International Summer University Course "Islam in Africa, South of the Sahara – Revival Movements and their Social, Political and Cultural Implications for Africa’s Modernisation", University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 31 July – 18 August 2006 Course description: Within the last few years it has become obvious that the study of Islam from a social movement perspective, i.e. focusing on recent mobilisation, agency and practices rather than texts, offers the possibility to understand why and how contemporary Muslim communities in Africa south of the Sahara relate to modernisation. Thus it appears that Islam plays a still bigger influencing role on the societal developments in Africa south of the Sahara than what has often been assumed. The course will concentrate on the way individuals experience their religious involvement, in how their involvement comes about and in the consequences this has for engagement of certain social groupings, i.e. women, youth, ethnic minorities in ‘modernisation’ processes. Furthermore, the aim of the course is to bring the students closer to an understanding of the ‘practitioners’, i.e. the views of African Muslims on the role of Islam in contemporary Africa.
Prerequisites: The course aims at students interested in anthropology, political science, islamology, etc.
Venue: Centre of African Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Organizers: Centre of African Studies & the Carsten Niebuhr Department for Near East Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Department for Islamology, University of Lund, Sweden.
ECTS credits: 7.5. Application deadline: 1 July 2006. Tuition Fee: none
Instructor: Annette Haaber Ihle, Msc., M.A., Ph.D., is Research Fellow, Department of Cross-Cultural & Regional Studies, – Language, Religion & Society, University of Copenhagen, The Carsten Niebuhr Department for Near East Studies. Ihle has formerly been related to Centre of Africa Studies for the last 10 years, doing research on Islamic revival movements in West Africa and the consequences on youth of Islamic reform ideas related to education, politics and social mobility.
Information and Application: www.summeruniversity.org