Dr Taushif Kara

Taushif Kara obtained his PhD and MPhil from the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge and his BA from McGill University. He also studied Islamic history and philosophy at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London and served as a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Religions and Philosophies at SOAS. Prior to joining King's, Kara was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Jesus College and the Centre of Islamic Studies, Cambridge. In 2019, he was a Platzman Fellow at the University of Chicago and in 2022 his doctoral thesis was shortlisted for the Royal Asiatic Society's Bayly Prize. He has broad training in the academic study of Islam, global history, as well as intellectual history and the history of political thought.

Kara is especially interested in Muslim political thinking in the moments before and after decolonisation. His doctoral research, which is currently being revised into a monograph, traced the modern intellectual history of the Khoja diaspora, a trading community originally from western India. It followed the Khojas as well as the various ideas couched within and beyond their texts during the formative periods of colonialism, nationalism, and decolonisation around the Indian Ocean world, ca. 1866 – 1972. 

Kara also has a strong interest in the relationship of ideas to aesthetics in Muslim contexts, especially architecture, and was selected to participate in 'Modern Art Histories across Africa, South and Southeast Asia,' a multi-year project funded by the Getty Foundation in collaboration with the Dhaka Art Summit and the Institute for Comparative Modernities at Cornell University.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Modern Islamic Intellectual History
• Islam in South Asia
• Muslim political thought
• Islamic Art and Architecture
• Shi'i and Isma'ili Thought 

Dr Kara has two ongoing research projects. The first, tentatively titled 'The Venture of Islamic Studies' explores the uneven disciplinary transition from orientalism to Islamic Studies in the twentieth century from the vantage point of the post-colonial state. It traces the discipline's emergence out of state-sponsored institutions in Pakistan and Indonesia under conditions of authoritarianism and suspended democracy. 

Kara's second project explores how modern Muslim political thought understood the problem of waiting, or intezar. It focuses on the Indian poet and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal and the Iranian revolutionary thinker Ali Shariati, looking closely at their entangled reflections on the temporality of messianic anticipation.

Dr Kara welcomes proposals from prospective students interested in any aspect of Islam's modern intellectual history, especially comparative analyses and studies moving beyond conventional sources and areas. Students working on Muslim political thought in modern South Asia, or on the relationship of ideas to Islamic art and architecture are especially welcome.

Selected publications

“Waiting for Revolution,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 42, no. 2 (2022): 505 – 516.  

“Provincializing Mecca? (1924 – 1969),” Global Intellectual History, special issue on Refusing Minority, Recasting Islam edited by myself and Dr Amar Sohal (2021).

“Pray to the Archive: Abstracting history in Zanzibar,” International Journal of Islamic Architecture 9, no. 2 (2020): 265 – 285. 

“Let Them Know by Signs,” The White Review, no. 33 (2022): 147 – 157.  

“When the Revolution left Kate Millett Behind,” with Rosa Valerie Campbell for Public Books (2020).

Teaching

Kara teaches one introductory module on the history and political developments of the Muslim world, ca. 1750 - 2001, and two modules on modern and contemporary Muslim thought, one at the undergraduate level and one at the graduate level.

Expertise and public engagement 

Kara currently hosts and produces Rethinking Islam Today, a podcast about Islam and ideas. His public writing has appeared in The White Review and on the website Public Books, and Kara has also curated exhibitions with the Aga Khan Centre Gallery in London.