Melinda Krokus
Associate Professor
krokus@marywood.edu
Philosophy/Religious Studies
570-348-6211 x2169Immaculata Hall 112
Courses taught:
Introduction to Environmental Studies EVST-101Climate Change EVST-200
Capstone EVST-499
Encountering Faith RST-112
Introduction to Asian Religions RST-217
Sprt/Ntre: Rlgs Dmnsns of Envr RST-240
Directed Field Experience RST-443
St: Laudato Si: A Moral Response To Climate Change RST-450J
Dr. Krokus teaches comparative religion courses at Marywood University focusing on themes such as nature, ecology and environmental justice, health and healing, and women and gender studies. Her research specialization is in Islam with a particular interest in the Sufi tradition and her ethnographic fieldwork has taken her to Turkey, South Africa, Mauritius, and different parts of Europe examining the intersection of sacred text, lived religious experience, and the poetry that emerges from that encounter. Dr. Krokus is committed in her teaching, research, and service to religious literacy and interfaith dialogue and understanding in the hope of contributing to a more just and equitable world for all.
Education:
Ph.D. Boston University
M.Div. Harvard Divinity School
B.A. Prescott College
“‘There is an ‘I’ deeper than me’: The Ansari Qadiri Rifai Tariqa and Transcendence in America” Varieties
of American Sufism. Marcia Hermansen and Elliot Bazzano, eds. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York
Press, 2020.
Book Review. Lucas F. Johnston and Dave Aftandilian, eds. Grounding Education in the Environmental
Humanities: Exploring Place-Based Pedagogies in the South, New York, NY: Routledge, 2019 in The
Wabash Center Journal on Teaching 1 no. 3 (2020): 130.
Presentations
“‘She’s Coming Out Dead or Alive’: Sufi Jinn Extraction and Healing in the Qadiri Rifa’i Tariqa” Embodying Modern “Scientific” Medicine and “Religious/Spiritual” Healing: A Comparative
Perspective on Non-Voluntary Spirit Possession and Exorcism (Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice,
Italy), December 13-15, 2018.
“Inspiration (wahy) at the Margins: A Vulnerable and Vernacular Sufi Hermeneutics of the Qur’an”
Islamic Mysticism Unit, American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting (Boston, MA), November
2017.
Education:
Ph.D. Boston University
M.Div. Harvard Divinity School
B.A. Prescott College
Presentations and Publications
“‘There is an ‘I’ deeper than me’: The Ansari Qadiri Rifai Tariqa and Transcendence in America” Varieties
of American Sufism. Marcia Hermansen and Elliot Bazzano, eds. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York
Press, 2020.
Book Review. Lucas F. Johnston and Dave Aftandilian, eds. Grounding Education in the Environmental
Humanities: Exploring Place-Based Pedagogies in the South, New York, NY: Routledge, 2019 in The
Wabash Center Journal on Teaching 1 no. 3 (2020): 130.
Presentations
“‘She’s Coming Out Dead or Alive’: Sufi Jinn Extraction and Healing in the Qadiri Rifa’i Tariqa” Embodying Modern “Scientific” Medicine and “Religious/Spiritual” Healing: A Comparative
Perspective on Non-Voluntary Spirit Possession and Exorcism (Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice,
Italy), December 13-15, 2018.
“Inspiration (wahy) at the Margins: A Vulnerable and Vernacular Sufi Hermeneutics of the Qur’an”
Islamic Mysticism Unit, American Academy of Religion, Annual Meeting (Boston, MA), November
2017.