One of my goals for this past year or so has been to increase our liturgical living in our home. This is a concept that can certainly apply to other Christian denominations but is quite particular to Catholics (& I believe Orthodox...?). Essentially there is more to faith, any faith, than the once a week [...]
Category: Religion
The Diversity of the Islamic World
One of the major themes running through out summer NEH program was tracing the diversity within the Islamic World. We had a chance to look through a variety of art forms to really examine if the term "Islamic World" is even appropriate. For example, what does a Mongolian shepherd have in common with an oil [...]
Employing Different Teaching Methods in Humanities
I have a lot, and I mean A LOT, of flexibility in Humanities (my standards are super vague, for example I have to teach "art of diverse cultures"...check!). This can be so freeing especially in an educational climate that is choking so many good teachers into robotic instruction, however the downside of it can be [...]
Travel Trips: Dressing for a Mosque
As a non-Muslim woman, visiting a mosque for the first time can be a little nerve-racking if you are unsure of the dress code. Last year I had the pleasure to visit two mosques, one more traditional and one small Sufi mosque. The Sufi mosque had no dress code and people showed up with all [...]
Student Series! Veiled
Fashion in one of the major facets of self-expression. It is the way in which we tell the world who we are, how we feel, and how we want to be received. Our identity is a large part of how we dress, and how we dress is a large part our identity. The veil Muslim [...]
A Reverence for Words: Understanding Muslim Culture through the Arts Reading List
Next week starts my 2- week summer teacher education program, A Reverence for Words: Understanding Muslims Cultures through the Arts. This will be my second National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute; last year I went to the Religious Worlds of New York Institute and this year I's excited back in the city that never [...]
Medieval Al-Andalus
The Andalusian region certainly has a different flavor, sound, and look than the rest of Spain. Today this region is called Andalusia but that comes from the Arabic term Al-Andalus for the Muslim-controlled regions of the Iberian Peninsula. This multi-cultural past remains very visible in the major cities of Cordoba, Granada and Seville (the three [...]
