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ITS365syllabus.docx

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With the end of the Cold War, Central Asia, a region that for many remains relatively obscure, has enjoyed renewed attention. One area of particular interest for many observers has been the impact of the so-called “Islamic factor” on domains like regional security, domestic politics, and international relations. However, the region is sometimes treated as peripheral to the rest of the Islamic world, while Central Asian Muslims are depicted as casual and ignorant in comparison to their supposedly more rigorous and “authentic” coreligionists elsewhere. As a result, Islam’s role in Central Asia, past and present, remains poorly understood and misconstrued as a source of danger, backwardness, and instability. The goal of this course is to shed light on the different ways that people make sense of Islam in contemporary Central Asia, with a particular focus on the diversity of Islamic belief and practice in the region. Special emphasis will also be placed on exploring the ways in which Islam is imbricated with, rather than opposed to, modernity and modern ideologies like nationalism and the nation-state.

Class meetings will consist of lecture and discussion. Students will be expected to participate in class discussions and will learn to think critically, and to substantiate beliefs and opinions with facts and context.

Required Texts

· Julie McBrien – From Belonging to Belief

· Adeeb Khalid – Islam after Communism

· Richard Foltz – Religions of the Silk Road (recommended)

· Other course materials will be available on Canvas

Response Papers:

Periodically throughout the semester students will be asked to submit reading response papers. The purpose of these assignments is to get you to reflect critically on the assigned readings, to put them in conversation with other readings, and to offer your personal thoughts and reflections.

Class Schedule:

	*Topic*	*Readings*	*NOTES:*
Week 1 01/27	Perspectives on “Islam”	· Salvatore – Western Scholars of Islam on the Issue of Modernity · McBrien – Introduction · Light – Participation and Analysis in Studying Religion in Central Asia
Week 2 02/03	Pre-Tsarist Eurasia	· Khalid – Ch. 1 · Abazov – Maps 5-38 (skim as necessary) · DeWeese – The Religious Environment · Khalid (PMCR) – Knowledge and Society in the 19th Century
Week 3 02/10	Tsarist Russia	· Sahni – Ch. 1 · Khalid – Ch. 2 · Crews – 1) A Church for Islam *AND 2)* Nomads into Muslims	PAPER PROSPECTUS
Week 4 02/17	The Jadid Movement	· Khalid (PMCR) – 1) The Origins of Jadidism, AND 2)* The Politics of Admonition* · DeWeese – It Was a Dark and Stagnant Night (‘til the Jadids Brought the Light)

Week 5 02/24	Modernity Imposed	· Khalid – Ch. 3 · Khalid (PMCR) – 1) 1917: The Moment of Truth AND 2)* Epilogue* · Northrop – The Limits of Liberation · Keller – Breaking Islam & Conclusion
Week 6 03/03	Islam in the Soviet Union I	· Khalid – Ch. 4 · Kemper – Studying Islam in the Soviet Union · Bennigsen & Lemercier-Quelquejay – 1) Muslim Religious Conservatism and Dissent in the USSR AND 2)* “Official” Islam in the Soviet Union*
Week 7 03/10	Islam in the Soviet Union II	· Rasanayagam – The New Soviet (Central Asian) Person and the Colonization of Consciousness · DeWeese – Islam and the Legacy of Sovietology; Survival Strategies · Saroyan – The Reinterpretation and Adaptation of Soviet Islam	ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Week 8 03/17	“Islamic Revival”	· Khalid – Ch. 5 · McBrien – Ch. 1-2, 5 · Jones – Reassessing the Islamic Revival · McGlinchey – Islamic Revivalism and State Failure	TAKE HOME MIDTERM
Week 9 03/23	SPRING BREAK (NO CLASSES)
Week 10 03/30	“Practicing” Islam	· McBrien Ch. 3-4 · Louw – 1) Pursuing ‘Muslimness’ *AND 2)* A Disenchanted City
Week 11 04/06	NO CLASS MEETING, BUT PLEASE READ	· Peshkova – Bringing the Mosque Home · Rasanayagam – Debating Islam through the Spirits · Privratsky – Taza Jol: The Pure Way of Islam among the Kazakhs
Week 12 04/13	Islam and Nationalism	· Radford – Does Being Kyrgyz Mean Being Muslim? · Artman – 1) My Poor People AND 2)* Nation, Religion & Theology* · Borbieva – The Ascendance of Orthodoxy

Week 13 04/20	Islam and the State	· Khalid Ch. 6 · Rasanayagam – 1) Good and Bad Islam after the Soviet Union AND 2)* The Practical Hegemony of State Discourse* · Thibault – The Art of Managing Religion in Post-Soviet Soft Authoritarian State
Week 14 04/27	Translocal Currents	· McBrien – Ch. 6 · Botoeva – Transnational Islamic Banks · Toktogulova – Localization of Transnational Tablighi Jama’at · TBD?
Week 15 05/04	Political Islam, “Extremism,” and Terrorism	· Khalid – Ch. 7 · Heathershaw & Megoran – The Myth of Post-Soviet Radicalization · Artman – Contemporary Modes of Islamic Discourse · McGlinchey – Three Perspectives on Political Islam in Central Asia	FINAL PAPER DUE 05/04
Week 16 05/11	FINALS WEEK (NO CLASS)