EDUCATION

• Emory University: Ph.D. in West and South Asian Religions, 2004.
  • Dissertation (awarded “distinction”): “Early Islamic Hermeneutics: Language, Speech, and Meaning in Preclassical Legal Theory.” Dissertation committee: Richard Martin (advisor), Gordon Newby, Devin Stewart.
  • Examinations: Comparative hermeneutics; Islamic theories of revelation and interpretation; Religious interaction in colonial India; Annotated translation of al-Juwayni’s Waraqat fi `ilm usul al-fiqh.
  • Summer Academy “Hermeneutics of Border: Canon and Community in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,” Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, August 2003.
  • George W. Woodruff Fellowship (1997–2002), Harvey Fellowship (2001–2004), John Fenton Prize in Comparative Religion, Outstanding Achievement in Arabic at the Graduate Level award.
• Arabic Language and Islamic Studies Semester in Fez, Morocco, Washington University in St. Louis / Arabic Language Institute in Fez, January–June 1999.
• University of Colorado at Boulder: M.A. in Religious Studies, 1997.
  • Thesis: “On the Origin and Development of the Qur'anic Use of Amana.”
    University Fellowship, Pounds Fellowship.
• Gordon College: B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy, 1990, summa cum laude.
  • Pike Honors Scholar, Ball award, Physics award, Raytheon award, Phi Alpha Chi award (twice), President Forrester award, Budapest Semester in Mathematics.
• Research languages: French, Arabic, German, Indonesian.

TEACHING (class web sites at http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/V/David.R.Vishanoff-1/)

• Associate Professor (2012–present), Assistant Professor (2006–2012), Religious Studies Program, University of Oklahoma: The Qur'an, Islamic Law (Gender), Islamic Theology, Introduction to Islam, Muslim-Christian Encounters, Introduction to Religious Studies, Comparative Sacred Texts.
• Fulbright Senior Scholar (spring 2013), State Islamic University (UIN Sunan Kalijaga), Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Qur’anic Hermeneutics (doctoral seminar).
• Visiting Assistant Professor (2004–2006), Department of Religious Studies, University of South Carolina: Similar courses, and Foundational Readings in the Discipline of Islamic Studies (graduate).
• Adjunct Teaching, Emory University: Intermediate Arabic I; Introduction to Religion; Islamic Theology.
• Assistant Teaching, Emory University and University of Colorado at Boulder: Freshman Seminar on the Koran, Early and Medieval Hinduism, Christian Traditions, World Religions–West.

