Samuel B.

Kigar
samuel.kigar@duke.edu
Graduate Program in Religion Box 90964 Duke University Durham, NC 27708 (970) 275-5559

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Duke University, Graduate Program in Religion, November 2017 (Anticipated)
Dissertation: Islamic Land: Muslim Genealogies of Territorial Sovereignty in Modern
Morocco, 1900-1990
Committee: Ebrahim Moosa, David Morgan (co-chairs), Mona Hassan, Cemil Aydin, Winnifred
Fallers Sullivan, Abdeslam Maghraoui
Fields: Islamic Studies, Modern Islamic Thought, Religion and Law, Political Philosophy
M.A., Duke University, Religious Studies, October 2014
Committee: Ebrahim Moosa (Chair), David Morgan, Luke Bretherton
B.A., Reed College, Religion, May 2006
Thesis: Islam on the Inside: An Ethnographic Case Study of Islam in American Prisons
Academic Adviser: Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Chapters
Far Too Close: Representation and Religion in the Work of Erich Auerbach and Muhammad
Asad, All Religion is Inter-Religion: Essays in Honor of Steven M. Wasserstrom, eds. Kambiz
GhaneaBassiri & Paul Robertson. Bloomsbury Publishing (Forthcoming)
Arguing the Archive: Taha Abd al-Ramn, Muammad bid al-Jbir, and the Future of Islamic
Thought. Comparative Islamic Studies 11.1, 5-33 (Indexed: 2015. Actual: September 2017)
Book Reviews
Noah Salomon, For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudans Islamic State. Reading
Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion (April 2017)
Jonathan Wyrtzen, Making Morocco: Colonial intervention and the Politics of Identity. The Journal
of North African Studies 21.3 (March 2016)
Essays
Wondrous Plays of the Heart: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali as Dramaturge. The Maydan (Forthcoming).
The Portland Samaritans and Politics Moving Forward. Contending Modernities (June 2017).

PRESENTATIONS
Presenter: The Walled Muslim State: Moroccos Anti-Saharawi Berm, Muslim State Sovereignty, and
the Waning of Westphalia. American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Boston,
Massachusetts (November 2017, anticipated)
Invited Lecturer: Islamic Space and Political Space in Twentieth Century Morocco. Department of
English, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetuan, Morocco (May 2017)
Presenter: States, Statelessness, and the Shape of Muslim Politics to Come: A Methodological
Reflection. Islamic Studies in the Trumpocene Conference, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, MI (April 2017)
Presenter: Islamic Law and Territorial Sovereignty: Modern Morocco in International Perspective.
Islam and the Modern State Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (April 2016)
Presenter: Acquisition (Kasb) and the Construction of Borders in Pre-modern Islamic Thought.
American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia (November 2015)
Presenter: Religious Discourse in Moroccos Postcolonial Irredentism. The American Institute for
Maghrib Studies Dissertation Workshop, Berkeley, California (October 2015)
Invited Lecturer: Moroccos Saharan Question. Metropolitan State University of Denver
Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad, Rabat, Morocco (May 2015)
Presenter: Political Theologies of Gender Reform in Morocco. Gender, Law, and Social Change
Workshop, Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco (March 2015)
Presenter: Islam Possessed: Political Theologies of Land in Modern Morocco. Social Science
Research Council Dissertation Proposal Development Workshop, Berkeley, California (June
2014)
Presenter: Muslim Ethics in a Time of Climate Change. Vienna Institute on Scientific World
Conceptions, Vienna, Austria (July 2013)
Presenter: Taha Abdurrahman: Ethics Beyond the Secular. American Academy of Religion Annual
Conference, Chicago, Illinois (November 2012)
Presenter: Arguing the Archive: Mohammad Abid al-Jabiri and Taha Abdurrahman Debate the
Future. The Duke University Colloquium on Islamic Thought and Muslim Societies, Durham,
North Carolina (September 2012)
Presenter: Constructing the Ulama: French Orientalist Scholarship and the Modern Moroccan
Ulama. The Sixteenth Annual Maghrebi Area Studies Symposium, Rabat, Morocco (April
2009)

