Rushain Abbasi

Rushain Abbasi is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, affiliated with the Stanford Humanities Center. His research bridges critical theory and Islamic studies, focusing on legal/political theory, literary theory, psychoanalysis, and the historical interpretation of Islamic thought through Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman texts. He is completing two book projects: The Opening of Mecca and the Closure of Violence and Din and Dunya: Religion and the Way of Life, exploring law-violence dynamics in Islam and redefining conceptions of 'life' in religious contexts. He collaborates on works such as an article on Quranic covenantal structures and Ottoman political thought.

Education: B.A. in History/Politics from University of Maryland, College Park; advanced training at Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale Law School. Mellon Fellow in Humanities (Stanford, 2021).

Teaching emphasizes critical engagement with classical texts and contemporary theorists like Derrida, Benjamin, and al-Ghazali. Advises doctoral students interested in classical Islamic languages and critical theory. Collaborates with faculty in anthropology, religious ethics, and Late Antique studies.

Current projects include essays on political theology via Kafka, 'order' in Ottoman thought, and abstraction's evils. Hosts weekly office hours for scholarly collaboration.