Education
Ph.D., University of Virginia
Research Interests
I am an Assistant Professor of Religion in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS. My research interests include philosophy of religion, hermeneutics, semiotics, and modern Islamic thought. I am currently working on a series of articles on early 20th century South Asian Muslim "modernist" thought. These articles explore modernist thought as a site that imagines the world as broken and in need of suturing. I pay particular attention to conceptions of subjectivity, religion, science, and time constructed in such thought.
My current teaching work is focused on theories and methods in religious studies and topics within philosophy of religion. My current course offerings include REL 212 "Religion after Modernity"; REL 210 "Text, Performance, and Religion"; REL 315 "Religion and Existentialism"; REL 313 "Rationality and Tradition"; REL 412 "Religion, Ethics, and Pragmatism."
God, Science, and Self: Muhammad Iqbal's Reconstruction of Religious Thought (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021)
Podcast on God, Science, and Self for The New Books Network
CBC's Ideas Documentary on Muhammad Iqbal, featuring analyses from the monograph.
Ochs, P., Faizi, N., Teubner, J. & Moulvi & Moulvi, Z. (2019). Value Predicate Analysis: A Language-Based Tool for Diagnosing Behavioral Tendencies of Religious or Value-Based Groups in Regions of Conflict. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 58 (1), 93-111.
Faizi, N. (2018). "Learning to Use Language with C. S. Lewis: A Response to Haley's 'The Re-enchantment of Education'". Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, 17 (1).
Faizi, N. (2016). "Averroes on the Relationship between Philosophy and Scripture: A Conditional Hierarchy". Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, 15 (1).
Faizi, N. (2020). Why saying 'only some Muslims are violent' is no better than saying 'all Muslims are violent', Published. Daniel Weiss and Julia Snyder (Eds.), Scripture and Violence, Routledge.
Faizi, N. (2021). God, Science, and Self: Muhammad Iqbal's Reconstruction of Religious Thought, McGill-Queen's University Press.
Faizi, N. (2018). "Friendship at any Cost?". Scriptural Reasoning in the University (SRU) conference at Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Faizi, N. (2018). "Where Wisdom can be Found: Scripture and Wisdom in the Abrahamic Traditions". Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Denver, Colorado, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2018). "Religion as Modernity's Other: Muhammad Iqbal's Critique of Religion after Modernity". Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Denver, Colorado, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2017). "The Problem with Particularization: When Some Muslims are Violent". Scriptural Reasoning in the University (SRU) conference at Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Faizi, N. (2016). "Reconstructing Religion: Iqbal on the Purposes of Islamic Philosophy". Annual Mid-Atlantic Region Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2015). "From Generality to Vagueness: C. S. Peirce's Re-reading of the Pragmatic Maxim". Annual Mid-Atlantic Region Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Columbia, Maryland, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2015). "Interpretation as Restoration: Sayyid Ahmed Khan's Argument for the Modernity of the Qur'an". Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2014). "Scripture as Approximate Philosophy: Averroes' 'Harmonization' of Philosophy and Scripture,". "Public Scripture: Reading Out of Context" Graduate Colloquium at UVA, Charlottesville, VA, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2014). "Domesticating the Jinn: Sayyid Ahmed Khan's Exegesis of the Qur'an". "Beasts, Monsters, and the Fantastic in the Religious Imagination" Graduate Conference at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2014). "The Study of Religion in the Academy". Graduate Advisory Board Fest at the Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures, UVA, Charlottesville, VA, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2014). Sayyid Ahmed Khan's Naturalistic Hermeneutics. Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Diego, California, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2013). "Reason, Scripture, and the Senses". Annual Mid-Atlantic Region Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2013). "Distinguishing Dialogue and Monologue: Patterns of Scriptural Interpretation in Muhammad Iqbal". Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Faizi, N. (2012). "Beyond Anarchy: Implicit Patterns and Interdisciplinary Methodology" (Co-presented). Annual Conference of New Directions in the Humanities, Montreal, Canada.
Faizi, N. (2012). "Abrahamic Reasoning and Environmental Ethics". Annual Mid-Atlantic Region Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America.