EDITH A. SZANTO

Curriculum Vitae

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

 2019 – present   Assistant Professor, University of Alabama

2019                   Associate Professor, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

2012 – 18           Assistant Professor, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

2011 – 12           Lecturer, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

2009 – 11           Instructor, University of Toronto

EDUCATION

 2006 – 12           PhD, Religious Studies, University of Toronto

                           Dissertation title: “Following Sayyida Zaynab: Twelver Shi‘ism in Contemporary Syria”

                           Dissertation adviser: Amira Mittermaier

                           Comprehensive exam areas: Anthropology of Islam and Twelver Shi‘ism

2004 – 05           Visiting Student, University of Damascus, Jami‘a Abu Nūr and AMIDEAST

2002 – 04           MA, Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin

                           Thesis title: “Women’s Religious Groups in Cairo”

                           Thesis advisor: Kamran Aghaie

2002                   Semester Abroad, American University in Cairo, Egypt 

1999 – 02           BA, Summa cum Laude, Religious Studies, Arizona State University

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

2018                   “Mourning Halabja on Screen: Or Reading Kurdish Politics Through Anfal Films,” Review of Middle East Studies 51 (1): 135-146.

2018                   “‘Zoroaster was a Kurd!’: Neo-Zoroastrianism among Iraqi Kurds,” Iran and the Caucasus 22 (1): 96-110.

                           This article was translated into Kurmanji Kurdish and published by Fahriye Adsay for the Kurdish online journal, Zarema.

2018                   “Challenging Transnational Shi‘i Authority in Ba‘th Syria,” British Journal of Middle East Studies 45 (1): 95-110.

2016                   “Depicting Victims, Heroines, and Pawns in the Syrian Uprising,” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 12 (3): 306-322.

2013                   “Beyond the Karbala Paradigm: Rethinking Revolution and Redemption in Twelver Shi‘a Mourning Rituals,” Journal of Shi‘a Islamic Studies 6 (1): 75-91. 

2012                   “Illustrating an Islamic Childhood in Syria: Pious Subjects and Religious Authority in Twelver Shi‘i Children’s Books,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 32 (2): 361-373.

2012                   “Sayyida Zaynab in the State of Exception: Shi‘i Sainthood as ‘Qualified Life’ in Contemporary Syria,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 44 (2): 285-299.

2009                   “Pedagogies of Piety: Shi‘i Children’s Books, Ethics and the Emergence of the Pious Subject,” Symposia: The Graduate Student Journal of the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto 1 (1): 62-78.

2008                   “Inter-Religious Dialogue in Syria: Politics, Ethics and Miscommunication,” Political Theology 9 (1): 93-113.

Chapters in Edited Books

Forthcoming      “Kurdish Islam,” in Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives, edited by Mark Woodward and Ronald Lukens-Bull (New York: Springer).

2020                   “The ‘Alimahs of Sayyida Zaynab: Female Shi‘i Authority in a Syrian Sanctuary,” in Female Religious Authority in Shi‘i Islam: A Comparative History, edited by Mirjam Künkler and Devin Steward (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), 307-322.

2019                   “Economies of Piety at the Syrian Shrine of Sayyida Zaynab,” in Muslim Pilgrimage, edited by Babak Rahimi and Peyman Eshaghi (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 172-182.

2018                   “Shi‘a Islam,” in Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives, edited by Mark Woodward and Ronald Lukens-Bull (New York: Springer), 1-15.

2013                   “Contesting Fragile Saintly Traditions: Miraculous Healing among Twelver Shi‘is in Contemporary Syria,” in Politics of Worship in the Contemporary Middle East: Sainthood in Fragile States, edited by Andreas Bandak and Mikkel Bille (Leiden: Brill), 33-52. 

Book Reviews

 2015                   Review of Abbas Kadhim, “Reclaiming Iraq: The 1920 Revolution and the Foundation of the Modern State,” Arab Studies Journal 23 no. 1 (2015): 368-372.

2015                   Review of Faedah Totah, “Preserving the Old City of Damascus,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 47 no. 3 (2015): 632-634.

2014                   Review of Thomas Pierret, “Religion and State in Syria: The Sunni Ulama from Coup to Revolution,” Politics and Religion 7 (2): 1-3.

2013                   Review of Sally K. Gallagher, “Making Do in Damascus: Navigating a Generation of Change in Family and Work,” The Middle East Journal 67 (2): 323-324.

2012                   Review of Liyakat Takim, “Shi‘ism in America,” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 41 (2): 327-329.

2011                   Review of Ingvild Flaskerud, “Visualizing Belief and Piety in Iranian Shi‘ism,” The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 28 (4): 136-139.

