Kathleen Foody

Bio

Dr. Foody is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A. in Jewish, Islamic, and Near Eastern Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, and a B.A. in Sociology, Anthropology, and Religion from Carleton College. She was previously an Associate Professor of International Studies at the College of Charleston.

Her research focuses on the study of modern Islam, both as practiced by Muslims and as conceived by non-Muslims. Dr. Foody is specifically interested in how ideas about liberalism and secularism organize debates over appropriate Islamic practice and politics. She has published on Twentieth Century Muslim intellectuals in Iran, as well as media and Islamophobia, and “post-secular” pedagogies on US university campuses. Dr. Foody’s current book project examines a series of international attempts to stage Islam for liberal publics.

Research Publications

2023 Foody, Kathleen. “The World of Islam: ‘Good Religion,’ Perennialism, and Public Culture in the 1970s.” Culture and Religion. Forthcoming.

2022 Foody, Kathleen. “For the Love of Islam: US Foreign Policy, Islamophilia, and the Islam Centennial 14.” Reorient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies 7(2): 116-134.

2018 Foody, Kathleen. “Muslims and the Media: From Texts to Affects.” Journal of Islamic Studies 29(2): 230-251.

2016 Foody, Kathleen. “The Limits of Religion: Liberalism and Anti-Liberalism in Post-Revolution Iran.” Culture and Religion 17: 183-199.

2016 Foody, Kathleen. “Pedagogical Projects: Teaching Liberal Religion After 9/11.” The Muslim World 106: 719-739.

2015 Foody, Kathleen. “Considering Public Criticism: Secularity, Citizenship, and Religious Argument in Contemporary Iran.” The Muslim World 105: 299-311.

2015 Foody, Kathleen. “Interiorizing Islam: Religious Experience and State Oversight in the Islamic Republic Of Iran.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83: 599-623.

Presentations

2022  “Classify to Conquer: Defining Muslim Differences Under US Empire.” Study of Islam Unit. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Denver, CO.

2021  “Interfaith Dialogue, Diplomacy, and the Continuing Myth of Religious Violence,” Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Unit. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. San Antonio, TX.

2020 “The World of Islam,” Contemporary Islam Unit. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Boston, MA. Forthcoming.

2018 “Anand Taneja’s Jinnealogy: Time, Islam, and Ecological Thought in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi,” Theology and Continental Philosophy Unit. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Denver, C.O.

2017 “CIA to Survey World’s Moslems”: Global Islam and the American Public under Carter and Reagan,” Contemporary Islam Group. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Boston, Mass.

2016 “The Good, the Bad, and the Monstrous: Muslims in Contemporary American Film,” Contemporary Islam Group. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. San Antonio, T.X.

2016 “Transnational Genealogies of Anti-Muslim Sentiment,” Bi-Annual Conference on Religion and Public Life, Boston College, Boston, M.A.

2015 “Every Place is Karbala: Muslim Reflections on Cosmopolitanism, Modernity, and Imperialism,” Contemporary Islam Group. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Atlanta, GA.

2015 “The Medium is the Mission: Christianity and Technology in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts,” Religion, Media, and Culture Group and World Christianity Group. Respondent. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Atlanta, GA.

2015 “Bringing Religion Back: From the War on Terror to the Secular Classroom.” Shifting Boundaries: Islam and the Humanities. Burlington, V.T.

2014 “‘Why Critique?’: Defining Modern Scholarship and Religious Authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Study of Islam Section. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA.