DSPO 25A29 - Islam in Europe and North America

This course introduces students to the social, political and historical dynamics that shape the lives of Muslim minorities in Western Europe and North America. It is divided into three parts. Part 1 situates Islam and Muslims within the larger European and American polities, by comparing how church-State relations, colonial history, immigration and racial inequalities have affected the representation of Islam in the European and American imaginations. Part 2 unpacks a series of public controversies over Islam and Muslims that have occurred over the past few decades and explores what they reveal about Euro-American societies. Part 3 investigates how Islam is lived among ordinary European and American Muslims, with several sessions devoted to ethnographic reading about Muslim life. This course exposes students to a variety of perspectives across the social sciences (history, political science, anthropology, sociology). It takes a comparative stance by covering a plurality of national contexts (France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, etc.). By the end of this class, students will be familiar with the various public and academic debates surrounding European and American Muslims and will be able to mobilize tools from the social sciences to critically discuss religion, secularism, citizenship, discrimination and violence in Western contexts.

Juliette GALONNIER

Séminaire

English

Participation (10% of the grade): Students are expected to attend each class (or play it back for those who live in remote time zones), to read the assigned readings for each class, to answer emails, to engage with the oral presentations of their classmates and to actively participate in classroom discussions. Critical note (20% of the grade): Students are required to watch a TV show, a TV series or a movie, or to listen to a podcast, or to select a speech by a European or American politician and to critically evaluate how the category “Islam” or “Muslim” is being used (2-3 pages, font 12, single spaced). Oral presentation (30% of the grade): Each class, one student (or 2 students) presents the assigned readings for the week. Students are expected to introduce the author and his/her approach, to explain how the text relates to the overall course and to the specific class session, to provide an overview of the main concepts and findings and to critically reflect on the author's arguments. Presentations should last no more than 15 minutes. Students are encouraged to display visual material (Powerpoint or else) by sharing their screen with their classmates and they will have to send their Powerpoint presentation after class. This collection of Powerpoint presentations will help students keep trace of the course. At the end of the oral presentation, two or three questions must be raised for collective discussion. Collective final paper (40% of the grade): Students will gather in groups of 4 students to work on a small research project on the topic of their choice. They will have to produce a 10-page final paper (font 12, single spaced) using original data (interviews, ethnography of real or online communities, media analysis, statistical inquiry, online survey, etc.). Groups and their objects of investigation will be determined early in the semester to allow time for the completion of research. Part of our classroom time will be devoted to small group work and interactions. The final paper requires an introduction, a brief literature review, a clear and interesting research question, a methods section, a well-framed argument, a conclusion and a bibliography. Throughout the semester, students will receive topic suggestions and clear guidelines towards the completion of their final paper. They will present the result of their work to their classmates during the last session of the course and will receive feedback before submitting the final paper after the end of the course.

Autumn 2021-2022