What you don't know about Jihad
with Dr. Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst
Explore the underappreciated meanings of "jihad", from spiritual striving to frameworks of just war, with a leading scholar of Islam.
Dr. Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst will explore historical uses of "jihad" and explain how it was shaped by colonialism and anti-imperial organizing. This lecture will challenge some of your assumptions and nuance your understanding of one of the most misunderstood concepts in the study of religion.Â
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About Dr. Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst
Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, PhD, is Associate Professor of Religion and Director of the Humanities Center at the University of Vermont. She is a 2022-2023 Fulbright Scholar at the University of Birmingham. Her research centers on Islam and Muslims in South Asia; imperialism; and intersections of religion, race, and belonging.
She is author of Indian Muslim Minorities and the 1857 Rebellion: Religion, Rebels, and Jihad (2017); co-editor of Words of Experience: Translating Islam with Carl W. Ernst (Equinox 2021); and co-author of Religion Is Not Done With You (Beacon 2024). She is working on two new book projects, Imperial Pandemics, on global Islamophobia and antisemitism as well as Pray On It: Adoption, Religion, and American History. Morgenstein Fuerst is the author of numerous articles about Islam, Islamic studies, and religion in South Asia.
She is also the cohost and coproducer of the grant-funded podcast Keeping It 101: A Killjoy’s Introduction to Religion. Morgenstein Fuerst has won several teacher-scholar awards.
About the Religion Department
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