Samy Shavit Swayd (e-mail: samy@ucla.edu)
Office: 10276 Bunche Hall
Office Hours: 1:00-2:00 (or by appointment)
Objectives:
This course aims to explore some of the issues facing Muslim communities in Europe and North America and how such issues contribute to the (re)construction of (new) Muslim identities. We will focus on the primary developments of the past three decades but more particularly since September 11, 2001. Each weekly session is structured to consist of two complementary segments: the first is intended for broadly-based and theoretically-guided discourses; the second will merge with a public lecture series in which guest speakers present their ongoing research projects or past/present findings. Students are expected to become acquainted with the diverse perspectives across disciplines, as well as with the major debates and current trends that characterize Muslim diasporic experiences.
Segment One: 2:00-3:20
Segment Two: 3:30-4:50
Readings:
Armajani, Jon. Dynamic Islam: Libral Muslim Perspectives in A Transnational Age (UPA 2004);
Bowen, John R. Why the French Don't Like Headscarves: Islam the State, and Public Space (Princeton 2007);
Cesari, Jocelyne. When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States
(Palgrave 2004);
Evans-Braziel, Jana, and Anita Mannur, eds. Theorizing Diaspora: a reader (Blackwell 2003);
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck and Jane I. Smith, eds. Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible (Altamira 2002);
Mandaville, Peter G. G. Transnational Muslim Politics: Re-Imagining the Umma (Taylor & Francis 2003);
Ramadan, Tariq. Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (Oxford 2004);
Smith, Jane I. Islam in America (Columbia 1999);
Thompson, Michael, Islam and the west: Critical Perspectives (Rowman and Littlefield 2003);
In addition:
IPE= Islam: Portability and Exportability (19 short summaries of the lectures of past guest speakers in this program, 2004-2006).
Lectures and Readings Sequence:
April 2
Introduction to the Course: Objectives and Expectations
Introduction to the Topic: Islam, Diaspora, and Muslim Diasporas
April 9
Islam in the West: Euro-Islam vs. American Islam
Guest Speaker: Mehdi Bozorgmehr (City University of New York), Muslim Mobilization in Post-9/11 America
April 16
Islam and the West: The Road to (Post)Modernity
Guest Speaker: Tariq Modood (University of Bristol, England), Multicultural Citizenship: Muslims in the West
April 23
Muslim Diasporic Identities: A Theoretical Framework and Typology
Guest Speaker: Tara Leweling (Major, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA), Exploring Europe's Muslim Diaspora via Social Movement Theory
April 30
Gender Relations and Representations: Theory and Practice
Guest Speaker: Peter O'Brien (Trinity University), Clash within Civilization? Europe's Headscarf Debate in Philosophical Perspective
May 7
From Fundamentalism to Terrorism: Westophobia and Islamophobia
Guest Speaker: Gabriel Sheffer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Duke University, Durham NC), Who's Afraid of Middle Eastern and Muslim Diasporas?
May 14
From Assimilation to Integration and Back
Guest Speaker: Mir Hekmatullah Sadat (Claremont Graduate University), Hyphenating Afghaniyat (Afghan-ness) in the Afghan Diaspora
May 21
Networks and Networking: Social, Political, and Religious Mobilization
Guest Speaker: John Bowen (Washington University, St. Louis), Shaping Islam to France (and Vice-Versa)
May 28
Holiday
June 4
Activists and Academics: (Re-)Mapping the Future With(out) the Past
Speaker: Samy Shavit Swayd (San Diego State University), The GRID Model Deconstructed: A Case Study of the Two S(a/e)yyids