Global Sufism: Theirs and Ours

Marcia Hermansen
Loyola University, Chicago

"Global Sufism: Theirs and Ours"

Thursday March 24, 2011, 13:00-15:00
Aarhus University, building 1443 (former Faculty of Theology), room 340

The seminar presentation highlights transformations of Sufi organizations and styles occurring both in the West and in the Muslim World and how these complicate the “global” and “local” as constructs. For example, the construct “ours” could indicate how Westerners have reinterpreted and institutionalized Sufism, perhaps re-exporting some elements back to Muslim societies. “Theirs,” on the other hand, suggests how Sufi-inspired movements originating in contemporary Muslim societies modify elements of the classical Sufi Orders (tariqas) in the face of modernization and globalization and subsequently attempt to expand transnationally.

Marcia Hermansen is Director of the Islamic World Studies Program and Professor in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches courses in Islamic Studies and the academic study of religion. She received her Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In the course of her research and language training she lived for extended periods in Egypt, Jordan, India, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan and she conducts research in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu as well as the major European languages.

Her work focuses on Islamic Thought, Sufism, Islam and Muslims in South Asia, Muslims in America, and Women in Islam. Her recent articles include "Hybrid identity Formations in Muslim America: The Case of American Sufi Movements" (2000),"Common Themes, Uncommon Contexts: The Sufi Movements of Khwaja Hasan Nizami (1878-1955) and Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927)" (2001), "What's American about American Sufi Movements?" (2004),  "The Academic Study of Sufism at American Universities" (2007), and “Said Nursi and Maulana Ilyas: Examples of Pietistic Spirituality among 20th Century Islamic Movements” (2008).

Arranged by the Arab and Islamic Studies Unit in cooperation with SATS (Sufism and Transnational Spirituality, sufism.au.dk).