Shafi Appointed Iliff Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies

July 18, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Greta Gloven, 303-765-3109
Cell: 303-229-8042

SHAFI APPOINTED ILIFF VISITING PROFESSOR OF ISLAMIC STUDIES

(Denver) – The Iliff School of Theology has appointed Sophia Rose Shafi as visiting assistant professor of Islamic studies. Shafi will be joining Iliff in September 2011 for a two-year visiting appointment providing vital teaching support for Iliff’s growing needs in comparative religious studies while also teaching various electives in her primary field of Islamic Studies.

“Please join me in welcoming Professor Sophia Rose Shafi to the Iliff community,” said Albert Hernández, senior vice president and dean of the faculty. “While becoming a member of our excellent faculty with the Iliff tradition of preparing students for an increasingly diverse theological world, Dr. Shafi brings yet another distinctive perspective to our classroom studies in comparative religion.”

Shafi’s undergraduate studies focused on the history, anthropology, art history, and languages of Oceania, and included two internships at the Bishop Museum of Natural History and a year in the Maori Studies Program at the University of Waikato in Aotearoa (New Zealand), which was supported by the Castle-Cooke Scholarship for Study Abroad. She earned her master of arts in art history at Columbia University where she was the recipient of the John and Marcia Friede Fellowship in Oceanic Art. Her master’s thesis examined the Micronesian ruins known as Nan Madol. Shafi then went on to earn a master of theological studies at Candler School of Theology (focus on ethics). Her master’s thesis for this degree examined whether Western powers were complicit in war crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina against Muslim females.

In addition to her two master’s degrees, Shafi earned her doctorate from the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology’s Joint PhD Program in religious and theological studies. Shafi’s dissertation focuses on “monstrous images of Muslim men in Western discourse.” Her other main research interest is Shi’a pilgrimage architecture, a subject on which she is publishing two articles this summer based on her research of the shrines of Sayyida Ruqayya and Sayyida Zaynab in Damascus, supported by a grant from the Luce Foundation. Over the past year, Shafi has presented a range of academic papers at the University of Arizona, Indiana University, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Chicago.

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The Iliff School of Theology is a graduate theological school related to the United Methodist Church, serving more than 38 different faith traditions. Founded in 1892, the school provides several degree programs, including a Joint Ph.D. Program with the University of Denver.