Ithaca College

 Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Shobhana Xavier this academic year published two new books on Sufism. Her book Sacred Spaces and Transnational Networks in American Sufism: Bawa Muhaiyaddeen and Contemporary Shrine Cultures is published by Bloomsbury Academic as part of their Islam of the Global West series.  Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics, and Popular Culture (co-authored by Xavier with Meena Sharify-Funk and William Rory Dickson) is published by Routledge.

 From the dust jacket on Sacred Spaces and Transnational Networks in American Sufism: 

"This book sheds light on the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship (BMF), one of North America's major Sufi movements, and one of the first to establish a Sufi shrine in the region. It provides the first comprehensive overview of the BMF, offering new insight into its historical development and practices, and charting its establishment in both the United States and Sri Lanka. "

From the dust jacket to Contemporary Sufism:

"What is Sufism? Contemporary views vary tremendously, even among Sufis themselves. Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics, and Popular Culture brings to light the religious frameworks that shape the views of Sufism’s friends, adversaries, admirers, and detractors and, in the process, helps readers better understand the diversity of contemporary Sufism, the pressures and cultural openings to which it responds, and the many divergent opinions about contemporary Sufism’s relationship to Islam. The three main themes: piety, politics, and popular culture are explored in relation to the Islamic and Western contexts that shape them, as well as to the historical conditions that frame contemporary debates."