Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures

       The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (EWIC) is an interdisciplinary, transhistorical project that compiles essays by scholars on all women in Muslim majority societies and all Muslim women in Muslim minority societies. The EWIC Print I, consisting of 6 volumes (1,246 articles, 2 million words, on 410 topics), was written by 907 scholars from around the world and published between 2003-2007.

       EWIC Online produced 20 supplements between 2010-2020. Two supplements were uploaded every year aiming at 100,000 words per supplement.  EWIC Online added 42 new topics, in addition to the 410 of EWIC Print I.  EWIC Online produced nearly 2 million words, written by 292 authors, covering 126 topics.  EWIC Online also included all the articles from EWIC Print I. EWIC Online was launched in 2009 and published consistently through 2020.  EWIC Online took a sabbatical in 2020 and will resume in 2021.

       The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures 2010-2020 (EWIC 2010-2020) assembles all the articles from EWIC Online, into a 9-volume set, 8 volumes of which are the articles and the 9th volume is the cumulative index.  EWIC 2010-2020 publishes 4 volumes in 2020 and 5 volumes in 2021.

       EWIC surveys the broad spectrum of women's lives in cultures where Islam has been a significant presence. It documents the lived realities and experiences of women and Islamic cultures, concerning issues as far-ranging as politics, economics, law, religions, health, and the sciences. In addition, EWIC provides articles on the arts, medicine, crafts, recreation, local governance, women's movements, music, art, and literary production. EWIC Online further innovates with the publication of audio and video material.

       EWIC offers scholarship was previously inaccessible and includes new entries on ground-breaking and contemporary research topics. The collective product of EWIC offers a view of the complexities, diversities, pluralities, specificities, contradictions, and historical transformations in the civilizational experiences of Islamic cultures as they pertain to women. Rather than allow all women in Islamic cultures to be seen as undifferentiated and homogenized, as they are so often portrayed in political commentary, media representations, and the popular imagination, EWIC situates Muslim women in their cultures and histories. In articulating the range of experiences by class, ethnicity, nation, region, and historical period, EWIC documents the complexities of Islamic cultures and the diversity of meanings and experiences of women in Islamic cultures.

EWIC Research Assistant: ewic@ucdavis.edu