Earle Waugh

Earle Waugh is a Canadian scholar of Islamic studies.

Earle Waugh

Biography

Earle Waugh bridging community, culture and health as his life's work .Now he is professor emeritus with the Department of Family Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry .Waugh began life in rural Saskatchewan, leaving as a young man to pursue his undergraduate and master's degrees at McMaster University. He was eventually courted by the University of Chicago’s School of Divinity to work in the history of religions program .Waugh recalls, “I developed a feel for the way in which religion seeps into every aspect of culture and plays a role, sometimes a very hidden role in directing the way that people respond to issues and crises and problems without clashes, without conflicts of major sorts.” Waugh favored Islam when the time came for him to select one great religious tradition on which to focus his research.

Books

• The Muslim Community in North America (1983)
• Muslim Families in North America (1991)

In this book Waugh wrote: "The most important ritual of public devotion for Twelver Shi'i Muslims of South Asian origin in North America is undoubtedly the Majlis or lamentation assembly. This ritual is most commonly associated with the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain in the lunar of Muharram. While the Majlis is essentially a devotional, it is also a fundamental vehicle for the maintenance of Shi'i culture"

Works

• Organizing an international conference on native religious studies

Source

• University of Alberta