Dr. Tazim Kassam, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and South East Asian Religions, The Colorado College, Colorado

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that academic discourses are usually shaped by disciplinary presuppositions. Dr. Tazim Kassam reflected on the practice of Islamic Studies in the North American context and questioned whether or not constructions of Islam as a "religion" or "ideology" approximate the historical and cultural phenomena represented by - using Cantwell Smith's phrase - this "cumulative tradition". Her paper considered what it means to map the Islamic world in university departments of religion. Are Marshall Hodgson's categories of "Islamdom", "Islamicate", etc., worth revisiting as a means of gaining a multi-disciplinary understanding of "Islam" as an integral part of world civilisation?