Affiliated Departments & Programs
Vernon James Schubel joined the faculty in 1988. He received his Ph. D. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia where he specialized in the Islam, South Asian Religions, and theory and method in the study of religion. He teaches courses on Islam in the Religious Studies Department including its foundation course on the topic, Islam’s Diverse Paths, along with Seminar on Sufism, Voices of Contemporary Islam and Islam in North America. He also teaches the department’s foundation course on South Asian religions as well as RLST 101and created and regularly teaches the department’s course on theory and methods RLST 390 Approaches to the Study of Religion. Professor Schubel is actively involved in Kenyon’s Asian and Middle East Studies programs and recently developed its new first-year seminar. His on book Shi’i ritual in Pakistan, Religious Performance in Contemporary Islam, was published by the University of South in Carolina in 1993. In 1989, he was a Fulbright scholar in Multan, Pakistan, where he conducted research on centers of Sufi pilgrimage and in 1996 studied the reemergence of the Sufi tradition in Uzbekistan as an IREX fellow. His most current research has focused on the Alevi tradition in Turkey. He has published numerous articles on the Sufi and Shi’i traditions. He is currently finishing work on a new introductory textbook on Islam, Teaching Humanity: An Introduction to Islam as Humanistic Tradition.
Education
1986 — Doctor of Philosophy from Univ Virginia
1980 — Master of Arts from Univ Virginia
1978 — Bachelor of Arts from Oklahoma State University
Courses Recently Taught
This course is designed to introduce students to the study of Asia and the Middle East within the context of the global humanities. It serves as a sampler, which exposes students to the rich diversity of Asian and Islamicate humanities. The seminar explores a wide range of primary sources from different places and historical periods. These may include such diverse materials as the memoirs of the medieval Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta, "The Analects of Confucius," readings from the "Vedas" and "Upanishads," Farid ud din Attar's "The Conference of the Birds," Kurosawa's "Rashomon," Rabindranath Tagore's "The Home and The World," short fiction from the modern Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani and examples of contemporary Chinese science fiction. This interdisciplinary course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. Only open to first-year students.
Muslims have been an integral part of South Asian and Indian history for more than a millennium. While Islam may have first come to the region as the religion of immigrants and converts, the Muslims of contemporary South Asia are now overwhelmingly their native-born descendants. Islam has so successfully settled into South Asia that the Muslims of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh collectively account for approximately one-third of the world’s Muslims. South Asia’s Muslims and “Hindus” have seldom lived in isolation from each other. There has been continuous cultural interaction between them. This seminar examines interactions between “Hindus” and Muslims by reading a series of recent scholarly monographs on the topic. Questions to be addressed include: How did Muslim rulers and the scholars in their courts deal with the question of “Hinduism?” How did Sufis and Yogis understand each other’s religious beliefs and practices? How did Muslim historians write the history of Hindustan? Conversely, how did “Hindu” historians write the history of the Muslim presence in South Asia? Is the culture of pilgrimage to Sufi shrines truly Islamic? Is contemporary “Hindu” nationalism “othering” the culture of South Asian Islam? There is no specific requirement for this class, but students should have some background in the study of Islam, or Islamicate or South Asian history. This course is an intensive seminar and counts toward the upper-level seminar requirement for the Islamic civilization and cultures concentration.
This capstone seminar is taught by Asian Studies Program faculty in rotation and is organized around a common theme that integrates the various disciplines and regions of Asia. Through readings, films, guest lectures and other activities, the course leads students to synthesize their academic and personal (e.g., off-campus) experiences in a broader comparative perspective. Students produce work that examines one or more topics of their own interest within the comparative Asian framework. Required for Asian studies concentrators and joint majors. Permission of instructor required. This interdisciplinary course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. No prerequisite. Offered every spring.
This course includes brief introductions to four or five major religious traditions while exploring concepts and categories used in the study of religion, such as sacredness, myth, ritual, religious experience and social dimensions of religion. Traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism and Native American traditions may be presented through important texts and practices. This counts toward the 100-level introduction to religious studies course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every semester.
