Candace Mixon

Ph.D. Candidate, Islamic Studies

Education

M.A., McGill University, Institute of Islamic Studies, 2011
B.A., Vanderbilt University, Religious Studies, 2008

Research Interests

• Islam in Post-Revolutionary Iran
• Material and Visual Culture Studies
• Persian, Iranian, and Central Asian History, including Linguistic
• Gender and Sexuality in Muslim Communities
• Categorizations of Islam, Muslims, the Persianate, and Religion

Professional Biography

My current work examines visual culture (e.g., figurative religious images, such as those of the Prophet Muhammad and his family) and materiality (e.g., physical objects used in ritual practice) in order to interrogate how images, art, and objects do play an important role in Muslim devotional practices. My research focuses specifically on images, objects, and rituals within the context of contemporary Shi’a Muslim practices in Iran. My dissertation project, entitled, “Mother of Her Father: Contemporary Devotion to Fatima al-Zahra in Iran,” is based on materials and resources collected in Mashhad, Iran. This dissertation breaks new ground in contemporary Iranian religious history by analyzing material artifacts in order to understand Fatima’s changing role in Shi’a religious practice in the period after the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) through the present.

Publications

In Press: “Who Am I? Merely a Player.” In Fabricating Identities, ed. Russell McCutcheon (Equinox: United Kingdom, 2017).