Curriculum Vitae A T A A N Z A L I 427 College St. Department of Religion, Munroe Hall 102 Middlebury College Middlebury, Vermont 05753 aanzali@middlebury.edu Current Position Associate Professor of Religion, Department of Religion, Middlebury College 2012 – present Education Ph.D., Rice University, Department of Religious Studies (2012) Dissertation Title: “Safavid Shiʿism, The Emergence of ʿIrfān and the Eclipse of Sufism” Advanced Studies in Islamic mysticism and philosophy (non-degree), Islamic Seminary of Qom, Iran (1998-2003) M.A., Divinity School, University of Tehran, Iran (2002-04) Concentration: Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of mysticism Dissertation: “A Critique of Steven Katz’s Thesis of Contextuality of Mystical experiences” B.S c., Electrical Engineering, Tehran Polytechnic, Iran (1994-1998) Awards  Winner of the Foundation for Iranian Studies Best Dissertation Award, Academic year 2012-13  Winner of John Gardner Prize for best dissertation in the School of Humanities, Rice University, Academic year 2012-13 Fellowships and Scholarships Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Fellowship. Research project: “The Making of Modern ‘Mysticism’ in Iran,” 2016-17. Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship. Research project: “A Comparative Exploration of Sufi Sacred Spaces: the Cases of North India and the Balkans,” 2016-17. NEH Summer Institute fellow, “Problems in the Study of Religion,” University of Virginia, VA (2014). Visiting Fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University (2011-12) Dissertation Writing Fellowship (Humanities Research Center, Rice University, 2011-12) Wagoner Foreign Study Scholarship, travel grant for dissertation field research in Turkey and Iran (Rice University, 2010) Mellon Graduate Research Seminar fellow, “Comparativism in Theory and Practice” (Humanities Research Center, Rice University, 2008-9) Public Scholarship Graduate fellow (The Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, Rice University, 2009-10) Society of Iranian American Women for Education’s scholarship for academic excellence, recipient for five years in a row (Houston, 2006-2011) Research fellow for the Academy of Islamic Sciences and Culture (Qom, Iran, 2005-2007) Teaching Experience Teaching courses on the Islamic traditions, Sufism, and comparative mysticism at Middlebury College as a member of the religion department since the fall of 2012. The most recent courses taught include “Fundamentalism and Religion,” “Mystics, Saints, and Shamans,” “Sufism,” “Introduction to Religion,” and “Islam in America.” Topics in Philosophy of Mysticism, IKI, Qom (course designer and instructor, fall 2004 and spring 2005 – graduate level) Introduction to Modern Shiʿi Kalam, Islamic Seminary of Qom, Qom (instructor, fall 2004) Introduction to Religion and Philosophy (II), Sharif University of Technology, Tehran (instructor, fall 2004) Introduction to Religion and Philosophy (I), Sharif University of Technology, Tehran (instructor, spring 2003) Publications In English Books (peer reviewed): Anzali, Ata. “Mysticism” in Iran: the Safavid Roots of a Modern Concept. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2017. Anzali, Ata and S.M.H Gerami, Opposition to Philosophy in Safavid Iran: A Critical Edition of Mulla Muhammad-Tahir Qummi’s Hikmat al-ʿArifin. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Kripal, Jeffrey J. with Ata Anzali, Andrea Jain, and Erin Prophet. Comparing Religions: Coming to Terms. