Publications and other Academic Work

To the left are links to publications and other academic work that reflect some of my interests.  The Wisdom of Intoxication: Love and Madness in the Poetry of Hafiz of Shiraz appears as a chapter in the book Creativity, Madness and Civilization, published by Cambridge Scholars Press in 2007, and discusses the connection between madness and  creativity in the poetry of 14th Persian poet Hafiz of Shiraz. I have also posted a copy of my dissertation: Experiencing Qawwali: Sound as Spiritual Power in Sufi India, which examines the South Asian Sufi devotional music Qawwali, in the context of the use of music in religious practice, cross-culturally. I intend eventually to post the field recordings related to the text. Until then, the Khuldabad Qawwals link offers examples of Qawwali that I recorded in Khuldabad, India, in 2004. Finally, Unseen Power is an article adapted from one of the chapters of the dissertation. It appeared in The Muslim World, an academic journal on the study of Islam, in October, 2007. 

I hope the ideas presented here prove thought provoking.