203 Peabody Hall, Tues., Thurs., 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Instructors:

Professor:
Charles Kurzman. Telephone: 962-1241. E-mail: kurzman@unc.edu. Office hours: 227 Hamilton Hall, Tuesdays, 12:30-2:30 p.m.; or by appointment.

Teaching assistants:
Brandon Gorman. E-mail: bgor@unc.edu. Office hours: 1:00-2:00 p.m. Mondays and 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Wednesdays, 252 Hamilton Hall; or by appointment.
Ali Kadivar. E-mail: kadivar@email.unc.edu. Office hours: 10:30-11:30 a.m., Mondays and Wednesdays, 252 Hamilton Hall; or by appointment.

Graduate research consultant:
Clinton Key. E-mail: cckey@email.unc.edu. Office hours: 1:00-3:00 p.m., 402B Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building; or by appointment.

Writing consultant:
Kelly Ross, Department of English.

Course Goals:

This course is intended to:

(1) Inculcate a respectful and critical approach towards your own and other belief systems.
(2) Expose you to cutting-edge analyses of the importance, diversity, and recent transformations of Islamic societies.
(3) Introduce you to a variety of sociological fields, such as the sociology of religion, international development, the sociology of gender, and political sociology.
(4) Teach how to develop and test sociological research questions through survey construction, implementation, and analysis, supported by the Office for Undergraduate Research.
(5) Improve your writing skills through communication-intensive assignments and in-class workshops, supported by a grant from the Spencer and Teagle Foundations.

The course is not intended to:

(1) Evangelize for or against any religion.
(2) Suggest that one religion or religious culture is better or worse than any other.
(3) Evaluate the Islamic world against divine standards. For a sociology of Islam that does attempt to do this, you may wish to examine Ali Shari'ati, On the Sociology of Islam, translated by Hamid Algar (Berkeley, California: Mizan Press, 1979); or other works by Shari'ati collected at http://www.shariati.com.

Faculty Commitments:

The instructors pledge to:

(1) Be as respectful, helpful, and clear as possible in our communications with students.
(2) Hand out reading questions in advance of each reading assignment.
(3) Offer brief lectures introducing the themes and readings for the course.
(4) Lead class discussions on the reading questions and writing assignments.
(5) Explain course assignments at least two weeks in advance of due dates.
(6) Return submitted material in one week or less with constructive comments and fair grades.

At the end of the course, you will be asked to grade the professor with a student-evaluation form. In addition, we welcome feedback, especially constructive feedback, throughout the semester, in whatever form (office hours, e-mail, anonymous notes, etc.) that you feel comfortable with.

Student Commitments:

Students are responsible for:

(1) Honor. All assignments are subject to the university's Honor Code: do not claim other people's work as your own, and be very careful to give credit for words and ideas that you quote or paraphrase.

(2) Attendance. Attend all class sessions. Please bring to each class the course reading material and a notebook or laptop containing this syllabus, your class notes from the entire semester, and your reading notes (described in the next section) -- you will need to refer to these during class. For each class that you miss, you will lose 1/2 points from a total of 11 points for the semester. If illness or an emergency prevents you from attending, please inform the professor as soon as possible; attendance credit will then be arranged on a case-by-case basis. Students are responsible for all class material that they miss.

(3) Class Participation. Not only your body must be present, but also your mind. Participate actively in class, in particular through attentive listening, accurate note-taking (using the class PowerPoint presentations, if you wish -- these will be posted prior to each class, linked from the class date on this syllabus), appropriate questions and comments, and helpful collaboration in small-group discussions. This will not be graded.

(4) Readings. Please buy the following book:

Carl Ernst, Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).

Additional readings are available on the course Blackboard site. Prior to each reading, please consult the syllabus for the reading questions that will orient you to the main points we will be drawing out of each text. For each reading assignment, please take notes in a word processing program. These reading notes will encourage you to read actively, rather than passively, and will serve you well as an index to the readings when you wish to review the course material. Reading notes and all assignments should be turned in by e-mail to your teaching assistant. The subject heading of your e-mail should start with SOCI 419 (all capital letters) and should include the date that the assignment is due. Reading notes should be copied and pasted into the body of the e-mail, not as an attachment, prior to the beginning of each class, and will receive one point for each class's readings, for a maximum total of 27 points during the semester. Reading notes may be in outline or bullet-point format, and should include the following numbered sections:

1) Author(s)
2) Title of selection(s)
3) Pages
4) Summarize the gist of the piece in your own words (one or more sentences)
5) Note the major points of the piece (1 to 5 of them) and the author's best evidence for them (with page references)
6) Your reaction to the reading (something substantive, not just "I liked it")
7) Outline answer to the reading question (with quotations and page references where appropriate)

Partial notes and late notes will receive partial credit, and you will be notified by return e-mail prior to the following class session if your notes are not fully satisfactory. Reading notes that receive full credit will not be notified by e-mail, but the credit will be posted on the Blackboard grade sheet prior to the following class session.