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

Sanford School of Public Policy, Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Volunteerism,
Dissertation Fellowship (Spring 2017)
American Institute for Maghrib Studies Short Term Research Grant (Summer 2016)
Anne Firor Scott Fellowship for Public Engagement (Fall 2015Spring 2016)
Arcapita Foundation Research Fellowship (Summer 2015)
Social Science Research Council Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (Summer 2014)
Field: Modernity and Autochthony: The Question of Land-Based Group Identity.
Participated in one early summer and one late summer symposium with graduate students and
professors specializing in this emergent field. Conducted pre-dissertation research
Arcapita Foundation Research Fellowship (Summer 2014)
Vienna Institute Summer University on Scientific World Conceptions Fellowship (Summer 2013)
Field: The Philosophy of Climate Science. Participated in two-week intensive seminar with
leading philosophers and historians working on climate change
Arcapita Foundation Research Fellowship (Summer 2013)
Digital Humanities Lab Scholar, Duke University (2013)
Took active role in weekly seminars on the future of humanities, including sessions on the
future of publishing and digital research
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Grant, U.S. Department of Education (Summer 2012)
Studied modern Islamic legal language, with a focus on the Maliki School, the primary school of
Sunni law in North Africa, Fez, Morocco
Arcapita Foundation Research Fellowship (Summer 2012)
Kenan Institute for Ethics Graduate Fellowship, Duke University (Fall 2011Spring 2012)
Attended weekly, interdisciplinary symposia with leading scholars on global ethical challenges.
Conducted research on Muslim ethics in the face of anthropogenic climate change
Arcapita Foundation Research Fellowship (Summer 2011)
Studied classical Islamic law, Amman, Jordan
Fulbright IIE Grant, United States Department of State (2009)
Conducted yearlong research project on the relationship between Muslim scholars and colonial
authorities in Morocco under the French Protectorate, 1912-1956
Critical Language Enhancement Award, United States Department of State (Fall 2008Spring 2009)
Critical Language Scholarship, United States Department of State (Summer 2006)
Reed College Presidential Grant, given for Arabic language study in Morocco (Summer 2005)
Scholtz, MacNaughton Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Reed College (20052006)

COURSES TAUGHT
Rel. 101, Exploring Religion, Michigan State University (Fall 2016)

ADDITIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Lecturer: Islam in/and America. Lead University of Michigan instructor for a digital
course taught by Sylvia Chan-Malik of Rutgers University, through the Digital Islamic Studies
Curriculum (Fall 2017)
Lecturer: Islam in African Literature. Lead University of Michigan instructor for a digital course
taught by Ousseina Alidou of Rutgers University, through the Digital Islamic Studies
Curriculum (Fall 2017)
Guest Lecturer: Introduction to Islam, taught by Ali Mian, Duke University (Fall 2014)
Guest Instructor: Introduction to Islam, taught by Ali Mian, Duke University (Summer 2014)
Teaching Assistant: Islamic Law and Ethics, taught by Mohsen Kadivar, Duke University (Fall
2013)
Teaching Assistant: Americas Gods, taught by Ebrahim Moosa, Duke University (Fall 2012)

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND SERVICE

Program Assistant: Islamic Studies Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. (Summer 2017-
present)
Editorial Assistant: Muslim Humanities Project. Contending Modernities Initiative, University of
Notre Dame (Spring 2012-present)
Research Assistant: Ebrahim Moosa, Resolving Jihadist Conflicts? Religion, Civil War, and
Prospects for Peace. Uppsala University (SummerFall 2016)
Editorial Assistant: Ebrahim Moosa, The Sunni Orthodoxy. Critical Muslim 10 (2014): 19-36.
(Spring 2014)
Graduate Assistant: Karsh Scholarship Program, Duke University (2013)
Designed academic and enrichment programs for international students on full scholarships to
Duke University. Read and reviewed funding proposals written by the scholars
Editorial Assistant: Ebrahim Moosa, In Memoriam: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Journal of the
American Academy of Religion 82.1 (2014): 7-14. (Fall 2014)
Editorial Assistant: Ebrahim Moosa, What is a Madrasa? Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 2015. (Fall 2104).
Editorial Assistant: Jeffrey T. Kenney and Ebrahim Moosa, eds. Islam in the Modern World. New
York: Routledge, 2014. (2013).
Co-Organizer: Islamic Thought and Muslim Societies Colloquium, Duke University (20122013)
Ran monthly, interdisciplinary colloquia for graduate students and professors working on Islam
and Muslim societies
Research Assistant: Mona Hassan, Duke University (2012)
Research Assistant: Ebrahim Moosa, Duke University (20102011)
Research Assistant: Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Reed College (2007)

CONFERENCES AND PANELS ORGANIZED

Co-Organizer: Islamic Studies Program Conference, University of Michigan. Belief and Action:
The Subjects of Islamic Studies. (Winter 2017, anticipated)
Co-Organizer: Duke-UNC Islamic Studies Graduate Student Conference, Duke University. Making
Sense of Islam: Sensuality and Affect in the Muslim Humanities. (2012)
Co-Organizer: Duke-UNC Islamic Studies Graduate Student Conference, University of North
Carolina. How Ideas Win: Formations of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in Muslim Practice and
Thought. (2011)

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Volunteer Arabic Translator: Freedom House, Detroit, Michigan (Summer 2016present)
Translate documents for asylum seekers official court use
Volunteer Educator: Freedom House, Detroit, Michigan (Spring 2016)
Taught English at a residential facility for asylum seekers
Invited Lecturer: Understanding the Quran, Lecture to 10th grade class at Adlai E. Stevenson High
School, Lincolnshire, IL (November, 2015)
Invited Lecturer: Love and War in the History of Islam, Chautauqua Lectures at the Serbino
Theater, Ridgway, Colorado (January, 2015)

RESEARCH LANGUAGES
Classical Standard Arabic: Advanced
Modern Standard Arabic: Advanced
French: Advanced reading proficiency
Moroccan Arabic: Intermediate
Urdu: Beginning

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Academy of Religion (AAR)
American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS)
Religion and Diversity Project, Canada