Research on and teaching of Transnational Islam is one of the major clusters of the Center for Global Islamic Studies. The cluster examines both the historical and contemporary transnational connections between Muslims across national and cultural boundaries. This research pays a particular attention to the Muslim Transnational networks around particularly Islamic traditions, ideas, and ideologies by exploring their attempts to embody the principles of a universal Islam. We are interested in the transnational practices of Muslims both within the Muslims world across national, cultural and linguistic boundaries as well as outside the Muslim world in global centers of contemporary migration destinations.
The cluster will teach and undertake research on the major topics of transnational practices of Muslims movements, groups, immigrants, and scholars and their contribution to the emergence and persistence of global Islam. How and to what extent, the use of the media and the new technologies of communication by the different Muslims individual and collective actors enhance the participation of Muslims in global social, economic, political, and cultural processes? Another topic of interest for both teaching and research for this cluster is the integration of Muslims minorities within democratic and secular western immigration countries. How in the context of the post 9/11 are we transitioning from Multicultural policies of integrating religious and ethnic minorities in the West to more aggressive assimilationist policies highlighting the need of minorities to adopt majority national identities? How are Muslims in the West acting and reacting in different national and geographical context while continuing develop and expand their transnational connections with their home countries?
The purpose of this cluster is to be a resource that would generate interest, produce inter-disciplinary synergies, and contribute with an enhanced understanding of transnational Islam both in the Muslim world and in Western destinations of Muslim migrants. The Transnational Islam cluster under the Center for Global Islamic Studies will, therefore, facilitate the inception of new research projects, organize regular meetings and conferences, as well as generate academic publications. It aims to be an important meeting place for faculty and students interested in Transnational Islam; a venue for sharing ideas and findings, and for discussions and generating ideas.
Faculty
- Prof. Abdoulaye Kane, Department of Anthropology