Transcending Boundaries: Islam in the Triad, the USA, and the Wider World

Research Fellows: Tom Matyók, Cathryne L. Schmitz

Dr. Cathryne Schmitz and Dr. Tom Matyók are engaged in a multi-year, multi-university research study to identify the condition of Muslim communities in the North Carolina Triad. As well as UNCG, the research consortium includes Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, and North Carolina A&T State University.

The research goal is to lay the foundation for a joint regional center on the study of Islam and religious tolerance that will support faculty scholarship and connect local knowledge, experience, and research with national and international academic communities. Participants I the research aim to produce knowledge about both long-standing and new forms of religious and cultural intolerance by marshaling the tools of activist scholarship: research, education, community-building, and public service for individual and collective empowerment. The long-term goal is a center that will include other religions or beliefs as well.