SherAli K Tareen Professor of Religious Studies
Intellectual Biography
SherAli has been teaching at F&M since 2012. He received his PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University in 2012. His research focuses on Muslim intellectual traditions and debates in early modern and modern South Asia. He has also written extensively on the interaction of Islam and secularism. His book (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) received the American Institute of Pakistan Studies 2020 and was selected as a for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book Award. Listen to a podcast interview on the book . And see and for recent online symposia on the book with essays by leading scholars of Islam and South Asia.
His second book called is appearing in August 2023 in Columbia University Press' prestigious Religion, Culture, and Public Life series. His various articles have appeared in the Journal of Law and Religion, Muslim World, Political Theology, Islamic Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, ReOrient, among many other journals. His academic publications and talks are available .
SherAli also co-hosts the popular podcast New Books in Islamic Studies that operates online through the New Books Network and features interviews with authors of important new books in the broader field of Islamic Studies. See link below to access this wonderful resource.
His teaching menu includes courses such as RST 114 Islam, RST 275 Islam, Tradition, and Modernity, RST 370 Islamic Law and Ethics, RST 371 Sufism, RST 375 Islamic, Law, Gender, and Sexuality, RST 376 Reading Islamic Texts in Arabic, RST 273 Hindus and Muslims, RST 375 Religion and Secularism, and the Connections Course Islam in North America.
Scholarly Publications
Monographs
Defending Muhammad in Modernity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020).
Perilous Intimacies: Debating Hindu-Muslim Friendship after Empire (Columbia University Press, 2023).
Edited Books
Edited Journal Volumes
鈥淭he Deoband Madrasa.鈥 Special Edition Muslim World, Blackwell Publishing, Volume 99, Number 3, (July 2009).
鈥淚magining the Public in Modern South Asia鈥 (with Barton Scott and Brannon Ingram) South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Taylor and Francis Publications, Volume 38, Number 3, (September 2015).
鈥淏eyond Revival and Reform: Reorienting the Study of South Asian Islam鈥 (with Teena Purohit) ReOrient Journal July 2020.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
-鈥淣ormativity, Heresy, and the Politics of Authenticity in South Asian Islam.鈥 Muslim World, Blackwell Publishing, Volume 99, Number 3, (July 2009), pp. 521-552. Special Edition on 鈥淒eoband Madrasa.鈥 Served as Guest Editor.
-鈥淐ompeting Political Theologies in Islam: Intra-Muslim Polemics on the Limits of Prophetic Intercession.鈥 Political Theology, Equinox Publishing, Volume 12:3 (June 2011), pp. 418-433.
-鈥淭he Polemic of Shahjahanpur: Religion, History, and Miracles.鈥 Islamic Studies Journal, Islamic Research Institute, Volume 51, Number 1, (July 2013), pp. 49-67.
-鈥淭he Hermeneutics of Reconciliation: Haji Imdadullah鈥檚 Faysala-yi Haft Mas鈥檃la (A Resolution to the Seven Controversies).鈥 Sagar: A South Asia Research Journal, University of Texas at Austin South Asia Institute, Volume 21, (May 2013), pp.1-16.
-鈥淭he Perils and Possibilities of Inter-Religious Translation: Mirza Mazhar Jan-i Janan on the Hindus.鈥 Sagar: A South Asia Research Journal, University of Texas at Austin South Asia Institute, Volume 21, (May 2014), pp.43-51.
-鈥淣arratives of Emancipation in Modern Islam: Temporality, Hermeneutics, and Sovereignty.鈥 Islamic Studies Journal, Islamic Research Institute, Volume 52, Number 1, (September 2015), pp.5-28.
- 鈥淐ontesting Friendship in Colonial Muslim India.鈥 South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Taylor and Francis, Volume 38, Issue 3, (September 2015), pp. 419-433.
-鈥淩evolutionary Hermeneutics: Translating the Qur鈥檃n as a Manifesto for Revolution.鈥 Journal of Religious and Political Practice, Taylor and Francis, Volume 3, Numbers 1-2, (March 2017), 1-24.