SCHOLARSHIP

• Islamic Legal Hermeneutics:
  • Textbook in progress (draft complete): A Critical Introduction to Islamic Legal Theory: Imām al‑Ḥaramayn al‑Juwaynī’s Leaflet on the Sources of Law (Kitāb al‑Waraqāt fī uṣūl al‑fiqh): Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary, with Traditional Examples and Contemporary Analysis.
  • Forthcoming journal article: “Al‑hirminyūṭīqā al‑fiqhiyya ʿinda al‑Imām al‑Shāfiʿī.” Arabic article on al‑Shāfiʿī’s legal hermeneutics. International Journal of Pesantren Studies (2013).
  • Forthcoming reference article: “Hermeneutics, Legal.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Law, ed. Jonathan Brown. Oxford University Press.
  • Review of Rumee Ahmed, Narratives of Islamic Legal Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 24 no. 1 (2013): 134-136.
  • Monograph: The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics: How Sunni Legal Theorists Imagined a Revealed Law. American Oriental Series, ed. Stephanie W. Jamison, no. 93. New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society, 2011. Publisher's link
    • Reviewed by Wilferd Madelung in Ilahiyat Studies 2 (2011): 254-256.
    • Reviewed by Yossef Rapoport in Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 23:4 (2012): 556-558.
  • Lectures and conference presentations:
    • “The Hermeneutics of Imām Shāfiʿī.” Center for the Study of Qur’an and Hadith Monthly Discussion, Facultas Ushuluddin, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, April 24, 2013.
    • Indonesian lecture on “Lessons in Hermeneutics from the Study of Islam.” Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, April 23, 2013.
    • Al‑hirminyūṭīqā al‑fiqhiyya ʿinda al‑Imām al‑Shāfiʿī.” Arabic lecture on al‑Shāfiʿī’s legal hermeneutics at regional meeting of Nahdlatul Ulama, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, March 31, 2013.
    • Five Classical Approaches to the Qur’an.” Plenary address at conference “Approaches to the Study of the Quran,” Community of Santri Scholars of Ministry of Religious Affairs, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, February 24, 2013.
    • “The Muʿtazila of Baghdād and the Eastern Ẓāhiriyya: A Scripturalist Alternative to al‑Shāfiʿī’s Vision of Islamic Law.” American Oriental Society, Chicago, March 16, 2008.
    • “The Paradoxical Hermeneutic of Sunni Jurisprudence: Its Emergence and Triumph from al‑Muzanī to Ibn Ḥazm.” American Oriental Society, San Antonio, March 16, 2007.
    • “God’s Performative Speech: The Traditionalist Legal Hermeneutics of Abū Yaʿlā Ibn al‑Farrāʾ (d. 458/1065).” American Oriental Society, Seattle, March 18, 2006.
    • “Medieval Islamic Models of Revelation: Hermeneutical Consequences Then and Now.” American Academy of Religion, Philadelphia, November 21, 2005.
    • “The Risāla of Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al‑Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820): Its Structure, Composition, and Significance for Islamic Legal Theory.” American Oriental Society, San Diego, March 13, 2004.
    • “Some Epistemological and Hermeneutical Dimensions of the Doctrine of the Created Qurʾān.” American Academy of Religion, Toronto, November 25, 2002.
    • “In Defense of Ambiguity: The Legal Hermeneutics of Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al‑Ṭayyib al‑Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013).” American Oriental Society, Houston, March 23, 2002.
• Muslim Biblical Studies:
• Forthcoming review of Todd Lawson, The Crucifixion and the Qur’an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought (Oxford: Oneworld, 2009) in Review of Middle East Studies.
• Peer-reviewed article: “Why Do the Nations Rage? Boundaries of Canon and Community in a Muslim’s Rewriting of Psalm 2.” Comparative Islamic Studies 6 (2010 [2012]): 151-179. Publisher's link
• Reference article: “Islamic ‘Psalms of David’.” In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Volume 3 (1050-1200), ed. David Thomas and Alex Mallett, 724-730. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
• Peer-reviewed article: “An Imagined Book Gets a New Text: Psalms of the Muslim David.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 22 (2011): 85-99. Publisher's link / doi: 10.1080/09596410.2011.543597
• Review of Walid A. Saleh, In Defense of the Bible: A Critical Edition and an Introduction to al-Biqāʿī’s Bible Treatise (Leiden: Brill, 2008). Journal of the American Oriental Society 129 (2009 [2010]): 323-325.
• Lectures and conference presentations:
  • The Sufi Psalms of David: Interreligious Polemic or Internal Critique?” CRCS–ICRS Wednesday Forum, Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies / Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, April 10, 2013.
  • “Other Peoples’ Scriptures: The Use of Sacred Texts across Religious Boundaries.” Response to papers delivered at the American Academy of Religion, San Francisco, November 21, 2011.
  • “A Sufi Rewriting of the Psalms of David.” Indiana University Islamic Studies Program conference “Mapping the Landscapes of Islamic Studies,” March 26, 2011.
  • “Psalms of the Muslim David: Rewritten Bible or Rewritten Qurʾān?” American Oriental Society, St. Louis, March 14, 2010.
  • “An Imagined Book Gets a New Text: The Psalms of David from Christian Scripture to Islamic Sermon.” Sixth Woodbrooke-Mingana Symposium on Arab Christianity and Islam, Birmingham, UK,  September 18, 2009.
  • “A Muslim Rewriting of Psalm 2: Interreligious Resistance and Intrareligious Critique.” Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, November 18, 2007.
  • “Reading Scriptures Across Religious Lines in Colonial India: Interreligious Conflict and Reconciliation, and the Intrareligious Contestation of Identity.” Religion, Identity, and Reconciliation conference, Emory University Graduate Division of Religion, Atlanta, March 31, 2001.
• General Islamic and Religious Studies:
• Forthcoming book chapter: “Boundaries and Encounters.” In Understanding Inter-Religious Relations, ed. David Cheetham, Douglas Pratt and David Thomas. Oxford University Press.
• Two forthcoming translations in an anthology of Islamic theological texts edited by John Renard for the University of California Press: “A Muʿtazilite Argument for Rational Qurʾānic Interpretation,” from ʿAbd al‑Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadhānī, Mutashābih al‑Qurʾān; and “The Occasions of Revelation of Qurʾānic Verses,” from Jalāl al‑Dīn al‑Suyūṭī, al‑Itqān fī ʿulūm al‑Qurʾān.
• Forthcoming reference article: “Religious Beliefs.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics, ed. Emad El-Din Shahin.
• Essay for a general audience: “Islamic Law: A Long Work in Progress.” The Army Chaplaincy, Winter-Spring 2009, 65-68.
• Reference article: “Naẓẓām, al‑.” In The Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, ed. Lindsay Jones, vol. 9, 6444-6446. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.

