Re/presenting Islam on Campus is a three year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It explores how Islam and Muslims are represented and perceived on UK University campuses. Islam means different things to different people and much has been said and written about Islam in recent years.

The project will analyze how Islam is understood on university campuses and will enable an open, informed discussion about Islam as an aspect of British life. It will present a fair, accurate and evidence-based picture of the way things are. To accomplish this, fieldwork will be undertaken at four universities in England, Wales and Scotland, and two Muslim Higher Education providers.

The project is based at SOAS and is led by Professor Alison Scott-Baumann together with Dr Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (Coventry), Dr Mathew Guest (Durham), Dr Shuruq Naguib (Lancaster) and Dr Aisha Phoenix (SOAS).

Objectives

Some of the objectives of the project are:

– To respond to current circumstances in which Islam seems inextricably enmeshed in debates about security on campus. This will involve identifying and documenting institutional and popular representations of Islam within university contexts with a focus on gender and Islam, inter-religious understanding and radicalization. Student views and staff views are of paramount interest here.

– To trace and analyze the sources of these different representations in dialogue with students, staff and other stakeholders across the HE sector.

More information at: www.soas.ac.uk/representingislamoncampus/