EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Muslim Studies Program and the Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University have been awarded more than $99,000 from the Social Science Research Council to study how Muslim American popular culture compares to other Muslim communities around the world.

The project titled "Migrations of Islam: Muslim American Popular Culture in the 21st Century" will consist of a series of public events planned for Fall 2011 and result in the production of a documentary film on the topic Muslim American culture.

“These events will include plays by Muslim American writers and directors, musical performances by Muslim American artists and public lectures on various aspects of Muslim American life in the United States,” explains Mohammed Ayoob, university distinguished professor of International Relations and coordinator of the Muslim Studies Program who is a co-leader for the project.
Salah D. Hassan, associate professor in the Department of English and core faculty member in Muslim Studies, will be the co-leader of the project with Prof. Ayoob. “It is our hope that this project will broaden the understanding of Muslim people in the United States and help create more complex views of Muslims’ and their cultures,” said Hassan.

The project will be administered by the Asian Studies Center, a National Resource Center funded by the Department of Education Title VI program at Michigan State University.

This grant is the second awarded by the SSRC to the Muslim Studies Program in the past three years. This project will build on an earlier SSRC grant awarded to the Muslim Studies Program for a project titled “Islam, Muslims and Journalism Education” that led, among other things, to the setting up of the IMAJE website http://imaje.msu.edu/, an online resource to train aspiring and professional journalists worldwide on reporting about Muslim peoples and Islam.