Philip Dorroll
Wofford College, Department of Religion
429 North Church Street, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 29303
Phone: 864-597-4563 email: dorrollpc@wofford.edu
Website: https://wofford.academia.edu/PhilDorroll
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Assistant Professor of Religion: September 2013-Present
Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC
Courses Taught: Introduction to Islam; Contemporary Islam; Christian and Islamic Theology in Comparative Perspective; Political Islam; Sex, Gender, and Religion; Theories and Methods in Religious Studies; Introduction to Religion; Religions of the World; Religious Histories of Istanbul: Christian-Muslim Relations and the Megacity (January 2015, with travel to Istanbul, Turkey: http://sites.wofford.edu/dorrollpc/ ); Introductory Arabic
EDUCATION
PhD, Religion, August 2013
Area of Specialization: Islamic Studies
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
MA, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, May 2009
Major Language: Arabic; Minor Language: Turkish
Concentration in Islamic Studies
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
BA, Religious Studies and English, May 2007
Minor in History; Minor in Philosophy
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Purdue University Study Abroad
Tec de Monterrey, Mazatlan, Mexico
Spring Semester 2007
Independent Study Abroad
Boğaziçi University, History Department, Istanbul, Turkey
Spring Semester 2006
Immersion Language Training in Arabic, Salalah, Oman (Summer 2008)
Immersion Language Training in Turkish, TÖMER Institute, Turkey (Ankara and Izmir; Summer 2010, 2011, 2012)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
History of Islamic theology and religious thought
History of Eastern Christian theology and Eastern Christian-Muslim relations
BOOK
Islamic Theology in the Turkish Republic (Forthcoming from Edinburgh University
Press, fall 2020)
The first comprehensive treatment in English of modern Turkish Islamic theology from the end of the Ottoman empire up to the present day
JOURNAL ARTICLES
2019 “Praying to an Absent God: A Comparative Critique of Religious
Nationalism,” The Wheel (A Journal of Orthodox Christian Thought)
17/18
2017 “Shari‘a and the Secular in Modern Turkey,” Contemporary Islam
11:2
2017 “Post-Gezi Islamic Theology: Intersectional Islamic Feminism in Turkey,”
Review of Middle East Studies 50:2
2016 “The Universe in Flux: Reconsidering Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī’s
Metaphysics and Epistemology,” Journal of Islamic Studies 27:2
2014 “‘The Turkish Understanding of Religion’: Rethinking Tradition and Modernity in
Contemporary Turkish Islamic Thought,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82:4
2014 “Christian Polemic and the Nature of the Sensual: Depicting Islam in Arabic
Christian Theology,” Studies in World Christianity 20:3
2014 “Scripture and Dissent: Engaging with the Neo-Patristic Paradigm of
Modern Orthodox Theology,” International Journal of Orthodox Theology 4:2
CO-AUTHORED ARTICLES
2017 Lead author, Courtney Dorroll; “Teaching Islam in Contemporary America: Digital Ethnography and the Affective Challenges of Islamic Studies Pedagogy.” Teaching Theology and Religion 20:4
BOOK CHAPTERS
2019 “The Five Questions about Islam Your Students Didn’t Know They Had:
Teaching Islamic Studies to an American Audience.” In Courtney Dorroll,
- Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2019.
2018 “The Doctrine of the Nature of the Qur’ān in the Māturīdī Tradition.” In
Akpınar et al., ed. Matüridi Düşünce ve Matüridilik Literatürü. 159-178.
Istanbul: Selçuk Üniversitesi İmam Matüridi Uygulama ve Araştırma
Merkezi and Endülüs Yayınları, 2018.
2018 “‘The Turkish Understanding of Religion’: Rediscovering Māturīdī in
Modern Turkey.” In Kutlu, ed. International Symposium on Maturidism:
Papers. 539-548. Ankara: Ahmet Yesevi Üniversitesi and Olivin Ofset, 2018.
2017 “Māturīdī Theology in the Ottoman Empire: Debating Human Choice and
Divine Power.” In Demir et al, ed. Osmanlı’da İlm-i Kelam: Alimler,
Eserler, Meseleler. 219-238. Istanbul: İSAR Yayınları, 2017.
ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES
2016 “Maturidism” [Under the entry “kalam”]. In Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim
World, 2nd ed: Scribner.
2012 “Family Life and Structure: Middle East 1250-1920.” In Cultural
Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: SAGE Press.
