Aspiring and Becoming

Abstract Research into Islamic higher education tends to focus primarily on the educational institution as the object of the analysis and neglects the perspectives of students. To tackle this research desideratum, this article investigates students’ educational paths in the field of Islamic higher education. Based on in-depth interviews and extensive fieldwork among German students and alumni from the International Theology Program (Uluslararası İlahiyat Programı) in Turkey, the article has a twofold aim. First, it unpacks the motivations and reasons for students to study Islamic theology. Second, it examines how studying Islamic theology comes to constitute a meaningful endeavor for the students. The analysis shows that students’ complex ways of aspiring to study Islamic theology simultaneously constituted relevant means of becoming. Thus, studying Islamic theology constituted a venue for interlocutors to explore sources of identity and processes of meaning-making.