The Muslim Studies Program is the new addition to ISPs array of area studies and thematic centers and programs. It builds on the Muslim Studies Initiative, which last year led to the establishment of the undergraduate Muslim Studies Specialization housed in James Madison College (JMC). The university has decided this year to raise the profile of Muslim Studies at MSU by establishing a full-fledged program within ISP to provide a sense of coherence and direction to its multi-disciplinary faculty engaged in studying the Muslim world. The program is expected to coordinate research and teaching about the Muslim world; aid in the development of courses relating to Muslim countries and regions; hold conferences, workshops, and seminars on different parts and facets of the Muslim world; and actively engage in external fund-raising to achieve these objectives. Mohammed Ayoob, University Distinguished Professor of International Relations in MSUs James Madison College, has been appointed coordinator of the program. It is anticipated that funding for the program will be shared by the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies, James Madison College, and International Studies and Programs.

Serious consideration about developing the study of Muslim societies and politics began at MSU shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001. Much of the initial impetus came from the strong interest and commitment of then-Provost Lou Anna K. Simon, with strong support from the deans of JMC, the Colleges of Social Science (CSS) and Arts and Letters (CAL), and International Studies and Programs. The purpose of the initiative was to expose students and faculty alike to dispassionate and objective analyses of Muslim societies in all their rich diversity and to the different strands of religious and political thinking in the Muslim world. This was deemed essential to correct distortions about Muslims and Islam that had become standard fare in the media in the aftermath of 9/11. Simultaneously, given the strategic importance of much of the Muslim world in U.S. policy, it was felt that Muslim societies and states ought to be studied in their own right and from a long-term perspective as they were likely to impinge on American interests in major ways over a substantial period of time.

Convinced of the long-term value of the project, Simon sanctioned four new tenure-track faculty positions under the rubric Muslim Studies, one each in the Departments of History, Anthropology and Political Science in CSS, and one on modern Islamic thought in JMC. Three of these positions have been filled with the fourth to be filled before the end of the 2005-2006 academic year. Three additional tenure-stream faculty members whose interests coincide with those of Muslim Studies have been recently hired, one each in geography, sociology, and French literature. A post-doctoral position in JMC has also been filled by a scholar of Muslim Studies. The new hires, when combined with existing faculty engaged in teaching and researching different parts of the Muslim world, have created a critical mass for Muslim Studies to take off this year.

MSU has also strengthened substantially its offerings of languages of the Muslim world. Given the popularity of and demand for Arabic language courses, a second position has been created for a three-year period to teach Arabic in CAL. Courses in Swahili and Hausa as well as in Hebrew and Hindi both Israel and India have substantial and politically significant Muslim populations are routinely offered at MSU. Additionally, the Department of Linguistics and Languages has, as of this year, begun offering tutorial-style courses in Turkish and Persian. Instruction in Turkic languages of Central Asia, notably Kazakh and Uzbek, are in the offing.

MSUs vision of Muslim Studies is unique in more than one way. First, the emphasis is on Muslims lived experiences and not just on scriptural and philosophical texts divorced from contexts. Second, while fully informed of the importance of history in shaping Muslim societies, Muslim Studies at MSU is concerned with the big questions facing Muslim societies in the contemporary era. Third, Muslim Studies at MSU is not limited to a particular region, such as the Middle East. It is conceived as a truly cross-regional and comparative enterprise that is poised to build on the existing expertise at MSU on Asia and Africa while creating new capabilities on the Middle East and Eurasia. Fourth, the undergraduate Muslim Studies specialization is seen as having a symbiotic relationship with the program, emphasizing that MSU is as concerned with disseminating knowledge of the Muslim world to undergraduates across the university as it is with conducting high quality research and graduate teaching.

This article was written by Mohammed Ayoob for the MSU INTERNATIONAL newsmagazine. For more information regarding the Muslim Studies Program, contact Professor Ayoob at ayoob@msu.edu.

For a Lansing State Journal article written by Matthew Miller, go to http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060111/NEWS01/601110366/1150