Andrea Stanton

  • Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
  • Undergraduate Adviser

Institutional Affiliation

University of Denver
Department of Religious Studies

Education

Ph.D., Columbia University
B.A., Williams College

Regional and Thematic Interests

West Asia/Middle East
Religion

Profile

Dr. Stanton is Assistant Professor of Islam, focusing on twentieth and twenty-first century Islam in the Middle East and beyond. Her research focuses on media and religious identity, and investigates the sometimes conflictual, sometimes cooperative relationships between new technologies and claims to religious authority. Her most recent historical work examines government management of religious broadcasts in Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s, connecting this to a broader trend of Middle Eastern states controlling religious communities' access to radio and television. Her most recent contemporary work examines the emergent phenomenon of "Islamic emoticons," which appear in online Islamic chat forums and websites. Other recent projects include an examination of the role of the Olympic Games in fostering national and regional identities in Lebanon and Syria, and an analysis of themes found in US-based Syrian aid appeals and in Syrian political cartoons.

Her teaching interests include Qur'anic studies, contemporary fundamentalisms, globalization and its impact on religious identity and practice, gender and Muslim practice, and embodied practice and notions of piety, as well as the Internet and social media's evolving impact in these areas.

Selected Publications

2012. “Integrating Community Engagement and Service Learning into an M.A. Program,” American Academy of Religion Spotlight on Teaching, October.

“‘Pioneer of Olympism in the Middle East’: Gabriel Gemayel and Lebanese Sport,” International Journal of the History of Sport, Special Issue: Mideast Sport, 1-27.

2012. “Jerusalem Calling: The Birth of the Palestine Broadcasting Service,” Jerusalem Quarterly 50 (Summer), 6-22.

2011. “Arab Americans in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920,” in Multicultural America: A Social And Cultural History, Volume 3 (Facts on File).

“Teaching with Middle Eastern Constitutions: Exploring Ideals, Assessing Realities,” Syrian Studies Association Newsletter, 15 (2), 11-13.