Islam in Asia -- a workshop for teachers

Saturday, May 13, 2006
9 am to 4 pm
UCLA, Public Policy 2270

The four countries with the largest Muslim populations are in Asia and Asia's Islamic societies have long histories and rich and diverse cultures. Still, Americans know too little about Asia in Islamic history or Islam in Asia's history. This workshop will provide educators with essential background information, compelling case studies, and solid strategies and materials to bring these societies, historical and contemporary, to life in their own classrooms.

In addition to the presentations listed below, a curriculum specialist will introduce the Stanford Program in International and Cross-cultural Education curriculum units Ethnic Minority Groups in China and Islamic Civilization and Art and other materials. Each participating teacher will receive a copy of these units (value $105) as well as other materials.

All teachers are encouraged to apply to participate in the workshop. To do so, please send an email message to Venus Saensradi (vsaensradi@international.ucla.edu) providing your name, address and phone number, and your current teaching assignment. There is a $25 fee for the workshop which covers materials, parking, refreshments, and lunch. Make your check payable to UC Regents and send it to:

Venus Saensradi
UCLA Asia Institute
11288 Bunche Hall
Los Angeles, California 90095-1487

Please call Ms. Saensradi at 310-825-0007 if you have any questions about the workshop. We will confirm enrollment upon receipt of your check.

Presenters

David Atwill (History, Pennsylvania State University)
Islam South of the Clouds

Prof. Atwill earned his Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii. His research has focused on Muslim communities in Southwestern China. Among his works is The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwestern China, 1856-1873 (Stanford University Press, 2006). He's now using the life and work of the famous anti-opium commissioner Lin Zexu to explore 19^th century conceptions of China's borderland communities.

Zvi Ben-Dor Benite (History, New York University)
Intertwined Histories

Prof. Ben-Dor Benite is a UCLA alum. He's written The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Chinese Muslims in Late Imperial China (Harvard University Press, 2005) which details how Muslim scholars in 17^th and 18^th century China promoted Muhammad as a sage and how they saw themselves as members of an Islamic diaspora. He's published several articles on Islamic historiography and is currently at work on a book on global Islam.

Peter Gottschalk (Religion, Wesleyan University)
Islamic Diversity in South Asia
Web Demo: A Virtual Village

Prof. Gottschalk took his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. His first book is Beyond Hindu and Muslim: Multiple Identity in Narratives from Village India (Oxford University Press, 2000). He's long been interested in other means of teaching about South Asia, producing two documentaries, Living Together and Apart: Hindus and Muslims in South Asia (1993) and Everyday Life in Pakistan (1992). He is the co-creator of the website A Virtual Village which he'll introduce during the workshop.

Michael Laffan (History, Princeton University)
What is Indonesian Islam?

Prof. Laffan earned his doctorate at the University of Sydney. His first book is Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: The Umma Below the Winds (Routledge Curzon, 2003). Among his current projects is an examination of how “traditional” Islam emerged in Southeast Asia as the result of the efforts of Islamic reformers influenced by both Cairo and colonial scholars. He also plans to explore the portrayal of Southeast Asia in Arabic sources.

Karen Leonard (Anthropology, University of California at Irvine)
South Asian Muslims at Home and Abroad

Prof. Leonard earned her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin and currently serves as the co-chair of UCI's Asian Studies program. She's the author of several books, including Social History of an Indian Caste: the Kayasths of Hyderabad (2^nd ed., Orient Longman, 1993) and Muslims in the United States: The State of Research (Russell Sage Foundation, 2003).

Gary Mukai (Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education)
Bringing Islam and Asia into Your Classroom

Mr. Mukai heads SPICE and in 1997 received the Association for Asian Studies Franklin Buchanan Prize for his work developing Asia-focused curriculum units. Under his leadership SPICE has produced over 100 supplementary curriculum units on Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the global environment, and international political economy. Mr. Mukai also trains teachers as part of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia.

Sponsored by the UCLA Asia Institute, the USC East Asian Studies Center, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education, the National Center for History in the Schools, and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. Funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the Freeman Foundation.

Download file:2006-flyer.pdf