Associate Professor

Professor Alexandrin joined the Department of Religion in 2005. Professor Alexandrin’s current book project focuses on dreaming and sleeping in 13-14th-century Muslim societies, with a particular focus on Kubravi Sufi texts, medical treatises, and hagiographical works. As part of this project on medieval Sufism in Iran, Anatolia, and Central Asia, she is co-editing with P. Ballanfat (Galatasaray University, Istanbul) the 13th-century Sufi Sa‘d al-Din Hamuyeh’s Kitab al-Mahbub. Her forthcoming book is Walāyah in the Fatimid Isma‘ili Tradition, State University of New York Press (June 2017). Professor Alexandrin teaches courses on Islam, Women and Religion, and Religion and Violence.

Education

PhD McGill University (2006)
MA University of Toronto (1993)
BA Boston University (1992)

Research

Islamic Intellectual History, Sufism, Shi‘ism, Islamic Philosophy

Teaching
 
RLGN 1320 Introduction to World Religions (Western)

RLGN 2100 Approaches to the Qur’an
RLGN 2780 Classical Islam
RLGN 2790 Contemporary Islam
RLGN 2680 Women and Religion
RLGN 2060 Religion and Violence

RLGN 3190 Images of the Prophet Muhammad: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
RLGN 3194 Islamic Philosophy

RLGN 4180 Advanced Studies in Islam
RLGN 4290 Approaches to Mysticism


Selected Publications

Books

Walāyah in the Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī Tradition. State University of New York Press, June 2017.

Translation of al-Mu’ayyad fī al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s Sīrat al-Mu’ayyadiyyah. I.B. Tauris/Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. Under contract. 

Book chapters

“Prophetic Ascent and Initiatory Ascent in Qāḍī al-Nu‘mān’s Asās al-Ta’wīl.” In, The Prophet Explores other Worlds. Editors, F. Colby & C. Gruber.  Indiana University Press. Bloomington, 2009.

“The Abode of Pure Knowledge: Reconsidering al-Mu’ayyad’s Neoplatonism.” In, Roads to Paradise. Editors, S. Günther & B. T. Lawson. E. J. Brill. Leiden, In press, November 2016.

“Breaking Open the Seal: Ḥaydar-i Āmulī, Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūyeh, and Messianic Expectations.” Shiʿah Institute 2015 Annual Symposium Volume. E. J. Brill. Editors, S. Rizvi & E. Sadeghi-Boroujerdi. Forthcoming, February 2017.

Articles

“Studying Isma‘ili Texts in Eleventh-Century Shiraz: the Conversion of the Buyid Amir Abu Kalijar.” Iranian Studies (January 2011) 44/1: 99-115.

“Al-Mu’ayyad’s Concept of the Qā’im: a Commentary on the Khuṭbat al-Bayān?” In, ISHRAQ (Volume 4) 2013, Iranian Institute of Philosophy/Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.