Held on October 24-25, 2008 at CU Boulder, the Transnational Discourses of Islamic Community brought together leading scholars to critically analyze the content and appeal of the notion of a global Islamic community of faith through an explicitly comparative and interdisciplinary approach. The conference was organized by Ruth Mas (Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies) and Carla Jones (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology) and funded by an Innovative Seed Grant in conjunction with the Center for Asian Studies.
The list of participants included four off-campus guests and seven University of Colorado faculty who have been involved in the year-long grant on globalization, mobility and Islamic faith communities. The off-campus guests were Peter Mandaville of George Mason University; Andrew Shryock of the University of Michigan; Paul Silverstein,of Reed College; and Engseng Ho of Harvard University. The University of Colorado faculty included Nabil Echchaibi (Journalism and Mass Communication), Najeeb Jan (Geography), Carla Jones (Anthropology), Ruth Mas (Religious Studies), Dennis McGilvray (Anthropology) and John Willis (History).