-鈥淭ranslating the 鈥極ther鈥: Early Modern Muslim Understandings of Hinduism.鈥 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Cambridge University Press, Volume 27, Number 3 (July 2017), pp. 435-460.
-鈥淢uslim Political Theology Before and After Empire: Sh膩h Mu岣mmad Ism膩士墨l鈥檚 Station.of.Leadership (Man峁b-i Im膩mat).鈥 Political Theology, Taylor and Francis, Volume 21:1 (January 2020), pp. 1-22.
-鈥淏eyond Revival and Reform: Reorienting the Study of South Asian Islam鈥 (with Teena Purohit) ReOrient Journal, Pluto Journals, Volume 5, Number 2 (July 2020), 134-136.
-鈥淪outh Asian Qur鈥檃n Commentaries and Translations: A Preliminary Intellectual History鈥 ReOrient Journal, Pluto Journals, Volume 5, Number 2 (July 2020), 233-256.
-鈥淭hinking the Question of Religious Minorities in Colonial India: Some Notes on Intra-Muslim and Hindu-Muslim Encounters鈥 Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Duke University Press, Volume 41, Number 3 (December 2021), 370-377.
Editor Reviewed Journal Articles
-鈥淚slam, Democracy, and the Limits of Secular Conceptuality.鈥 Journal of Law and Religion, Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, Volume 29, Number 1, (January 2014), pp.1-17.
-鈥淒ebating Islam and Secularism in Pakistan.鈥 Journal of Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press, Volume 76, Number 2 (May 2017), pp. 457-461.
-鈥淭ragedies and Ambiguities of Islam in Pakistan.鈥 Islamic Studies Journal, Islamic Research Institute, Volume 58, Number 2, (October 2019), pp. 245-253.
Editor Reviewed Book Chapters
-鈥淩evival and Reform in Islam.鈥 Co-authored with Ebrahim Moosa. Islamic Political Thought: An Introduction, Ed. Gerhard Bowering. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015, pp. 202-219.
-鈥淪ecularization and South Asian Islam.鈥 Indian Religions, Ed. Arvind Sharma. Springer Press, September 2017.
-鈥淪truggles for Independence: Colonial and Post-Colonial Orders.鈥 Blackwell History of Islamic Civilization, Ed. Armando Salvatore. Blackwell Publishing, 2018.
-鈥淒isrupting Secular Power: Saba Mahmood and the Study of Religion.鈥 Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Methods, Ed. Sarah Bloesch and Meredith Minister. Bloomsbury Press, 2018, pp. 155-174.
Forthcoming Journal Articles:
-鈥淭eaching Theory without Theory Talk in an Introductory Islam Course,鈥 The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching.
Under Review after Submission:
--鈥淐ompeting Genealogies of Reform in Modern South Asian Islam: The Aligarh Deoband Divide,鈥 under review with Modern Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press.
Editor Reviewed Online Scholarly Articles
-鈥淪overeignty and its Afterlives in Muslim South Asia,鈥 Response to University of Notre Dame Contending Modernities Forum on SherAli Tareen鈥檚 Defending Muhammad in Modernity, 2021.
-鈥淪overeignty and Secularism in Modern Islam,鈥 Response to Marginalia Review of Books Forum on SherAli Tareen鈥檚 Defending Muhammad in Modernity, 2022.
Peer-Reviewed Bibliographic Articles
-鈥淒eoband Madrasa.鈥 In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Islamic Studies. Ed. Tamara Sonn. New York: Oxford University Press, April, 2014.
-鈥淪ayyid Abu鈥檒 鈥楢la Mawdudi.鈥 In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Islamic Studies. Ed. Tamara Sonn. New York: Oxford University Press, April, 2014.
Encyclopedia Articles
鈥淢ahmud Ahmadenijad鈥 Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East, Ed. Michael Fischbach. Gale Publishing House, Volume 1, pp. 26-30, November 2007.
