Gendering Islam in the Global City

(3 Credits)

Gendering Islam in the Global City: How do the physical spaces and neighborhoods of a city shape the way gender and religion interact? How do individuals embody, express, and live out the relationships between religion and gender? What types of citizens and subjects are produced by different configurations of space, religion, and gender? This course will examine these questions through the lens of Muslim societies across the Middle East and globe, analyzing how religion is molded by the state, capitalism, and other social institutions to produce gendered regimes and subjectivities. Students will read foundational theories on gender, religion, and embodiment as well as cutting-edge research on gender in contemporary Muslim societies, with a focus on urban environments. Comparing Muslim communities across time and space, we will ask the degree to which Islam can explain different configurations of public piety and moral governance. Through fieldwork in the urban landscapes of the UAE, students will observe how configurations of the “Islamic city” have evolved. We will visit mosques, community organizations and ethnic enclaves, examining how religion and gender interact in spaces of home, work, play and governance.