Since 2011, I have designed and taught 19 undergraduate seminars
at New York University Abu Dhabi and Johns Hopkins University.
These courses fall into four overlapping categories.
Find course descriptions in the drop down menus below the images.
at New York University Abu Dhabi and Johns Hopkins University.
These courses fall into four overlapping categories.
Find course descriptions in the drop down menus below the images.
philosophy & Anthropology of ethical life
NYUAD, Spring 2019
Does virtue lie within an ethical tradition or beyond it? What happens when ethical traditions collide? What freedoms do individuals exercise in striving for moral virtue? And how do the claims of others (friends, family, lovers, others) affect such freedoms? These questions have animated critical inquiry in both philosophical and anthropological thought. That is, they have been at the center of reasoned argumentation about ethics in philosophical traditions and a subject of empirical inquiry through ethnographic methods that examine ethical life in particular social settings. This course examines the conversation between philosophy and anthropology on these questions. What have anthropologists found attractive about philosophical concepts? What concepts have proven resilient to anthropological reception? And how can anthropological research be returned to philosophical inquiry? Readings include philosophical texts by Bergson, Cavell, Foucault, Laugier, MacIntyre and Nietzsche; and anthropological texts by Veena Das, James Laidlaw, Cheryl Mattingly, and others, which examine ethical life in India, Chile, Yemen, Iraq, and the United States.
This course is organized as a seminar in which faculty facilitates close reading of assigned texts and guides student interest in discussion. Through a sequence of two presentations, students will sharpen oral presentation skills. Through a sequence of three essays, students develop analytic rigor in argumentative writing. Writing assignments focus on the description of ethnographic methods in the anthropology of ethics, the analysis of philosophical concepts in anthropological theory, and the reception of ethnographic concerns in philosophical writing.
Does virtue lie within an ethical tradition or beyond it? What happens when ethical traditions collide? What freedoms do individuals exercise in striving for moral virtue? And how do the claims of others (friends, family, lovers, others) affect such freedoms? These questions have animated critical inquiry in both philosophical and anthropological thought. That is, they have been at the center of reasoned argumentation about ethics in philosophical traditions and a subject of empirical inquiry through ethnographic methods that examine ethical life in particular social settings. This course examines the conversation between philosophy and anthropology on these questions. What have anthropologists found attractive about philosophical concepts? What concepts have proven resilient to anthropological reception? And how can anthropological research be returned to philosophical inquiry? Readings include philosophical texts by Bergson, Cavell, Foucault, Laugier, MacIntyre and Nietzsche; and anthropological texts by Veena Das, James Laidlaw, Cheryl Mattingly, and others, which examine ethical life in India, Chile, Yemen, Iraq, and the United States.
This course is organized as a seminar in which faculty facilitates close reading of assigned texts and guides student interest in discussion. Through a sequence of two presentations, students will sharpen oral presentation skills. Through a sequence of three essays, students develop analytic rigor in argumentative writing. Writing assignments focus on the description of ethnographic methods in the anthropology of ethics, the analysis of philosophical concepts in anthropological theory, and the reception of ethnographic concerns in philosophical writing.
anthropology of the fatwa
NYUAD, Spring 2018
The practice of seeking and issuing fatwas is almost as old as Islam itself. For centuries Muslims have posed questions to scholars on issues as contentious as divorce or participation in war, or as mundane as the ritual procedures of ablution. Yet this seeming continuity masks a number of variations and transformations. This seminar focuses on one such transformation: the emergence of the modern state. How has the emergence of the modern state come to condition the fatwa in the contemporary world? The seminar addresses this question in historical context. Thus, alongside studies of fatwa practices set in contemporary Egypt, Britain, and Iran, we also take up the ‘pre-modern’ context of the Ottoman Empire. Juxtaposing these two milieux, we ask: How did premodern legal scholars understand the relationship between the law and the political authority of empire? What concepts of morality and authority animate the seeking of fatwas within the jurisdiction of the modern nation state? How do contemporary Muslims navigate the dilemmas of legal pluralism when fatwas exist alongside civil laws? Geographically we focus on the Middle East; topically, we focus on issues of gender and family.
