Seminar Annual Meeting 2024

Teaching against Islamophobia Seminar

Call for Proposals

This seminar invites individual papers, paper sessions, and roundtable proposals on any topics related to the theme of Teaching Against Islamophobia. The TAG seminar is pedagogically focused and should center practical methods and strategies for understanding and combatting Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism and discrimination in and outside of the classroom.

For the 2024 meeting in San Diego, we are especially interested in papers and/or panel proposals on the following topics:

  • Contending with Islamophobia when teaching About Palestine
  • Institutional biases and teaching against Islamophobia
  • Teaching against Islamophobia outside of the classroom
  • Teaching against Islamophobia via public scholarship
  • Teaching against Islamophobia: “scholarship,” “activism,” and the myth of “objectivity”
  • Teaching against Islamophobia via film, music, and other forms of media.
Statement of Purpose

The purpose of the Teaching against Islamophobia Seminar is to widen the network of scholars engaged in critical reflection about pedagogical and discursive praxes that address the global rise of anti-Muslim sentiment. This seminar thus focuses on the challenges and opportunities faced by engaged scholars combating Islamophobia. We invite critical and creative reflection on (1) the differences between teaching about Islam and teaching about Islamophobia in both the classroom and wider publics; (2) pedagogical strategies for such teaching should be tailored to different contexts; (3) specific challenges of teaching ‘against’ a concept instead of teaching ‘toward’ a more positive end; and (4) the ways in which Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry function as a form of racism and why naming this bigotry as racism is important. As such, we encourage discussion not only on the transmission of new content knowledge about Islamophobia, but also on the transmission of interpersonal and leadership skills necessary to engage in public life to resist bias, bigotry, and racism.

Chair Mail Dates
Sajida Jalalzai sajidajalalzai@gmail.com - View
Review Process: Participant names are visible to chairs but anonymous to steering committee members until after final acceptance/rejection