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 ...