Matthew Cenzer said Northwestern’s Program of African Studies is one of the best in the nation.

But he said it could improve next year after history and religion Prof. John Hunwick’s idea for an Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa takes shape.

“The idea of putting together an institute is kind of rounding out that overall African studies program,” said Cenzer, a history graduate student.

This weekend, the African studies program will sponsor the workshop “Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Africa” to examine the scope of scholarly work in the field before beginning to organize the Institute, which is set to bring symposia and speakers to campus by next year.

Cenzer took charge of organizing the conference and preliminary stages of the Institute after Hunwick suffered a stroke in April.

He called this weekend’s conference a “launching point” for the Institute, because it will give the planning committee a chance to determine how inclusive the program should be.

“The major thing is that the conference is primarily a planning conference, surveying the state of the field in different areas,” he said.

Professors and writers from around the world — including faculty from the University of Bayreuth, Tufts University, the University of Cape Town and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem — will speak about Islamic writings from Africa.

Discussions will begin at 4:30 p.m. today at the Program of African Studies office at 620 Library Place. The scholars will convene Sunday at the hospital where Hunwick is recovering for the final session of the conference, giving him a chance to wrap up the weekend’s events.

History Prof. R. Sean O’Fahey, who is visiting NU this quarter from the University of Bergen, will open the conference with a discussion of Islamic writing and African languages in Eastern Africa. Hunwick has been working with O’Fahey on a multi-volume series of writings on Arabic and Islamic literature.

Cenzer said NU is the perfect campus for the Institute that Hunwick began working on last year, because the African studies program is already so strong.

“Because of that reputation, it attracted a lot of very good faculty members, graduate students and even undergraduate students,” he said.

And the conference could boost campus interest in Islamic traditions, Cenzer said.

“It’s these kinds of things that show there’s a very lively intellectual community at Northwestern that’s interested in African studies,” he said.

Weinberg freshman Aisha Jett said she’s interested in learning about the beginnings of Islam, when spiritual leaders debated about whether to include philosophy. After taking two classes about the religion, she said she might want to minor in Islamic history.

“It’s really African spirituality and philosophy that doesn’t get discussed a lot,” Jett said. “Northwestern definitely needs to have something like that.”