The politics of difference: American Muslim student
experiences before and after the events of 9/11

Among the many factors influencing how students experience their universities in the western system, issues of cultural difference - including religion - are now being given more active consideration than in the past. Internationalisation and globalisation have driven some of this shift in focus, but that is not the whole story. The growing cultural diversity of local communities from which universities draw most of their student intake is also bringing about change. In this session participants will consider the implications of findings from a two-phase study of Muslim students in US universities. My first student survey was carried out in 1999, and the second in 2003, thus enabling comparisons before and after the events of 9/11. Those events have sharpened the need for deeper understanding of our rapidly diversifying higher education system. On the basis of the research findings I argue that we can go beyond Biggs' (1999) focus on inter-student similarities and instead find ways to celebrate the diversity of our student body. In considering the Muslim student experience, negotiated as it is at the intersection of religion and politics, we will encounter some unexpectedly positive models for how we can all engage with a new world of difference.