 038 at about 8:30 pm to meet with our guest speaker.
Reading: McAlister,
pp. 1-42
(D)
3. January 27. Islamic studies
and Arabic literature. Canceled due to snowstorm; see April 6
Reading: Wheeler, pp. 94-107, 145-62
(CH)
4. Feb. 3.
Muslims and non-Muslims in the Middle East. Guest: Lucas
Van Rompay* (Duke)
Reading: McAlister, pp. 125-197
(D)
5. Feb. 10. Muslims in Europe.
Guest: Kathy
Ewing* (Duke)
Reading: Qureshi & Sells, pp. 205-48; Bruce Lawrence,
"No
More Crusades - Rethinking Islam in the West"
(CH)
6. Feb. 17.
Rethinking the "classical" Muslim heritage. Guests: Ebrahim
Moosa* (Duke), Tariq al-Jamil* (NCSU).
Reading: Wheeler, pp. 22-45, 61-76, 77-93
(D)
7. Feb. 24. American and European
images of Islam. Guests: Sahar
Amer* (UNC), Timothy
Marr* (UNC)
Reading: McAlister, pp. 235-76
Web site: THE
VEIL DEBATE IN FRANCE
(CH)
8. March 2.
Islamic studies and the study of religion in America. Guests: Ed
Curtis* (UNC), Jamilla Karim (Duke)
Reading: Lawrence, pp. 69-132; Jamilla Karim, "Voices
of Faith, Faces of Beauty: Empowering American Muslim Women Through
Azizah Magazine" (unpublished paper from Muslim
Networks)
(D)
9. March 16. Modernist and
Liberal Islam. Guest: Charles
Kurzman* (UNC)
Reading: either of the introductory chapters to Kurzman's Liberal
Islam and Modernist
Islam anthologies; plus examine the syllabus for his
"Sociology
of Islam" class
(CH)
10. March
23. Islamic studies and Jewish studies.
Guests: Kalman
Bland* (Duke)
Reading: Wheeler, pp. 46-60; Christopher Melchert, TBA
Presentations
of syllabi: Maureen O'Brien, Bennie Reynolds, Catherine Burris,
Annie Blakeney-Glaser, Jared Anderson
(D)
11. March 30. Islamic studies
and human rights. Guest: Abdullahi
an-Na`im* (Emory)
Reading: Qureshi & Sells, 312-88
Presentations
of syllabi: Maryam Ali, Peter Wright, Josie Hendrickson, Usep
Matin, Jafar Muhibbullah
(D)
12. April 6. Islamic studies,
Arabic literature, and gender. Guests:
miriam cooke*
(Duke) and Ellen
McLarney* (Duke)
Reading: Wheeler, pp. 124-44, 181-90
Presentations
of syllabi: G. A. Lipton, Fuad Naeem, Neelma Ali, Youshaa Patel,
Brett Wilson
(CH)
13.
April 13. The Debate of the Orientalists (class presentations)
(CH)
14. April
20. Islamic studies and religious studies.
Reading: Ernst, chapter 2
(D)
= Durham, (CH) = Chapel
Hill
* = confirmed guest speakers
This
web page last updated Apr. 13, 2004.