2012 “Holy Places.” In Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought: Princeton University
Press.
BOOK REVIEWS
2014 Review of Islamic Thought in the Dialogue of Cultures: A Historical and
Bibliographical Survey, by Hans Daiber, Ilahiyat Studies, 5/2
2013 Review of Islam, Secularism, and Liberal Democracy: Toward a
Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies, by Nader Hashemi, Review of
Middle East Studies, 47/2 (Winter)
2011 Review of Ottoman Medicine: Healing and Medical Institutions
1500-1700, by Miri Shefer-Mossensohn, Practical Matters 3 (Fall)
ONLINE PUBLICATIONS
2018 “Christianity and Islam: Ancient Hatreds, Modern Misrepresentations.” August 5.
Orthodoxy in Dialogue (orthodoxyindialogue.com)
2018 “Orthodoxy and Islam: Toward a Comparative Theology.” July 3. Orthodoxy in
Dialogue (orthodoxyindialogue.com)
2018 “Islamophobia Defined.” February 11. Orthodoxy in Dialogue
(orthodoxyindialogue.com)
2018 “Islamophobia and Orthodox Tradition.” January 5. Orthodoxy in Dialogue
(orthodoxyindialogue.com)
2014 “Conceptualizing Islam and Violence.” September 17. Muftah.
INVITED TALKS AND PRESENTATIONS
2018 Presentation on Maturidi’s metaphysics of justice, Uluslararası Matüridi İmam
Matüridi Çalıştayı [International Workshop on Imam Maturidi], Ankara
2018 “What Holds the Universe Together: A Proof of al-Maturidi for the Existence of God,”
invited talk given at undergraduate session of course “The Notion of God according to
Islamic Theology and Philosophy,” taught by Prof. Dr. Lejla Demiri at University of
Tubingen
2018 “Debating the Word of God in Islamic Theology: The Maturidi Tradition,” invited talk
given to graduate seminar taught by Prof. Dr. Lejla Demiri at University of Tubingen
2016 “Religious Studies in America,” invited talk on the academic study of religion in US
history and culture given at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt (see also:
http://www.elbalad.news/2348354)
2016 “Abu Mansur al-Maturidi as Thinker and Theologian,” invited talk given to group on
university teachers and students in Cairo, Egypt
2016 Invited talk on current research on Maturidi, given to faculty members of Ankara
University Faculty of Divinity
2016 Invited talk on teaching Islamic Studies in the United States and current
research on Maturidi, given to group of students and civil servants at
the Women, Family, and Youth Center (KAGEM) associated with the
Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs in Ankara, Turkey
2015 “Islam in the Turkish Republic: The Discourse and Praxis of Islamic
Modernism,” talk at the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown
University
2014 “Institutionalizing Islamic Modernism: The History of the Divinity Faculty (İlahiyat
Fakültesi) in Turkey,” paper presented at colloquium “The Transformation of Turkey”
at the International Institute of Islamic Thought
2014 “Secular Humanism and Religious Reasoning: The ‘Immanent Frame’ of
Islamic Discourse in Contemporary Turkey,” paper presented at the annual
Mapping the Landscapes of Islamic Studies Conference at Indiana
University
2013 “Shared Conceptual Space: Exploring the Boundaries of Cultural Debate
in Contemporary Turkey,” keynote address during Turkey Week at
Georgia State University (part of university programming for International
Education Month, sponsored by the GSU Office of International Initiatives)
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2019 “Traumatic Fragments: American Orthodox Discourse on Islam,” paper presented at
the conference “The Limits of Justice: Ethics, Law, and Theology in Christian Muslim
Relations,” held by the Christian-Muslim Studies Network; at Candler School of
Theology at Emory University, Atlanta
2019 “Modernity on the Western Border: Theology in the Ottoman and Russian Empires,”
paper presented at the first meeting of the International Orthodox Theological
Association, in Iaşi, Romania
2015 “Māturīdī Theology in the Ottoman Empire: Debating Human Choice and Divine
Power,” paper presented at Osmanlı’da İlm-i kelam Sempozyumu (Ottoman Kalam:
Scholars, Works and Problems), in Istanbul
2015 “ ‘The Turkish Understanding of Religion’: Rediscovering Maturidi in Modern Turkey,”
paper read by colleague at the International Symposium on Maturidism: Past, Present,
and Future, Ahmet Yesevi University, Kazakhstan
2014 “21st Century Antichrist: Depictions of Muslims and Islam in Popular
American Apocalyptic,” paper presented at the annual conference of
the Midwest Popular Culture/American Culture Association (October)
2013 “Theorizing Desire: Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi on the Power of
Homoerotic Attraction,” paper presented at the annual conference of the
Middle East Studies Association
2013 “Debating the Nature of the Sensual: Theological Uses of the Bodily in
