“Liberal Arts are an Islamic Idea”: Subjectivity Formation at Islamic Universities in The West

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-47
Author(s):  
Kirstine Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Community Leadership ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
The West ◽  
Background Values ◽  
Muslim Minorities ◽  
Participatory Observation ◽  
The U.S

AbstractThe aim of this project is to discuss how Islamic universities in the West facilitate and condition the formation of modern Muslim subjectivities. The central question of the study is: How is the formation of modern forms of subjectivities tied together with the reinterpretation of Islamic traditions? The paper provides analysis of the curricula, and institution background, values and aims of two universities—Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, the first Muslim liberal arts college in the U.S.; and Cambridge Muslim College, the first to offer a Diploma in Muslim community leadership in Britain. Alongside the textually founded analysis, interviews conducted with leadership, faculty and students, and participatory observation inform the discussion. Analysis demonstrates that both institutions see themselves as mediators between Islamic traditions and modern Muslims in the West, and as having a responsibility to engage in the development of both Muslim minorities and the wider societies within which they operate.

Revising the Declension Narrative: Liberal Arts Colleges, Universities, and Honors Programs, 1870s-2010s

2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Kimball
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Honors Programs ◽  
College Mission ◽  
The Past ◽  
Diversity In Higher Education ◽  
Arts Programs ◽  
The U.S

This article examines the prominent narrative asserting that liberal arts colleges have continuously declined in number and status over the past 130 years. Bruce A. Kimball identifies problems in this declension narrative and proposes a revision positing that the decline of liberal arts colleges began only after 1970. Further, he maintains that the fraction of the U.S. population enrolling in collegiate liberal arts programs has remained surprisingly consistent over the past two centuries. That same fraction continues after 1970 because universities began to replicate the liberal arts college by establishing honors programs, and student enrollment after 1970 shifted from liberal arts colleges to the new subsidized honors programs in universities. Kimball concludes that this shift does not ensure that the fraction of enrollment in collegiate liberal arts will continue to remain consistent in the future. There is reason to doubt the long-term commitment of universities to supporting honors programs devoted to the traditional liberal arts college mission of fostering culture, community, and character, although this mission grows more important and complex as access to and diversity in higher education increase.

scholarly journals An Islamic University in the West and the Question of Modern Authenticity

Numen ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-421
Author(s):  
Kirstine Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Faculty Members ◽  
The West ◽  
Professional Careers ◽  
Muslim Minority ◽  
Muslims In The West ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Muslim Minorities ◽  
Participatory Observation ◽  
Contemporary Britain

AbstractThe aim of this article is to discuss how Islamic universities in the West facilitate and condition the formation of modern Muslim subjectivities in minority contexts, with an emphasis on the institutions as providers of guidelines for good, Muslim minority life. This is done through a case study of Cambridge Muslim College in the UK. Its values and aims are explored through interviews with the founder and dean, faculty members and students, and through participatory observation. Cambridge Muslim College sees itself as a mediator between Islamic traditions and modern Muslims in the West, and as responsible for engaging in the development of both Muslim minorities and the wider society within which it operates. The questions guiding the study are the following: What role do Islamic universities play in shaping modern Muslim subjectivities in the West? How does Cambridge Muslim College combine understandings of authenticity with preparing their students for professional careers in Britain? The study shows that the understanding of authenticity that is encouraged by college dean Shaykh Abdal Hakim provides an important tool for the students as they strive to form meaningful selves and careers in contemporary Britain. Thus, references to authentic Islam is used to support the development of both working and moral modern subjects.

Islamic Philanthropy as a “Discursive Tradition”

2016 ◽  
pp. 186-204
Author(s):  
Sabithulla Khan
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Islam In America ◽  
Islamic Schools ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
The U.S

By examining philanthropy towards Zaytuna College, the first Muslim liberal arts college in the U.S. and ISNA, and contextualizing it in the discourses of giving among American Muslims, this paper seeks to offer a theoretical framework for contextualizing Islamic philanthropy during ‘crisis'. I argue that philanthropy in this context should be seen as a gradually evolving ‘discursive tradition,' and not an unchanging one. Given the discourse of Islam in America being one framed in the rubric of ‘crisis,' and the attempts by American Muslim organizations to garner philanthropic support using this framework; it is important to understand how certain crisis situations impacted discourses of philanthropy towards this sector. This paper attempts a Foucaldian analysis of how American Muslims negotiate this discursive tension in the realm of giving. I build on the work of various scholars and offer a framework that treats philanthropy towards Islamic schools, cultural and educational institutions as a ‘discursive tradition' to understand how the dynamics of philanthropy are changing in this sector. I propose that a discursive approach could also offer us new insights into how philanthropy is being transformed, under certain institutional constraints and relations of power.

Interchapter V Bildung and Built-ins

2019 ◽  
pp. 161-164
Author(s):  
Adam Zachary Newton
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
York City ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
The West ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
Hebrew School ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Protests

Hebrew school from the childhood years in New York City. Dickens and Tolkien, the social protests of 1968, experienced at eleven years of age in the Bronx. In the 1970s, liberal arts college, where mentors in music theory and composition and, later, literary studies, were teaching. Friendship with peers and teachers who were adolescents at the time of the Rosenberg affair, a vision, dazzling for a newcomer, of a fellowship that professes the Humanities and of a vocation to which one can attach oneself by spirit and heart as much as by training. A stay in the 1980s on the West Coast, and an apprenticeship in teaching composition. Harvard, Stanley Cavell. The theoretical ...

Islamic Philanthropy as a “Discursive Tradition”

2020 ◽  
pp. 414-428
Author(s):  
Sabithulla Khan
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Islam In America ◽  
Islamic Schools ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
The U.S

By examining philanthropy towards Zaytuna College, the first Muslim liberal arts college in the U.S. and ISNA, and contextualizing it in the discourses of giving among American Muslims, this paper seeks to offer a theoretical framework for contextualizing Islamic philanthropy during ‘crisis'. I argue that philanthropy in this context should be seen as a gradually evolving ‘discursive tradition,' and not an unchanging one. Given the discourse of Islam in America being one framed in the rubric of ‘crisis,' and the attempts by American Muslim organizations to garner philanthropic support using this framework; it is important to understand how certain crisis situations impacted discourses of philanthropy towards this sector. This paper attempts a Foucaldian analysis of how American Muslims negotiate this discursive tension in the realm of giving. I build on the work of various scholars and offer a framework that treats philanthropy towards Islamic schools, cultural and educational institutions as a ‘discursive tradition' to understand how the dynamics of philanthropy are changing in this sector. I propose that a discursive approach could also offer us new insights into how philanthropy is being transformed, under certain institutional constraints and relations of power.

scholarly journals Family Business/Entrepreneurial Studies: A Small Private Liberal Arts College Approach

2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tony Bledsoe
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Family Business ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Business Research ◽  
Female Undergraduate ◽  
Privately Held Firms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Privately Held

The Center for Women’s Business Research reports that, “As of 2002, there are an estimated 10.1 million privately-held majority or 50% women-owned businesses in the U.S., accounting for 46% of all privately-held firms. These firms generate $2.3 trillion in sales and employ 18.2 million workers.” Further it states, “In North Carolina, women-owned firms approach 171,000, employment tops 307,000, and sales exceed $37.3 billion.” Given the impact of these statistics, the questions arises what, if anything, should a small, all-female, undergraduate, private liberal arts college do about developing and implementing a Family Business/Entrepreneurial (FB/E) studies program? This paper reviews issues: national, state and college to determine the direction for establishing a program at this school.

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