Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst
Interim Chair, 2026-2027
Director UVM Humanities Center
Professor
- Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School
- B.A., Colgate University
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Areas of expertise
Religions in South Asia, history of religion, Islam and race, religion, and empire, and antisemitism and islamophobia.
BIO
Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, PhD, is Professor of Religion and Director of the Humanities Center at the University of Vermont, where she has taught since 2012. 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 (2021); co-author of Religion Is Not Done With You (2024); and was both a 2022-2023 Fulbright Scholar at the University of Birmingham and is currently the co-PI on an NEH grant attending to religion in Vermont. Dr. Morgenstein Fuerst is currently working on two new book projects: Imperial Pandemics: Radicalizing Religion Globally, is about global Islamophobia and antisemitism; Prey On It: Religion, Adoption, and American History addresses the entangled histories of American religion, race, and adoption. Morgenstein Fuerst is also the author of numerous articles about Islam, Islamic studies, and religion in South Asia and 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 awards for teaching and advising at UVM.
Courses
REL 1230 - D2: Introducing Islam Introduces Islam in the context of the study of religion, focusing especially on its variation over time and location, as evidenced by texts, rituals, festivals, and competing interpretations. Credits: 3.0
REL 2050 - Interpretation of Religion Examination of major theories and methods used in studying and interpreting religious phenomena. Credits: 3.0
REL 1050 Religion, Politics and Power Introduction to major themes in the study of religion, tracing their development over time. Special
emphasis is placed on material effects of the category of religion, including case law, current events, analysis of social constructs
(gender, race, sexuality, time), and engagement with key theoretical texts in the study of religion. Credits 3.0
REL 2238. Islam and Race
Islam is not a race (religions are not races) but Islam and religions are racialized. Examines how Islam and Muslims come to be seen as a race and the effects thereof in the North American context.
Publications
Bio
Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, PhD, is Professor of Religion and Director of the Humanities Center at the University of Vermont, where she has taught since 2012. 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 (2021); co-author of Religion Is Not Done With You (2024); and was both a 2022-2023 Fulbright Scholar at the University of Birmingham and is currently the co-PI on an NEH grant attending to religion in Vermont. Dr. Morgenstein Fuerst is currently working on two new book projects: Imperial Pandemics: Radicalizing Religion Globally, is about global Islamophobia and antisemitism; Prey On It: Religion, Adoption, and American History addresses the entangled histories of American religion, race, and adoption. Morgenstein Fuerst is also the author of numerous articles about Islam, Islamic studies, and religion in South Asia and 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 awards for teaching and advising at UVM.
Courses
REL 1230 - D2: Introducing Islam Introduces Islam in the context of the study of religion, focusing especially on its variation over time and location, as evidenced by texts, rituals, festivals, and competing interpretations. Credits: 3.0
REL 2050 - Interpretation of Religion Examination of major theories and methods used in studying and interpreting religious phenomena. Credits: 3.0
REL 1050 Religion, Politics and Power Introduction to major themes in the study of religion, tracing their development over time. Special
emphasis is placed on material effects of the category of religion, including case law, current events, analysis of social constructs
(gender, race, sexuality, time), and engagement with key theoretical texts in the study of religion. Credits 3.0
REL 2238. Islam and Race
Islam is not a race (religions are not races) but Islam and religions are racialized. Examines how Islam and Muslims come to be seen as a race and the effects thereof in the North American context.
Publications
Association and Affiliations
- American Academy of Religion (co-chair, Study of Islam, term: 2018-2022)
- South Asian Muslim Studies Association
- South Asian Literary Association
- American Association of University Professors
- United Academics