Contact
209 Char Oak Dr
Columbia
SC
29212
United States
ABOUT
Kenny Schmitt is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Spatial Practices at Al-Quds Bard College in Abu Dis, Jerusalem. His research interests lie at the intersection of Muslim religious practices and contentious political spaces in addition to social history and Muslim-Christian relations. He earned his Ph.D. in Arab and Islamic Studies from Exeter University in 2018. His dissertation, which is now under review with Columbia University Press, is titled, “Living Islam in Jerusalem: Faith, Conflict, and the Disruption of Religious Practice.” The work is based on five-years of ethnographic research in East Jerusalem (2011-2016). His current project, titled “Gazan Christians: The Social History of a Community on the Precipice,” is funded by the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). He has published in the Jerusalem Quarterly, Contemporary Islam, Exchange—the Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context, as well as contributed chapters with Edinburgh University Press, Routledge, and Cognella. Schmitt has held visiting fellowships at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2015-2016) and the Department of Sociology at Yale University (2016-2017).
Discipline
Architecture & Urban Planning
Sub Areas
Islamic Studies
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Ethnography
Middle East/Near East Studies
Colonialism
Urban Studies
Minorities
Nationalism
Geographic Areas of Interest
All Middle East
Arab States
Gaza
Palestine
West Bank
Islamic World
Specialties
Muslim Religious Practices
Jerusalem
Islamic Movements
Languages
Arabic (fluent)
Spanish (advanced)
French (elementary)
Hebrew (intermediate)
Education
PhD
| 2018
| Arab and Islamic Studies
| Exeter University
MPhil
| 2015
| Arab and Islamic Studies
| Exeter University
MA
| 2009
| Intercultural Studies
| Fuller Seminary
BA
| 2004
| Sociology
| Furman University
Abstracts
The Murabitiyyn and Murabitat of Al-Aqsa Mosque: Transforming resistance, nationalism, and gendered activism in Jerusalem and Palestine
Sufism in Jerusalem: Institutional Disruptions and Subversive Transformations
Disruption, Improvisation, and Resonance: A Comparative Frame for Analyzing Religious Traditions?
Gazan Christians: After Migration and the Dilemmas of Remaining
