Islamic World Studies
To inquire about this program:
Admission Office | 312-362-8300
Department site: http://condor.depaul.edu/~islam/
Our program aims to ground students in a study of Islam as a worldview/civilization by first engaging them in exploring the primary texts, history, and cultural traditions before examining a specific community or regional experience. There are three assumptions undergirding the philosophy of this program: Islam is a civilization; it has produced unique cultural expressions; and within this civilization, there are distinctive cultural variations. While studying Islam as a world civilization and also, learning about specific cultural manifestations, students develop an understanding of the diverse Muslim communities in the U.S. and abroad and their interconnections.
Students will not only investigate the major contours of Islam as a world civilization in their introductory coursework, but they will also be challenged by a carefully constructed curriculum allowing for options to focus intensively on specific aspects of global Islamic experiences. Included in this coursework, to cite but two examples, is the opportunity to take a closer look at the history of Islam in the Balkans, or study the African American Muslim community in the U.S. Central to this more focused study on specific contexts will be engagement with the local living communities and individuals that continue to preserve and reshape the legacies of these diverse contexts. Since each culture that has embraced Islam has both maintained its cultural integrity, and also manifested the Arab influence in its architecture, poetry, and music, students will examine the Arab contribution to the arts and fine arts and the ways in which the general and particular interact with each other, producing specific cultural forms and expressions.
The core course work in Islam, language study, fieldwork, as well as opportunities for study abroad, and service learning would afford students an opportunity to develop an understanding of the Islamic world from local as well as international perspectives. This approach to the study of Islam is currently unmatched anywhere else in the United States and perhaps the world.