Islamopedia: Mapping Islamic Thinking Online

November 30, 2009 | 12:00PM

Berkley Center

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Jocelyne Cesari of Harvard University will present Islamopedia, a collection of rulings and religious opinions addressing important topics in contemporary Islam: gender, non-Muslims, violence, secularism. Islamopedia (www.islamopediaonline.org) maps the landscape of global Islam, given the highly charged context of the global Muslim community today. Toward this end, the site explores topics of vigorous discussion and diverse opinion: democracy, human rights, pluralism, women’s roles, and the impact of Westernization. This resource will serve the needs of non-specialists who want to know more, non-Muslim groups interested in interfaith and intercultural dialogue, media representatives, and policymakers from around the world, thus contributing simultaneously to academic, pedagogic, and civic goals. The goal of lunch will be to to present Islamopedia and elicit feedback from potential users, in order to improve upon the existing content and refining the site into an efficient and intuitive tool for easy access to premiere data and information on contemporary Islamic thinking.

Jocelyne Cesari is the coordinator of Islamopedia (www.islamopediaonline.org). Based at Harvard University, she is Director of the Islam in the West Program, an Associate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Center for European Studies, and teaches at the Divinity School and in Government. Before coming to Harvard, she was Associate Research Scholar and Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. As an expert in Islam and globalization, Western Muslim minorities, North African Islam, Dr. Cesari has published fifteen books and more than fifty articles in European and the American journals. She recently edited the Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States (2007), and wrote When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States (Palgrave, 2006). Her forthcoming book is Muslims in the West After 9/11: Religion, Politics and Law (Routledge, 2009).

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