EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan State University has added two courses to its fall lineup, with faculty from MSU’s Muslim Studies Program and the Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel hoping the classroom can help students better understand – and perhaps turn down the temperature on – both antisemitism and Islamophobia.
MSU says the undergraduate seminars come amid a “significant rise” nationally in anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish rhetoric, discrimination and physical attacks. Through the courses they hope to “embody MSU’s commitment to inclusion and interdisciplinary collaboration.”
Islamophobia and antisemitism on the syllabus.
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The seven-week “Islam, Muslims and Islamophobia” seminar will provide students with a working knowledge of the religion of Islam and the core beliefs and practices that have defined Muslim communities, as well as certain influential contemporary anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic discourses and sentiments. The course includes guest speakers, films and an optional visit to a local mosque.
A second five-week seminar, “Historical and Contemporary Antisemitism,” will explore Jewish history and religion along with historical and modern antisemitism, including prejudice in Europe and the United States and rhetoric surrounding Israel. This seminar has been offered in the past.
Both seminars are one-credit courses geared toward first- and second-year students, although others can request permission to enroll.
A dialogue without the dialogue.
Unlike a traditional seminar built around discussion and debate, the new courses are asynchronous, meaning students generally won’t meet in a classroom – or even online – at the same time. Instead, they will work through lectures, videos and other material on their own schedules. That raises an obvious question for courses centered on complicated and sensitive subjects: How much meaningful dialogue can actually take place when students aren’t having live conversations with one another?
Beyond the classroom: MSU expands the conversation.
Whether a one-credit course with limited exposure to fellow students can make much of a dent in centuries-old religious hostility remains to be seen. But MSU is betting that education and conversation are at least a place to start – and the new courses aren’t MSU’s only attempt to tackle the issue.
The university also offers “Conversations on Antisemitism and Islamophobia,” a program launched in spring 2023 as a continuation of an earlier MSU Dialogues effort. The program brings faculty experts together with students, faculty and staff to discuss the history and current forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia, including incidents on MSU’s own campus. The conversations are open to all MSU campus community members and the upcoming one is Thursday, Sept. 24, 5 to 9 p.m.
