New arrivals fall 2009
Meet the New Faculty
New Islamic Studies Faculty Arrive for Fall 2009
The Islamic Studies Faculty at Duke has expanded dramatically in recent years. This year we are are excited to welcome Engseng Ho (cultural anthropology and history), Mona Hassan (religion), Mohsen Kadivar (religion) and Mustafa Tuna (Slavic and Eurasian Studies) to campus. You can read more about each of them below.
Mona Hassan
Mona Hassan (Ph.D. 2009, Princeton University) is an Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and History in the Department of Religion at Duke University, with a
secondary appointment in the Department of
History. Her comparative and interdisciplinary work delves into
questions of premodern and modern religious authority, hermeneutics,
cultural memory, and emotion in connection with Islamic political
thought and jurisprudence. Her work also explores premodern and
modern articulations of female religious authority among Muslims. She
is additionally intrigued by the global diversity of Muslims and the
transregional fluorescence of Islamic culture and learning across
Afro-Eurasia.
Engseng Ho
Engseng Ho is Professor of Anthropology and Professor of History at Duke University. Professor Ho will is in residence at Duke effective fall 2009. He joined the Duke faculty in 2008 but spent AY 2008-2009 on research leave. Ho was educated at Stanford University in Economics and Social Sciences, and at the University of Chicago in Anthropology. He was previously Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy. He is currently interested in the international and transcultural dimensions of Islamic society across the Indian Ocean, and its relations to western empires. Ho has conducted research in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, and Southeast Asia. His book The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean, is published by the University of California Press, in the California World History Library.
Mohsen Kadivar
Mohsen Kadivar is currently a visiting instructor in Duke's Department of Religion.Kadivar is a prominent Iranian scholar, cleric and critic of the Islamic Republic system in Iran. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy and Theology from Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran in 1999. Kadivar has authored 13 books (in Persian and Arabic) and over 50 articles in Islamic Studies (Philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and political thought). You can find links to many of his publications and interviews on his website.
Because of his criticisms, Kadivar was convicted by the Special Court for Clergy in 1999, and sentenced to eighteen months in prison on charges of having spread false information about Iran's "sacred system of the Islamic Republic" and of helping enemies of the Islamic revolution. He was released from Evin Prison, on July 17, 2000. Kadivar is currently active within the various reform movements of Iran. Read more about Professor Kadivar on DISC's Faculty Experts on Iran page. Prior to coming to Duke, Kadivar was Associate Professor at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in Tehran. He was a Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia for 2008-09.
Mustafa Tuna
Mustafa Tuna (Ph.D. 2009, Princeton University) is Assistant Professor of Russian and Central Eurasian History and Culture in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies with a secondary appointment in the Department of History. His research focuses on social and cultural change among the Muslim communities of Central Eurasia, especially the Volga-Urals region and modern Turkey, since the early-nineteenth century. He is particularly interested in identifying the often intertwined roles of Islam, social networks, state or elite interventions, infrastructural changes, and the globalization of European modernity in transforming Muslim communities. He is married and has one son.
More DISC News
Graduate Students
The number of graduate students at Duke with research interests in Islamic Studies continues to grow. Check out the graduate student profiles to learn more about them.
Join the DISC listserv for Islamic Studies graduate students to receive notices about conferences, calls for papers, internships and other news. To be added to the listserv, email DISC.
DISC Programs and Events
DISC has planned a wide array of programs and events for AY 2009-2010. We have an exciting line-up of speakers for our popular Islam in the Public Square series that features scholarly talks aimed at faculty and graduate students.
This year, we are launching two new program series: Cultures of the Muslim World, a series of films, performances, and exhibits that showcase the richness and diversity of Islamic cultures; and Islam in the News, a series of talks, teach-ins and events designed for broad audiences on issues of current interest.
All the events in these series are open to the public and will be posted on the Events at Duke Calendar.
Duke University Middle East Studies Center (DUMESC)
DUMESC, under the leadership of inaugural director miriam cooke, is a hub for research, education, and outreach about the Middle East. The center is distinguished by its transregional approach, which treats the Middle East as a unit extending from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. This approach emphasizes interdisciplinarity, comparativity, and connectivity. DUMESC's mission echos the DISC mission: to prepare tomorrow's leaders by equipping them with knowledge about Middle Eastern languages, cultures, and societies. DUMESC is part of the Consortium for Middle East Studies, which combines the strengths of DUMESC with those of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Duke-UNC Pro-Faculty Seminars
This year we are initiating a Duke-UNC pro-faculty seminar. These monthly meetings are open to faculty from Duke and UNC who are interested in Islamic or Middle Eastern Studies. To find out more about these seminars, contact Professor miriam cooke.