Early Christian Kalam,” paper presented at the conference “Jewish
and Christian Reception(s) of Muslim Theology” sponsored by the
Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul
2013 “Islamic Confrontations with Patriarchy: Women and Religious Authority
in Contemporary Turkey,” paper presented at the 13th Annual
Southwest Graduate Conference in Middle Eastern and North African
Studies
2012 “Sacred Violence in Sacred History: War and Peace in Arabic Christian
Apologetics,” paper presented at the annual conference of the Middle
East Studies Association
2011 Participant in panel discussion conducted in Arabic on the events of the
Arab Spring, presented by faculty of the Emory University Department of
Middle East and South Asian Studies
2010 “‘The Turkish Understanding of Religion’: Sönmez Kutlu, Hanifi Özcan,
and the Epistemology of Cultural and Religious Pluralism,” paper
presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of
Religion
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2016 Invited panelist for event “Refugee Crisis on both sides of the Atlantic: Academic
perspectives and practical experiences,” Furman University Cultural Life Program
(Nov. 7)
2016 Faculty in-service presentation on Islam and Islamic extremism at St. Joseph’s
Catholic School in Greenville, SC (Apr. 13)
2016 Invited presentation on Islam and Islamic extremism to parishioners of Episcopal
Church of the Advent, Spartanburg, SC (Jan. 10)
2015 Invited presentation on Islam and Islamic extremism to select administration, faculty,
and students at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Greenville, SC (Nov. 23)
2015 Presentation on Syrian refugee crises as part of University of South Carolina public
discussion and panel on refugees in South Carolina (Nov. 11)
2015 Talk “Islam and the West” presented to Wofford alumni during homecoming weekend
(Oct. 23)
2015 Presentation on Syrian refugee crises as part of Wofford College public discussion and
panel on refugees in the Spartanburg community; interviews with local media affiliates
on refugee resettlement in Spartanburg, South Carolina (Sep. 24)
2015 Talk “Introducing Mystical Islam” at Spartanburg County Public Library
(Aug. 24)
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND AWARDS
2018: Wofford College research funding for research on 1768 Qur’an manuscript written by
enslaved Muslim in South Carolina (Columbia and Charleston, SC)
2016-18: Principal Investigator and grant administrator for Department of
Education UISFL college-wide grant to strengthen MENA Area Studies
at Wofford College
2017: Wofford College Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Award
2017 Wofford College research funding for research on contacts with Muslims
in colonial South Carolina (Charleston, SC)
2016 Wofford College research funding for research on contemporary
developments in Islamic thought in Istanbul, Cairo, and Germany
2012 Emory University Laney Graduate School Professional Development
Support Funds for manuscript research at Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul
and Turkish National Library (Milli Kütüphanesi) in Ankara, summer 2011-2012
Emory University Laney Graduate School Professional Development
Support Funds for manuscript research at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and
text research at Turkish mosque centers in Berlin and Stuttgart, winter
2011 Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State for
overseas intensive language training in Turkish in Izmir, Turkey, summer
2010 Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State for
overseas intensive language training in Turkish in Ankara, Turkey,
summer
2009 Arts and Sciences Fellowship for entering doctoral students, Emory
University
2009 Indiana University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
M. Amin-Zaki Fellowship for Excellence in Arabic
2008-09 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for the study of
Arabic from the Center for the Study of Global Change, Indiana
University
2008 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for the study of
Arabic from the Center for the Study of Global Change, Indiana
University
2008 Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State for
overseas intensive language training in Arabic in the Sultanate of Oman,
summer
TEACHING AREAS
Introduction to Religion/Religious Studies, Religion and Gender, Introduction to Islam, Islamic History, Islamic Theology, Contemporary Islam, Comparative Theology, Religion, Gender, and Sexuality; Christian-Muslim Relations
LANGUAGES
Classical Arabic: Reading Fluency
Modern Standard Arabic: Reading, Speaking, Writing Fluency
Modern Turkish: Reading, Speaking, Writing Fluency
German: Reading Proficiency