2010                   Review of Diane King, ed., “Middle Eastern Belongings,” The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 27 (3): 121-123.

Film Reviews

 2017                   Film review of Julia Meltzer and Mustafa Rony Zeno, “Dalya’s Other Country, Anthropology Review Database (http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=7008).

2013                   Film review of Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix, “Light in Her Eyes,” Anthropology Review Database (http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=5263).

Academic News Articles and Field Reports

 2014                   “Sex and the Cemetery: Iranian Pilgrims, Shrine Visitation, and Consumer Piety in Damascus,” Syrian Studies Association Bulletin 19 (2): 1-5.

                           This article was translated into Arabic and published by the World Institute, Istanbul.

2012                   “‘Syria Love’: Watching Syrian Propaganda in Iraq,” Syrian Studies Association Bulletin 17 (2): 19-21.

                           This article was translated into Arabic and published by the World Institute, Istanbul.

2008                   “A Scholar of Popular Contemporary Islam on the Quest for ‘Truth’ in Damascus,” Syrian Studies Association Bulletin 13 (2): 8-9, 15.

2008                   “Performance, Power and the Possibility for Change: Shi‘i Muharram Practices and the 1979 Iranian Revolution,” Centre for the Study of Religion Graduate Student Journal 1: 42-48.

2007                   “Muharram in and around Sayyeda Zaynab,” Syrian Studies Association Bulletin 13 (1): 4-5.

AWARDS AND GRANTS

2018                   AUIS Faculty Research Award

2014                   AUIS Scholar (course load reduction and research funding)

2011 – 13           Faculty Development Grant, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

2008 – 10           Ontario Graduate Scholarship, University of Toronto

2009                   School of Graduate Studies Travel Grant, University of Toronto

2008                   Hartcourt Brown Fellowship, University of Toronto

2007 – 08           Less Commonly Taught Languages Study Elsewhere Award, University of Toronto

2004 – 05           US Fulbright Fellow, Syria

2003 – 04           Burton Continuing Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin

2003 – 04           Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship for Arabic, University of Texas at Austin

2000 – 02           Dean’s Honor Roll, Arizona State University

1999 – 00           Freshman Achievement Scholarship, Arizona State University

INVITED TALKS

 2018                   “The Widows of Karbala: Studying Women in Contemporary Shi‘ism,” presented at LUCIS Annual Conference 2018: Approaching Shi‘i Islam in the Academy, held at Leiden University, the Netherlands

2018                   “Iraqi Necropolitics,” a paper presented as part of a speaker series at the Department of Religious Studies at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada

2017                   “Iraqi Necropolitics:  Sovereignty, War Machines, and the Question of Agency,” a paper presented at The Middle East in Danger: The State Of Exception, a workshop held at Lancaster University

2017                   “Hiding the Truth in Plain Sight: Spiritual Healing and Jinn in Contemporary Syria,” a paper presented at The Islamic Multiverse, a conference held at New York University Abu Dhabi

2017                   “Mourning Halabja – or the Kurdish Holocaust Industry,” a paper presented at History and Society on TV in the Middle East, a conference held at the University of Maryland

2016                   “When Kurds doubt Islam,” a paper presented at Doubt and Certitude in Islam, an international research seminar held at Aarhus University, Denmark

2016                   “The Widows of Karbala,” a paper presented at the Mainstream Muharram: Exploring Political, Religious, and Cultural Expressions of Shi‘a Islam series at the University of Houston

2016                   “On the Trail of Tears: Pious Bodies, Affective Economies, and Sacred Space in Contemporary Iraqi Arba’īn Practices,” a paper presented at Lamenting Karbala, a conference held at the Warburg Institute by the Shi‘ah Institute

2016                   “Victims, Hero(in)es, and Pawns: Imagining the Syrian Uprising,” a paper presented as part of a lecture series entitled The Crisis In Syria: Past, Present, and Future held at NYU Abu Dhabi and sponsored by the Arab Crossroads Program

2016                   “The Never Ending Tragedy: Appropriations of Karbala Among Iraqi Shi‘is in Prerevolutionary Syria,” a paper presented at Reimagining Muslim Pasts, a workshop held at Sabanci University in Istanbul and sponsored by the Aga Khan University

2015                   “From Faith to Family: Religion and Tribes in Modern Kurdistan,” paper presented at The Middle East and its Tribes: A useful resource or a troubling legacy?, a workshop held at the Institut français du Proche-Orient in Erbil

2015                   “The Kurdish View of Shi‘i Politics in Iraq,” paper presented at Shi‘i Political Theology and Mobilisation in Contemporary Iraq, a workshop held at the University of Exeter