(5) Survey Research. This course is research-intensive and writing-intensive. We will work together to design survey-based research projects on the subject of Americans' views of Islam and Muslims' views of America. The course has a Graduate Research Consultant to help with the construction of the survey and a Writing Consultant to run writing workshops on various stages of the article that you will write as your term project. Details on the project are available here. To prepare for the research, each student will take the CITI Online Course (Social and Behavioral Research Modules). Each student will conduct 12 interviews over Spring Break and submit the results before class on March 16 in a Microsoft Excel data file, which is worth 12 points. Students will analyze this survey, or other surveys of American and Muslim attitudes that we will make available to you, using the SPSS statistical software in the basement computer lab (Manning Hall Room 01) at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science. Based on this data, students will write a survey-analysis article, approximately 2,000 words in length, worth 20 points and due before the final class session on April 27. This paper should be submitted in a Microsoft Word file.

(6) Final Examination. The final exam is scheduled for Thursday, May 6, at 8-11 a.m., and will count 10 points. It will allow you to demonstrate the information and abilities you have learned over the course of the semester. The format is in-class, open-book, half short answers and half essay.

Grading:

Attendance: 11 points maximum
Reading Question Responses: 27 reading questions x 1 point/each = 27 points
Project assignments (before final paper): 10 assignments x 2 points each = 20 points
Survey Data: 12 points
Survey-Analysis Article: 20 points
Final Exam: 10 points
Total: 100 points. I anticipate that a grade of 93 1/3 and above will qualify for an A, 90 and above A-, 86 2/3 and above B+, 83 1/3 and above B, 80 and above B-, and so on. However, I reserve the right to maintain some flexibility in this scale, in case the course turns out to be "too easy" or "too hard."

Course Schedule:

January 12: Introductions
No readings.

January 14: Bad News/Good News about Islamic Terrorism
Reading: Bruce B. Lawrence, ed., Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden. London, United Kingdom: Verso, 2005, pp. xi-xxiii, 23-30, 160-172.
Reading question: What does Bin Laden want?

January 19: Bad News/Good News about Islamic Terrorism (continued)
Reading: Charles Kurzman, The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists? Unpublished masterpiece, chapters 1-2.
Reading question: Why are there so few Muslim terrorists?

Religion

January 21: "Islam" and "the West"
Reading: Carl Ernst, Following Muhammad. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pp. 1-69.
Reading question: What do you think of the idea of Western psychological "projection" of stereotypes of Islam?
In class: Clinton Key on American attitudes toward Islam.

January 26: Imagery
Reading: Ernst, pp. 71-105.
Reading question: Why does Ernst begin his biography of Muhammad with a description of a calligraphic "hilya"?
In class: Muslim attitudes toward America.

January 28: "Tradition" and "Modernity"
Reading: Ernst, pp. 107-162.
Reading question: Find three examples in this reading of policies labeled "Islamic" by 20th-century government authorities?

February 2: Boundaries
Reading: Ernst, pp. 163-213.
Reading question: Is Sufism "un-Islamic"?
Assignment due: Submit rank-ordered list of 3 thematic interests in the study of American and Muslim attitudes. Describe each in 1 sentence each.

February 4: Fundamentalism
Reading: Bruce B. Lawrence, Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1995, pp. 40-42, 100-119.
Reading question: What does Islamic radicalism have in common with Christian fundamentalism?

February 9: Revolution
Readings:
Hasan al-Banna, Between Yesterday and Today (1940s), full text.
Abu'l-Ala Maudoodi, Islamic Way of Life (1948), Chapters 3-5.
Reading: Ruhollah Khomeini, Last Will and Testament (1989), Part 1.
Reading questions: What modern elements can be discerned in the writings of each of these radical Islamist leaders?
Assignment due: Take CITI Online Course (Social and Behavioral Research Modules).

February 11: Liberalism
Reading: Charles Kurzman, "Liberal Islam in its Islamic Context," in Liberal Islam. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 3-26.
Reading question: What are three ways to justify liberal Islamic positions?

February 16: Liberalism (continued)
Reading: Abdulkarim Soroush, "Text in Context" (1995)
Reading question: Is Soroush a relativist? Why or why not?
Assignment due: Submit bibliography of 4 scholarly articles.

History

February 18: Succession
Asma Afsaruddin, The First Muslims. Oxford, England: Oneworld, 2008, pp. 1-26.
Reading question: On what basis did Muslims choose a successor to the Prophet Muhammad?

