Academics
Living Islam
FPR 191
(Fulfills 3 credits of the General Education Requirements in the Arts and Humanities)
Professor Karen Ruffles, Department of Religious Studies
Mon./Wed., 4:30-5:45; Section HJ
This course introduces students to Islam as it is actually lived by Muslims in various cultures and countries. We will focus on the varying ways in which Islam is practiced, performed, transmitted, negotiated, and debated throughout the world. By engaging both texts and lived practices, as well as universal and local ways of being Muslim, we will examine such topics as crafting American-Muslim/Muslim-American identities, spirit possession and healing rituals, Shi`ite mourning rituals in India and Iraq, the many ways of being Muslim men and women, pilgrimage, and Muslim youth cultures. The first part of the course will provide an overview of the basic beliefs and teachings of Islam so no prior knowledge of Islam is assumed.
Karen Ruffle (Ph.D., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2007) teaches courses in Islamic studies and religions of South Asia. Her research interests focus on Shi`i devotional literature and ritual in India and Iran where she has completed ethnographic fieldwork and archival research on the development and Indianization of Muharram. She has additional interests in gender theory and expressions of sainthood. In addition to offering the Introduction to Islam each year, she offers an introductory course on the religions of South Asia, and seminars on Islam and Gender, Islam in Modern Times, and Epic Traditions.
