A Legacy Beyond the Classroom

By Erika Liberati '22, April 23, 2021

Colleagues and students pay tribute to Professor Asma Barlas.

Asma Barlas, emerita professor of politics, left an impact of thousands of students, faculty, and staff during her time at Ithaca. College.

The Department of Politics recently brought together colleagues, current students and alumni at a special symposium held to celebrate the career of Asma Barlas, emerita professor of politics, who retired in 2020 after joining the college in 1991. In addition to her work in the classroom, she served as the founding director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity (CSCRE) from 1999 to 2002 and again from 2006 to 2015.

The virtual symposium, at which Barlas presented the keynote address, was titled “Reflections on Identity, Race, Colonialism and Islam.” An internationally known expert on women in Islamic societies, she is the author of “‘Believing Women’ in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an.” Her many honors include being appointed as the Spinoza Chair in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and receiving the Ithaca College Faculty Excellence Award.

“Without the resources made available through the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity by Dr. Barlas, I, a low-income Punjabi-American student, probably wouldn’t have been able to attend Ithaca College at all.”

Josie Manucha ’21

In addition to Barlas’s talk, the event featured three alumni panels, where many of her former students were given the opportunity to present reflections on work they did in her courses.

That wasn’t the only opportunity people had to reminisce about the impact Barlas had on them. Originally planned for 2020, the retirement ceremony and symposium were rescheduled to this year due to the coronavirus. This allowed Barlas’s husband, Ulises Ali Mejias, to create a website where students and colleagues could share their tributes and well wishes.

A Chance to Say Thank You

The website honoring professor Barlas remains active, and members of the Ithaca College community can still write her messages of thanks.

A recording of the symposium can be viewed here.

Josie Manucha ’21 served as a student assistant for the event. Despite never having her as a professor, Manucha still felt she owed a lot to Barlas.

“Without the resources made available through the CSCRE by Dr. Barlas, I, a low-income Punjabi-American student, probably wouldn’t have been able to attend Ithaca College at all,” Manucha said. “I was in awe of the resources that were available, and unbeknownst to me at the time, she was the source for many of them.”

“Behind her fiery public image is an intensely caring person who has created a community of confident, phenomenal alumni who are creative in their thinking and bold in how they travel across the boundaries.”

Peyi Soyinka-Airewele, professor of African and comparative/international politics

Professor of African and comparative/international politics Peyi Soyinka-Airewele gave a fitting summation of Barlas’s impact on the college and its students.

“Behind her fiery public image is an intensely caring person who has created a community of confident, phenomenal alumni who are creative in their thinking and bold in how they travel across the boundaries,” Soyinka-Airewele said. “I have personally lost count of how many students have regaled me with accounts of what they were studying in her classes, and the debates that they had in her classes that stretch the mind and inspire their works.”

During the event, tributes poured into the chat as people recalled the profound impact Barlas left on those she taught. Barlas said she was overwhelmed by the appreciation.

“I want to thank my students, whose comments really moved me very, very deeply,” she said during the symposium. “I think, the truth is that in the classroom it's hard to see oneself. I had a better sense of who I was as a teacher after the fact, in all of the wonderful, marvelous presentations that you made today.”