Generating ideas for good practice in teaching Islamic Studies

Gary R. Bunt

www.heacademy.ac.uk/islamicstudiesislamicstudies@heacademy.ac.uk

Objectives of session

Insight and advice on developing an Islamic studies student handbook

Primarily for religious studies perspectives, but also transferable information and advice

Designed for postgraduates and undergraduatesBuilds on a book in preparation on Islamic

studies in UK higher education

Key concerns

What are the key subject specific issues for a study guide?

• Good practice (generic)• Subject specific concerns • Motivation• Outcomes• Undergraduate specific• Postgraduate specific• Resource availability

Why choose IS?

• Motivation• Outcomes – personal• Academic interest• Career• Significant and relevant subject• Transferability • Planning: subject choice

Study skills development

• Terminology• Transliteration• Formatting • Bibliographical standards • Data recording• Resources• Languages

Study skills development II

• Fieldwork, approaches, security• Interviewing • Networking concerns• Relationships with supervisors• Structure of work • Feedback from diverse sources• Textual, archive, digital

Computer Resource use

• Use of internet resources for IS (including contemporary materials, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Google)

• Subject matter dictated by contemporary events

• Catalogues: library resources and availability of other materials

• Wikileaks, political interference

Approaches to subject matter

• Symbolism, leadership, source material access and application (QSH), reliability of translations, use of Qur’an databases: fatwa databases, use of sources, library work

• Personal worldviews: impact, concepts of academic ‘neutrality’ and their validity (if any).

• Academic language v. belief issues (i.e. Islamic terminology and sensitivities)

Approaches to subject matter II

• Traditional approaches? Defining ‘Islamic’ perspectives through a spectrum of understanding

• Terminology isues: what is ‘authentic’, ‘traditional’, ‘Deobandi’, ‘Salafi’, ‘Barelwi’, ‘Wahhabi’, ‘Sufi’, ‘progressive’, ‘liberal’, ‘modernist’ etc.?

Subject sensitivities

• Access to data and individuals• Insider : outsider considerations (are they

valid?): pressures of community, family, etc.• How IS disciplines are perceived: a serious

subject? Relevant? Working in RS and other contexts

Will examiners get it?

Generational gaps:• technology, • worldviews, • political-religious perspectives• Methodological differences• Source conflicts

Controversial subjects • interpretation issues and theories i.e. fatwa

authorities, concepts, legal frameworks, political concerns, philosophical approaches, critical commentaries representing particular worldviews

• underrepresented subjects under the framework of IS (minority perspectives?)

• Gender issues/sexuality• Multiculturalism debate and identity(-ies)• Jihadi discourse [how is this negotiated, for

example online]

Controversial subjects

• How do academics dialogue in sensitive areas?

• Security concerns: fieldwork access and sensitivities, i.e. community access, international travel, fear of publication [can we get an accurate picture of concerns?]

• Country subjects• Military subjects

‘Controversial’ subjects • Censorship: personal, implicit, subtexts for study• Sponsored institutions and chairs: ideas/ideals of

neutrality/objectivity – being closely monitored by departments, universities, external agencies [free speech], home countries

• Orientalism/post-orientalist debates• Opening up other areas for study, i.e. regions,

issues, access• IS in European/N. American/’western’ contexts

Presenting your ideas to others

• Timing• Conferences• Workshops• Exposure to criticism/networking v. giving

away source code and being plagiarised

www.heacademy.ac.uk/islamicstudiesislamicstudies@heacademy.ac.uk