Postgraduate Course: International, Transnational and Globalized Dynamics of the Muslim World (IMES11100)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The aim of the course is to strengthen students' knowledge and analytical tools so they can understand and explain the diverse ways in which the Muslim World has operated as a force globally. Combining a topical and geographical approach, the course will study Islam as it intersects with broader social, cultural, political and economic dynamics, and focus on diverse geographical areas such as America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East / North-Africa. The course is of an interdisciplinary character, drawing from perspectives from the social sciences and the humanities and covers several themes including globalization processes, democratization, migration, mass media, political institutions, and responses to global events and concerns like human rights and climate change. |
| Course description |
This course will cover key questions, arguments and debates concerning the role of the Muslim World, one quarter of the world's population, in the global system, and its responses to the realities and pressures of that global system. What makes the study of globalized dynamics of the Muslim World particularly salient is the centuries old but ever-changing conception of the umma or Muslim community as an alternative to, but always in dialogue with, the dominant North-South global nexus. Focusing on 'lived Islam', the course provides knowledge about the diversity and complexity of the Islamic tradition and provide a unique opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of the richness of Muslim cultures and societies in the global context.
The course actively seeks to provide students with a wider variety of voices and perspectives - particularly those that have been historically marginalized - by decolonizing the syllabus. Decolonizing syllabi includes recognizing diverse voices in the classroom climate such as Indigenous and minority writings and showing how the study of globalized Muslim World - and global power structures in general - can benefits from and perpetuates colonialism. This decolonizing process aims at changing the way students approach and understand knowledge production, and more generally global structures, outside of the classroom.
If online teaching is adapted, the course will include synchronous activities including a 50 minute weekly online seminar. The seminar will facilitate discussion about the weekly recorded lecture and associated slides that will be available for students to review before the day of the seminar. Students are expected to attend the online seminar after having watched the video and the slides, and after having addressed the questions and exercises proposed for that week. The seminar itself will also be recorded for student reference.
One extra 50 minutes online session will take place at the end of the course to answer any questions that students might have and to provide a general summary of the course themes.
The asynchronous activities include a weekly pre-recorded lecture of approximately 20-minutes and a series of associated ppt slides and other audio-visual material on the topic of the week. There is also a series of weekly questions and exercises that students should answer weekly in preparation for the synchronous activities (approximately 40 minutes of individual study) in addition to usual personal research and reading time. A 200 words outline of students' key elements of answer and key problems should be emailed to the course convenor or posted on the Teams board a day before the synchronous online seminar discussion.
The course begins with an overview of different definitions of 'the Muslim World' including Muslim communities and states in various world regions. Then, it highlights how prevailing processes of globalization are affecting Muslim communities in social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions. Each of the course sessions consists of lecture and seminar. The lecture covers one major theme including academic debates, theoretical discussions, and linkages with other studied subjects. The seminar includes group discussions of the assigned readings, case studies, and student presentations. Following an introductory lecture where students will be provided with a general overview of the course and main concepts, the lectures and seminars may cover the following major themes:
- Muslim Networks and Global Interactions
- Globalization, Modernity, and Religious Reform
- Salafism, Sufism, and 'popular' Islam
- Transnationalism, Migration, and Muslim Minorities
- Islam, Modernity, and Gender
- Global Islam and the Religious 'Other'
- Muslims, democracy, and the State
- Media: Old and New
- Muslims and Global Concerns: Poverty and Climate Change as Case-studies.
Students are expected to attend online seminars and watch pre-recorded lectures. All seminars will also be recorded and available for student reference online. Students are expected to read the assigned readings and answer questions which will be posted online with the pre-recorded lecture. Course activities also include 10-minute presentations which will be recorded by each of the students (and shared online) about one of the themes of the course to encourage knowledge sharing and public presentation skills among students. Students will also write one short paper and one final paper during the course where they can demonstrate their capacity to build linkages and analytically engage with the themes and readings of the course. Students will be provided with feedback following the submission of these assignments which will help them to further develop their analytical skills.
It is taken into consideration that students come from diverse educational backgrounds and cultures and have their own life experiences. Therefore, the aim of the course is to broaden students¿ horizons and attitudes not only towards the Muslim World, but also towards diverse cultures, backgrounds, political opinions, and new situations which they can tackle with sensitivity and integrity. The course allows students to develop their skills and abilities in research and academic inquiry as well as their critical thinking and analysis which can prove helpful in their future within academia and beyond. The lectures and seminars of this course are designed in a way that insures active participation, self-reflection, and leadership development among students through both individual and collaborative presentations and group work. Course activities are designed to help students develop their communication skills and engage effectively with others which can positively influence their career path and their role within society both locally and at a global level.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2021/22, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 25 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Presentation: 15%
One short paper (1,000 words): 30%
Final paper (3,000 words): 55% |
| Feedback |
Students will be provided with written feedback following their submission of their formative assignments and with oral guidance on public presentation skills and group discussions.
