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Mai A. Rashed

PhD Candidate

Department of Religion

CONTACT

ml114@rice.edu

Advisor: Professor Claire Fanger

Mai A. Rashed earned her master’s degree in Cultural Astronomy from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Her master's dissertation, "Cosmic Chaos in Islamic Apocalyptic Eschatology", was short-listed for the 2018 Master's in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology Alumni Association Dissertation Prize and was recently published in the edited volume Skylights: Essays in the History and Contemporary Culture of Astrology. Mai's other academic contributions include a chapter titled, "Harmony in Islamic Cosmology: Subjugation, Sujūd and Oneness in Islamic Philosophical Thought", in The Harmony Debates. Mai's broader research interests include Islamic philosophical thought, Sufism, and mysticism, and she also possesses a keen interest in linguistics. She is proficient in Classical languages, such as Greek, Latin, and Arabic, and is currently studying modern and Ottoman Turkish. Her ongoing translation projects involve the Latin to English translation of several texts on medieval cosmology and astrology.

Research Areas

Medieval and early modern exchange of cosmological and philosophical ideas, Latin-Arabic and Latin-Ottoman transmission of ideas; medieval and early modern Christian-Muslim relations; cultural astronomy and the representation of the sky in art and poetry; Islamic philosophy, mysticism, and Sufism; astral religions and practices.

Education

MA (Distinction), University of Wales Trinity Saint David, United Kingdom, 2017

Honors & Awards

First prize, 2020 American Association of Teachers of Arabic Translation Contest, non-literary category, for the translation of a chapter from Sufi text "Qūt al-qulūb" or "The Nourishment of Hearts".

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