Sohaib Khan

Sohaib Khan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Occidental College, appointed in 2023. His office is in Fowler 403, and he is on leave during Spring 2025.

His educational background includes:

• B.S. from Lahore University
• M.A. from Duke University
• Ph.D. (2020) from Columbia University in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS)

Professor Khan specializes in Islamic legal studies, anthropology of Islam, histories of capitalism, and comparative studies of South Asia and the Middle East. His interdisciplinary work bridges Islamic studies, anthropology, postcolonial studies, and economic history. He examines the intersections of religion, secularism, and economic life in Muslim societies, with particular attention to law and ethics, gender, colonialism, racial capitalism, and climate change. His research combines historical and ethnographic methods to analyze how religious frameworks interact with modern economic systems.

His notable awards and fellowships include:

• Islamic Law and Civilization Fellow at Yale Law School
• Faculty Fellow at the Charles Warren Center, Harvard University
• Wenner-Gren Foundation Fellowship
• ACLS Fellowship
• Andrew Mellon Foundation Fellowship
• American Institute of Pakistan Studies Fellowship
• US Department of Education FLAS Fellowship
• Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life Fellowship

Professor Khan's research is supported by multiple prestigious fellowships and grants. His current book project, "Translating Capitalism: How Muslim Jurists and Bankers Invented Shari'a Compliance", explores the entanglement of Islamic law and finance through ethnographic fieldwork in religious seminaries and financial corporations. He has taught at Pomona College, Williams College, and Lahore University of Management Sciences, and his innovative courses at Occidental College include "Islam on the Move", "God and Money: Religion in the Marketplace", and "Muslim Abolitionist Futures".