Feedback will focus on identification of problem; context; effects; clarity of argument; language; and on-time submission. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the international dynamics of contemporary Muslim societies in a variety of majority and minority contexts including current discourses and dynamics in the study of the global Muslim World.
- Apply relevant theoretical perspectives and analyse the intersection of Islam with social, political, and cultural issues in different parts of the world.
- Identify and critically analyse the relationship between the Muslim World, trans-nationalism, migration, and global interconnectivity, and various perspectives on globalized Muslim World like identity, gender, and communication.
- Map out and identify the interrelations between Islam and other religions and religious, social and political dynamics in a global context.
- Apply the insights gained in this educational course in analysing current debates with regard to Islam, culture, and politics in a global context.
|
Reading List
There is no core textbook for the course. Students will be provided with a class calendar with details about required and recommended readings. Students will also be provided with a list of books as ¿further reading¿ which provide useful background knowledge and/or analytical frameworks of relevance for the study of the globalized Muslim World.
Essential:
Aishima, Hatsuki, ¿Are We All Amr Khaled?: Islam and the Facebook Generation of Egypt,¿ in A. Masquelier and B. Soares, eds, Muslim Youth and the 9/11 Generation. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, (2016), pp. 105-21.
Asad, Talal, ¿Muslims as a ¿Religious Modernity¿ in Europe¿ in Formations of the secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity, (2003).
Bowen, John R. ¿Beyond Migration: Islam as a Transnational Public Space¿, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 30,5 (2004): 879-894.
Brown, Jonathan. ¿A Map of the Islamic Interpretive Tradition,¿ in Misquoting Muhammad, Oxford: Oneworld, (2014), pp. 15-68.
Bruinessen, Martin van, et al. Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates. Edinburgh University Press, (2009). Chapter 1 and 9.
Clark JA. Islam, Charity, and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen. Indiana University Press; 2004. Chapter 2 and 4.
Cooke, Miriam and Bruce Lawrence Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, (2005). Chapter 11 and 12.
Grewal, Zareena, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, New York: NYU Press, 2014.
Hackett, Rosalind and Benjamin Soares, eds, New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, (2015). Chapter 3 and 9.
In Muslim Pilgrimage in the Modern World, edited by Rahimi Babak and Eshaghi Peyman, (2019), pp. 172-82.
Jouili, Jeanette, Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe, Stanford: Stanford University Press, (2015). Chapter 4 and 6.
Kandiyoti, Deniz. ¿Islam, Modernity, and the Politics of Gender.¿ In Bruinessen, Martin van, et al. Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates. Edinburgh University Press, (2009). Chapter 4.
Kloos, David, Becoming Better Muslims: Religious Authority and Ethical Improvement in Aceh, Indonesia, Princeton: Princeton University Press, (2018). Chapter 4 and 5.
Kyaw, Nyi Nyi, ¿Islamophobia in Buddhist Myanmar: The 969 Movement and Anti-Muslim Violence,¿ in Melissa Crouch, ed., Islam and the State in Myanmar: MuslimBuddhist Relations and the Politics of Belonging, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2016).
Manger, Leif. ¿Muslim Diversity: Local Islam in Global Contexts¿, in Leif Manger (ed.). Muslim diversity: Local Islam in Global contexts, Richmond: Curzon, (1999). Chapter 1 and 2.
Meijer, Roel (ed). Global Salafism: Islam¿s New Religious Movement, London: Hurst, (2009). Chapter 6 and 13.
Pal, Leslie A, and M. Evren Tok, eds. Global Governance and Muslim Organizations. International Political Economy Series. Introduction (chapter 1), chapter 2 and 6.
Roy, Oliver. Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, London: Hurst (2004). Chapter 6.
Szanto, Edith. ¿Economies of Piety at the Syrian Shrine of Sayyida Zaynab.¿
Thurston, Alex, Salafism in Nigeria: Islam, Preaching, and Politics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2016). Introduction chapter.
Thurston, Alex. ¿Muslim Politics and Shari¿a in Kano State, Northern Nigeria.¿ African Affairs 114, no. 454 (2015): 28¿51.
Volpi, Frédéric. ¿Political Islam in the Mediterranean: The View from Democratization Studies,¿ Democratization, 16:1 (2009); 20-38.
