Muslims on the Margins

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Margins are often considered sites of deficit due to their distance from the center. However, following bell hooks, this course reframes the margin as a site of knowledge, possibility, and relationality. We consider a range of Muslim groups who either agentically occupy the margins or have been pushed to the margins by way of exclusion. We ask conceptual questions about the relationship between margins and marginalization, about margins as a site of radical possibility, and about what we can learn from studying the lifeworlds, aesthetics, and thought of Muslims on the margins. The course will center the work of Shia, women, queer, and working-class Muslims.