Europe

Muslims in a Global Context
Friday, March 20, 2015 to Sunday, March 22, 2015

Europe

This one credit mini-course is part of a series organized by regions around the world based on their role on the world stage, their importance within the Muslim world, and the critical influence they play in the global community. The series and course seeks to illuminate the various perspectives of the Muslim community around the world. Drawing upon the expertise and research of participating faculty from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh and our partners at institutions around the world, the mini course series seeks to have students gain understanding of the religious, cultural, economical and political influences of Muslims in a global context.

Course Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course, students will:

  1. Gain an understanding of history, governance, economics, law, gender education and political dimensions of the peoples and regions focused for each mini course.
  2. Explore one of these factors in depth, through a research paper.

Textbook:
Materials for students taking the course for credit will be available via Blackboard

Description:
The Muslims in the Global Context series offers the opportunity to examine the factors and trends that are having major impacts on these diverse regions and their relationships with other world regions and countries. The mini-courses consist of presentations on topics of critical importance to the understanding of Muslims in diverse regions of the world. In addition to attendance at all lectures, students enrolled for credit are required to develop and write a research paper on one of the themes of the mini-course and answer reflection prompts during the course. One- credit/ 3 units for CMU students is provided for the completion of each mini-course.

Assessment:
Due to the immersive nature of the course, students are expected to attend all sessions on all three days. Further, each student will be required to read the assigned book and develop a research paper on one dimension of Muslims in a global context that has been introduced in class. The paper should be based on one of the topics covered in the course. The length of the research paper will be 5-10 pages, double spaced in 11 point font. Research papers are due by Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015 and should be submitted through the University of Pittsburgh's Courseweb or Carnegie Mellon's Blackboard assignment tab for the course.

Audit Option:
Carnegie Mellon students may also audit the course by attending all the sessions, but not writing the paper. You should be sure to process an audit form, both if you are auditing from the beginning or later if you have decided not to do a paper and want your status changed from credit to audit. Once the course has started students will be graded based on how they signed up for the course.

University of Pittsburgh students must take the course for a letter grade. Students who wish to attend without earning credit may do so my registering as a community member.

Sponsored by: University of Pittsburgh's Global Studies Center, Political Science Department, and the European Union Center of Excellence/European Studies Center, and Carnegie Mellon University's Office of the Provost and Division of Student Affairs 

Diego Holstein
Recommended Readings:

  • Anwar G. Chejne. "Islamization and Arabization in al-Alandalus". Chapter in "Islam and Cultural Change in the Middle Ages" (1975), editted by Speros Vryonis Jr.
  • The Encyclopaedia of Islam, definition of "Mozarab" 
  • The Encyclopaedia of Islam, definition of "Mudejar" 
  • John Tolan's  Introduction and Kenneth Baxter Wolf's Ch. 4 of "Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam."  Garland Medieval Casebooks Vol. 10.

Recent Publications:

  • Diego Olstein. (2011). "The Mozarabs of Toledo (12th-13th Centuries) in Historiography, Sources and History."
  • Diego Olstein. (2006). "The Arabic Origins of Romance Private Documents." Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Vol 17, No. 4, 433-443, October 2006. 

 

Richard Fogarty
Recommended Readings:

  • William B. Cohen, “The Algerian War and the Revision of France's Overseas Mission” French Colonial History 4 (2003), 227-239.
  • Joshua Cole, “Massacres and Their Historians: Recent Histories of State Violence in France and Algeria in the Twentieth Century,” French Politics, Culture & Society 28, no. 1 (Spring 2010), 106-126.
  • Naomi Davidson, “’Accessible to all Muslims and to the Parisian Public’: The Mosquée de Paris and French Islam in the French Capital,” Thresholds 32 (Fall 2006), 12-17.  [attached]
  • Joan W. Scott, “Symptomatic Politics: The Banning of Islamic Head Scarves in French Public Schools,” French Politics, Culture & Society 23, no. 3 (Winter 2005), 106-127.
  • George Trumbull IV, “’Au Coin des Rues Diderot et Moïse’: Religious Politics and the Ethnography of Sufism in Colonial Algeria, 1871–1906,” French Historical Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Summer 2007), 451-483.
  • Patrick Weil, “Lifting the Veil,” French Politics, Culture & Society 22, no. 3 (Fall 2004), 142-149.