This course covers the same material as RLST 101 and is open only to first-year students, giving first-years the opportunity to experience the rigorous and intimate seminar setting as they work through the topics and themes of the religious studies department's introductory course. This counts toward the 100-level introduction to religious studies course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every two years.
This course serves as an introduction to the religion of Islam, a diverse tradition that includes more than a billion adherents and is a dominant cultural element in a geographical region that stretches from Morocco to Indonesia. This course focuses primarily on the development of Islam and Islamic institutions from the time of the Prophet Muhammad through the emergence of the Sufi tradition as a primary expression of Muslim piety in the late medieval period. Special attention is given to the rise and development of Sunni, Shi'i and Sufi pieties as distinctive responses to the event of the Qur'anic revelation throughout the history of Islam. This is an introductory Islam tradition course. No prerequisite. Offered every fall.
This course serves as an introduction to the religion of Islam, a diverse tradition that includes more than a billion adherents and is a dominant cultural element in a geographical region that stretches from Morocco to Indonesia. This course focuses primarily on the development of Islam and Islamic institutions from the time the Prophet Muhammad through the emergence of the Sufi tradition as a primary expression of Muslim piety in the late medieval period. Special attention will be given to the rise and development of Sunni, Shi'i and Sufi pieties as distinctive responses to the event of the Qur'anic revelation throughout the history of Islam. This counts toward the introductory Islam tradition course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every fall.
The South Asian subcontinent has been the home of a fascinating array of religions and religious movements. Focusing on Hinduism, this course will examine the development of religious practice in South Asia and the interaction of competing religious ideas over time. The course will include discussions of Indus Valley religion, Vedic Brahmanism, Jainism and Buddhism, the Upanishads, classical Hinduism, Bhakti, South Asian Islam and modern Hinduism. This counts toward the introductory South Asian religions course requirement for the major. No prerequisite.
This course explores some of the crucial issues and debates in the contemporary Muslim world. Issues to be examined include the compatibility of Islam with democracy, the connections between Islam and political violence, the role of Wahhabism and Salafis in the construction of contemporary Islamic movements, feminist movements within Islam, LGBTQ issues in the Islamic world, Islam and pluralism, and Sufism in the contemporary context. The course focuses on primary sources, including writings by a diverse array of modern and contemporary Muslim authors like Khaled Abou el Fadl, Amina Wadud, Usama bin Laden and Cemalnur Sargut. This is an intensive seminar course that fulfills the advanced seminar requirement for the Islamic Civilization and Cultures concentration and is especially suitable for upper class students in AMES and international studies wishing deeper insight into the Islamicate world. Some background in the study of Islam or Islamicate history is recommended. No prerequisite.
This course examines some of the important ideas, personalities and institutions associated with Islamic mysticism. Students read and discuss important primary and secondary sources on such topics as the development and organizations of Sufi tariqahs, mystical poetry, the nature of the Sufi path and Sufi psychology. A crucial aspect of the course is an examination of the role of the veneration of "holy persons'' in Islamic piety. This is an advanced Islam tradition course. No prerequisite. Offered every two years.
This course will examine some of the important ideas, personalities and institutions associated with Islamic mysticism. Students will read and discuss important primary and secondary sources on such topics as the development and organizations of Sufi tariqahs, mystical poetry, the nature of the Sufi path and Sufi psychology. A crucial aspect of the course will be an examination of the role of the veneration of "holy persons" in Islamic piety. This counts toward an advanced Islam tradition course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every two years.
This course will examine Islam in contemporary North America and Canada. It will explore such topics as the religious diversity of the Muslim community, the relevance and practice of Islamic law in a secular society, the problem of Islamophobia, and issues of race, ethnicity and gender among North American Muslims. This counts as an advanced Islam tradition course requirement for the major. No prerequisite.
This course acquaints students with major theoretical approaches to the academic study of religion. The course covers phenomenological, psychoanalytical, sociological and anthropological approaches to religion. Authors to be discussed include Frazer, Marx, Freud, Weber, Durkheim, Eliade, Lévi-Strauss, Douglas, Geertz, Turner and Orsi. This is a theory course. This course also fulfills the methods requirement for international studies. No prerequisite.