2015                   “Provincializing Shi‘ism in Modern Syria,” paper presented at Arab Shi‘ism vs. Wilayat al-Faqih, a workshop held at Oxford University

2014                   “Challenging Transnational Shi‘i Authority in Ba‘th Syria,” paper presented at Center and Periphery in the Muslim World: De-Centering Traditional Religious Authority, a workshop held at the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies

2012                   “Affecting ‘Ashura: Rethinking Revolution and Redemption in Contemporary Syrian Twelver Shi‘i Mourning Rituals,” paper presented at The Shrines of the Ahl al-Bayt Conference, NYU Abu Dhabi

2011                   “Mourning Hussayn in Contemporary Syria,” paper presented at the Max Planck Institut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin

2005                   “Material Culture around Damascene Mosques,” paper presented at the CEMAT Fulbright Conference, Tunisia

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

2019                   “Voluntourism in Iraq: Saving Refugees during Vacation,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2019                   “The ‘Alimat of Sayyida Zaynab: Female Shi‘i Religious Authority in a Syrian Seminary,” paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

2019                   “Marriages in/as Safe Havens for Syrian Refugees: Muslim Marital Practices in Refugee Camps in Iraqi Kurdistan,” paper presented with Yalda Razmahang at “Different Worlds? Ethnography, Religion and Traveling Critique Between Europe and the MENA,” a workshop hosted by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo

2018                   “Zoroaster was a Kurd!”: Neo-Zoroastrianism in Contemporary Iraqi Kurdistan,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2017                   “Peons, FOBs, and Fat Cats: Class and the Study of Contemporary Islam,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2017                   “On the Path of Sorrow: Materiality in Contemporary Iraqi Arba’īn Practices,” paper presented at the Deutsche Vereininung der Religionswissenschaft Annual Meeting

2016                   “Learning Islam in Kurdistan,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2016                   “Patronizing Shi‘i ‘Ulama in Contemporary Syria,” a paper presented at the 23^rd Annual Congress of DAVO held at the University of Tübingen

2016                   Panel Organizer, “Patronizing Twelver Shi‘ism:  Religious Authority and Worldly Powers,” at the 23^rd Annual Congress of DAVO held at the University of Tübingen

2016                   “The Final Tear: Pious Bodies, Affective Economies, and Sacred Space in Contemporary Iraqi Arbaeen Practices,” a paper presented at Migration, Change and Continuity: Kinship, Religion, Politics, Visual, in Retrospect and Beyond, a conference held by the IUAES Commission of Anthropology of the Middle East at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland

2016                   “Zoroaster was a Kurd!”: On the Rise of Neo-Zoroastrianism in Contemporary Kurdistan,” paper presented at Conflict and Living Heritage in the Middle East: Researching the Politics of Cultural Heritage and Identities in Times of War and Displacement, a conference held at AUIS and sponsored by the Institut Français du Proche-Orient in Erbil

2016                   “Learning Piety in Sayyida Zaynab: Women’s Hawza Education in Syria,” a paper presented at The Acquisition and Transmission of Knowledge: The Role of Shi‘i Institutions of Learning in the Spread and Defense of a Tradition, a conference held at the University of Chicago

2015                   “Beyond Victims and Heroines: Gender, Religion, and the Syrian Conflict,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2015                   “Depicting Gender in the Syrian Conflict,” paper presented at Syria: Moving Beyond the Stalemate, a conference held at St Andrews University

2014                   “Contesting Charismatic Authority: Qadiri Sufism in Iraqi Kurdistan,” paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

2014                   “Women and the Anthropology of Islam: The State of the Field,” round table discussion at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2014                   “The End of Mourning: Pious Bodies, Affective Economies, and Sacred Space in Contemporary Iraqi Arbaeen Practices,” paper presented at the Fourth World Congress for Middle East Studies

2014                   “Sex and the Cemetery: Iranian Pilgrims, Shrine Visitation, and Consumer Piety in Damascus,” paper presented at the Tenth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference

2014                   “Being an ‘Ālima in Sayyida Zaynab: Female Shi‘i Religious Authority in a Syrian Seminary,” paper presented at Of ‘Ālimahs, Muhaddithahs, and Mujtahidahs: The Past and Present of Female Religious Authority in Shi‘i Islam, a workshop held at Princeton University

2013                   “Qadiri Sufism in Kurdistan: Ritual Transgressions and Gendered Norms,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2013                   “Economies of Piety,” paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

2013                   “Challenging Transnational Shi‘i Authority in Ba‘th Syria,” paper presented at De-Centering Shi‘ism, a workshop held at Princeton University

2013                   “Preaching Piety in Sulaimani,” paper presented at Kurdistan – Between Past and Future, a conference sponsored by Soran University and Lund University

