Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T06:17:15.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Liberal Arts are an Islamic Idea”: Subjectivity Formation at Islamic Universities in The West*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2016

Kirstine Sinclair
Kirstine Sinclair*
Affiliation:
University of Southern Denmark
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The aim of this project is to discuss how Islamic universities in the West facilitate and condition the formation of modern Muslim subjectivities. The central question of the study is: How is the formation of modern forms of subjectivities tied together with the reinterpretation of Islamic traditions? The paper provides analysis of the curricula, and institution background, values and aims of two universities—Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, the first Muslim liberal arts college in the U.S.; and Cambridge Muslim College, the first to offer a Diploma in Muslim community leadership in Britain. Alongside the textually founded analysis, interviews conducted with leadership, faculty and students, and participatory observation inform the discussion. Analysis demonstrates that both institutions see themselves as mediators between Islamic traditions and modern Muslims in the West, and as having a responsibility to engage in the development of both Muslim minorities and the wider societies within which they operate.

Keywords

Islamic universitiessubjectivity formationmodernityuniversity educationMuslims in the West
Type
SPECIAL SECTION REPORT ON THE MODERN MUSLIM SUBJECTIVITIES PROJECT
Information
Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 38 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America, Inc. 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the Danish Carlsberg Foundation for providing the necessary funding for travel expenses and thus enabling visits at Zaytuna College and Cambridge Muslim College between July 2014 and July 2015.

References

Works Cited

Cambridge Muslim College (CMC). “Aims and Objectives.” Accessed 3 May 2015, http://www.cambridgemuslimcollege.org/about/objective/.Google Scholar
CMC. “Cambridge the University.” Accessed 3 May 2015, http://www.cambridgemuslimcollege.org/cambridge/cambridge-the-university/.Google Scholar
Frick, Werner. 1988. Providenz und Kontingenz. Untersuchung zur Schicksalssemantik im deutschen und europäischen Roman des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Teil 1. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.Google Scholar
Jung, Dietrich and Sinclair, Kirstine. 2014. “Modernitet og moderniteter: subjektivitet og social kontrol i konstruktionen af islamiske moderniteter.” Dansk Sociologi 25 (2): 51–77.Google Scholar
Jung, Dietrich and Sinclair, Kirstine. (forthcoming). “Multiple Modernities, Modern Subjectivities and Social Order: Unity and Difference in the Rise of Islamic Modernities.” ThesisEleven.Google Scholar
Korb, Scott. 2013. Light without Fire: The Making of America's First Muslim College. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Luhmann, Niklas. 1992. Beobachtungen der Moderne. Opladen: VS Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muslim500. “Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson.” Accessed 3 May 2015, http://themuslim500.com/profile/sheikh-hamza-yusuf-hanson.Google Scholar
Peck, Tom. 2010. “Timothy Winter: Britain's Most Influential Muslim—and It Was All Down to a Peach.” The Independent, 20 August 2010. Accessed 15 April 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/timothy-winter-britains-most-influential-muslim-and-it-was-all-down-to-a-peach-2057400.html.Google Scholar
Reckwitz, Andreas. 2006. Das hybride Subjekt. Eine Theorie der Subjektkulturen von der bürgelichen Moderne zur Postmoderne. Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft.Google Scholar
Rothstein, Mikael and Kranenborg, Reender, eds. 2003. New Religions in a Postmodern World. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, Mark. 2004. Against the Modern world: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1995. “Two Theories of Modernity.” The Hastings Center Report 25 (2): 24–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zaytuna. “About.” Accessed 3 May 2015, http://www.zaytunacollege.org/about/.Google Scholar
Zaytuna. “Catalogue.” College Catalogue 2013–14, 44. Accessed 3 May 2015, http://www.zaytunacollege.org/about/our_mission.Google Scholar
Zaytuna. “Zaytuna College Is Now the First Accredited Muslim College in America.” Accessed 3 May 2015, http://www.zaytunacollege.org/edu/.Google Scholar