Cyril Uy II

Dr. Cyril Uy II is an Assistant Professor of Religion at James Madison University since 2021. He holds a Ph.D. from Brown University, an M.A. from Stanford University, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from Yale University. His research focuses on medieval Sufism, Islamic philosophy, and the intersections of knowledge, identity, and embodiment. He explores how Muslim thinkers navigated authority and exclusion in knowledge production, with a specialization in Mongol-era Sufi figures like Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūya. His work bridges historical texts with contemporary theories of identity and social dynamics.

His award-winning dissertation led to his first book, Lost in a Sea of Letters (Brill, 2025), analyzing Ḥamūya’s deconstructive ethos and its implications for pluralism. His current project employs jazz improvisation as a framework to study Sufi intellectual and social practices. Dr. Uy teaches courses on mysticism, science-religion intersections, gender/sexuality, and music in religious experience, emphasizing student engagement with personal and academic perspectives.

Before JMU, he was the inaugural Mellon Teaching Fellow in Global Islamic Studies at Connecticut College. His scholarly contributions include co-editing On God and the World (Oxford UP, 2019), a critical edition and translation of medieval Islamic texts. He actively bridges historical scholarship with contemporary interdisciplinary dialogue.