-鈥淧ark 51鈥 Frequencies: A Genealogy of Spirituality. Curated by John Modern and Kathryn Lofton. (New York: SSRC, December 2011).
鈥淐丑补谤颈迟测,鈥 Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, Princeton University Press, Ed. Gerhard Bowering. December 2012.
鈥淣adwat al-鈥楿lama.鈥 The Encyclopedia on Islam and Law, Ed. Jonathan Brown. Oxford University Press, April 2014.
Book Reviews
Review of Nile Green Making Space: Sufis and Settlers in Early Modern India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012) in Journal of Islamic Studies, Cambridge University Press, Volume 25, Number 1, (January 2014), pp. 62-65.
Review of Teena Purohit The Aga Khan Case: Religion and Identity in Colonial India (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012) in Islamic Studies Journal, Islamic Research Institute, Volume 52, Number 1, (August 2015).
Review of John Turner Inquisition in Early Islam: The Competition for Political and Religious Authority in the Abbasid Empire (London: IB Tauris, 2013) in Islamic Studies Journal, Islamic Research Institute, Volume 52, Number 2, (February, 2016).
Review of Adil Khan From Sufism to Ahmadiyya (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014) in Nova Religio, Volume 21, Number 2 (November 2017).
Review of Seema Alavi Muslim Cosmopolitanism in an Age of Empire in International Journal of Asian Studies, Volume 15, Number 1 (January 2018).
Review of Gregory Lipton Rethinking Ibn 鈥楢rabi (NY: Oxford University Press, 2018) in Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 鈥楢rabi Society, Number 65 (August 2019), pp. 95-99.
Talks and Presentations
Invited Talks - Past Five Years
Response to Author Meets Critics Book Panel on Anand Taneja鈥檚 Jinnealogy American Academy of Religion Conference, Denver, CO, November 2018.
Invited Talk: 鈥淧olemical Encounters: Debating the Prophet in Colonial South Asia.鈥 University of Florida Department of Religion, February 2019.
Invited Talk: 鈥淒efending Muhammad in Modernity: Some Perspectives from South Asia.鈥 McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies Annual Graduate Student Conference Keynote Talk, April 2019.
Respondent 鈥淎uthor Meets Critics Book Panel on SherAli Tareen鈥檚 Defending Muhammad in Modernity and Brannon Ingram鈥檚 Revival from Below.鈥 Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 2019.
Invited Talk: 鈥淒ebating Hindu-Muslim Friendship in Colonial India,鈥 Princeton University Near Eastern Studies Department, August 2020.
Invited Talk: 鈥淢uslim Political Theology after Empire,鈥 Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, September 2020.
Invited Talk: 鈥淢iracle Wars: Interreligious Polemics in Colonial South Asia,鈥 Exeter University and Habib University Islam in South Asia Speakers Series, October 2020.
Respondent 鈥淎uthor Meets Critics Book Panel on SherAli Tareen鈥檚 Defending Muhammad in Modernity.鈥 American Academy of Religion Conference, Virtual, November 2020.
Invited Talk: 鈥淒ebating Hindu-Muslim Friendship after Empire.鈥 University of Cambridge, Center of Islamic Studies, April 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淭he Promise and Peril of Hindu-Muslim Friendship.鈥 University of Michigan Pakistan Studies Conference on 鈥淩eligious Landscapes,鈥 April 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淒ecolonial Studies and Defending Muhammad in Modernity.鈥 Institute of Policy Studies Islamabad (Talk Delivered in Urdu), August 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淪overeignty and its Afterlives.鈥 SIO Kerala India, September 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淒ebating Inter-religious Friendship after Empire.鈥 International Institute of Islamic Studies Annual Al-Faruqi Memorial Keynote Address, American Academy of Religion, San Antonio TX, November 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淣on-Liberal Logics of Tolerance in Modern Islam: The Case of Hajji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki (d. 1899.鈥 Markfield Institute UK, November 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淲hat is Secularism,鈥 Hamdard University Delhi India, November 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淐ompeting Movements in Muslim South Asia: The Aligarh-Deoband Divide.鈥 Darul Qasim College, December 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淪hifting Conceptions of Sovereignty in South Asia鈥 (Bar-i Saghir Mayn Hakimiyyat ke Badaltay Huway Tasawurrat) Hast o Neest Institute Lahore (talk delivered in Urdu), December 2021.