FUNDING

• Faculty Recognition Award for Exceptional Achievement in Research and Creative Activity ($5000), University of Oklahoma Vice President for Research, Spring 2013, recognizing receipt of Fulbright grant.
• Fulbright Senior Scholar Award ($22,750), U.S. Department of State and American Indonesian Exchange Foundation, Spring 2013, for teaching and development of a new research project on contemporary Qurʾānic hermeneutics, at the State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
• Honors Research Assistant Program ($900), University of Oklahoma Honors College, Fall 2012, for student assistance with an article on the use of scriptures across religious lines in colonial India.
• Honors Research Assistant Program ($600), University of Oklahoma Honors College, Fall 2011, for student assistance with a textbook chapter on boundaries and interactions between religious groups.
• Honors Research Assistant Program ($600), University of Oklahoma Honors College, Spring 2011, for student assistance with an encyclopedia article and textbook chapter on Islamic theology.
• Faculty Enrichment Grant ($1107), University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, 2010, for purchase of manuscript copies and editions of al‑Juwaynī’s works for A Critical Introduction to Islamic Legal Theory.
• Junior Faculty Summer Fellowship ($6000), University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, 2010. For drafting A Critical Introduction to Islamic Legal Theory: A Commentary on Imām al‑Ḥaramayn al‑Juwaynī’s “Leaflet on the Sources of Law” with Traditional Examples and Contemporary Reflections.
• Faculty Enrichment Grant ($1200), University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, 2010, for assistance with index to The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics.
• Junior Faculty Research Program grant ($6000), University of Oklahoma Vice President for Research, summer 2009. For revisions to The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics.
• Faculty Enrichment Grant ($870), University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, 2009. For obtaining copies of manuscripts of apocryphal Arabic “Psalms of the Muslim David.”
• Junior Faculty Summer Fellowship ($6000), University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, 2008. For completing the first draft of The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics.
• Faculty Enrichment Grant ($1000), University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, 2007-2008. For research assistance with book manuscript The Formation of Islamic Hermeneutics.
• Junior Faculty Research Program grant ($6000), University of Oklahoma Vice President for Research, summer 2007. “Ẓāhirī Legal Hermeneutics from al‑Naẓẓām (d. 836) to Ibn Ḥazm (d. 1064).”
• Faculty Enrichment Grant ($1000), University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, 2006-2007. For development of a new course on Muslim-Christian Interactions.
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend ($5000), Summer 2006. “God’s Performative Speech: Abū Yaʿlā (d. 1065) and the Origins of Authoritarian Hermeneutics in Islamic Law.”