Stanford Institute on Islam

The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, the Center to Support Excellence in Teaching, and the Office of Religious Life at Stanford invite middle- and high-school instructors (teaching grades 6-12) and community college educators to participate in the Stanford Institute on Islam, a 3-day workshop that explores how the study of this global religion can be incorporated into the teaching of History, Social Studies, Current Affairs, the Arts, and related subjects.  This year, the Institute will explore the theme of Muslim Intersectionalities by examining questions of race, gender and identity in Islam in a variety of global contexts.  

Join Stanford scholars in exploring how you can deepen your students’ understanding of Islam and Muslim societies. Establish a critical background on concepts, practices, traditions of Islam.  Explore strategies to expand your students’ appreciation of the diversity of Muslim societies and cultures, and develop ways to integrate the study of Islam into your curriculum.

Sponsored by:

The Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies

Center to Support Excellence in Teaching

Stanford Office for Religious Life

August 6 | Key Concepts in the Study of Islam

An introduction to the elementary beliefs, concepts, practices for a complex understanding of Islam in its historical and cultural diversity.

Speaker: Sughra Ahmed, Associate Dean for Religious Life, Stanford University

August 7 | Islam and Race in America

A historical examination of intersections between race, religion, and political life among Muslims of African descent in the contemporary Americas and the larger Atlantic world.

Speaker: Alaina Morgan, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Religious Studies and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Stanford University

August 8 | Islam and Gender

A critical investigation of gender in Islam through a look at Muslim women’s experience and influence in religious life.

Speaker: Aziza Shanazarova, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University-Bloomington, and Visiting Student Researcher, Stanford University

Sughra Ahmed is Associate Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University. Her role includes teaching and pastoral care with a focus on person centered care of staff and students on campus. She brings together a unique blend of experience in academia, policy and community activism. She is a Yale Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University, a Research Associate at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge and a Trustee of the Islamic Society of Britain; where she previously served as Chair, 2013-16. She’s a member of the Advisory Council of the Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies (CIRIS), Clare College, UK.

Sughra Ahmed's profile

Stanford News article about Sughra Ahmed

Alaina Morgan is a historian of Islam in the African Diaspora. Specifically, Dr. Morgan's work investigates the intersection between race, religion, and political life among Muslims of African descent in the contemporary Americas and the larger Atlantic world. Her current book project explores the ways that Islam and Blackness were used by Muslims in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Anglophone Caribbean to form the basis of transnational anti-colonial and anti-imperial political networks. In addition to her research, Dr. Morgan also teaches classes on Islam and Muslims in the Americas with a focus on race and religion, religion and politics, and empire and decolonization. Prior to coming to Stanford, Dr. Morgan received a Ph.D. from New York University's Department of History and a JD from Columbia University School of Law.

Alaina Morgan's profile

Aziza Shanazarova is Ph.D. Candidate in Central Eurasian and Religious Studies at Indiana University and Visiting Student Research at Stanford University. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies, and an M.A. in Central Eurasian Studies from the Indiana University. Her research focuses on Islamic Central Asia, Women and Gender in Islam, and Sufism.