Invited Talk: 鈥淭he Cow and the Caliphate: Hindu-Muslim Friendship in Colonial India.鈥 Columbia University South Asia Institute Speakers Series, January 2022.
Invited Talk: 鈥淭he 鈥楿lama鈥 and Imperial Muslim Political Theology,鈥 Keynote Speaker Ummatics Colloquium, January 2022.
Invited Talk: 鈥淭he Qur鈥檃n and Economic Justice,鈥 Keynote Speaker International Qur鈥檃n Conference, January 2022 (Talk Delivered in Urdu).
Invited Talk: 鈥淩eligious Minorities and Imperial Political Theologies in Pakistan,鈥 Keynote Speaker, University of Pennsylvania Annual Pakistan Studies Conference, February 2022.
Invited Talk: 鈥淒iscussion on Defending Muhammad in Modernity,鈥 Center for Islam and Global Affairs Istanbul, March 2022.
Invited Talk: 鈥淪ecularism Ky膩 Hay? (What is Secularism?),鈥 Ibn Khaldun Institute Lahore, March 2022 (Talk Delivered in Urdu).
Invited Talk: 鈥淭he Politics of Prophetic Love in South Asia,鈥 Center for the Study of Law and Religion Emory University, April 2022.
Invited Talk: 鈥淒iscussion on Defending Muhammad in Modernity,鈥 Keynote Speaker Peshawar Literature Festival, May 2022 (Talk Delivered in Pashto).
Invited Talk: 鈥淒ebating Hindu-Muslim Friendship after Empire,鈥 University of Oxford Political Thought Seminar Series, November 2022.
Invited Talk: 鈥淧rophetic Politics in Modern South Asia,鈥 The Center for Islamic Theology Tuebingen University, January 2023.
Invited Talk: 鈥淧erilous Intimacies Book Talk,鈥 Keynote Speaker Peshawar Literature Festival, February 2023 (Talk Delivered in Pashto).
Invited Talk: 鈥淩esponse to Salman Sayyid鈥檚 talk Still Recalling the Caliphate?鈥 Ummatics Colloquim, March 2023.
Invited Talk: 鈥淐ontests over the Boundaries of Hindu-Muslim Friendship,鈥 Cambridge University, April 2023.
Conference Presentations
Conference Organized:
鈥淚magining the Public in Colonial India: Print, Polemics, and the People.鈥 (with Barton Scott and Brannon Ingram) Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill, May 16-17, 2014.
Panels Organized (last 5 years):
鈥淏eyond Reform and Revival: Alternative Archives of South Asian Islam.鈥 Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 2017.
鈥淎uthor meets Critics Panel on Irfan Ahmed鈥檚 Religion as Critique: Islamic Critical Thinking from Mecca to the Marketplace.鈥 American Academy of Religion Conference, Denver, CO, November 2018.
鈥淏orders and Boundaries in South Asian Islam.鈥 Annual South Asia Conference, Madison WI, October 2019.
鈥淎uthor Meets Critics: Jasbir Puar鈥檚 The Right to Maim.鈥 American Academy of Religion Conference, San Diego, CA, November 2019.
Papers Delivered (last 5 years):
鈥淪outh Asian Minorities and the Global Discourse of Religious Moderation.鈥 Fifth Annual Sikh Studies Conference, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA, May 2017.
鈥淲hat if God could Lie? Contesting Sovereignty in Early Colonial India.鈥 Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 2017.
鈥淐ow Sacrifice as a Symbol of Muslim Distinction.鈥 Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 2017.
鈥淐ontesting Muhammad in Modernity: Power, Politics, Political Theology.鈥 Center for Culture and Literature, Conference on Prophetic Politics as Alternative Political Theology, Berlin, Germany, June, 2018.
鈥淪outh Asian Qur鈥檃n Commentaries and Translations.鈥 Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 2018.
鈥淒ebating the Cow in Colonial India.鈥 South Asia Muslim Studies Association, Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 2018.
鈥淯topic Strivings: Jihad, Sovereignty, Territory.鈥 Annual South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 2019. Panel Organizer.
鈥淨ur鈥檃n Translations and Commentaries in South Asia.鈥 International Qur鈥檃nic Studies Association, Society of Biblical Literature Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 2019.
鈥淭he Promise and Peril of Hindu-Muslim Friendship.鈥 University of Michigan Pakistan Studies Conference on 鈥淩eligious Landscapes,鈥 April 2021.
鈥淐ompeting Rationalities of Reform in Muslim South Asia: The Aligarh-Deoband Divide.鈥 South Asia Conference, Madison, WI, October 2021.
Awards and Fellowships
Finalist, American Academy of Religion Book Award for Excellence, Analytical-Descriptive Studies Category, 2021.
Winner, American Institute of Pakistan Studies Book Prize, 2020
American Institute of Pakistan Studies, Long-Term Senior Fellowship, 2020.
American Institute of Maghrebi Studies, Senior Research Fellowship, 2019.
American Institute of Pakistan Studies Publication Write-Up Grant, 2015.
Luce Visiting Fellowship Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies University of Notre Dame, 2015; funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.
National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship: Summer Institute on 鈥淎merican Muslims: History, Culture, and Politics鈥 at George Washington University, 2015.
International Institute of Islamic Thought Residential Fellowship, 2015.
American Institute of Pakistan Studies Long-Term Senior Fellowship, 2015-16.
New School Institute of Critical Social Inquiry Fellowship, seminar on Secularism with Talal Asad, June 2015.
American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant, 2015-16.
American Academy of Religion Collaborative International Research Grant, 2015, awarded annually to five research projects in the study of religion involving international collaboration.
Wabash Center Teaching and Learning Summer Fellowship, 2015; funded by the Lilly Foundation.
American Institute of Pakistan Studies Summer Research Fellowship, 2014.
International Institute of Islamic Thought Research Fellowship, 2014, awarded annually to three scholars of Islamic Studies across the world.
American Academy of Religion Research Award Winner, 2014-15, awarded annually to six scholars of religion across the world.
Wabash Center Teaching and Learning Workshop Fellowship, awarded biannually to fourteen Pre-Tenure Religion Faculty at Colleges and Universities across the country; 2014-15; funded by the Lilly Foundation.
National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship: Summer Seminar on 鈥淭he Late Ottoman and Russian Empires: Citizenship, Belonging, and Difference鈥 at George Washington University, 2014.
Yale University Annual Modern South Asia Workshop Fellow, 2014.
National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship: Summer Institute on 鈥淭he Centrality of Translation to the Humanities鈥 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013.
Franklin and 四虎影院 Hackman Summer Scholar Award with Kelseyleigh Reber, 2014.
Franklin and 四虎影院 Office of College Grants Resource Funds Award, 2014 and 2015.
Franklin and 四虎影院 Summer Seminar Fellowship on the 鈥淪tatus of the Humanities,鈥 2014.
Woodrow Wilson Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship for Religious Ethics and Values, 2010-11.
Foreign Languages
Arabic (Modern Standard): Speaking, Reading, and Writing (Near-Native Fluency)
Persian/Dari: Speaking, Reading and Writing (Near Native Fluency)
Urdu: Speaking, Reading and Writing (Advanced Native Fluency)
Pashto: Speaking and Reading (Advanced)
Punjabi: Speaking Only (Intermediate).