Abdul Manan explores the place of religion in modern Urdu and Persian literature. Interested in treating religious and literary modernity as co-constituents, he examines the production of Islamic-selves in 20th century Urdu and Persian poetry, engaging literary aesthetics as a site of religious virtue. He is also more broadly interested in comparative connections between modernities across the Islamicate.
Abdul received his B.A in Religious Studies and International Affairs from Lafayette College, where he wrote about Islamic imagery in 20th century Urdu poetry, focusing on the corpus of the noted poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Abdul was born and brought up in Kashmir; he is fluent in Kashmiri, Urdu, Hindi, and is currently working on Persian and Arabic.
BA, Lafayette College, 2018
Islamic studies
Sufi Literature
Modernities in the Islamicate
Secularisms
Socialism and Islam
Material and Visual Culture
Modernities, Secularism, and Science
Politics and Publics
Fall 2019: Teaching Assistant, “Religion and Sports”
Spring 2020: Teaching Assistant, “From Jesus to Mohammad”
Fall 2020: Teaching Assistant, "The Religion of Anime"