{"id":961,"date":"2021-04-14T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T18:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/islamic\/?page_id=961"},"modified":"2021-06-05T14:22:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T18:22:23","slug":"community","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/islamic\/community-connections\/community\/","title":{"rendered":"Community-Engaged Learning and Islamic Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exploring Community-Engaged Models of Teaching and Learning in the Islamic Studies Classroom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Islam has shaped global cultures for 1,400 years and today is lived by 1.8 billion people around the world. American Muslim communities too are growing more diverse, in culture, ethnicity, ideology, politics and practice. At the same time, the decades-long policy and media positioning of Muslim communities within the frame of national security has encouraged a reductive conversation about Islam among American publics. In some quarters, this conversation tends to understand Muslims as inherently violent, in others, as inherently peaceful. Both are stances that erase the complexity of history, belief, and practice that animates religious communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within American Muslim communities as well, this conversation encourages a public positioning that places inordinate emphasis on unity and amity in the community. This positioning erases the richness of intra-community debates and disagreements around theology, identity, and practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Program in Islamic Studies is exploring pedagogy that is situated, contextual, and brings to life the richness and complexity of Islam and Muslim communities. Baltimore is a historical urban center with a long and diverse history of Muslim participation and engagement in civic and cultural life. The students in our classrooms are diverse and intellectually curious, many identify as religious or spiritual, and a substantial subset also identify as Muslim. Each one offers unique perspectives that enhance teaching and learning about Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This convening is a place to learn, reflect and share ideas for those of us who embrace teaching and learning as political acts, who identify as scholar activist or scholar advocates, who are committed to teaching as a liberationist practice but need space to think through what that actually looks like, who personally work in many different spaces at once with multiple positionalities, those of us who are simultaneously scholar and community and recognize institutions of higher education as largely untapped resources to address community needs as defined by the communities themselves, who understand that knowledge comes in many containers and who value the pedagogy of experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student Learning Questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How does the Islamic Studies minor at JHU integrate community-engaged learning opportunities into the curriculum that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. encourage self-awareness, critical thinking and civic engagement among our undergraduates, and<\/li>
  2. are created in partnership with and responsive to the needs of community stakeholders? <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Goals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n