Sarwar Alam, Ph.D. s:

Transcription

1 Curriculum Vitae Sarwar Alam, Ph.D. s: EDUCATION Doctor of Philosophy: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in August Wrote dissertation on women and religion under professor Vincent J. Cornell. Post-doctoral Fellow: Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, Graduate Division of Religion, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Master of Science in Human Resource Development: Pittsburg State University, Kansas, in Master of Social Science in Political Science: University of Chittagong, Bangladesh in Bachelor of Social Science (Honors) in Political Science: University of Chittagong, Bangladesh in EXPERIENCE Instructor: (Since January 2012), King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas. Job Description: Teaching Undergraduate courses on Islam (Islam: History and Practice; Sufism: Islamic Mystical Traditions; Introduction to Middle East; Religious Minorities in the Middle East). Postdoctoral Research Fellow: (September 1, August 31, 2010), Graduate Division of Religion (Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies), Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Job Description: Engaged in research on Islamic extremism in Bangladesh; women, religion, and public policy in Bangladesh; Sufism in Bangladesh; prepared the dissertation manuscript for consideration by Palgrave; and taught three courses (Sufism in South Asia; Women, Gender, and Religion in South Asia; and Islam in South Asia). Graduate Assistant: (January 2002 to August 2002; August 2004 to December 2004; August 2005 to May 2006), University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas. Job description: Conducted research, collected data, and helped the supervising professor in research related file works. 1

2 Graduate Teaching Assistant: (June 2000 to June 2001), Pittsburg State University, Kansas. Job description: Occasionally taught Soci 101 to undergraduate students, helped the supervising professor in preparing lectures. PUBLICATIONS Book: Jewels of Honor: The Perception of Power, Powerlessness, and Gender Among Rural Muslim Women of Bangladesh. New York and London: Palgrave (working on the comments of the reviewer). Articles/Chapters: Encountering the Unholy: the Establishment of Political Parties by Sufi Masters in Modern Bangladesh, in Clinton Bennett and Charles Ramsey, eds, South Asian Sufis: Devotion, Deviation and Destiny (pp ). New York: Continuum, Making the Case for Sainthood in Modern Bangladesh: Narrative Strategies and the Presentation of Holiness in the Life of Ziaul Haque Maizbhandari, in Clinton Bennett and Charles Ramsey, eds, South Asian Sufis: Devotion, Deviation and Destiny (pp ). New York: Continuum, Sufi Pluralism in Bangladesh: The Case of Maizbhandariyya Tariqa. Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, vol. xxxiv, no. 1 (Fall 2010): The Genesis of Islamic Extremism in Bangladesh (2008) at the online publication portal of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. Available at Contesting the Shari a: The Prospect of CEDAW in Eliminating Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh, Law Vision 10 (2008). [Published by the Department of Law, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh] Islam, Culture, and the Power of Women in a Bangladesh Village, in Vincent J. Cornell, ed., Voices of Islam, 5 Vols (pp. 3: 35-56). Westport, Connecticut, and London: Praeger, Book Reviews: Hans Harder, Sufism and Saint Veneration in Contemporary Bangladesh: The Maijbhandaris of Chittagong (Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies. Landon and New York, Routledge, 2011) in Journal of Sufi Studies 1:2 (November 2012). Markus Dressler, Ron Geaves and Gritt Klinkhammer,eds., Sufis in Western Society: Global Networking and Locality (London and New York: Routledge, 2009) in International Journal of Middle East Studies 42:2 (May 2010). 2

3 WORKS IN PROGRESS Articles: How Should We Define Veil in Bengali: The Practice of Parda in a Bangladesh Village. Neglecting the Holy, Risking the Heaven: Rethinking the Analogy of Corpse And Corpsewasher Between the Disciples and Sufi Masters in the Politics of Modern Bangladesh. O Murshid My Heart Cries for Thee : Devotionalism and Gender Transgression in the Songs of Maizbhandariyya Tradition in Bangladesh. The Home is Where My Soul Resides: Bankim Chandra Chattopadhaya, Muhammad Iqbal, Communal Identity and the Partition of India. PRESENTATIONS American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting 2013 (Scheduled to be held in November 23-26, 2013 in Baltimore, Maryland): O Murshid My Heart Cries for Thee : Devotionalism and Gender Transgression in the Songs of Maizbhandariyya Tradition in Bangladesh. Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, Regional Meeting 2013 (March 16, 2013 in Greenville, South Carolina): Sufism Without Boundaries: The Maizbhandariyya Tariqa and Interfaith Dialogue in Modern Bangladesh. South-East Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Seminar (October 20, 2012 at Valle Crucis, North Carolina): Devotionalism and Gender Transgression in the Songs of Miazbhandariyya Tradition in Bangladesh. American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting 2011 (November 19, 2011 in San Francisco, California): Neglecting the Holy, Risking the Heaven: Rethinking the Analogy of Corpse and Corpsewasher Between the Disciples and Sufi Masters in the Politics of Modern Bangladesh. American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting 2010 (November 01, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia): Encountering the Unholy: the Establishment of Political Parties by Sufi Masters in Modern Bangladesh. American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting 2009 (November 10, 2009 in Montreal, Canada): Making the Case for Sainthood in Modern Bangladesh: Narrative Strategies and the Presentation of Holiness in the Life of Ziaul Haque Maizbhandari. Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, Regional Meeting 2009 (March 15, 2009 in Greensboro, North Carolina): Religious Extremism in Bangladesh: An Analysis. 3

4 Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Annual Conference 2008 (December 12, 2008 at Columbia University, New York): The Genesis of Islamic Extremism in Bangladesh. American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting 2008 (November 3, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois): Sufi Pluralism in Bangladesh: The Case of the Maizbhandariyya Tariqa South-East Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Seminar (October 18, 2008 at Valle Crucis, North Carolina): The Way of Maizbhandariyya: Introduction to a Sufi Movement in Bangladesh. Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, Regional Meeting 2008 (March 9, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia): Maizbhandariyya Tariqa: A Sufi Movement of Bangladesh. Arkansas Political Science Conference (February 2004 in Fayetteville, Arkansas): Gender Relationships and the Powerlessness of Rural Women in Bangladesh. MEMBERSHIP American Academy of Religion (AAR) South-East Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Seminar (SERMEISS) LANGUAGES Bengali (Native) English (Fluent) Hindi (Spoken) Urdu (Reading) Arabic (Reading) COURSES TAKEN AT EMORY UNIVERSITY Gender, Sexuality, and Modern Islam; History of Early and Medieval Islam; Religious Extremism; Islam in Central Asia; History of Anthropological Thought; Historiography and the Study of Islam; Narrative and Poetry in Indian Religious Literature; Performance and Ethnography in West and South Asian Religious Traditions; Gender and Sexual Diversity; Oral Epics in India; the Study of Sainthood; Islam and Democracy; Islam and Modernity; Islamic Spain and North Africa; Imagining Middle East and South Asia; and Intensive Arabic and Urdu. RESEARCH INTERESTS Women, religion, and public policy; Sufism in South Asia. 4

5 TEACHING INTERESTS Introduction to World Religions; Introduction to Islam; Introduction to Middle East Religious Minorities in the Middle East Sufism: Islamic Mystical Traditions; Religious Extremism Compared; Civilizations and Religions in South Asia; Introduction to Hinduism; Gender Ideology Across the Traditions; and Women, Gender, Religion, and Public Policy in South Asia. 5