AMES 320 - Islamophobia and Orientalism

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 200
Domain (Anchored): CSI
Domain (Reaching Out): ALV

This class examines the rise of anti-Muslim sentiments (Islamophobia) in the United States and compares it to Orientalism, the ideology used to justify Western colonialism during the 19th and 20th centuries. We analyze the relationship between United States’ foreign and domestic policies, popular culture, and the mainstreaming of Muslim-baiting rhetoric. In doing so, we will ask whether Islamophobia is new? Is it only the purview of the fringe right-wing in the United States or are Islamophobic stereotypes and precepts shared throughout the political spectrum from liberal to conservative wings of each party? Is it an issue of race linked to American culture and racial history or does it have to do exclusively with American global power, security, and/or a misunderstanding of Islam? To answer whether Islamophobia in the Unites States is something new or just a refurbished paradigm of a bygone-political era, we will also keep a journal noting examples of Islamophobia, Orientalism, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism but also ways that it is being rejected.
Cross-listed with: APIA 320