Reflections on an Academic Pursuit of Religion

Authors

  • Milad Milani University of Western Sydney

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.39808

Keywords:

Studies in religion, history of religion, Islamic studies, Heidegger, Sufism

Abstract

The study of religion is a contested field of investigation that has for thepast two decades challenged my thinking on the subject. 'An unofficialphilosopher of religion who received his academic training from a historian'sums up my story as an accidental scholar of religion. On the whole,I see my work as a series of successive leaps, unbound by any one particularproject. As a mid-career academic, I am in the process of yet anotherleap, as it were. The one thing that anchors what I do is the simultaneoushistorical and philosophical pursuit of what religion is.

Author Biography

  • Milad Milani, University of Western Sydney

    Milad Milani is Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Western Sydney University,specialising in Sufism, Islamic history, and the Persianate world. He is ExecutiveOfficer of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR) and VicePresident of the Association of Iranica in Australasia (AIA). His research focuses onthe juncture of religion, culture, society and politics, and how this impacts on livingtraditions such as Islam in the West and reading Islamic history in modernity. He haspublished widely on Sufism in the medieval and modern world, and is the author ofSufism in the Secret History of Persia (2013) and Sufi Political Thought (2018).

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Published

2020-01-24

How to Cite

Milani, M. (2020). Reflections on an Academic Pursuit of Religion. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 32(2-3), 182-195. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.39808