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.
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. This interdisciplinary course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. No prerequisite. Permission of instructor required. Senior standing. Offered every spring.
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 counts toward the religious traditions requirement as Islam. No prerequisite. Offered every fall.
This advanced 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 counts toward the religious traditions requirement as Islamic.. No prerequisite. Offered every two years.
This advanced course examines Islam in contemporary North America and Canada. It explores 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 toward the religious traditions requirement as Islamic. 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 counts as a theory/methodology course for the major. This course also fulfills the methods requirement for international studies. No prerequisite.