Joey, It's really cool that you get to read Spring Awakening with your students; that's my favorite musical! I wonder if the translations differ due to censorship of the play's mature content? Maybe I can do a similar translation activity with my students when reading A Doll's House. It will be interesting to discuss translation in upcoming Institute sessions regarding poetry.

Pedagogical Choices As someone who thinks it is important to teach controversial topics, I appreciate the point about teaching difficult things and seeking to "complicate" them for students. Social media and the news often paint things as simple when they are not, so teachers definitely need to teach nuance. I also appreciate the point about teaching the differences between faiths and communities, instead of always teaching commonalities, which curricula tend to do. Different faiths and places are unique and special. It is nice to teach commonalities as a message of peace, but it is too simplistic, and our students deserve more. As someone whose specialty is curriculum, this was a great read! I have several questions for the interviewee: 1. You say that you are not an expert on the hajj after writing a book on the topic. Are there areas of contemporary Muslim life in which you do see yourself as an expert? 2. You say that, in your curriculum, you include texts that allow students to see that "Muslims have valuable things about the Qur'an and all also stupid things about the Qur'an." What is an example of one of the "stupid" things, and what made you want to include those things in your curriculum? 3. You touched on this in the interview, but I am wondering what Muslim students make of your attempt to separate the academic and the experiential. When they ask if you are a Muslim and you do not respond with a definite yes or no, how do students react to that? Note: As an openly gay educator, I can not imagine separating any of my personal identities from what I do in the classroom, and I can not imagine not saying "Yes" when students ask if I'm gay. 4. Related to question #3, how do current events impact the way you navigate your identities in the classroom? I am thinking specifically about Trump's Muslim travel ban. Do current events like that impact your classroom?

"What Is Islam" The vignettes in "What is 'Islam'" is great reading because it leaves readers, or at least me, with questions to explore. I, like the questioner in the vignette, am perplexed by the "Muslim wine-drinkers" comment, which the author does not fully explain. My guess is that they are trying to differentiate between religious beliefs and cultural practices. Culture encompasses much more than religion, so perhaps you can be religiously Muslim while also drinking wine. Or maybe it is a commentary on how there is no one way to practice a particular religion. I have a close friend who is "culturally Jewish and also an atheist," so maybe it is something like that, where you can be a member of a community without following the rules that some choose to follow. The biggest takeaway from the vignettes, I think, is that Islamic identity deals with much more than just religious beliefs and practices. Like others have written, I am unaware of many of the specifics regarding Muslim cultures around the world, but I am excited to learn more through this Institute!