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. Articles and book chapters: Anzali, Ata. “Sufism.” In The Routledge Companion to the Safavids, edited by Rudolph Matthee. London: Routledge, forthcoming (2019). Anzali, Ata. “Opposition to Sufism in Safavid Persia: A Debate between Mulla Muhammad-Tahir Qumi and Mulla Muhammad-Taqi Majlisi.” In Empires of the Near East and India: Sources for the Study of the Safavid, Ottoman, and Mughal Societies, edited by Hani Khafipour. New York: Columbia University Press, in press (2018). Anzali, Ata. “The Emergence of the Ẕahabiyya in Safavid Iran.” Journal of Sufi Studies 2, no. 2, (2014): 149-175. Anzali, Ata. “The Primordial Tension of the Hidden (bāṭin) versus the Manifest (dhāhir): the Case of Ibn ʿArabī and his Qurʾanic Hermeneutics.” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 53, (2014): 69-88. In Persian: Books: Anzali, Ata. Sākht-girāʾī, Sunnat va ʿirfān [Contextualism, Tradition, and Mysticism]. Qom: Anjuman-i Maʿārif-i Islāmī, 2005). This is a Persian translation of Steven Katz’s two articles entitled “Language, Epistemology and Mysticism” (1978) and “The ‘Conservative’ Character of Mystical Experience” (1983) followed by a critical analysis. Forman, Robert K.C. ʿIrfān, Ẕihn, Āgāhī [Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness]. Translated by Ata Anzali. Qom: Mufīd University Press, 2005. Articles: Anzali, Ata. “Khanaqah-i Nurbakhshiyya dar Sidir” [The Nurbakhsi Khanaqah in Sidir]. Irfan-i Iran 39 (2015): 170-198 Anzali, Ata. “Tajruba-yi ʿirfāni va Dārūha-yi Ravāngardān” [Psychedelic drugs and Mystical Experiences]. Naqd va Nazar 47-8 (2008) 77-130. Ata Anzali, “ʿirfān va Rūykard-i maʿrīfat-shinākhtī-yi Navin” [Mysticism and the Modern Epistemological Turn]. Maʿārif-i Aqlī 3, (2006): 93-147. Anzali, Ata. “Sākht-girāʾī va Naẓariyya-yi ‘Ḥaqq-i Muʿtaqad’ Ibn ʿArabī” [Conextualism and Ibn ‘Arabi’s Notion of the ‘God of Beliefs’], Andīsha-yi Navīn-i Dīnī 2 (2005): 39-58. Select Presentations “What is Fundamentalism,” lecture delivered at the University of Vermont Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (2017, Burlington, VT) “The Politics of ‘Mysticism’ in Iran,” lecture delivered at the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs (2017, Middlebury, VT) “Rumi Through the Lens of History,” lecture delivered at the 6th Mehr-e Mowlana Symposium (2016, Tehran, Iran) “The Making of a New Religious Movement in Iran: the Case of Interuniversal Mysticism (ʿirfan-i Halqah/Kayhani), presented at the American Academy of Religion (2015, Atlanta, GA). “Recent Developments in Comparative Study of Religion,” presented at the Center for Disciplines and Research of Azad University (2014, Tehran, Iran) “Shāh Muhammad Dārābī and the Emergence of Shiʿite Discourse on ʿirfān,” presented at the International Society for Iranian Studies (2014, Montreal, Canada) “Some Reflections on the Emergence of Ẕahabīyya in Safavid Iran,” presented at the Middle Eastern Studies Association (2012, Denver, CO) “A Genealogy of ʿirfān in the 20th century Iran,” presented at the American Academy of Religion (2010, Atlanta, GA) “The Creative Tension of the Hidden (bāṭin) and the Apparent (dhāhir) in Ibn ʿArabī’s Subversive Hermeneutics, the case of Noah and the Flood,” presented at the “Hidden God, Hidden Histories” Rockwell Religious Studies Symposium (2010, Rice University, Houston, Texas) “al-Milal wa al-Niḥal, Appropriations and Negations of a Pre-modern Genre in Contemporary Shiʿa Apologetic Discourse: the Case of Jaʾfar Subḥānī,” presented at the 9th Annual Duke-UNC Graduate Islamic Studies Research Conference (2009, Duke University, Durham, NC) Languages Turkish: native fluency (Azeri dialect), reading proficiency (Ottoman Turkish), intermediate level conversation skills (Modern Turkish) Persian: native fluency (Modern), reading proficiency (classical) Arabic: Advanced reading proficiency (Classical), intermediate level reading and listening (Modern) French: basic reading knowledge Professional Affiliations American Academy of Religion Association for Iranian Studies