Karen G. Ruffle

Karen G. Ruffle is a scholar in Islamic studies whose academic interests focus on devotional texts, ritual practice, and Shiʿi material practices in South Asia.

Karen G. Ruffle
Occupation	Professor and Author

Academic Interests

Dr. Ruffle's research and teaching interests focus on devotional texts, ritual practice, and Shiʿi material practices in South Asia. She has conducted field research in India, Pakistan, Iran, and Syria. Her publications focus on Fatima’s exceptional embodiment in Shiʿi hagiographical narratives; devotional literature and ritual practices in South Asia that centre on Fatima and His family; and Urdu didactic hagiographical narratives focusing on the special father-daughter relationship between the Prophet Muhammad and Fatima.

She made speech with title of "Savoring Karbala: Sensory Aesthetics in Muharram Material and Ritual Practice in Hyderabad in Cornell University on first September in 2016.

Educations

• PhD in Islamic studies, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2007
• M.A. in Islamic studies University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill . 2001
• B.A. in Religion from Middlebury College, 1996

Honors

• Honourary Fellow, The Shiʿah Institute (United Kingdom), January 2016 – present.
• Cultural Research of the Year (Second Award), Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry of Iran. Award for M.A. thesis, “’Verses Dripping Blood’: A Study of the Religious Elements of Muhtasham Kashani’s Karbala-nameh” (2002).

Publications

• Gender, Sainthood, and Everyday Practice in South Asian Shi’ism

Publications on Muharram and Rituals

• Writing Muharram: The Influence of Mulla Husain Va‘ez Kashefi and Mohtasham Kashani on the Development of Shi‘i Devotionalism in the Medieval Deccan. A Thousand Laurels—Dr. Sadiq Naqvi: Studies on Medieval India with Special Reference to Deccan. Hyderabad: Osmania University, 2005. Pp. 334-345.
• Karbala in the Indo-Persian Imaginaire: The Marriage of Qasim and Fatimah Kubra in Mir Alam’s Dah Majlis. Islam in the Indo-Iranian World during the Modern Epoch,1500-1900. Fabrizio Speziale and Denis Hermann, eds., 181-200. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Publishers, 2010.

Papers on Imam Hussain and Battle of Karbala

• Setting Fire to the World: Experiencing Hazrat Zaynab bint ‘Ali in Muhtasham Kashani’s Karbala-nameh. Middle East History and Theory Conference, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (May 2003).
• Take Me to Karbala: Hazrat Zaynab bint ‘Ali and the Shi‘i Community of Remembrance, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA (November 2003).
• The Saddest Story Ever Told: The Women of Karbala as Epic Heroines in South Asian Shi‘i Devotional Literature and Performance. Middle East Studies Association, Montréal, PQ (November 2007)
• The Role of Ladies in Karbala from Lady Fatima Az-Zahra to Lady Zaynab. Invited public lecture at Payam-e Aman Shiʿa Association for Imam Hussain Day, Somerset, NJ (8 December 2013).
• A Death Never-ending: Theoretical Reflections on the Ritualized Recurrence of Imam Hussain’s Becoming and Death in Shiʿism. 10th International Society for Iranian Studies Biennial Conference, Montréal, PQ (August 2014).

Source

• Karen G. Ruffle's personal Websit