Bachelor
FS 2012
Introduction to Islam
This is an introductory course on Islam and its modern social manifestations. The content of the course provides a foundational knowledge on Islam approached both from its historical and contemporary perspectives. An understanding of the origins and early development of Islam is followed by an exploration of selected issues that are relevant to Islam and Muslims in the Modern World. Modern Islamic religiosities and a variety of Islamic political currents, issues related to Human rights such as the role of women and of non-Muslims in Islamic Law, Islamic economics and religiously inspired banking systems and last but not least, the relationship with ‘the West.’
HS 2012
Muslim Cultural Diversity
This course introduces students into the anthropological study of the Muslim World, by analysing notions for analytical inquiry such as kinship and tribalism, patriarchy and religious law in a diversity of cultural contexts. The course proposes an approach to the most numerous ethnic groups of today’s Muslim World by discussing its variegated cultural diversity in relation to particular social and cultural practices.
FS 2013
Islam in Europe
The course is an introduction to the most salient features, analytical tools and debates on the presence of Islam in Europe. It critically assesses the processes of social accommodation and religious transformation resulting from the dynamics of consolidating a more significant presence of Islam in Western European countries over the last three decades. Key aspects for a nuanced understanding of this dynamics are explored, such as the transformation undergone by ritual praxis, religious institutionalisation and authority, as well as the creation of new religious identities. It also discusses the variegated and complex relationship between the diverse religious and ethnic groups that constitute the Muslim presence of Europe with the specific approaches that different Western European states have adopted in relation to Islam and to Muslims. It also introduces students into the most significant public debates that have resulted from the growing presence of Muslim populations in European lands and the questioning and re-thinking of notions related to citizenship and individual rights and duties.
HS 2013
Gender Dynamics in Islam
The course addresses the variegated ways of conceptualizing gender issues and roles as well as bodily identities and sexualities in a variety of cultural areas of the Muslim world. It is an approximation to gender dynamics from various angles: intellectual cum religious discourses, legal dimensions, venues for political participation, sexualities and sexual practices and an scrutiny of family, household and the everyday life.