About

About Me

Profile:

I am assistant professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, a cultural historian of the Middle East, an Arabist, and intellectual historian. My research and teaching furthers our humanistic understanding of the Middle East and Islam, and the rich heritage of the Arabic language past and present.

Current Projects:

I am currently writing my first monograph, an expansive exposition of an idea known as "the obligation to investigate" (wujūb al-naẓar), novel framework for our understanding of Islamic intellectual history in its classical period.

I am a published translator and researcher on substantial domains of Islamic thought, with translations of pivotal texts from Arabic to English forthcoming.

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Interests:

The Arabic "Archive" : Past and Present

Middle Eastern Urban History: Premodern Syria

Epistemology and Intellectual History

Early Islamic Kalam

Teaching:

Introduction to Arabo-Islamic Civilization

God, Nature, and Society

Syria: Politics and Identity.

Theology in Arabic

Contact: rodrigo.adem@georgetown.edu