Islam on Campus: Contested Identities and the Cultures of Higher Education in Britain

Islam on Campus explores how Islam is represented, perceived, and lived within higher education in Britain. It considers the changing nature of university life, and the place of religion within it. Even while many universities maintain ambiguous or affirming orientations to religious institutions for reasons to do with history and ethos, much western scholarship has presumed higher education to be a strongly secularising force. This framing has resulted in religion often being marginalised or ignored as a cultural irrelevance by the university sector. However, recent times have seen higher education increasingly drawn into political discourses that problematize religion in general, and Islam in particular, as an object of risk.

Using the largest data set yet collected in the UK, Islam on Campus explores university life and the ways in which ideas about Islam and Muslim identities are produced, experienced, perceived, appropriated, and objectified. The volume considers the role universities and Muslim higher education institutions play in the production, reinforcement, and contestation of emerging narratives about religious difference. This is a culturally nuanced treatment of universities as sites of knowledge production, and contexts for the negotiation of perspectives on culture and religion among an emerging generation. This collaborative study demonstrates the urgent need to release Islam from its official role as the othered, or the feared. When universities achieve this we will be able to help students of all affiliations and of none to be citizens of the campus in preparation for being citizens of the world.

Alison Scott-Baumann, Professor of Society and Belief and Associate Director Research (Impact and Public Engagement), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London,Mathew Guest, Professor in the Sociology of Religion, Durham University,Shuruq Naguib, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Lancaster University,Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, Assistant Professor and Research Group Lead for Faith and Peaceful Relations, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University,Aisha Phoenix, Independent scholar,

Alison Scott-Baumann is Professor of Society and Belief and Associate Director Research (Impact and Public Engagement) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Mathew Guest is Professor in the Sociology of Religion in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University.

Shuruq Naguib is Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Lancaster University and chairs the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS 2019-2020).

Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor is Assistant Professor and Research Group Lead for Faith and Peaceful Relations at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University.

Aisha Phoenix was the postdoctoral researcher on the Re/presenting Islam on Campus research project based at SOAS, University of London.