Faculty Profiles

Candace’s teaching interests include a variety of topics in Islamic studies as well as the materiality of religious practice (such as her Holy Sh*t! course). She earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A. from McGill University, and her B.A. from Vanderbilt University. She is currently working on her book project, The Fatima Paradigm: Materiality and Memory in Iran. This book is focused on contemporary Shiʻism in Iran through an analysis of Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, using a collection and examination of devotional visual and material culture. She considers the significance of Fatima al-Zahra in contemporary Iran and especially in the city of Mashhad as produced through material artifacts and ritual commemorations since the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). By following the trajectory of the succession to Muhammad after his passing to the Battle of Karbala, contemporary Shiʿa studies and broader studies of Islam and Muslim histories or cultures have narrowly focused on prophethood and the Shiʿi imams, thereby missing the opportunity to consider gendered notions and models of religious leadership and the significance of Fatima as the female link to the line of the imams. She’s recently published a contribution to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion as well as recently published articles in the Journal of Religion and Film as well as Material Religion and has an upcoming contribution to the Oxford Handbook of Islamic Reform. Candace is an associate editor and book review editor for the journal Material Religion and is an interviewer for podcasts on The Religious Studies Project.