2012                   “Discourses on Barbarism in the Contemporary Middle East,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2012                   “Preaching Piety in Sulaimani,” poster presentation at 2nd World Kurdish Scientific Congress

2011                   “‘That Which Your Right Hands Possess’: Liberation, Otherness, and Religion in a Syrian Soap Opera,” paper presented (in absentia) at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

2011                   “Healing Shi‘i Bodies: Cupping, Flagellation and Saintly Intercession in Contemporary Syria,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2011                   “Beyond the Karbala Paradigm: Affect in Syrian Twelver Shi‘i Mourning Rituals,” paper presented at the Middle East History and Theory Conference, University of Chicago

2010                   “Heterodoxy on the Periphery: Magic and Twelver Shi‘ism in Contemporary Syria,” paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

2010                   “Beyond Carnival and Spectacle: Contemporary Twelver Shi‘i Muharram Rituals in Syria,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2010                   “Sayyida Zaynab: A Saint and Her Followers in States of Exception,” paper presented at Sainthood in Fragile States, a conference sponsored by the Danish Institute of Damascus and the University of Copenhagen.

2008                   “Pious Sensations in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Basim al-Karbala’i and Mourning Rituals among Twelver Shi‘is,” paper present at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting

2008                   “Self-Flagellation and the Cultivation of Piety: Tradition, Connection and Ethics,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Eastern International Regional Meeting

2007                   “Shi‘i Children’s Books: The Formation of Twelver Shi‘i Identity, Community and Practice,” paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

2007                   “Performance, Power and the Possibilities of Change in Islamic Practice,” paper presented at Evolution Devolution Revolution, the Graduate Symposium of the Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto

2006                   “Muslim/Christian Dialogue in Syria,” paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

2005                   “Fulla: An Arab Muslim Doll for Arab Muslim Girls,” paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

2004                   “Sacred Space and Privacy: Sufi Orders and Questions of Control,” paper presented at the American Research Center for Egypt Annual Conference

CAMPUS TALKS AND INTERVIEWS

 2019                   “Women, Gender, and Early Islam,” participated in a thematic conversation for the podcast series by the Center for Gender and Development Studies, the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

2013                   “Sectarianism and the Syrian Uprising,” paper presented at the Sulaimani Forum, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

2012                   “Material Piety in Syria and Iraq,” paper presented at the Second Annual AUIS Conference on the Middle East, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

2012                   “Rethinking Revolution and Redemption in Contemporary Syrian Twelver Shi‘i Mourning Rituals,” Brown Bag Lecture, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani.

2012                   “Iraq,” participated in a thematic conversation on CIUT, the University of Toronto radio station

2012                   “History of Tattooing in the Middle East,” guest lecture, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

2011                   “Religion and Refugees,” participated in a thematic conversation on CIUT, the University of Toronto radio station

2011                   “El-Tawhid Juma Circle,” participated in a thematic conversation on CIUT, the  University of Toronto radio station

2011                   “Following Sayyida Zaynab: Shi‘i Female Sainthood, Contested Authority and Possibilities for Healing in States of Exception,” paper presented at the JHI Islamic Studies Workshop, University of Toronto.

2010                   “Carnivalizing Piety: ‘Ashura in Sayyida Zaynab,” paper presented as part of the Centre and Department for the Study of Religion’s Colloquia series.

2007                   “Women in Islam,” guest lecture, University of Toronto Mississauga

2004                   “Women’s Religious Groups in Cairo,” paper presented at the Graduate Student Symposium, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin

RESEARCH AND FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE

2014 – 17           Fieldwork on Zoroastrianism, Sulaimani, Iraq

2011 – 19           Fieldwork on Qadiri Sufism, Sulaimani governorate, Iraq

2011 – 19           Fieldwork on Shi‘ism, Sulaimani, Iraq

2006 – 10           Fieldwork on Shi‘ism, Sayyida Zaynab, Syria

2006 – 11           Research Assistant to Prof. Mohammed Fadel, University of Toronto

CONSULTANCY EXPERIENCE

2015 – 16           Co-Investigator, Female Genital Mutilation Baseline Survey for Heartland Alliance and UNICEF, Iraq

2012                   Co-Principal Investigator, Social Impact Assessment Project for Western Zagros (Oil Company), Iraq (17,000 USD)

2006                   UNV Human Development Advocate at UNDP Damascus

2006                   Intern at UNHCR Damascus

LANGUAGES

 Native speaker of English, German, and Hungarian

Fluent in reading, writing and speaking in Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic, Syrian and Iraqi dialects)

Advanced reading ability in French and Spanish

Basic knowledge of Hindi, Farsi, and Sorani Kurdish