Rethinking Pedagogies on Sufism in the Undergraduate Classroom

This roundtable brings together five instructors to reconsider pedagogical strategies for teaching Sufism in the undergraduate classroom. Although Teaching Mysticism (Parsons 2011) offers valuable frameworks, its broad comparative scope leaves unresolved the specific challenges of introducing Sufism to American students shaped by gaps in knowledge about Islam and by Protestant‑normative assumptions about religion. The presentations highlight practical and reflexive approaches informed by classroom experience: introducing Sufism through the history of religious‑studies categories; expanding sensory pedagogies to include visual and sonic forms of Sufi knowledge; inviting students to inhabit Sufi modes of interpretation through creative commentary; adapting “traditional” text‑centered methods to modern classroom needs via guided notes and structured annotation; and situating Sufism within medieval philosophy to foreground experiential epistemologies and female Sufi figures. Together, these perspectives offer strategies informed by lived Islam, aesthetic expression, textual interpretation, and intellectual history to encourage critical and imaginative undergraduate engagement with Sufism.