![](\"https:\/\/policy.case.edu\/images\/howe_justine.jpg\")
<\/td>\n| Friday March 28, 2014 \n12:30-1:30 p.m.<\/strong><\/span> \n***Alternate Site: Kelvin Smith Library, Lower Level, Room LL06 B\/C ***<\/span><\/strong> \nCase Western Reserve University<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n The current situation of Muslims in the United States is influenced by reactions \u2013 especially among American conservatives \u2013 in the wake of 9\/11.<\/strong>\u00a0Yet compared to other immigrant groups,\u00a0the Muslim population in the United States is remarkably diverse.<\/strong>\u00a0It is not even entirely immigrant: there is a substantial convert population, especially among African-Americans. Immigrants hail from at least seventy-seven countries, with very varied social backgrounds \u2013 ranging from impoverished Somalis to South Asians who came to the U.S. for higher education and stayed. The income distribution among American Muslims is very close to the distribution within the wider society. One study remarks that,\u00a0“nowhere else in the world will one find such a diverse collection of Muslims.”<\/strong><\/p>\n In spite of this diversity, the classic issues of adaptation \u2013 from religious identity to intermarriage, keeping children in the community to “losing” them \u2013 may share some patterns across Muslims<\/strong>\u00a0for reasons related to religion on either side \u2013 Islam or U.S. Christianity \u2013 as well as the provocations perceived on both sides from 9\/11 and its aftermath. And the culture clash between the socially conservative values within Islam and the secular values of U.S. society may be especially strong. This leads to claims that Muslims’ place in the U.S. will be especially problematic. While this may be true from some religious perspectives of a minority of U.S. Muslims, how does this work out for most? Tina Howe investigates such issues through ethnographic study of Muslim individuals and communities around Chicago.<\/p>\n All best regards, About Our Guest<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Justine Howe<\/strong>\u00a0specializes in contemporary Islam with a focus on Muslim communities in the United States. She earned a B.A. in History from Williams College (2003), an M.A. in the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion from the University of Chicago (2007), and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Northwestern University (2013). She joined the Department of Religious Studies in the fall of 2013 and serves as a Core Research faculty member in the Women\u2019s and Gender Studies Program at CWRU.<\/p>\n Dr. Howe\u2019s current book project, tentatively entitled\u00a0The Construction of American Islam: Rethinking Pluralism and Authority after 911<\/em>, examines how American Muslim identity is formed at the intersection of consumerist practices, institutional rituals, and everyday life. She is also developing other projects, including a historical-anthropological project on Islam in Cleveland and a multi-sited, transnational ethnography of Muslims who attend Catholic Schools.<\/p>\n Dr. Howe\u2019s teaching interests include Islam in North America and Europe, the Qur\u2019an, Islamic law, Women and Gender in Islam, and the anthropology of religion.<\/span><\/p>\n Where We Meet<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n This week’s meeting of the Public Affairs Discussion Group is on the lower level of Kelvin Smith Library. So please go down the elevator or the stairway from the entry level. If you get off the elevator, go left a few steps and then Room LL06B\/C will be down a corridor to the right. On most days we meet in the Dampeer Room on the second floor of the library.<\/span><\/p>\n Parking Possibilities<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.<\/span><\/p>\n Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n April 4: The \u201cProblem\u201d of Teen Mothers.<\/strong>\u00a0With Mary Erdmans, Associate Professor of Sociology.<\/p>\n April 11: Is the Federal Government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States Anti-Asian?<\/strong>\u00a0With Timothy Webster, Assistant Professor of Law and Director, East Asian Legal Studies.\u00a0***Alternate Site: Mather House Room 100.<\/strong>***<\/p>\n April 18: Is Cleveland Dying?<\/strong>\u00a0With John A. Begala, Executive Director, Center for Community Solutions.<\/p>\n April 25: Pope Francis: So Far.<\/strong>\u00a0With Paul V. Murphy, Professor of History and Director, Institute of Catholic Studies, John Carroll University<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n Justine Howe, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University<\/strong><\/p>\n Friday March 28, 2014 Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n The current situation of Muslims in the United States is influenced by reactions \u2013 especially among American conservatives \u2013 in the wake of 9\/11.<\/strong>\u00a0Yet compared to other immigrant groups,\u00a0the Muslim population in the United States is remarkably diverse.<\/strong><\/p>\n |