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Matthew Melvin-Koushki

18 posts
Matthew Melvin-Koushki (Islamic Studies) recently completed a joint appointment as Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the Faculty of Oriental Studies and Junior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford, and will be joining the Near Eastern Studies department at Princeton University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate before taking up a tenure-track position in history at the University of South Carolina. His dissertation, “The Quest for a Universal Science: The Occult Philosophy of Ṣā’in al-Dīn Turka Iṣfahānī (1369-1432) and Intellectual Millenarianism in Early Timurid Iran” (Yale 2012), won the Middle East Studies Association’s Malcolm H. Kerr award for best dissertation in the humanities. This study demonstrates the integrality of occult modes of knowledge to late medieval and early modern millenarian-universalist projects, whether in the Islamicate heartlands or Renaissance Europe. As a case in point, it focuses on the mainstreaming of lettrist or kabbalistic thought in intellectual circles in 15th-century Iran. Matthew’s current research expands on this theme to explore the theory and practice of the so-called ‘occult sciences’ in the context of both history of science and history of philosophy in the Islamicate world, and particularly their frequent interpenetration with ‘legitimate’ sciences such as astronomy or medicine through the early modern period. His most recent article, “Occultism and Universalism in Early Modern Islamicate Intellectual History,” is due to appear in al-‘Usur al-Wusta in April 2013.

“Mysticism” in Iran, 17-21c.

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 24 minute read
A review of Safavid Shiʿism, the Eclipse of Sufism and the Emergence of ʿIrfān, by Ata Anzali. Sufism, as everyone…
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See you in 2014!

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 1 minute read
With the winter holidays upon us, Dissertation Reviews will be taking a few-week hiatus and will return in January 2013.…
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Inner/Central Asia + Tibetan/Himalayan

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 4 minute read
In the 2013-2014 academic year, Dissertation Reviews will continue to post reviews of recently filed dissertations, up-to-date reports from various…
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Russian Studies on DR

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 3 minute read
The fourth season of Dissertation Reviews begins very soon, and we have more Russian Studies content than ever. If you…
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Performance + Print & Media Cultures

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 3 minute read
The Performance series and the Print and Media Cultures series will continue to bring you reviews of dissertations, “Fresh from…
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Science on Dissertation Reviews

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 3 minute read
Starting from mid-September, the Bioethics, Medical Anthropology and Science Studies series will appear on Dissertation Reviews every Wednesday. If you are…
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New Series: Asian Archaeology

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 1 minute read
We have another new series on Dissertation Reviews! We are very excited to add the Asian Archaeology to our ever-expanding…
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New Face on Southeast Asia Studies DR

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 2 minute read
We are very excited to welcome a new editor to “Southeast Asia Studies Dissertation Reviews,” Inga Gruß (Cornell University). She joins…
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New Faces in Asian Art History

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 2 minute read
We are very excited to welcome two new editors to “Asian Art History Dissertation Reviews,” Stephen Whiteman (National Gallery of…
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New Face on South Asian Studies DR

  • Matthew Melvin-Koushki
  • 2 minute read
We are very excited to welcome a new editor to “South Asia Studies Dissertation Reviews,” Susan Johnson-Roehr (University of Virginia).…
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