 

Neil Doshi
Recommended Readings:

  • Naomi Davidson, “Only Muslim: Embodying Islam in Twentieth-Century France” (2012), Cornell University Press.
  • Azouz Begag, “Shantytown Kid” (1986), University of Nebraska Press. 

 

Lindsay Krasnoff
Recommended Readings:

Recent Publications:

 

Jeanette Jouili
Recommended Readings:

  • Ewing, Katherine. 2008. Stolen Honor, Stanford UP. Chapters 6-7
  • Bowen, John. 2007. Why the French don't like headscarves. Princeton UP. Chapters 2-3 
  • Bracke, Sarah. 2011. subjects of debate: secular and sexual exceptionalism, and Muslim women in the Netherlands Feminist Review 98
  • Rottmann, Susan B., and Myra Marx Ferree. 2008. Citizenship and Intersectionality: German Feminist Debates About Headscarf and Antidiscrimination Laws. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society 15: 481–513
  • Optional Reading: Scott, Joan. The Politics of the Veil. Princeton UP. Chapters 2,3,5.

Recent Publications:

  • May 2015: Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe. Stanford University Press. 
  • 2014: “Refining the Umma in the Shadow of the Republic: Islamic Performing Arts and
  • New Islamic Audio-visual Landscapes in France,” Special Issue in Anthropology Quarterly 87.4: 1079-1104
  • 2013:“Rapping the Republic: Utopia, Critique and Muslim Role Models in Secular France,” French Politics, Culture & Society 31.2: 58-80
  • 2011:“Beyond Emancipation: Subjectivities and Ethics among Women in Europe’s Islamic Revival Communities,” Feminist Review 98: 47-64
  • 2009:  “Negotiating Secular Boundaries: Pious Micro-practices of Muslim Women in French and German Public Spheres,” Social Anthropology 17.4: 445-470

 

Ayselin Yildiz
Recommended Readings:

  • Kemal Kirisci, “ The Rise and Fall of Turkey as a Model for the Arab World”. Brookings Institute, Opinion, August 15, 2013 
  • Ahmet Davutoglu, “ Principles of Turkish Foreign Policy and Regional Political Structuring”, International Policy and Leadership Institute (TEPAV), Turkey Policy Brief Series Third Edition, 2012, pp.1-9    
  • Henri Barkey, “The Evolution of Turkish Foreign Policy in the Middle East”, Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), pp.1-8  
  • Osman Bahadir Dincer &Mustafa Kutlay, “ Turkey’s Power Capacity in the Middle East Limits of the Possible: An Empirical Analysis”, International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), No:12-04, June 2012, pp.1-37 
  • Emre İşeri & A.Oğuz Dilek, "Beyond a Turkish Model in Transforming the Penetrated Middle East: The Nexus of Domestic Authority and International Prestige", Ortadoğu Etütleri, Volume 3, No 2, January 2012, pp.119-142.
  • Kemal Kirişçi, “Turkey’s ‘Demonstrative Effect’ and the Transformation of the Middle East”, Insight Turkey, Vol.13, No.2, 2011, p. 35

 

Mame-Fatou Niang
Recommended Readings:

  • Fellag, N. (2014). "The Muslim Label: How French North Africans Have Become “Muslims” and not “Citizens” Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe Vol 13, No 4, 2014, 1-25

Recent Publications:

  • "Mères migrantes et filles de la République : Identité et Féminité dans le roman de banlieue." La France face à ses banlieues. Spec. Issue of Présence Francophone 80 (2013): 60-84. Print
  •  "Kenbe La! Haïti ou l’écriture de l’urgence."The Unspeakable : Representations of Trauma in Francophone Literature and Art.Eds. N. El Nossery and A. Hubbell. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. 173-192. Print

 

Michael Kenney
Recommended Readings:

  • “Hotbed of Radicalization or Something Else?: An Ethnographic Exploration of a Muslim Neighborhood in Ceuta,” Terrorism and Political Violence 23, no. 4 (Fall 2011): 537-559.

Recent Publications:

  • “Hotbed of Radicalization or Something Else?: An Ethnographic Exploration of a Muslim Neighborhood in Ceuta,” Terrorism and Political Violence 23, no. 4 (Fall 2011): 537-559.
  • “‘Dumb’ yet Deadly: Local Knowledge and Poor Tradecraft among Islamist Militants in Britain and Spain,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 33, no. 10 (October 2010): 911-932.
  • “Organizational Learning and Islamic Militancy,” NIJ Journal, no. 265 (April 2010): 18-21.