Islamophobia is rising in action, debate, and discussion.  Not without controversy, its structural history and intersectional presence across a range of identities – all connected to Islam or Muslims - has led to Islam’s increased racialization in a variety of spaces including the media, the academy, the law, and more.  While the semantic currency of the term Islamophobia itself may be debated by scholars invested in the topic, the substance behind the term and the merits of teaching it are far less controversial among them.  Instead, some scholars have shifted to a less problematic “anti-Muslim bias” description in substitute of the more vernacular, Islamophobia.  The idea with the shift in terminology, and with this course, is to move beyond understanding discrimination and prejudice against Muslims as a result of personal limitations (Muslims are marginalized because no one knows them or because Islam is misunderstood, etc.), to include the critical influence of historical, structural, and systemic bias and discrimination of Muslims that is a key contributor to the rampant Islamophobia present today.  This course includes interdisciplinary readings and the final project calls for some primary research.  As a part of the course topic, we will also briefly cover a variety of research methods used across the studies we discuss for pedagogical development to prepare you for your research projects.  The course begins with a broad introduction of the term Islamophobia and its complications.  We then transition to the broader topic of race and, consequently, racism and zoom in on particularities of racism through an introduction to Orientalism followed by Islamophobia.  We then discuss the historical presence of anti-Muslim bias particularly in the U.S including the War on Terror and its perpetuation and stimulation of anti-Muslim Racism.  The next period of the course spends one week each looking at different populations and their respective struggles with anti-Muslim Racism. We end with readings and a discussion on attempts and ideas to resist anti-Muslim racism that we encounter and their effectivity.

Course Requirements:

This is a seminar. Students will be expected to come to all class meetings prepared to discuss the assigned readings, and to take part actively in all class discussions.  Each week one or two students will be selected to lead the discussion.  Grades will be based on class participation (20%), two short (4-5 pp.) essays on class readings (20%), a book review on a work or works of your choice not among the course readings (20%) and a final research paper  (40%).  Unexcused late work will be penalized.

Intended Audience:

This course is primarily targeting undergraduate students interested in American Muslims from any major (or no major), and it also fulfills a requirement for those pursuing the AMAS minor.

Class Format:

In-person