"What's Islam Got to Do With It?": Reflections on Incorporating a Mosque Visit in a Business School First-Year Seminar

At this themed lunch, I’ll describe my experiences incorporating a visit to a local mosque into a first-year seminar taught in a business school and share my students' and my own reflections on the experience. The seminar, "Serious Comedy and Social Justice" examines class, gender, sexuality, and race through a combination of scholarship and research, coupled with a series of films, television episodes, stand-up and sketch comedy which have used humor to call out social injustice or advocate for social justice. For a predominantly Catholic student body - freshly graduated from high school - the mosque visit is the first contact the vast majority of students have had with Islam and the first conversation they have had with Muslims about their beliefs and their lives. If you are interested in opening or deepening dialogue with students about inclusion, diversity, and perspective taking, I encourage you to join our conversation.