Rüdiger Seesemann
 Assistant Professor of Religion
Office: Crowe Hall 4-145, 1860 Campus Drive
Phone: (847) 491-3080
E-Mail: seesemann@northwestern.edu
Rüdiger Seesemann earned his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies at the University of Mainz (Germany) in 1993 and joined the Northwestern University Department of Religion in 2005. He previously taught Islamic Studies as an adjunct lecturer at Bayreuth University (Germany), where he also worked as a research fellow in the Collaborative Research Project (SFB-FK) "Local Agency in Africa in the Context of Global Influences."
His major fields of specialization are Islamic Mysticism, Islam and Modernity, Islam and Politics, Islamism, and Islamic Education, with a focus on the contemporary period and a regional emphasis on Africa South of the Sahara.
In 1993, he published the monograph Ahmadu Bamba und die Entstehung der Murîdîya (Berlin: Schwarz), dealing with the founder of the Muridiyya, a Sufi order based in Senegal. Recently he completed his Habilitation thesis entitled Nach der Flut: Ibrahim Niasse (1900-1975), Sufik und Gesellschaft in Westafrika ("After the 'Flood': Ibrahim Niasse, Sufism and Society in West Africa,") Bayreuth University, 2004; work on an abridged English version is in progress). His major publications also include "The takfir Debate: Sources for the Study of a Contemporary Dispute among African Sufis," in Sudanic Africa 9, 1998, pp. 39-70 (part 1); 10, 1999, pp. 65-110 (part 2); "Sufi Leaders and Social Welfare: Two Examples from the Sudan," in H. Weiss (ed.), Social Welfare in Muslim Societies in Africa, Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute, 2002, pp. 98-117; "Verfall des Sufismus?," in A. Hartmann (ed.), Geschichte und Erinnerung im Islam, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2004, pp. 171-193.
Seesemann is involved in several research activities dealing with Islam in Africa. His latest project investigates the interplay between competing Islamic traditions as reflected in the development of Islamic educational institutions in Kenya. Previously, he has worked on Sufism and the Tijaniyya Sufi order in West Africa and the Sudan, as well as on the origins of the Muridiyya (see publications above). As a collaborator of a larger research program run by the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA, based at the Program of African Studies, Northwestern University), he coordinates research on the Tijani corpus of Islamic literature and participates in a project studying popular religious books and videos in Sub-Saharan Africa.
His course offerings include: Introduction to Islam, Islamic Political Thought, Islam and the Clash of Civilizations, The Qur'an, Muslim Saints, Sufi Orders in Africa, Converts and Apostates: Contemporary Apologetic and Polemic Approaches to Islam.
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