The practice of seeking and issuing fatwas is almost as old as Islam itself. For centuries Muslims have posed questions to scholars on issues as contentious as divorce or participation in war, or as mundane as the ritual procedures of ablution. Yet this seeming continuity masks a number of variations and transformations. This seminar focuses on one such transformation: the emergence of the modern state. How has the emergence of the modern state come to condition the fatwa in the contemporary world? The seminar addresses this question in historical context. Thus, alongside studies of fatwa practices set in contemporary Egypt, Britain, and Iran, we also take up the ‘pre-modern’ context of the Ottoman Empire. Juxtaposing these two milieux, we ask: How did premodern legal scholars understand the relationship between the law and the political authority of empire? What concepts of morality and authority animate the seeking of fatwas within the jurisdiction of the modern nation state? How do contemporary Muslims navigate the dilemmas of legal pluralism when fatwas exist alongside civil laws? Geographically we focus on the Middle East; topically, we focus on issues of gender and family.
Muslim societies, modern states: ethnographic encounters
JHU, Spring 2013
Through a close reading of four recent ethnographies, this course explores the diverse ways Muslims encounter the power of modern states in the contemporary world. Diverging ethnographic approaches to a common theme pose several questions: How do legal reforms constrain, enable, or express forms of moral striving in everyday life? What forms of knowledge are sanctioned by the state and what forms exceed its limits? What kinds of community become possible in the grip or the margins of modern governance?
Though the state is sometimes taken as a given, stable or universal form of authority that stands outside of daily experience, we question these assumptions through several approaches: First, we examine the processes of state formation through an historical lens, asking how the modern state has sought to reform and re-write its past. Second, we attend to the expansion of the power of the modern state as a creative process that generates uncertainty and paradox. Third, we ask how the social life of the imagination refigures the state’s assumptions about personhood and citizenship. Finally, we ask how the law has been enlisted to enable or express forms of moral striving that grow out of everyday life. In addition to understanding how differently states have imagined and enacted their role in relation to the Muslim societies they govern, this course will also provide a picture of diverse (and overlapping) ways in which modern Muslims imagine and pursue forms of community vis-à-vis state power.
Throughout the course we attend to the concept and practice of ethnography: both a genre of writing and a method for research, we examine how each of the four authors under consideration approaches the task and technique of ethnography: What questions and concepts motivate their inquiry? What forms of evidence did they seek and what did they find? How does an argument take shape in relation to that evidence? How can we discern a theory of the state—i.e. a vision of the state that is productive for comparative inquiry—from an ethnographic text?
Through a close reading of four recent ethnographies, this course explores the diverse ways Muslims encounter the power of modern states in the contemporary world. Diverging ethnographic approaches to a common theme pose several questions: How do legal reforms constrain, enable, or express forms of moral striving in everyday life? What forms of knowledge are sanctioned by the state and what forms exceed its limits? What kinds of community become possible in the grip or the margins of modern governance?
Though the state is sometimes taken as a given, stable or universal form of authority that stands outside of daily experience, we question these assumptions through several approaches: First, we examine the processes of state formation through an historical lens, asking how the modern state has sought to reform and re-write its past. Second, we attend to the expansion of the power of the modern state as a creative process that generates uncertainty and paradox. Third, we ask how the social life of the imagination refigures the state’s assumptions about personhood and citizenship. Finally, we ask how the law has been enlisted to enable or express forms of moral striving that grow out of everyday life. In addition to understanding how differently states have imagined and enacted their role in relation to the Muslim societies they govern, this course will also provide a picture of diverse (and overlapping) ways in which modern Muslims imagine and pursue forms of community vis-à-vis state power.
Throughout the course we attend to the concept and practice of ethnography: both a genre of writing and a method for research, we examine how each of the four authors under consideration approaches the task and technique of ethnography: What questions and concepts motivate their inquiry? What forms of evidence did they seek and what did they find? How does an argument take shape in relation to that evidence? How can we discern a theory of the state—i.e. a vision of the state that is productive for comparative inquiry—from an ethnographic text?
islamic law and secular politics
NYUAD, Fall 2018
What is Islamic law and how does it relate to secularism? How have the concepts of religion and politics been understood in Islamic legal traditions? How have those understandings changed in response to colonialism and the emergence of the modern state? This course works from the assumption that these three questions can no longer be separated from one another. We draw from recent work in ethnography that shows the everyday reality of Islamic law, in addition to texts in politics, history, and comparative legal theory. We will interrogate dimensions of secularism, sovereignty, and political authority as they intersect with the daily lives of contemporary Muslims in Malaysia, Egypt, Britain and elsewhere. The course begins with a brief, foundational introduction to Islamic law, then proceeds to study the impact of European colonialism in the Middle East and South Asia, the apostasy case against Nasr Abu Zayd, Imam Khomeini’s fatwas on sex reassignment, and several cases of religious conversion; the course concludes with studies of how Muslims navigate the landscape of legal pluralism in contemporary Europe.
