Mashal Saif
Associate Professor of Religion
Contact
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Office: Hardin 214
Email: msaif@clemson.edu
Education
Ph.D., Duke University's Graduate Program in Religion.
Dr. Saif's research interests include Islam in contemporary South Asia; the trans-temporal dynamics between medieval and modern Islamic discourses; contemporary Muslim political theology; the intersection of religious studies and postcolonial theory; and the anthropology of the state.
Dr. Saif's first monograph The 'Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan: Contesting and Cultivating an Islamic State was published in 2020 with Cambridge University Press. Her co-edited volume State and Subject Formation in South Asia was published in 2022 with Oxford University Press. She is currently working on her second monograph, tentatively titled, Traditional Islam and Modernity in Pakistan: An Intimate Account.
Dr. Saif's scholarly articles have appeared in a variety of journals: Modern Asian Studies, The Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies, Islamic Studies, Fieldwork in Religion, Annali and Thinking About Religion. She also authored several book chapters, book reviews and encyclopedia articles.
Dr. Saif has received multiple research awards. In 2022 she received a University Research, Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Award; a Humanities Hub Faculty Fellowship; and was chosen as one of the college's Creativity Professors. In 2021 she received a senior fellowship from the American Institute of Pakistan Studies. And, in 2020, within the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities, she was the sole recipient of the Dean's Excellence in Research Award and was the CAAH nominee for the University's Junior Researcher of the Year.
