Occupation
Assistant Professor
Contact
North Quad 228
Ball State University
Muncie
IN
47306
United States
ABOUT
MATTHEW HOTHAM is a PhD student in Islamic Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. Before coming to North Carolina he obtained a Master's degree in Islamic Studies from Harvard Divinity School and an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University.
His current research is focused on ascension narratives in Persian Masnavis. He has an interest the Prophet's ascension as a model for the Sufi path, as well as depictions of and attitudes toward the body in Sufism, and questions of the limits of sense perception and language in encounters with God.
He currently works as a teaching assistant in the Department of Religious Studies at UNC Chapel Hill and is Editor-in-Chief of the Carolina Quarterly.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Sub Areas
13th-18th Centuries
Islamic Studies
Mysticism/Sufi Studies
Persian
Geographic Areas of Interest
Iran
Islamic World
Specialties
Ascension Narratives In Persian Masnavis
Representations Of The Body In Sufism
Languages
Arabic (intermediate)
English (native)
Persian (advanced)
French (advanced)
Education
PhD
| 2016
| Religious Studies
| UNC Chapel Hill
MA
| 2009
| Islamic Studies
| Harvard Divinity School
MFA
| 2007
| Creative Writing
| Syracuse University
BA
| 2003
| Religion/English
| Colgate University
Abstracts
The Transparent Author: Intertextuality in Debates Over Asceticism in Sufi Hagiography
Mi'raj as Sufi Initiation: Bestowal of Garments in the Ascension Narratives of Nizami Ganjavi’s Makhzan al-Asrar, Jami’s Tohfat al-Asrar, and Amir Khosrow’s Matla al-Anwar
