[Soasiastudents] "Representing Islam" Roundtable - 6/2

[Keith Snodgrass]

Representing Islam 

Roundtable on representing Islam and Muslims 

Thursday, June 2, 2005 
3:30-5:00pm 
Communications 202 


Islam and Muslims have been the focus of several on-campus events this academic year. The organizers of this roundtable are interested in assessing the ways in which these representations are being organized and utilized in academic pursuits, especially at a time when popular media images of Islam and Muslims are simplified, clichéd and even vilified.  We are concerned about the increasing invocation on campus of the "Clash of Civilizations" model, a mainstay of US foreign policy analyses and press coverage of "East-West" conflicts.  It can be argued that while this theory, first posited by Bernard Lewis and extended by Samuel Huntington in the early 1990s, represents an extreme minority viewpoint within Middle East area studies and related fields, other non-specialized disciplines are engaging with the model in a less than critical way. In this roundtable, we hope to ask the following questions:

 

  a..  What kinds of representation are taking place at the University of Washington? 
 

  a.. What are the relationships between popular media and academic representations of Islam? 


  b..  How might we envision a critical conversation about representation and the responsibility that goes with it? 


  c.. How can we prevent the decontextualization of Muslim communities from complex contemporary and historical social environments?
 

Speakers will include Prof. Selim Kuru (NELC), Prof. Ali Igmen (History) and Jennifer Petzen (Interdisciplinary Program in Middle Eastern Studies).
The roundtable will also discuss proposals for teaching and research for the 2005-2006 academic year. Proposals might include a lecture series, conference, and/or curriculum development plan.

 

Sponsored by the Center for Curriculum Transformation. Refreshments will be provided.

 

Organized by Maureen Jackson, Isik Özel, and Jennifer Petzen
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