​  Dr. Edith Szanto

 Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

​@ The University of Alabama  

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Wonder

is the beginning

of wisdom. 

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Edith Szanto is an Assistant Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. 

She has previously taught at the University of Toronto and at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani.   

Dr. Szanto received her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Toronto in 2012.  Her dissertation examined Twelver Shi'i practices in Syria, where she spent three years as a Fulbrighter researching popular Islamic practices and working for the UN. 

Dr. Szanto is currently finishing the manuscript of her book, tentatively entitled "Transgressive Traditions: Twelver Shi'ism in Modern Syria."  The book focuses on Twelver Shi'i education, rituals, and discourses at the shrine of Sayyida Zaynab and in the seminaries surrounding the shrine.       

Her new project examines religion in Iraqi Kurdistan.    

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