Social Science Research Council

Summers 2005, 2006 and 2007

Islam, throughout the former Soviet Union and across Eurasia, is currently taught in a variety of institutional settings, including state and private universities, and at Islamic institutes, universities, and madrasas (local centers for religious instruction). There is currently little or no communication and networking between the new Islamic institutions and the established centers of Oriental and Islamic Studies, not to mention with programs in the humanities and social sciences.  With funding from the Open Society Institute’s Higher Education Support Program (HESP) program, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and partnerships with individual host institutions throughout Eurasia, the SSRC has gathered a diverse group of junior and senior faculty members from throughout Eurasia and beyond to examine existing methods and instructional content on and related to Islam. 

Through dialogue and the sharing of knowledge, curricula, and expertise within and across their diverse teaching establishments, this cohort of scholars works collectively to ensure that their students will receive a sophisticated, comparative and interdisciplinary understanding of Islam, in order to better address the complex and evolving societies in which they live.  An international group of resource faculty collaborates with the SSRC in planning and implementing the summer institutes and related activities, which are currently planned for or have already taken place in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.