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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Undergraduate Course: International, Transnational and Globalised Dynamics of the Muslim World (IMES10108)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThe aim of the course is to strengthen students knowledge about Islam and Muslims in different parts of the world. Drawing from perspectives from the social sciences and the humanities, the course covers a number of themes including globalization, modernity, transnational relations, media, and politics. It also covers how Muslims respond to global events and concerns like migration, poverty, and women s rights among others.
Course description Academic description:
This course will cover key questions concerning the role of the Muslim World, one quarter of the world s population, and its influence in politics, culture, and society.
This course addresses the need for a deeper understanding of the diversity of Muslim cultures and societies in the contemporary global context. With a focus on various facets of lived Islam in the contemporary world, the course will provide a unique opportunity for students to deepen their knowledge about the diversity and complexity of Global Islam, and to deepen their understanding of the richness of Muslim cultures and societies in the global context. The course also provides diverse explanations of contemporary concerns that face communities and countries like democracy, human rights, migration, media, and politics among others.

Outline content:
The course begins with an overview of different definitions of the Muslim World and globalization including social, cultural, and economic dimensions. The course will be structured thematically to include - but not be limited to - the following topics:
- Muslim Networks and Interactions
- Modernity and Religious Reform
- Salafism and the State
- Sufism and popular Islam
- Migration and Muslim Minorities
- Islamic law and Women s rights
- Muslim interactions in the Media: Old and New
- Muslims organizations and responses to Global challenges

Student learning experience:
The success of the course and student s success in the class requires regular preparation, attendance, and participation. Each of the course sessions consists of lecture and seminar. The lecture covers one theme and the seminar includes group discussions of the assigned readings and case studies. Each student will write two assignments related to the themes delivered in the course. This UG course is taught jointly with PG students
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  15
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) 100% coursework

Book review paper (1000 words) 40%
Final essay (2000 words) 60%
Feedback Students will be provided with individual written feedback on their assignments followed by general oral feedback for the entire class. Feedback will focus on ability to engage with the academic literature, clarity of argument, language and on-time submission. Students will also have an opportunity for formative assessment and feedback on the question and outline of their final essay.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Students will have improved their oral comprehension by developing reception strategies, using contextual, grammatical and lexical cues.
  2. Students will be able to assess and discuss aspects of cultural values and practices. They will be able to evaluate ambiguity in cross-cultural communication and express their reactions constructively and culturally appropriately in order to bring clarity
  3. Students will be able to follow extended discourse on topics beyond their own field, and to recognise a wide range of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms, appreciating register shifts.
  4. Students will be able to follow discussions and complex interactions between third parties in group discussions.
  5. Students will be able to present a clear and well-structured argument orally, and to respond to questions or requests to expand on specific points. They will also be able to present an argument in writing, using complex language structures.
Reading List
Essential:

Al-Ajarma, K. and Buitelaar, M., 2021. Social Media Representations of the Pilgrimage to Mecca: Challenging Moroccan and Dutch Mainstream Media Frames. Journal of Muslims in Europe, 10(2), pp.146-167.

Bruinessen, Martin van, et al. (2009). Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates. Edinburgh University Press.

Buitelaar, M., Stephan-Emmrich, M., & Thimm, V., eds. (2020). Muslim Women¿s Pilgrimage to Mecca and Beyond: Reconfiguring Gender, Religion, and Mobility. Routledge.

Clark JA. (2004). Islam, Charity, and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen. Indiana University Press.

Cooke, Miriam and Bruce Lawrence. (2005). Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Grewal, Zareena. (2014). Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, New York: NYU Press.

Hackett, Rosalind and Benjamin Soares, eds. (2015). New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Jouili, Jeanette, (2015). Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Kloos, David, (2018). Becoming Better Muslims: Religious Authority and Ethical Improvement in Aceh, Indonesia, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Meijer, Roel, ed. (2009). Global Salafism: Islam¿s New Religious Movement, London: Hurst.

Roy, Oliver. (2004). Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, London: Hurst.

Volpi, Frederic. ¿Political Islam in the Mediterranean: The View from Democratization Studies,¿ Democratization, 16:1 (2009); 20-38.


Recommended:

Abdullah, Zain. (2010). Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Al-Ajarma, Kholoud. (2020). Mecca in Morocco: Articulation of Muslim Pilgrimage in Moroccan Everyday Life. University of Groningen.

Bruinessen, Martin van, et al. (2009). Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates. Edinburgh University Press.

Laurence, Loue¿r. (2008). Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf. Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies. New York: Columbia University Press.

Wainscott, Ann Marie. (2018). Bureaucratizing Islam: Morocco and the War on Terror. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wright, Robin. (2012). The Islamists are Coming: Who they Really Are Woodrow Wilson Center Press.


Further reading:

Cormack, Margaret, ed.. (2013). Muslims and Others in Sacred Space, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crouch, Melissa, ed. (2016). Islam and the State in Myanmar: Muslim- Buddhist Relations and the Politics of Belonging, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Meijer, Roel, ed. (2014). Global Salafism: Islam¿s New Religious Movement, London: Hurst.

Seib, Philip, ed. (2012). Al Jazeera English: Global News in a Changing World. Palgrave Macmillan.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Students come from diverse educational backgrounds and cultures and have their own life experiences. Therefore, the aim of the course is to broaden their horizons and attitudes not only towards the Muslim World, but also towards diverse cultures, backgrounds, 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 knowledge. The lectures and seminars of this course are designed in a way that insures active participation and communication skills among students through collaborative group work.
KeywordsIslam,globalization,transnationalism,politics,modernity,religion,migration,media.
Contacts
Course organiserDr Kholoud Al-Ajarma
Tel:
Email: Kholoud.Alajarma@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk
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