José van Santen, born in The Hague, the Netherlands, in 1951. Ph.D. from Utrecht University. Associate Professor in Cultural and Social Studies at Leiden University.
Fellow (1 September 2011 – 30 June 2012)
ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM, YOUTH, GENDER IDENTITIES AND ISLAMIC SECULAR SCHOOLING IN CAMEROON
During my fellowship I worked on a monograph concerning Islamic Fundamentalism, Youth, Gender Identities and Islamic Secular Schooling in Cameroon, country where I have carried out research annually since 1986. Here as elsewhere the global resurgence of Islam is much related to its influence on youths, who have access to new media. Studying the opportunities and constraints of processes of globalisation, I discovered that Muslim communities place value on the establishment of Muslim institutions built with NGO money from the Islamic core areas. This locates the issue in the wider context of a struggle for international influence and sovereignty. The excellent circumstances NIAS provides and which I thoroughly enjoyed have enabled me to go through much of the gathered material and to relate it to the literature concerning the topic, so the monograph is progressing. A considerable number of articles and seminar papers, most of them related to the mentioned topic have been finished and/or written. Several of them came out or are now in press, others are under revision. During the period I also updated my 1993 book on conversion to Islam that is being translated for publication into French.