Islam/media

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

This course is an introduction to Islam from the perspective of media and sound studies, intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. From the time of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam in its various manifestations has had a complex relationship with media. While much contemporary writing focuses on Islam in the media, this course explores how many aspects of Islamic practice and thinking might be understood as media technologies that facilitate the inscription, storage and transmission of knowledge.

Central questions include: How do Islam and media technologies relate? What kinds of practices of inscription and transmission characterize Islam in all its varieties across time and place? How might Islamic thought and practice be understood in light of databases, networks, and audiovisual sensation? Examples range from the transmission of the Qur'an and hadith as sound inscription to the algorithmic designs of mosques, from Islamic law as a media practice to virtual hajj pilgrimages and online communities. Particular attention will be paid to the cultural acoustics of Islamic practices (e.g., tajwid recitation, sama', dhikr) and the ethics they entail. Finally, given the rich diversity in Islam historically and geographically, emphasis will be placed on these interconnected but divergent practices from the earliest revelations of the Qur'an to contemporary Islamist political movements, with geographies spanning from Indonesia to the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in Europe and North America.

In addition to exploring these themes of Islam and media through reading and writing, students will be encouraged to complete course assignments / projects in media, using audiovisual documentary or composition as a means of responding to the course themes.

No previous knowledge of Islam or media studies is necessary. The course is intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Students will hand in four main project assignments over the course of the semester. These are described in detail on the Projects page.

Whether composing an audiovisual piece or writing, responses and the final project should engage with the primary and secondary literature we read (and see) in the class.

All students are expected to meet with the professor in Week 10 to discuss ideas for the final project. Ideally this project will build on some of the themes or media approaches students have developed in the two response projects. Both writing and media projects will be graded on clarity and rigor of ideas, critical response to themes of the course, and polish in editing (regardless of medium!).

There will also be two short quizzes (10 min.) on foundational terms and key ideas in Islam and in media / sound studies. These are more for diagnostics to assess how well key ideas have been understood than for determining grades, but they will be graded.

Finally, I will ask you to submit responses to at least one of the films viewed in class, and to the self-guided visit to the Museum of Fine Arts. These will not be graded, however.

This class emphasizes both theory and practice. Readings and discussion will be focused primarily on Mondays, with Wednesday sessions geared toward other activities: Guest presenters, film screenings, media workshops and group critiques of student projects. Monday sessions will be seminar-style discussions, while Wednesdays will vary depending on the format. Students are expected to be prepared to engage with both kinds of work (reading / discussing, critically viewing / making), but again, no previous knowledge or experience is required.

The Qur'an: Message and Medium, I

Guest: Laura Marks

Message and Messenger

Workshop on Audio / Video Production

Visual Islam: Art and Architecture

Guest: Azra Akšamija

Visit to Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center

Visual Islam: Museums, Archives

No Class Meetings; Self-guided Visit to Museum of Fine Arts

Due: MFA Response Questions

Due: Project 2, Response to Islamic Art

Jihadist Circulations

Guest: Rich Nielsen

Conclusion: Islam as Discourse Network?

Final Projects Open House & Exhibition

You are encouraged to discuss course materials with classmates. Collaboration is not allowed on written / media work without prior consent from the professor. For some students working on a final project that includes substantial media production, collaboration may be essential (e.g., filming with off-camera sound recording). If you wish to collaborate on a final media project, please come to office hours as early in the semester as possible to discuss your ideas.

[Qur'an] = Haleem, M. A. S. The Qur'an. Translated by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem. Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780199570713.
[Note: The 2005 edition can be viewed and download from Internet Archive. Other translations are also acceptable, such as quran.com; but if you use one of these, you must indicate the number of individual verses in sura.]

[Hirschkind] = Hirschkind, Charles. The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics. Columbia University Press, 2006. [Preview with Google Books]

[Marks] = Marks, Laura. Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art. MIT Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780262014212.

[Messick] = Messick, Brinkley. The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society. University of California Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780520205154.

Said, Edward. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World. 2nd ed. Vintage Books, 1996. ISBN: 9780099595014. [Preview with Google Books]

Rumi. The Masnavi, Book One. Translated by Jawid Mojaddedi. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199552313.
(A different translation by E. H. Whinfield (1898) is available online, and is a usable alternative.)

Either one of the following hadith collections:

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