What is Islamic law and how does it relate to secularism? How have the concepts of religion and politics been understood in Islamic legal traditions? How have those understandings changed in response to colonialism and the emergence of the modern state? This course works from the assumption that these three questions can no longer be separated from one another. We draw from recent work in ethnography that shows the everyday reality of Islamic law, in addition to texts in politics, history, and comparative legal theory. We will interrogate dimensions of secularism, sovereignty, and political authority as they intersect with the daily lives of contemporary Muslims in Malaysia, Egypt, Britain and elsewhere. The course begins with a brief, foundational introduction to Islamic law, then proceeds to study the impact of European colonialism in the Middle East and South Asia, the apostasy case against Nasr Abu Zayd, Imam Khomeini’s fatwas on sex reassignment, and several cases of religious conversion; the course concludes with studies of how Muslims navigate the landscape of legal pluralism in contemporary Europe.
Understanding sharia
NYUAD, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017
Shari‘a is a topic of intense debate in the contemporary world. While many privilege its divine origins, others emphasize its historical malleability, and yet others deny any contradiction between these two aspects. On whose terms, then, do we approach the study of shari‘a? What can we learn by comparing shari‘a with non-Islamic forms of law and moral reasoning? How is the conversation about shari‘a altered when questions of gender and sexuality are placed in the foreground? This course explores the questions through case studies in milieus as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the historical milieu of the Ottoman Empire. A series of reading and writing assignments focus on close reading and analytic writing. Throughout the course, we evaluate the contexts, motives, and forms of evidence brought to bear by authors who contribute to ongoing debates about how we understand shari‘a today.
In the first essay, students evaluate claims about the relationship between the European Enlightenment and a classical conception of shari‘a. In the second section of the course we proceed to a series of readings engaging questions of patriarchy and gender norms both in the historical formation of the shari‘a, and in contemporary settings. Choosing two texts from these readings for their second essay, students learn to stage a conversation in writing. In the last portion of the class, students conduct research on a topic of debate about shari‘a that interests them and then write a research paper that analyzes the stakes for the authors engaged in the debate.
Shari‘a is a topic of intense debate in the contemporary world. While many privilege its divine origins, others emphasize its historical malleability, and yet others deny any contradiction between these two aspects. On whose terms, then, do we approach the study of shari‘a? What can we learn by comparing shari‘a with non-Islamic forms of law and moral reasoning? How is the conversation about shari‘a altered when questions of gender and sexuality are placed in the foreground? This course explores the questions through case studies in milieus as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the historical milieu of the Ottoman Empire. A series of reading and writing assignments focus on close reading and analytic writing. Throughout the course, we evaluate the contexts, motives, and forms of evidence brought to bear by authors who contribute to ongoing debates about how we understand shari‘a today.
In the first essay, students evaluate claims about the relationship between the European Enlightenment and a classical conception of shari‘a. In the second section of the course we proceed to a series of readings engaging questions of patriarchy and gender norms both in the historical formation of the shari‘a, and in contemporary settings. Choosing two texts from these readings for their second essay, students learn to stage a conversation in writing. In the last portion of the class, students conduct research on a topic of debate about shari‘a that interests them and then write a research paper that analyzes the stakes for the authors engaged in the debate.
Forms of Critique in Islam
JHU, Fall 2012, Fall 2013
This course treats critique as a concept that is embedded in social practices. Grounded in anthropological debates on critique in relation to Islamic traditions, we to examine ethnographic accounts of critical practice in different Muslim societies. What forms of reasoning appear in these critical practices? How are these practices linked to distinct ethical traditions within Islam that identify particular virtues to be acquired by the self or a community? How is political critique rendered with beauty or eloquence? And, what are the political stakes of particular conceptions of beauty and eloquence?
We begin by building a vocabulary of critical concepts including “reason,” “authority,” “freedom,” and “secularism.” Next we read recent ethnographic accounts of critical practices in Muslim societies with an eye to discerning how the authoritative texts and ideas in Islamic traditions are brought to bear upon the development of the self and the community. Finally, we examine the primary texts of two prominent critics in contemporary Muslim societies: the Algerian intellectual Muhammad Arkoun and Syrian poet Adonis. Reading their work in English translation provides a forum for the first-hand investigation of calls for innovation in forms of reasoning and expression.
