Matt Sheedy received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Manitoba (2015), Winnipeg, and is co-editor of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion blog and Religion Compass. His research interests include critical social theory, theories of secularism, as well as representations of Christianity, Islam, and Native traditions in popular and political culture.

• Introduction Identity, Apologetics, and the Shapes of Critique in the Study of Islam Matt Sheedy Theory and Identity Politics in the Study of Islam 1. The Modesty of Theory Ruth Mas 2. I Want My Discipline Back Salman Sayyid Critique and Identity in Qur'an Studies 3. Religion, History, Ethics: Rethinking the Crisis of Western Qur'anic Studies Alexandre Caeiro, Emmanuelle Stefanidis 4. Identity Politics and Scholarship in the Study of Islamic Origins: The Inscriptions of the Dome of the Rock as a Test Case Carlos A. Segovia Comparative Views from Outside Islamic Studies 5. Jews, Jewish Studies, and the Study of Islam Sarah Imhoff 6. The Quest for the Historical: Can Biblical Studies Lead Qur'anic Studies away from Theology? James Crossley A Critical Appraisal 7. Old Islamic Studies, or a Public Service Announcement Devin Stewart Afterword The Meaning and End of Scholarship on Religion Russell T. McCutcheon

". . . readers will find nuanced approaches that introduce practical strategies for how they might approach their own work in Islamic studies. This book would be useful to graduate students (especially in North America) and early career scholars seeking a balanced introduction to questions of identity and politics in Islamic studies." --Mixon, Candace, Religious Studies Review, September 2020 "I recommend the book for all students and researchers on Islam, as it is an excellent work on how relations of power, knowledge, the self, the academy and the study of Islam are entangled." --Belhaj, Abdessamad, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations Journal, 31:1 "Matt Sheedy's edited volume, Identity, Politics and the Study of Islam, based on a dispute between Aaron W. Hughes and Omid Safi in 2014, offers a timely, significant and much-needed assessment of the Western study of Islam. At stake in their debate was, and still is, what is the proper way to study Islam? . . . The volume by Sheedy is an important, intriguing and welcome analysis of what is at stake in the Western study of Islam." --Daneshgar, Majid, University of Freiburg, Germany, Reading Religion, May 28, 2020