New course in current anthropological theory and method

The course will review the ethnographic and theoretical contribution of recent scholarship on the indigenous Muslims of Southeastern Europe, and the implication of this scholarship for the debate about Islam and Muslims in Europe.

The long historical presence of Muslims in a Christian imagined Europe raises both theoretical and ethnographic questions: What does "Europe" mean? How is "the other" defined? What does it mean to be Muslim and European? Is there such a thing as Euro-Islam? In what ways do Europe's long neglected indigenous Muslim populations challenge our Christo-Western perceptions of what Europe is, and what Islam and Muslims are?

The course builds on Dr. Bringa's long term interest in Muslim minority communities in Christian majority areas, and specifically on her research on Muslim everyday lives and identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina over a period of over twenty years. Over this period the Muslim communities in Bosnia as in the rest of Southeastern Europe have experienced dramatic changes: from being little known Muslim populations living under Communist ruled atheist states in a region dominated by Christian culture, to experiencing a post-communist phase of religious revival, and then ethno-religious conflict, war, and genocide, and lastly as part of a post 9/11 West where the concern with Muslims and Islam often expresses itself as stereotypes intolerance and fear.

The course is open to all students at the University of Bergen. Please see the course pages online for information about the timetable and readings.