Lulie El-Ashry is a Ph.D. student in Islamic studies at Harvard University. Her research on Sufism in Europe is focused on both a historical and ethnographic study of a specific Sufi order composed of Italian and French converts to Islam. By paying particular attention to the transnational nature of this order, which emerged in Europe in the inter-war period but was established in the late 19th century in Algeria, her work aims to trace the connections between the Sufi order in North Africa and its migration to Europe through the movement and works of certain key European figures. Moreover, she delves into the question of how individuals in the European Sufi order negotiate the identity of being both European and Muslim and if there is a transmutation of the Islamic religious tradition in order to adapt to the European context. El-Ashry will also investigate the role European converts to Islam either decide to, or are required to, play as representatives of the religion in Europe.
This information is accurate for the time period that the scholar is affiliated with CES.