Recommended:
Abdullah, Zain, Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2010).
Al-Ajarma, Kholoud. ¿Introduction.¿ Mecca in Morocco: Articulation of Muslim Pilgrimage in Moroccan Everyday Life (2020), (Pdf).
Al-Ajarma, Kholoud. ¿Power in Moroccan women¿s narratives of the Hajj¿ (2020). (Pdf)¿
Bruinessen, Martin van, et al. Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates. Edinburgh University Press, (2009). Chapter 5 and 10.
Cormack, Margaret (ed.) Muslims and Others in Sacred Space, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2013). Chapter 1.
Fugl Eskjaer, Mikkel. ¿Communicating Climate Change in Regional News Media.¿ International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management 1, no. 4 (2009): 356¿67.
Laurence, Loue¿r. Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf. Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies. New York: Columbia University Press, (2008). Chapter 5.
Mahmood, Saba. ¿Rehearsed Spontaneity and the Conventionality of Ritual: Disciplines of ¿Salat¿¿, American Ethnologist, 28. 4 (2001), pp. 827-853.
Meijer, Roel (ed). Global Salafism: Islam¿s New Religious Movement, London: Hurst, (2009). Chapter 4.
Meijer, Roel (ed). Global Salafism: Islam's New Religious Movement, London: Hurst, (2014). Introduction chapter and chapter 1.
Pal, Leslie A, and M. Evren Tok, eds. Global Governance and Muslim Organizations. International Political Economy Series. Chapter 7 and 8.
Schonthal, Benjamin, ¿Making the Muslim Other in Myanmar and Sri Lanka,¿ in Melissa Crouch, ed., Islam and the State in Myanmar: Muslim- Buddhist Relations and the Politics of Belonging, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2016).
Seib, Philip (ed.). Al Jazeera English: Global News in a Changing World Palgrave Macmillan, (2012). Introduction and chapter 1.
Wainscott, Ann Marie, Bureaucratizing Islam: Morocco and the War on Terror. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2018). Introduction, Chapter 2, 5 and 8.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. ¿Islam, the West, and the World,¿ Journal of Islamic Studies, Volume 10, Number 2 (1999), pp. 109-125.
Williams, R.H. ¿Creating an American Islam: Thoughts on Religion, Identity, and Place¿, in Sociology of Religion, 72,2 (2011): 127-153.
Wright, Robin (ed.) The Islamists are Coming: Who they Really Are Woodrow Wilson Center Press (2012). Introduction and chapter 1.
Zareena Grewal, ¿Muslim Reformers and the American Media¿ in Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and Global Crisis of Authority, New York University Press, (2014), pp. 292-345.
Further readings:
Deeb, Lara., An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi¿i Lebanon, Princeton: Princeton University Press, (2006).
Eickelman, Dale F. and James Piscatori. Muslim Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, (2004).
Gole, Nilufer. Islam and Public Controversy in Europe, Routledge, (2016).
Jouili, Jeanette, Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe, Stanford: Stanford University Press, (2015).
Kloos, David. Becoming Better Muslims: Religious Authority and Ethical Improvement in Aceh, Indonesia, Princeton: Princeton University Press, (2018).
Mahmood, Saba. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press, (2005).
Mandaville, Peter. Islam and Politics. Routledge, 2nd edition, (2014).
Mittermaier, Amira, ¿Dreams from Elsewhere: Muslim Subjectivities beyond the Trope of Self- Cultivation,¿ Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 18, 2 (2012): 247¿ 65.
Roy, Olivier. Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. London: C. Hurst, (2004).
Schulze, Reinhard. A Modern History of the Islamic World. New York: New York University Press, (2002). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- In depth knowledge, understanding, research and other skills associated with the Global Muslim World.
- The ability to critically interpret and analyse academic literature associated with the study of global Islam and to link the discipline to local, national, and global issues.
- Develop skills necessary to execute original and independent research.
- The ability to use relevant secondary literature and engage in interpretative debates.
- The ability to reach an independent judgement, think creatively and independently, and explain their ideas to a large audience.
- The ability to continue to learn, reflect and apply new knowledge and skills in a positive sustainable way, with both a local and world perspective.
- The ability to work productively, independently and with others, no matter their culture, perspective or background.
- Resilience when confronted with challenges and able to adapt positively to and accept change through a continued willingness to learn and develop (such as remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic). |
| Keywords | Islam,migration,globalization |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kholoud Al-Ajarma
Tel:
Email: Kholoud.Alajarma@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Anne Budo
Tel: (0131 6)50 4161
Email: a.budo@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage