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Pomona
Religion Professor Honored with National Teaching Award
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In November, Zayn Kassam, associate professor of religious
studies at Pomona College, was honored with the American
Academy of Religion’s 2005 Excellence in Teaching Award, at
the organization’s annual meeting in Philadelphia.
According to the academy's Religion Award Committee, Kassam
is “an impressive example of dedication to the craft of
teaching, especially for her careful and unflinching
consideration of issues that often carry a heavy emotional
charge for the students she is teaching.”
Kassam, who began teaching at Pomona College in 1995, chairs
the Religious Studies Department and teaches a variety of
courses, including: The Religion of Islam, Engendering and
Experience: Women in the Islamic Tradition, Islamic Thought,
Muslim Literary Landscapes, The Divine Body and Interpreting
Religious Worlds.
Students and colleagues alike praise Kassam’s teaching and
scholarship. She is a two-time recipient of Pomona College’s
highest recognition for excellence in teaching, the Wig
Distinguished Teaching Award — in 1998 and 2005. Students
say: “Class discussions [spill] out of the classroom, into
the dining and residence halls, and even onto forums in
cyberspace.” One colleague notes Kassam’s ability to address
volatile subjects with students in “an environment of candor
and honesty.”
Following the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, Kassam has
focused her academic writing on meeting the public’s sudden
demand for good information about Islam, the world’s second
largest religion with 1.2 billion believers.
A practicing Muslim, she recently completed a book on Islam
for the six-volume Introduction to the World’s Major
Religions to be published in December 2005. The series
is meant for high school libraries and a lay audience. Her
upcoming projects include a “Biographical Dictionary of
Notable Muslims” and a book on feminist theology which will
address hot button issues in Islamic culture and what the
Koran does say about the status of women and their equal
share in humanity.
Kassam is most interested in studying the relationship
between religious ideology and its concrete expression.
“Oftentimes religious sentiments become mobilizing forces
for positive social change as with the civil rights
movement,” explains Kassam, “Yet sometimes they are
mobilized politically for resistance, for instance against
colonial regimes, and sometimes they are mobilized for
repression, as during the Inquisition. Examining the
production of religious ideas in conjunction with the issues
of the day fascinates me, as do the myriad ways in which
humans think about their relationship to what they consider
sacred.”
The American Academy of Religion (AAR) has more than 8,000
members who teach in some 1,500 colleges, universities,
seminaries, and schools in North America and abroad. The
Academy is dedicated to furthering knowledge of religion and
religious institutions in all their forms and
manifestations.
The AAR’s criteria for selecting the teacher of the year
are: “outstanding performance as a classroom teacher, as
demonstrated by student evaluations, peer observations,
teaching awards, and other forms of peer recognition;
development of effective teaching methods, courses, and/or
teaching materials, that generate student learning, critical
thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and/or
community-based research; commitment to professional
identity as a teacher of religion and raising student
interest in the field; and, at least three years' experience
in teaching in higher education.
Pomona College, one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
institutions, offers a comprehensive program in the arts,
humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its
hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between
students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for
student research. More information about Pomona College can
be found on the Web at www.pomona.edu.
NOTE: You can link to Kassam’s “Teaching Statement” at
http://www.aarweb.org/awards/teaching/default.asp
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