Dean Accardi

Dean Accardi is an Assistant Professor of History at Connecticut College, where he joined the faculty in 2014. He is also a core faculty member of the Global Islamic Studies Program, Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies, and serves on the Power, Knowledge and Practice and Bodies/Embodiment Integrative Pathways committees. Currently preparing for a sabbatical in Fall 2025, his academic journey includes a B.A. from Loyola University, an M.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.

• B.A., Loyola University
• M.A., Columbia University
• Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin

Accardi specializes in the history of gender, religion, and politics in South Asia and the Islamic World, with particular focus on early modern and modern periods. His research examines how historical and religious narratives reconstruct the past to serve socio-political agendas, challenging notions of mutually exclusive religions through analysis of hybridity and syncretism. He pays special attention to how race, class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity intersect with religious and political power structures. His work focuses particularly on the gendered ascetic practices of saints revered by both Hindus and Muslims, and how these practices have been used to establish religious and political authority.

His publications reveal consistent engagement with Kashmiri religious figures like Lal Ded and Nund Rishi, examining how these figures have been appropriated across historical periods for various political purposes. His scholarship demonstrates how contemporary religious and political identities are projected into the past, while simultaneously showing how historical ideas about saints persist and interrupt current political agendas. This work spans multiple disciplines including religious studies, political science, gender studies, and South Asian history.

Accardi teaches courses including Border Conflicts in South Asia, Freedom and State Power, Islam in Asia, Secularism in Global Contexts, and South Asia in the Postcolonial World. Each course examines how power is established, articulated, administered, and contested over time, with particular attention to how race, gender, sexuality, and identities play integral roles in power structures across different historical and social contexts.