The Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum (DISC) was originally conceived of and proposed in 2013 as the Islamic Studies Virtual Curriculum (ISVC) by University of Michigan Professor Pauline Jones as a collaborative initiative between the University of Michigan (U-M) and fellow members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

Broadly speaking, the aims of the curriculum are to establish a virtual curriculum among the member universities of the Big Ten Academic Alliance to develop and implement a collaborative program of high quality instruction in Global Islamic Studies. DISC is made possible by $3 million in support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum seeks to provide students at Big Ten Academic Alliance member institutions a robust curriculum specializing in Islamic studies. In collaboration with faculty liaisons at over a dozen Big Ten Academic Alliance member institutions, this program strives to define, create and implement a curriculum that will offer a broad set of courses that investigate Islam as a religion, as a civilization, as a myriad of cultural and historic traditions, and as the basis in some settings for political ideology.

As a student-and-faculty-based collaborative project, DISC is working to create a community of scholars focused on promoting an interdisciplinary approach to Islamic studies on a global level.  Specifically, this program ensures that particular Islamic studies courses are offered continually from year to year and works to increase student access to specialized courses. As a result, DISC is able to offer for the first time coherence and continuity to students interested in the field.  Furthermore, DISC focuses on collaboration between institutions to present various opportunities for networking among students and faculty, opening doors that go far beyond the classroom.

It is this sense of community, collaboration, and coherence that is the foundation on which DISC is built. Over the course of the coming years, we will grow from one pilot course into a curriculum that will consistently offer over a dozen courses to each partner university within the Big Ten Academic Alliance. This vision enables unprecedented resource sharing and provides a groundbreaking model for a new approach to education in the digital age.

 DISC Courses at Winter-Spring 2019

• Women in the Qur’an
University of Nebraska-Lincoln | Rutgers University

• Muslim Ethics in the Global Age
University of Illinois | Rutgers University | University of Michigan

Contacts

• Address: 500 Church Street, Suite 300, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
• Phone: +1 734 763 5050
• Fax: +1 734 763 4765
• Email: digital.islam@umich.edu
• Website: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/digitalislam/