Innovative forms of Islamic higher education in Western Europe

Leiden University is hosting a conference on ‘Innovative forms of Islamic higher education in Western Europe‘ from 3-4 April 2017.

The Programme:

Monday 3 April 2017
MEETING AND MERGING OF SPACES AND DIDACTIC APPROACHES

8.45 Registration and coffee/tea

Session 1 | Introducing the topic

9.15 Welcome
9.30 Prof. dr. mr. Maurits Berger (Leiden University, Leiden Islam Academy and LUCIS), Leiden Islam Academy: an innovative approach
10.10 Dr. Welmoet Boender (Leiden University), Innovative forms of Islam education. Providing a conceptual framework
11.00 Break

Session 2 | The insider/outsider perspective in the study of Islam
Chair: Prof. dr. Göran Larsson (Göteborg University)

11.30 Prof. dr. Riem Spielhaus (Georg Eckert Institute for Textbook Research), Integration of Islamic Theology into Western European academia
12.10 Dr. Jan Felix Engelhardt (University of Frankfurt), Getting beyond the Islamic Studies/Islamic Theology divide. The self-understanding of professors in Islamic Theology programs in Germany
13.00 Lunch break

Session 3 | Private institutes of higher Islam education and moments of meeting with secular universities
Chair: Dr. Welmoet Boender (Leiden University)

14.00 Elif Medeni (University of Vienna), Religious pedagogics between secular universities and private institutes
14.40 Anne Dijk (Fahm Institute), Experiences from the Fahm Institute in the Netherlands
15.20 Break

Session 4 | Innovative didactics for teaching Islam
Chair: Prof. dr. Alison Scott-Baumann (SOAS, University of London)

15.40 Dr. Matthew Wilkinson (Research Fellow in Islam in Education & Law at SOAS, University of London and Director of Curriculum for Cohesion), Bridging the ‘unserious’ gap between critical and confessional Islamic education: Islamic critical realism
16.20 Rasit Bal (Hogeschool InHolland Amsterdam), Teaching hermeneutics and reflexivity while meeting the needs of the students
17.00 Leontine van Melle and Monique Snijder (Centre for Innovation, Leiden University), Workshop: how to teach Islam online
19.00 Dinner for speakers and invited guests

Tuesday 4 April
MEETING SOCIETAL DEMANDS

Session 5 | Communities as receivers
Chair: Prof. dr. Maurits Berger (Leiden University)

9.10 Dr. Ali Özgür Özdil (Islamisches Wissenschaft- und Bildungsinstitut e.V.) Experiences from Islamisches Wissenschafts- und Bildungsinstitut Hamburg
9.50 Mieke Groeninck (KU Leuven), Modes of apprehension of Islamic knowledge among female students in mosque education
10.30 Break

Session 6 | Reaching public audiences
Chair: Dr. Yaser Ellethy (VU Amsterdam)

11.00 Dr. Meryem Kanmaz (former director of Mana vzw, Belgium), Mana as educational platform for public debate on Islam. Societal demands and political constraints
11.40 Naima Lafrarchi, (researcher and Islamic RE teacher, Flemish Community), Islam in higher education in Flanders: innovations made and questions left​
12.20 Lunch break

Session 7 | Teaching Islam at the interchange of religion, state and society
Chair: Dr. Welmoet Boender (Leiden University)

13.20 Prof. dr. Alison Scott-Baumann (Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS), Islamic Studies in Britain: describing interstitial spaces
14.00 Closing session: Emerging new directions in Islamic higher education in Western Europe

16.00 End of conference