The international background of politics professor Asma Barlas does more than just contribute to her teaching style -- it’s a big part of what she teaches. In and out of the classroom, Barlas challenges her Ithaca College counterparts to examine their beliefs and assumptions and view the world through a global lens.

Barlas grew up in Pakistan and studied English literature...

Asma Barlas, program director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, held the Spinoza Chair at the University of Amsterdam from April to June 2008. In that capacity, she taught a graduate course on Islam and gave two public lectures which have been published as a monograph, Re-Understanding Islam: A double critique (Amsterdam: Van...