What makes a people who they are? Do humans have souls? Is there an afterlife?
These heavy questions have been pondered by great minds for centuries, and at Tufts, Professor of Islamic Philosophy Kiki Kennedy-Day continues this pursuit, attempting to show her students how the works of ancient philosophers relate to issues being examined today.
"Really, when you get down to it, these are questions of personal identity and the survival of personal identity," Kennedy-Day said.
Kennedy-Day began teaching at Tufts in September 2007 after spending a year and a half teaching Islamic philosophy at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. There, she dealt with cultural and historical issues as viewed through an Islamic lens. Prior to teaching in Cairo, Kennedy-Day also spent time teaching at Rutgers University at Newark and at various schools in New York City and Turkey.
Kennedy-Day's path brought her to Tufts when the Arabic Studies department at the American University in Cairo changed its emphasis. Instead of focusing on Islamic philosophy, Kennedy-Day's area of specialization, they chose to offer a master's degree focusing more on the technical aspects of the Islamic religion.
Studying for her bachelor's degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Kennedy-Day's work as a studio art major required her to take several art history courses, in which she chose to focus on Middle Eastern and Islamic art. Her interest snowballed from there.
"I just found it really interesting," Kennedy-Day said. "I really liked the pictures of the blue mosques in Iran."
An interest in the art evolved into an interest in the culture, which led Kennedy-Day to pursue a higher degree in Islamic Studies.
Kennedy-Day brings a fresh focus to Islamic studies, concentrating on the philosophical pursuits as opposed to the theology. "My focus is really the [classical] Arabic language and philosophy," she said.
Kennedy-Day's studies focus mainly on the ideas of Ibn Sina, an eleventh century philosopher from central Asia who wrote in Arabic.
When studying history and ancient texts, Kennedy-Day said that she prefers philosophy to religion because it dares to delve deeper into the answers to provocative religious questions.
"The major difference [between theology and philosophy] is [that] in theology the answer is 'because God said so,' and in philosophy there is at least more of an attempt not to stop there and to pursue lines of inquiry in rational terms," she said.
While some students may feel that religion and philosophy are somewhat ancient or dead topics in a modern world, Kennedy-Day explained that modern philosophers are still exploring many of the same questions with which Islamic thinkers of past centuries were concerned.
For a modern exploration of these questions, Kennedy-Day cited the book "Reasons and Persons" by contemporary British philosopher Derek Parfitt.
"The questions [in the book] were all about what makes a person the person they are," she said.
According to Kennedy-Day, the questions of ancient philosophers and modern philosophers are actually quite fluid.
"Basically these are questions of identity," she said. "So I think you can make a case that [Islamic philosophers] were investigating the same set of circumstances as modern philosophers are, they were just using different terms."
Kennedy-Day also explained that the ideas of Islamic thinkers attract more than just students interested in philosophy. "A lot of topics lend themselves to cross-disciplinary study these days," she said.
At a school where one of the most popular majors is international relations, students are eager to learn about this area of the world through its religious ideals.
"I found some of the Tufts students are really receptive about learning about foreign cultures," she said.
Aside from IR majors, Kennedy-Day said she has also seen many women's studies majors taking interest in Islam-related courses, citing "Gender in Islam" as one example.
Kennedy-Day encourages students across all majors to take at least one course in religion while at Tufts in an effort to broaden horizons.
"Hopefully college is going to open [students'] eyes to what they don't already know about," she said. "College should be a time to explore different things."
Kennedy-Day continued that she hopes students will pursue many of the diverse opportunities that a university has to offer, like she did while she was an undergraduate. "[I] enjoy seeing students open themselves up to life's possibilities."
The Islam specialist also emphasized that the mission of the Department of Religion is to expand people's view of religion, not to enforce a particular religious belief.
"It's not to convert people," she said, "And it's not to just present the orthodox view."
This semester, Kennedy-Day is teaching "Gender in Islam" and "Islamic Literature." In these courses, Kennedy-Day plans to use texts as well as several readings in order to incorporate not only basic knowledge, but also information about research being conducted in these areas today. Through these mediums, she hopes that students will realize that these issues are still prominent today.
"If you read the papers or [if] you listen to the news, you know the areas of the world where Islam is the main religion are in the news a lot," she said. "I think it helps a lot for students to understand what's happening if they get some academic background on Islam. Once you get beyond the really obvious way of looking at things you'll find there's a lot more to it."
