Undergraduate Course of Study of Islam as a Civilization to Begin in the Fall

The Chicago metropolitan area has one of the largest and most diverse populations of Muslims in the United States, and beginning in September, students who enroll in DePaul University’s new Islamic World Studies (IWS) program will learn about these local Muslim communities as part of their coursework.

DePaul’s new IWS program, according to Aminah McCloud, professor of religious studies and chief architect of IWS, is the first bachelor of art’s program of its kind in the country. The program consists of 13 courses and concentrates on the study of Islam as a worldview and civilization. McCloud said that DePaul’s Islamic studies program differs from those that focus on the religion from a community or regional perspective. “Islam is a civilization, and there are distinctive cultural variations within this civilization,” said McCloud, who is an internationally recognized authority on Muslims in the United States. “Students will first study Islam as a world civilization—learning about its unique worldview—before developing an understanding of the diverse Muslim communities in the U.S. and abroad, as well as their interconnectedness.”

Being situated in Chicago allows DePaul to offer students in the program a unique opportunity, according to McCloud. Chicago has more than 300,000 Muslims who represent a microcosm of the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic make up of U.S. and global Muslim populations. Chicago’s Muslims are of African, European, Middle-Eastern, North-African, South-Asian, East-Asian and Southeast-Asian descent. Using Chicago’s local variations of Muslim communities as context, DePaul students will be able to learn firsthand, for example, about the unique experiences of immigrants and refugees of the Bosnian and West African Muslim communities—both understudied populations.

The IWS curriculum will provide students the opportunity to examine the history of Islam in the Balkans or study the African American Muslim community in the United States. According to McCloud’s research, the program’s in-depth exploration of the culture, arts, history, politics and contemporary issues of concern within various communities, is unduplicated in any other Islamic studies program in the country. Students will be encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to study in Muslim countries and to conduct field studies locally through DePaul’s emphasis on community-based service learning.

The program consists of two years of Arabic language study and seven core courses, along with electives. Course topics include Introduction to Islamic World Studies, History of the Muslim World, Islam in the United States, Cultures of the Middle East, Islam in Chicago and Women in Middle Eastern Societies.

“This program advocates connecting academic study with living communities,” explained McCloud. “We are not aiming to produce scholars who have little contact with the communities they study; we are proposing to produce scholars engaged in a lifelong intellectual and practical journey that allows them to appreciate the foundations of Islam.”

The IWS program is being staffed by faculty from the university’s religious studies, history and math departments. The math requirement, “Studies in Demography,” introduces students to the study of statistical methods of human populations in relationship to population composition, growth, fertility, mortality, morbidity, health, migration and urbanization.

DePaul is the largest Catholic university in the nation and the largest private university in Chicago. The university recognized the need to offer coursework in Islam prior to September 11, 2001, and began offering courses in this area in the early 1980s. In addition, DePaul sponsored the first “Islam in America” conference, housed the nation’s only archival project on Islam in America in its Richardson Library’s Special Collections, sponsored a year-long project titled “Exploring Muslim Cultures” and supports the publication of the quarterly journal “Islamic Law and Culture.” For more information about the Islamic World Studies program, call 773/325-7385 or e-mail Aminah McCloud at amccloud@condor.depaul.edu .