Postgraduate Course: Regional Perspectives in a Globalised Muslim World (IMES11099)
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 course presents historical, religious, political, social, economic, and cultural perspectives from the core regions of the Muslim world and from Muslim-minority contexts paying special attention to contemporary regional issues. Each lecture/seminar will introduce the students to specific tools of investigation and approaches of analysis that are particularly significant for these perspectives. It will help students answer key questions about Muslim communities in specific regions of the Muslim world. The course will also highlight the connections and bridges, as well as the significant differences, between regions and perspectives as students progressively build a better understanding of the field of research. |
Course description |
This course examines the evolving dynamics of Muslim societies in the different regions of the Muslim world (and beyond) in the modern period. It explores the key features of Muslim societies and regional interactions across religious, socio-economic, cultural, and political phenomena. The course themes include different levels of analysis (from the relations between states to the everyday practices of religiosity).
This course will cover themes related to regional perspectives on the Muslim World that may include, but will not be limited to, the following topics:
Muslim dynamics in Sub Saharan Africa
Islamism and International Relations in the Middle East
Shiism and Iran in context
North Africa Islamism after the Arab uprisings
South East Asian Muslim societies
Muslims in India/South Asia
European Islam/Islamism
Comparative Muslim regionalism
The course is a combination of lecture-style presentation of the weekly topic by the lecturer for the first hour of the course, followed by a tutorial style seminar in the ensuing hour where students among themselves and students and the lecturer discuss and explore in more depth some of the salient issues pertaining to the topic.
Lecture slides will be made available to the students before the session alongside a series of weekly questions and exercises that should be researched and answered in preparation for the seminar. A specific session on research design will take place to prepare the students for the writing up of a research project. This PG course is taught jointly with UG students. There are two extra PG sessions as a part of the course delivery.
|
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 2023/24, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 10 |
Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 24,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
|
Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
Additional Information (Assessment) |
1. A 2,000-word essay (45%)
2. A 2,500-word research project design on an aspect of globalized Muslim politics (55%) |
Feedback |
- Comments provided by orally on formative exercises.
- Individual written feedback on summative essay provided by marker.
- Individual written feedback on research project design provided by marker. |
No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Explain and analyse, by drawing on scholarly texts, Muslims' social and political experiences of living in a globalized Muslim world.
- Analyse the principal modes of governing society in different parts of the Muslim world, and assess and evaluate the main factors influencing them.
- Evaluate the different disciplinary approaches to the study of Muslim politics around the world, and how they have changed over time.
- Apply and support arguments using appropriate theoretical and empirical literature from across the social sciences and humanities.
- Design a research project on an aspect of globalized Muslim politics through a given disciplinary approach.
|
Reading List
Essential:
Appadurai, Arjun. 2006. Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger. Durham: Duke University Press.
Asad, Talal. 2003. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Bayat, Asef. 2007. Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Césari, Jocelyne. 2014. The Awakening of Muslim Democracy: Religion, Modernity, and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Devji, Faisal. 2008. The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics. New York: Columbia University Press
Diamond, Larry J., Marc F. Plattner, & Daniel Brumberg (Eds.). 2003. Islam and Democracy in the Middle East. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Eickelman, Dale & James Piscatori. 2004. Muslim Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gerges, Fawaz A. 2005. The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gräf, Bettina & Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (Eds.). 2009. Global mufti: the phenomenon of Y¿suf al-Qara¿¿w¿. New York: Columbia University Press.
Haddad, Yvonne (Ed). 2001. Muslims in the West. From Sojourners to Citizens. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hefner, Robert W. (Ed.). 2005. Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Khalid, Adeeb. 2014. Islam after Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia, 2nd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mahmood, Sabah. 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mandaville, Peter. 2001. Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma. New York: Routledge.
Mandaville, Peter. 2013. Islam and Politics. New York: Routledge
Menchik, Jeremy. 2016. Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roy, Olivier. 2004. Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York: Columbia University Press.
Schwedler, Jillian. 2007. Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Soares, Benjamin and René Otayek (Ed.). 2007. Islam and Muslim Politics in Africa. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Volpi, Frédéric. 2010. Political Islam Observed. New York: Oxford University Press USA.
Volpi, Frédéric. 2010. Political Islam: A Critical Reader (New York: Routledge, 2010)
Wickham, Carrie Rosefsky. 2002. Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in Egypt. New York: Columbia University Press.
Yavuz, M. Hakan. 2009. Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- The technical and critical skills necessary to locate academic literature relevant to the field of inquiry.
- The ability to interpret and analyse academic literature pertinent to the study of Muslim communities across the globe.
- The ability to identify, conceptualise and define new and abstract problems and issues emerging across the globalised Muslim world.
- The skills necessary to evaluate critically their own and others' work.
- The range of skills necessary to execute a major piece of original research.
- The ability to formulate a research proposal and dissertation drawing on appropriate source materials and to place this in an academic context.
- The ability to use relevant secondary literature and discuss pertinent interpretative debates.
- The ability to reach an independent judgement, based on their own research.
- An openness to new ideas, perspectives and opinions.
- An intellectual curiosity leading to the achievement of academic, professional or personal goals beyond the duration of this programme. |
Keywords | Muslim world,history,politics,religion |
Contacts
Course organiser | Dr Kholoud Al-Ajarma
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Anne Budo
Tel: (0131 6)50 4161
Email: |
|
|