Jessica Birthisel | March 7, 2011
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| Four students from last fall's J460 Muslims and the Media will present their papers at the Re-scripting Islam conference later this month. Check the conference website for details. |
Juniors Alisa Wiersema, Kevin Memolo and Patrick Rollings, and sophomore Lauren Kastner, will present their work at Re-scripting Islam: A conversation between media professionals and scholars, March 23-24 at the Virgil DeVault Alumni Center.
The conference is sponsored by the Voices and Visions of Islam and Muslims from a Global Perspective project at IU’s Center for the Study of Global Change. Doctoral student Rosemary Pennington is one of the organizers.
The projects began under the direction of another graduate student, doctoral candidate Ammina Kothari, who taught the class, J460 Muslims in the Media, last fall.
“It was exciting to see the projects that came out of the course,” said Kothari.
The focus of the course was teaching students how to write about Muslim culture with more accuracy and sensitivity, she said. As part of their coursework, the students had to write a short news story and a longer research paper about a topic relating to the Islamic world.
Given the quality of some of the longer papers, Kothari discussed with Pennington the possibility of a student panel. Kothari selected a handful of stories for further review and the conference organizers eventually invited four students to present at the conference.
- Wiersema will present “The struggle of Female Saudi Arabian Journalists.”
- Patrick Rollings will present “Islam in Hip Hop: West Side Meets the Middle East Side.”
- Kastner will present “A Balancing Act: Analysis of the Media’s Portrayal of Jordan in Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking.”
- Memolo will present “Professional Environment Leads to Scrutiny of Muslim Athletes.”
Kothari will serve as a moderator for the panel, which takes place at 9:30 a.m. March 24.
Wiersma, who said she comes from a Russian Jewish background, said she took the course to get a clearer view of Muslim culture. She chose to focus on Saudi Arabia over the course of the semester.
“Saudi Arabia epitomizes every stereotype people have about Islam and Muslim culture,” she said. Sharia Law was especially interesting to her, particularly the way it affects women. She said her research was driven by a curiosity about how female journalists operated under Sharia Law.
For her project, she looked at the websites of female Saudi Arabian bloggers, newspaper articles and scholarly articles on the topic.
Kastner, whose project looks at the mediating role Jordan plays in United Nations peace projects, said a book report on Anne Garrels’ Naked in Baghdad sparked her interest in journalistic practices in Muslim societies. An interest in Jordan’s Queen Rania Al-Abdullah and her humanitarian work helped Kastner pick a region to focus on.
Rollings, whose project on rap references to Islam started after he was watching the Black Entertainment Television Hip Hop Awards, said he’s a little bit nervous about presenting his work at the conference.
“I study Arabic, so it’s possible some of my professors will be there,” he said.
Kothari, who will participate in a Muslims in the Media panel on the first day of the conference, taught a variant of the J460 class in the first-eight weeks of the spring semester. She says that teaching about Muslims in the media has benefited her own research.
“Teaching this type of course helped me expand my own knowledge,” she said.
Kastner, Wiersma and two others students from the class have seen their work posted on the Voices and Visions website.
- Bloomington woman aiding Muslim outreach, by Kristen Broyles
- Jordan's elections bring more women to parliament, by Lauren Kastner
- Social modernity in a traditional culture, by Alisa Wiersema
- Syria facing health, education crises, by Heather Robbins
The conference’s keynote address will be given by Andrea Elliott of The New York Times. A Pulitzer Prize winner and the creator the Islam beat at the Times, Elliott will speak about her experience covering “Muslims in a Post-9/11 America.”
Registration is required by March 20. For more information and to register, visit the website.
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