Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, Assistant Professor

Area of expertise:

Islam, religions of South Asia, and the history of religion

Curriculum Vitae

Contact Information

Email: Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst
Phone: (802) 656- 0232

Office Hours: Spring 2013: Tuesday 8:30-9:45, 12:30-1:30 or by appointment

481 Main Street, room 105

Website: http://blog.uvm.edu/imorgens/

Professor Morgenstein Fuerst specializes in religions of South Asia.  Her research deals with Islam in South Asia, historiography, and the development of theories of religion.  Other areas of interest include how religion has been defined and relates to both nationalism and colonialism. She earned her B.A. in Religion from Colgate University in 2005, an M.T.S. at Harvard Divinity School in 2007, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Islamic Studies concentration in the department of Religious Studies in 2012.

“My work centers on definitions: what is religion? How is it used? Who uses it—and when?  To what avail?  Specifically, my research deals with how Muslims and Hindus used the category—and ones like it—to order political, social, and private aspects of their lives in the 18th-19th centuries.  Understanding these complicated, historically rooted conversations is important if we are to attempt to understand how religion continues to shape South Asia—and the way we study it—today.  In both my research and my teaching, I aim to bring historical contexts, conceptions, and debates to the fore; I want my students to wrestle with the legacies such an untidy history and topic undoubtedly leaves upon their world.”

Publications include:

“Space, Power, And Stories: Hagiography, Nationalist Discourse, and the Construction of Sacred Space at the Khwaja Sahib in Ajmer, India,” Symposia. Volume 3, 1 (2011), pp. 55-69.

Faculty Directory

• Erica Andrus
• Thomas Borchert
• Vicki Brennan
• Todne Chipumuro
• Anne Clark
• Cuong Mai
• Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst
• Richard Sugarman
• Kevin Trainor

Emeriti Faculty Directory

• Walter L. Brenneman
• Robert E. Gussner
• William Paden
• Luther Martin