Josie Hendrickson (Ph.D., 2009, Religion, Emory University),

Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Religions.

Teaching Areas:  Courses on Islam and Judaism, including an introduction to the Qur’an, Islamic Law and Society, Islam and Judaism in the United States, and a course exploring inter-religious relations in medieval Spain.  I also offer a regular course in Religion and Conflict, exploring the role of religion and religiously motivated actors in violent conflicts and conflict resolution.

Research Interests:  I specialize in Islamic legal history, and am particularly interested in the ways in which authoritative legal precedents are constructed, contested, and maintained over time in fatwas, a genre of Islamic legal literature consisting of questions and responses.  My dissertation, “The Islamic Obligation to Emigrate: Al-Wansharīsī’s Asnā al-Matājir Reconsidered” examined the fifth-century North African legal discourse concerning Muslims’ obligation to emigrate from non-Muslim to Muslim territory.  Publications include a guide to Arabic Manuscript libraries in Morocco (MELA Notes, 2009) and several articles in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (2009) and the Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought (forthcoming).