Critical Muslim Studies (CMS)

The Critical Muslim Studies Hub is a collaborative initiative that brings together faculty, students, and community partners working on, or interested in, Muslim Studies across disciplines.  The Hub creates an intellectual and relational space for critical research, dialogue, and community engagement concerned with Muslim lLife, Muslim society, and Muslim cultures. Our primary purpose is to coordinate and make visible collaborative and critical multidisciplinary scholarship in this field.  

What is ‘Critical Muslim Studies’?

Critical Muslim Studies is an emerging subject in the global north drawing on traditional textual based Islamic studies, but distinguished from it in three ways: first, using a multidisciplinary and critical approach it explores complex and contemporary topics related and relevant to Muslim societies and cultures that touch on the social sciences, health, business, law, the arts, and environment; second, it has an intentional focus on methods, reflexivity and the embodiment of research and knowledge; and finally, it is rooted in anti-racism and decolonial principles.  

We gratefully acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.  As a guiding principle and form of practice, our work at the CMS Hub begins with critical reflexivity on Muslim-ness and global and locals forms of (de)colonisation, including considering our positionalities and responsibilities on Turtle Island and Coast Salish territory.