Shabbir Agha

I am a fifth-year PhD candidate in Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of Arizona, specializing in Islamic intellectual history with a focus on the spread of Twelver Shiʿism in the Persianate world. My broader research interests include Shi'ism, Sufism, Islamic polemical debates, jurisprudence, and Persian poetry.

 

I hold an MA in Islamic Studies from Columbia University, where I also worked as a manuscript cataloger at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library; my thesis was supervised by Professor Hossein Modarressi. I also earned an MA in Religion from Rutgers University, which included a multi-semester exchange at Princeton University’s Near Eastern Studies Department. My current doctoral work is supervised by Professor Scott Lucas.

 

Beyond academia, I translate Indo-Persian poetry, maintain educational social media platforms, and lecture during Muharram within the Indo-Pak Shia community of the NYC area. I have traveled extensively across the Middle East and Central and South Asia—including Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan—conducting research in libraries and manuscript repositories.

 

I am also physically disabled and live with a rare endocrine syndrome, which grants me greater insight into the needs and challenges of differently abled students, ultimately strengthening my pedagogical skills and shaping the inclusive approach I hope to carry forward into my future career as a professor.