Position Title
Lecturer in Religious Studies
Ryan Brizendine holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from Yale University, an MA in South Asian Religions from the University of Chicago, and a BA in philosophy and English literature.
He studies premodern Islamic intellectual history (philosophy, theology, Sufism) and Islam in South Asia with focuses on post-classical philosophy, the school of Ibn ʿArabi, and religious poetics in classical Arabic, Persian, and Hindi-Urdu, supplemented by work in Qurʾanic studies.
Ryan teaches Introduction to Islam (RST 60), The Qurʾan and Its Interpretation (RST 65C), Sufism (RST 130), Islamic Thought (RST 160), Islam in Asia (RST 165), and courses in Arab, Persian, and South Asian studies (MSA 181A/B/C), alongside Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism (RST 1G) and Comparative Religion (RST 5).