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Understanding Muslim Congregational Life
Fall 2011
The Mosque has a spiritual reality, but it is also a social organization, made up of human beings, with conflicts and habits, and grounded in a particular context. The more these social dimensions of the congregation are understood, the better its leadership can make decisions, plan ministry and envision its future. This course is designed for students who wish to learn about the congregational side of American Muslim life. It is particularly useful for current and future Muslim organizers, who wish to better understand the dynamics of their congregations. We will use a combination of lectures, readings and practical hands-on experience to study one mosque during the class meetings and then each student will explore his or her own mosque as the final assignment. We will look at the congregation's identity and culture, its context, the material and human resources, the structures of power, and the leadership dynamics in an effort to understand this complex spiritual entity that is the mosque. (Fall 2011)
Wednesdays, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., beginning September 7 (15 weeks)
Syllabus:
Objective:
This course is designed to be practical. Its approach is methodological and thematic. Its main goal is to enable students to analyze varied aspects of Muslim congregational life. A major focus will be an introduction to methodologies of congregational studies, such as participant observation, interviews, and situational analysis of the congregations' place in larger Muslim and non-Muslim networks. The thematic aspect of the course will introduce students to key themes in American Muslim history and contemporary life, such as gender, ethnicity, generational change, participation in public life, local and international connections, and religious discourses. In addition, each student will be required to carry out a study of one congregation throughout the semester. Such a study will be a practical exercise in how well students are able to employ methodological approaches in conjunction with comparative analyses derived from the thematic overviews of American Muslim history, sociology, and ethnography.
Course Requirements:
- For all students (audit and credit), we expect active participation in class, group activities and fieldwork.
- We require that students attend every session. A failure to come to more than 3 classes without evidence of serious reason will result in a failing grade.
- The semester will be organized in four sections, each introducing a methodological and thematic approach. At the end of each section (roughly four weeks in length), each students will be required to submit a 5 page reflection that will incorporate preliminary results of their fieldwork with the methodological and thematic analysis based on the class readings and discussions. Each student will present their analysis in class.
- Throughout the semester, as a rule, each student will study one congregation, which will be the site of their fieldwork. However, we also welcome proposals for multi-congregational studies of an aspect of Muslim congregational life (such as education, gender, generational changes, religious life, discourse analysis, etc.)
At the end of the semester, each student taking the course for credit will be required to submit a 15-20 page final paper based on their research. The deadline for the final paper is 12:00 pm on January 15, 2012.
Each student will be required to present in class preliminary results of their studies.
Assessment:
- class participation (attendance and participation in discussions): 10 %
- four five-page reflections: 40% (10% each)
- class presentations: 20 % (number of presentations TBD)
- final paper: 30%
Books:
Required Texts:
Nancy T. Ammerman et al, Studying Congregations: A New Handbook (Abington Press, 1998). ISBN 0-687-00651-1
Linda S. Walbridge, Without forgetting the Imam : Lebanese Shiʻism in an American community (Wayne State University Press, 1997). ISBN 0814326757
Jamillah Karim, American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class, and Gender within the American Ummah (New York University Press, 2009). ISBN 0-8147-4809-0