Author Archives: askanislamicist

About askanislamicist

I'm an academic who specializes in early Islamic history and the history of religious interactions, who, in her free time, enjoys shouting into the internet.

What is there to say?

Posted on October 3, 2017

Violence has once again destroyed an American community, and I feel like I should write something about it, but honestly, I’m just so exhausted by all of it, and in this case, more than a little heartbroken – I used … Continue reading →

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Social norms are part of free speech

Posted on August 18, 2017

This is going to be a bit different from my normal posts, but it’s been bothering me, and I want to write about it, and, you know, it’s my blog, so there.  Trigger warnings for a bunch of discussions about … Continue reading →

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Radicalized online

Posted on August 14, 2017

In the wake of the terrible events in Charlottesville, there seem to be a lot of people who are still amazed by such a brazen, public display by white nationalism, and by an act of terrorism by a white nationalist … Continue reading →

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Curriculum on early Islam

Posted on April 21, 2017

Kim asked: Dear Jessica, I hope you are still taking questions on this site. I am an aspiring Religion teacher (high school level) who want to ask about early Muslim history. To summarize, there is a lot of fear, hate … Continue reading →

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AAR-SBL 2016

Posted on November 16, 2016

Just a quick post to say that I’ll be at the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in San Antonio this Friday through Tuesday.  If anyone would like to meet up there, let me know!

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On bringing both sides together.

Posted on November 9, 2016

In news that I’m sure will come as a surprise to no one, I’m really disappointing and terrified by the outcome of this election.  At the moment, I’m mostly just a twisted knot of emotion and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, so … Continue reading →

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There is no such thing as a protest vote.

Posted on November 7, 2016

Naturally, I say I have a bunch of ideas for posts, and then I get really busy and go AWOL.  Sorry about that!  I’m also not going to write today about any of the things I talked about from RNA. … Continue reading →

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RNA 2016

Posted on September 29, 2016

The Religion News Association annual meeting was fantastic – I’m very glad I got the opportunity to participate.  I have a whole bunch of things I want to talk about, but to start with, I figured I’d just do a … Continue reading →

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Religion News Association

Posted on September 22, 2016

Just a quick post to say that I’m at the Religion News Association annual meeting in Silver Springs, MD this week – if anyone else is here and wants to meet me IRL, please leave a comment or email me … Continue reading →

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On flossing

Posted on August 16, 2016

So I want to talk about flossing, not because I have very strong feelings about dental hygiene, but because there’s been some interesting developments in what we know about flossing in the last few weeks that I think serve as … Continue reading →

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