The Centers for Middle Eastern & North African Studies and Southeast Asian Studies will jointly hold, on Friday June 28th, 2019, from 9:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m., a teacher workshop entitled “Islam Across the Globe: from Southeast Asia, to the Middle East and the American Midwest.”

Held on the tenth floor of Weiser Hall on U-M-Ann Arbor’s central campus, the workshop will introduce Grade 6-12 teachers to Islam in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the American Midwest. Experts in the field, as well as members of Michigan’s Muslim community, will lead the workshop and discussions with the teachers. Participating teachers will learn about the basic tenets of Islam and its multiple and diverse traditions and practices in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. They will also learn about the history and practice of Islam in the U.S., with emphasis on Michigan’s Muslim community, challenging the assumption that the global religion of Islam is new and foreign to the U.S. The workshop will also address Islamophobic stereotypes and misperceptions and will provide strategies for teachers to respond in their classrooms and communities.

This event has been funded in part by two Title VI federal grants from the US Department of Education. The advance registration fee of $20 includes lunch; coffee and snacks; a packet of educational resources designed by the Center for Education Design, Evaluation and Research at the U-M School of Education; a bibliography of resources; and copies of U-M Professor Juan Cole’s Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires and of Moustafa Bayoumi’s How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America. Participants will also be eligible to receive four State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECHs).

For information about similar workshops in the future, please contact the outreach coordinator, Rima Hassouneh, at rhassoun@umich.edu.