Born in 1942 in Evergreen Park, Ill., USA
Studied Anthropology and Islamic Studies at Dartmouth College,
McGill University, and University of Chicago
Arbeitsvorhaben
Mainstreaming Islam: Neue Protagonisten des Glaubens
I am planning to explore the influential impact that educated Muslims are having on rethinking Islamic thought and practice. My thesis is that the most profound transformations in the Muslim world today are occurring through the actions of middle-class professionals and religious intellectuals. This process of "mainstreaming" - which includes tolerance of other faiths and accommodation of alternative Muslim religious ideas and practices - presents Islam as an integral and "acceptable" part of civic life and requires a concrete set of skills and aptitudes. By building a better understanding of these skills through in-depth field work and drawing on my past research in Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, my work will present a more complex analysis of the effects of those reformers who are rethinking religion outside of traditional boundaries, or are shaping new social movements.
Recommended Reading
Eickelman, Dale F. Knowledge and Power in Morocco. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Eickelman, Dale F. and James Piscatori. Muslim Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004 (new edition).
Eickelman, Dale F. and Armando Salvatore. "Muslim Publics." In Public Islam and the Common Good, edited by Armando Salvatore and Dale F. Eickelman, 3-27. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
