Lost in a sea of letters

Visiting scholar delivers inaugural lecture as New Global Islamic Studies fellow

Thanks to the continued support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in funding the Global Islamic Studies (GIS) program, the first in a series of faculty exchanges between Connecticut College and Brown University got a head start this week. 

Cyril Uy, the inaugural Mellon-GIS Teaching Fellow and currently a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies at Brown, spoke to students, faculty and staff about Sa’d al D?n Hamuway?, an influential 13th century expert in Islamic mysticism and philosophy. The lecture, titled “Lost in a Sea of Letters,” provided an opportunity for the campus community to meet Uy before he joins Conn’s faculty in January for one semester as a visiting scholar, when he’ll teach a course called, “Power and Knowledge in Islam.”

Uy is the first of three Brown Ph.D. candidates who will teach a course at Conn on Islam as part of the expansion of GIS programs made possible by an $806,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation in 2018. This particular exchange program, which provides funding for Conn professors to train for a semester at Brown and will bring graduate students from Brown to teach new courses within the GIS curriculum, was initially the idea of Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron.  

“We in GIS thought the idea of having this kind of exchange with Brown was an excellent way to build on the strong foundation the program has already established, and we’re very excited that it is now getting launched,” said Eileen Kane, associate professor of history and director of the Program in Global Islamic Studies.