This course treats critique as a concept that is embedded in social practices. Grounded in anthropological debates on critique in relation to Islamic traditions, we to examine ethnographic accounts of critical practice in different Muslim societies. What forms of reasoning appear in these critical practices? How are these practices linked to distinct ethical traditions within Islam that identify particular virtues to be acquired by the self or a community? How is political critique rendered with beauty or eloquence? And, what are the political stakes of particular conceptions of beauty and eloquence?
We begin by building a vocabulary of critical concepts including “reason,” “authority,” “freedom,” and “secularism.” Next we read recent ethnographic accounts of critical practices in Muslim societies with an eye to discerning how the authoritative texts and ideas in Islamic traditions are brought to bear upon the development of the self and the community. Finally, we examine the primary texts of two prominent critics in contemporary Muslim societies: the Algerian intellectual Muhammad Arkoun and Syrian poet Adonis. Reading their work in English translation provides a forum for the first-hand investigation of calls for innovation in forms of reasoning and expression.
questions of fatherhood
NYUAD, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019
What forms of knowledge, political conditions or social relations become visible when the figure of the father is put into question? This First Year Writing Seminar adopts feminist modes of inquiry to interrogate the figure of the father in a range of diverse social contexts in the contemporary world. We survey a range of texts including political theory, history, critical theory, film, and memoir that weave across Europe, Africa, and the United States (and maybe South Asia, too). We take the following three questions as our guide for each text: How do we know the father? What threats, anxieties, hopes and promises take shape through the figure of the father? How is the figure of the father related to broader patterns of political authority (e.g. race, class, sexual orientation)?
What forms of knowledge, political conditions or social relations become visible when the figure of the father is put into question? This First Year Writing Seminar adopts feminist modes of inquiry to interrogate the figure of the father in a range of diverse social contexts in the contemporary world. We survey a range of texts including political theory, history, critical theory, film, and memoir that weave across Europe, Africa, and the United States (and maybe South Asia, too). We take the following three questions as our guide for each text: How do we know the father? What threats, anxieties, hopes and promises take shape through the figure of the father? How is the figure of the father related to broader patterns of political authority (e.g. race, class, sexual orientation)?
men, marriage, and islam
JHU, Fall 2013
This course explores multiple modes of imagining social relationships in Muslim societies through categories of gender and sexuality. How has the imagination of manhood in Muslim societies been shaped by theological reflection, historical experience and literary expression? What is the range of diversity available to such imaginations in contemporary societies? What are the broader political or theological stakes of governing that diversity in particular ways?
We begin with texts in theology, law, and mystical thought that present marriage as an institution through which sexual relationships are brought under divine governance. How has marriage been conceived within the classical writings of shari‘a (‘Islamic law’)? How have theological reflections connected this vision of marriage as a social institution to the architecture of the cosmos itself? We then study two works in Arab intellectual and literary history to investigate the circumstances under which questions of desire and sexual identity came to be posed in relation to modern political governance. What questions and problems about men’s desire and sexuality were worth asking in the late Ottoman period? What kinds of questions were posed during and after Western colonial presence? The third section brings together works from ethnography, film and literature to interrogate the modes of imagining and governing manhood in contemporary societies. In light of the theological and political stakes outlined in the first two sections, what modes of governance are available to contemporary Muslims who stand to inherit or rework these theological and political concerns?
A main objective of the course is to question the notion that manhood in Muslim societies is a domain of free, autonomous and sovereign selves. Instead, we investigate various ways in which manhood is a problematic domain of contestation and contingency that is constituted by the interaction of different kinds of vulnerability, duties, pressures, opportunities and historical conditions.
This course explores multiple modes of imagining social relationships in Muslim societies through categories of gender and sexuality. How has the imagination of manhood in Muslim societies been shaped by theological reflection, historical experience and literary expression? What is the range of diversity available to such imaginations in contemporary societies? What are the broader political or theological stakes of governing that diversity in particular ways?
We begin with texts in theology, law, and mystical thought that present marriage as an institution through which sexual relationships are brought under divine governance. How has marriage been conceived within the classical writings of shari‘a (‘Islamic law’)? How have theological reflections connected this vision of marriage as a social institution to the architecture of the cosmos itself? We then study two works in Arab intellectual and literary history to investigate the circumstances under which questions of desire and sexual identity came to be posed in relation to modern political governance. What questions and problems about men’s desire and sexuality were worth asking in the late Ottoman period? What kinds of questions were posed during and after Western colonial presence? The third section brings together works from ethnography, film and literature to interrogate the modes of imagining and governing manhood in contemporary societies. In light of the theological and political stakes outlined in the first two sections, what modes of governance are available to contemporary Muslims who stand to inherit or rework these theological and political concerns?
