Anna Bigelow

Anna Bigelow is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Graduate Studies at Stanford University. Her research focuses on Islamic Studies, South Asian and Middle Eastern Religions, emphasizing material culture and sacred spaces. She holds a BA from Smith College, MA from Columbia University, and PhD from UC Santa Barbara. Current projects include a comparative study of shared sacred sites in India and Turkey, exploring secularism's intersection with religious practices.

Her notable works include Sharing the Sacred: Practicing Pluralism in Muslim North India (2010) and Islam through Objects (2021). She co-edited a special issue on Material Islam for the journal MAVCOR. Her research has been supported by the Carnegie Scholars Program and the Social Science Research Council.

Bigelow advises graduate students on contemporary topics like Muslim minority populations, sacred space, and secularism. She emphasizes interdisciplinary methods combining ethnography, archival work, and cultural analysis. She collaborates with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and the Center for South Asia at Stanford.

Her articles analyze themes such as material religion, Sufi shrines, and postcolonial identities. She actively critiques the academic job market’s challenges, advising applicants to consider program fit and financial realities.