Report on the International Workshop on the Integration of lslamic Studies into Liberal Arts Curricula

Abstract

On March 6-7, 1998 the incipient program in Comparative Islamic Studies at the University of Washington (UW) hosted an international workshop on the Integration of Islamic Studies into Liberal Arts Curricula. This workshop was sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Henry M. Jackson School for International Studies, the Comparative Religion Program, the Middle East Studies Program, and the South Asian Studies Program. Aims of the Workshop The general aim of the workshop, discussing the integration of Islamic studies into liberal arts curricula, can be divided into three areas. First, the workshop brought together about forty teachers and scholars, about twenty from the UW and twenty from across the United States and Canada. Most of these participants were professors teaching Islamic Studies or related discipliies at private and public colleges and Universities, although some secondary-level teachers also participated. The disciplines represented ranged from religion, art history, geography, ethnomusicoIogy, history, comparative literahm, women’s studies, anthropology, biblical studies, and political science. This meeting allowed for open cornmetion and the exchange of ideas among scholars who are otherwise separated from one another by institutional boundaries ...