Welcome to Duke and the world of Islam!

We began DISC (short for Duke Islamic Studies Center) in mid-2005 with a generous donation from the parent of a former Duke student. We hired a first-rate staff specialist, and coordinated the labor of core faculty toward specific objectives. We had the support of top administrators, from Dean McLendon to Provost Lange to President Brodhead. We also enjoyed the dedication of an external Advisory Board, chaired by Mr. James P. Gorter, formerly a board member of Goldman Sachs.

Our first goal was to hire new faculty. We began with the recruitment of a broad-gauged, internationally renowned economist, Dr. Timur Kuran. We also hired, or helped other units at Duke, to hire more faculty in the social sciences (political science, cultural anthropology, and sociology) as well as the humanities (history, Slavic studies, religion and Arabic language). As of August 2008 our core faculty will have more than doubled since we began three years ago.

Our second goal was to broaden our student base. We offered a FOCUS cluster on Muslim Cultures. We began a DukeEngage option, first in Yemen and now in Egypt, with others planned for Jordan and Turkey in the near future. We have also launched an Islamic Studies Certificate Program, with the first recipients set to graduate in S2009. One of the first of those to graduate with this certificate will be a University scholar, who also has served as Editor of the Chronicle, a History major from Ohio, David Graham. He is currently serving as a Business writer for the National, a newly launched English language paper that aims to be the Wall Street Journal of the Persian Gulf.

Why should David Graham and other Dukies who aspire to earn an Islamic Studies certificate have to travel halfway around the world? Because Islamic studies certificate students have to do lab work. If you're a chemist, you can stay at home and do it in Gross Chem, but if you're eager to be credentialed with an Islamic studies certificate, you must travel to some part of the expanse of Afro-Eurasia marked by Islam.

What David, along with other Islamic studies certificate students, have learned is that the Muslim world is vibrant, diverse, and fun. It is also much more than the headlines or the airwaves of Euro-America would indicate. Terrorists represent less than .01 percent of all Muslims. It is everyday Muslims who dominate the pathways of Africa and Asia where Islam is the majority religion, as also the workplaces of Europe and America where many have come to find a better future.

The goals of DISC are to project Islamic studies to multiple audiences within and beyond Duke University. We hope to make sense of the local and global, in constant tension as well as vital synergy, throughout the Muslim world. Duke may have a doggedly pre-professional core of students, but the world they enter, engage, and (hopefully) transform will be a better place if they know in depth about the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, as well as parts of Africa, Europe and America that are marked by Islam.

Please enjoy our website. Share with us your own insights about the Muslim world, Islamic studies, and the best that Duke can offer its students who will be the world citizens of tomorrow.

Bruce B. Lawrence

Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion
Director, Duke Islamic Studies Center

Research Interests include: The Comparative Study of Religious Movements; Institutional Islam, especially in Asia; Indo-Persian Sufism; the Religious Masks of Violence; Contemporary Islam as Abrahamic Faith and Religious Ideology