A main objective of the course is to question the notion that manhood in Muslim societies is a domain of free, autonomous and sovereign selves. Instead, we investigate various ways in which manhood is a problematic domain of contestation and contingency that is constituted by the interaction of different kinds of vulnerability, duties, pressures, opportunities and historical conditions.
Between faith and unbelief
NYUAD, Fall 2018
What is religious faith? How is it found, inherited, lost, or questioned? If one questions faith, does that amount to unbelief? Or are faith and unbelief two sides of the same coin? These questions have appeared in the writing and living of scholars, saints, politicians, and laypeople in various traditions. Individuals, religious institutions, and political authorities have sought to cultivate, monitor, compel or prohibit expressions of religious faith and unbelief in different ways. Thus questions about faith and unbelief have inspired works of art, as well as political crises that prompt national and even global concern about peace, justice, and equality. This colloquium explores the study of religious faith by listening to those who find faith alongside those who lose or question it. We bring some classic texts in the study of religion together with film, poetry, biography, ethnography, and history to explore the lives of Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Jews in India, Ethiopia, Britain, Turkey, and Iran. What are the consequences for the prospects of peace, justice and equality in the twenty-first century when the lines between faith and unbelief are drawn or blurred?
This course is organized as a seminar in which faculty leads student discussion on texts. The goal of discussion is to thoroughly analyze the arguments, connect the arguments to other texts in the class, and connect the themes of the class to everyday life via current events, and media. Students will learn how to discuss controversial topics in the study of religion, engaging others who hold different views. Furthermore, students will learn how to enter conversations about religion in the middle—that is, rather than waiting for a full grasp of “foundational” texts or principles before proceeding in the conversation, students will learn to formulate questions when equipped with only partial knowledge. Finally, students will contextualize—in local, historical, and comparative terms—the problems and opportunities posed by religious difference in the contemporary world. Writing assignments extend classroom conversation and facilitate engagement with the texts.
What is religious faith? How is it found, inherited, lost, or questioned? If one questions faith, does that amount to unbelief? Or are faith and unbelief two sides of the same coin? These questions have appeared in the writing and living of scholars, saints, politicians, and laypeople in various traditions. Individuals, religious institutions, and political authorities have sought to cultivate, monitor, compel or prohibit expressions of religious faith and unbelief in different ways. Thus questions about faith and unbelief have inspired works of art, as well as political crises that prompt national and even global concern about peace, justice, and equality. This colloquium explores the study of religious faith by listening to those who find faith alongside those who lose or question it. We bring some classic texts in the study of religion together with film, poetry, biography, ethnography, and history to explore the lives of Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Jews in India, Ethiopia, Britain, Turkey, and Iran. What are the consequences for the prospects of peace, justice and equality in the twenty-first century when the lines between faith and unbelief are drawn or blurred?
This course is organized as a seminar in which faculty leads student discussion on texts. The goal of discussion is to thoroughly analyze the arguments, connect the arguments to other texts in the class, and connect the themes of the class to everyday life via current events, and media. Students will learn how to discuss controversial topics in the study of religion, engaging others who hold different views. Furthermore, students will learn how to enter conversations about religion in the middle—that is, rather than waiting for a full grasp of “foundational” texts or principles before proceeding in the conversation, students will learn to formulate questions when equipped with only partial knowledge. Finally, students will contextualize—in local, historical, and comparative terms—the problems and opportunities posed by religious difference in the contemporary world. Writing assignments extend classroom conversation and facilitate engagement with the texts.
Islamic literature, beloved of western thinkers
JHU, Fall 2011
This course examines political, erotic, aesthetic, and religious aspects of attraction between Western thinkers in a Christian milieu (e.g. André Gide, Richard Burton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau) and classical works of Islamic literature (Rumi, Hafiz, Abu Nuwas, the Arabian Nights). Equipped with a critique of the broader Orientalist and colonial context in which this encounter took place, we examine how texts were shaped and reshaped by the politics of reception.
This course examines political, erotic, aesthetic, and religious aspects of attraction between Western thinkers in a Christian milieu (e.g. André Gide, Richard Burton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau) and classical works of Islamic literature (Rumi, Hafiz, Abu Nuwas, the Arabian Nights). Equipped with a critique of the broader Orientalist and colonial context in which this encounter took place, we examine how texts were shaped and reshaped by the politics of reception.