Islamic Studies in the American Academy: A Personal Reflection

This essay explains several aspects of the intellectual and political environment in which Islamic studies came of age and became a field of study in America during the last four decades. It describes a time in which Orientalism came under attack and Islamist activism came into Western public view and debate, beginning with the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and continually highlighted by such events as 9/11 and the controversy over the attempt to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero. Finding space in the AAR as a venue for the academic study of Islamic religion is described as a conflicted process, with different and competing visions of the mission of Islamic studies scholarship in the Academy. Despite an array of continuing challenges, the successes of the retiring and ongoing groups of Islamicists in the AAR have overall served well the professional interests of the Academy and Islamic studies specialists.