HUAS95607 - The Modern Muslim World

Course Description

In this course, we will study Muslim experiences of modernity in terms of religious thought, politics, and social culture. Beginning with the traumas of colonization, we will study religious reform, the rise of mass media, and economic and technological change. We will discuss how traditional institutions such as madrasas changed, challenged, and accommodated new understandings of religious and non-religious knowledge and new forms of belonging and supervision. While retaining our focus on how Muslims have understood the past two centuries’ possibilities and challenges, we will also think about how Western scholars, journalists, and politicians have constructed Islam and Muslims as “other” in modern encounters.

HUAS95607