February 23: Conversion
Reading: Richard M. Eaton, "The Geographic Expansion of Islam," in Clarice Swisher, editor, The Spread of Islam. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 1999, pp. 71-77.
Reading question: In what directions did Islam NOT expand initially? Speculate why not!
Assignment due: Draft survey questions for thematic group.
In-class: Discuss survey questions.

February 25: Economy
Reading: Janet Lippman Abu Lughod, "The World System in the Thirteenth Century," in Michael Adas, editor, Islamic and European Expansion. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press, 1993, pp. 75-102.
Reading question: What role did Islamic societies play in pre-modern world trade?
In-class: Discuss survey questions.

March 2: Nationalism
Reading: Charles Kurzman, "Weaving Iran into the Tree of Nations," International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, May 2005, pp. 137-165.
Reading question: Where did the idea of the nation-state come from?
Assignment due: Submit first-draft literature review to thematic group.
In-class: Finalize survey questions.

March 4: The Colonial State
Reading: Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East. London, United Kingdom: Routledge, 1992, pp. 8-31.
Reading question: In what ways has colonialism shaped the politics of the Middle East?
In-class: Writing workshop.

Spring Break: Conduct Survey

March 16: The Post-Colonial State
Readings:
Gregory Starrett, Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1998, pp. 126-147.
Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 3-28.
Reading question: In what ways have post-colonial states in Egypt, Malaysia, and Pakistan used Islam to bolster their own power?
Assignment due: Submit survey results.

March 18: Post-Colonial Religious Authority
Reading: Muhammad Qasim Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 170-191.
Reading question: How have the ulama responded to threats to their institutional position?

March 23: Religious Authority and Political Authority
Readings:
Asef Bayat, "Revolution without Movement, Movement without Revolution: Comparing Islamic Activism in Iran and Egypt," Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 40, No. 1, January, 1998, pp. 136-169.
Reading question: Are people more "Islamic" in Iran or Egypt, and why, according to Bayat?
Assignment due: Select survey questions to analyze.

Globalization

March 25: Oil
Reading: Jahangir Amuzegar, "Oil Wealth: A Very Mixed Blessing." Foreign Affairs, Volume 60, Number 4, Spring 1982, pp. 814-835.
Reading question: What's the downside of massive oil wealth?

March 30: Capital
Reading: Samer Bagaeen, "Brand Dubai: The Instant City; or the Instantly Recognizable City," International Planning Studies, Volume 12, Number 2, May 2007, pp. 173-197.
Reading question: What, if anything, is Islamic about Dubai?
Assignment due: Submit revised literature review to thematic group.

April 1: Migration
Readings:
Oskar Verkaiik, Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 1-19.
Victoria Bernal, "Migration, Modernity and Islam in Rural Sudan," Middle East Report, Number 211, Summer 1999, pp. 26-28.
Reading question: How has migration within Muslim societies caused new identities to emerge?

April 6: Migration (continued)
Readings:
Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, pp. 100-147.
Daniel Pipes, Militant Islam Reaches America. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, pp. 111-125.
Reading question: In what ways do these authors view Muslim migration to Western Europe and North America as a threat?
Assignment due: Submit data analysis to thematic group.

April 8: Gender
Reading: Lisa Hajjar, "Domestic Violence and Shari`a: A Comparative Study of Muslim Societies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia," in Lynn Welchman, editor, Women's Rights and Islamic Family Law: Perspectives on Reform. London, United Kingdom: Zed, 2004, pp. 235-272.
Reading question: How different is the problem of domestic violence in these Islamic contexts than in other contexts you may be familiar with?
In-class: Writing workshop.

April 13: Gender (continued)
Readings:
Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 40-78.
Allegra Stratton, Muhajababes: Meet the New Middle East -- Cool, Sexy and Devout. London, United Kingdom: Constable, 2006, pp. 69-84.
Reading question: How does Islamist activism liberate and limit women?
Assignment due: Submit complete draft to thematic group.

April 15: Israel/Palestine
Reading: James L. Gelvin, The Israel-Palestine Conflict. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 228-256.
Reading question: We all know who the real victim is here, don't we? Discuss.

April 20: Music
Reading: Mark LeVine, Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam. New York, New York: Three Rivers Press, 2008, pp. 1-59, 253-275.
Reading question: How does rock music fit with other contemporary trends among Muslims that we have studied this semester?
Assignment due: Write comments to all members of thematic group on their draft papers.
In-class: Writing workshop.

April 22: Being Modern
Reading: Fariba Adelkhah, Being Modern in Iran. New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. 139-174.
Reading question: In what ways does the Islamic Republic of Iran sound familiar to residents of the U.S.?

April 27: Review
Reading: Review all readings.
In-class: What, if anything, have we learned in this course?
Assignment due: Submit final draft of article.

May 6, 8:00-11:00 a.m.: Final Exam.

http://www.unc.edu/~kurzman/Soc419.html, last updated January 14, 2010.