2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

THEO3021 Muslims in Britain: Transnational Communities and Multicultural Politics

20 creditsClass Size: 60

Module manager: Sean McLoughlin
Email: S.McLoughlin@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

Pre-requisite qualifications

Previous Level 1 or Level 2 study of Islam or other relevant modules. Please seek advice from the module leader.

Module replaces

THEO3355 Muslims, Multiculturalism & the State

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module examines the relationships between Muslim communities in Britain and their relationships to the state/wider society in Britain and wider global and transnational processes. It will be of interest to students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds including sociology, geography, politics, history and literary/cultural studies. While having studied Islam or Muslim societies would be an advantage, so too would an interest in the study of race and culture in contemporary Britain. Topics studied include migration, mosques, gender relations, youth radicalisation and Islamophobia.

Objectives

This module will equip student to develop an in-depth and critically reflective awareness of the challenging issues that have impacted Muslims in Britain from the 1960s until the present.

It will enable students to conceptualise the complex impact of processes of transnationalism, diasporic community formation and multicultural politics upon people’s everyday lives and practices, values and identities.

Students will acquire a general and sensitive familiarity with aspects of postcolonial Britain as a secular, multi-faith society, most especially in terms of the history of post-war migration, as well as the contested ideological relationships between race, nation and religion.

They will be challenged to gain a more empathetic understanding of the diversity of Islamic traditions and viewpoints, as well as a more extensive appreciation of social divisions of ethnicity, gender and generation in British Muslim communities.

The module will develop students comprehension of the relationships between Muslim organisations and local / central government, encouraging reflection on the impact of '9/11' and '7/7' for both Muslims and wider society.

The study of Muslims in Britain will be related to wider representations by Muslims and non-Muslims in the media, literature and film.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this Level 3 module, and using skills of critical analysis developed in the social scientific study of religion, students will be better able to independently evaluate, accurately synthesise and evidence, as well as creatively communicate the following in both breadth and depth:

- key concepts such as religion, culture, identity, community, race, ethnicity, diaspora, nation, multiculturalism and transnationalism
- the consequences of particular contexts of migration and contexts of reception for shaping the lives of Muslims in Britain
- the situation of Muslims in Britain to one other Western European country
- the ways in which religion in context is both cross cut by power / social divisions as well as an enabler of transcendent imaginaries
- the changing shape of government policies of recognition and regulation in relation to British Muslims and related debates about religion and secularity
- the on-going connection of Muslims to people, places, ideas, goods and capital elsewhere

They will also be able to:

- locate the study of religion and especially Islam in productive relationship to ethnic and migration studies
- comprehend and appreciate issues of unity and diversity in Islam and Muslim communities
- develop theoretical skills to better understand and analyse the connectedness and distinctiveness of religion in relation to other collective social, cultural and political identities - ethnicity, race, nation and diaspora
- understand the variety of ways in which such identities are re-imagined and re-invented in different contexts
- identify the ways in which dimensions of power and authority operate within and across social groupings
- comprehend the multidisciplinary nature and value of much empirical work on religion across the (nevertheless distinctive) approaches of religious studies, sociology, anthropology, geography, politics and cultural studies

Syllabus

This module will include topics such as:

Locating the study of Islam and Muslims in Europe / the West in terms of general theories of migration, diaspora and transnationalism

Exploring the power of the nation-state and colonial legacies in shaping opportunity structures for the organisation / articulation of Muslim identities in Europe

Interrogating the concepts of space-making, locality and community with reference to the mosques / imams as key grassroots institutions / religious leaderships, unravelling the ways in which religion and ethnicity are cross-cut by powerful social relations / positions of generation and gender

Locating the roots of modern Islamic movements in South Asia and the Middle East, characterising their broad orientations to the non-Muslim state in diaspora

Debating the politics of public recognition and the limits of multicultural tolerance with reference to race, ethnicity and religion

Examining the significance of everyday Islamic piety and practice as well as a trans-national Islamic 'ummatic' consciousness amongst British-Muslims

Assessing the impact of '9/11' and '7/7' upon British Muslims' changing relations with the state and wider society with reference to Islamophobia and securitisation

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	10	1.00	10.00
Seminar	9	1.00	9.00
Tutorial	2	0.50	1.00
Private study hours			180.00
Total Contact hours			20.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Up to 4 hours gathering and reading resources, note-taking and thinking per lecture = 40 hours
Up to 4 hours gathering and reading resources, note-taking and thinking per seminar = 36 hours
Up to 104 hours planning, gathering & reading resources, note-taking, thinking, drafting & re-drafting for essays

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will have the opportunity to submit an essay plan/draft up to 1000 words for feedback.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3,000 words	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 29/04/2024 16:19:43

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