Mark Soileau is a historian of religions specializing in the Islamic religion. His research focus is on Islamic mysticism, and in particular the Bektashi Sufi order and the Alevi community of Turkey. He has interests in the areas of ritual, pilgrimage, saints, religion and culture, and nationalism. His dissertation is on the effects of Turkish nationalism and secularism on the ways Sufi saints are commemorated.

Courses

• RS 101 Introduction to Western Religions

• RS 102 Introduction to Eastern Religion

• RS 104 Introduction to Islam

• RS 204 Islam and the Modern World

• RS 205 Sufism

Education

• Ph.D Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2006

• M.A. Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2002

• M.A. Social Anthropology, Ankara University, 2002

• B.A. Philosophy, University of Houston, 1988

Career

• Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Albion College, 2006-present

• Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, California Polytechnic State University, 2006

• Lecturer, Department of History, Bilkent University, 2005
   

Publications

Books Chapters

• “Festivals and the Formation of Alevi Identity.” In Alevis and Alevism: Transformed Identities, edited by Hege Irene Markussen. Istanbul: Isis Press, 2005.
   

• “The Patron Saints of Turkish Humanism: Religion and the Formation of Turkish National Culture.” In Nationalism, Historiography and the (Re)Construction of the Past, edited by Claire Norton.  New Academia Press, 2006. (Forthcoming)

Encyclopedia Entries

• Encyclopedia of Islam, Facts on File, Juan E. Campo, Editor (forthcoming).
  Entries on: ‘Alawi, ‘Ashura,  Ataturk, Bektashiyya Sufis, Blood, Dervish, Ghuluww, Haqiqa, Husayn, Istanbul, Janissary, Malamatiyya Sufis, Mevleviyya Sufis, Murid, Ottoman Dynasty, Refah Partisi, Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, Seljuk Dynasty, Tanzimat, Tekke, Turkey, Turkish Language and Literature, Walaya, Wali, Yunus Emre.
   
• Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition, Brill (forthcoming). Entries on: ‘Ashik, ‘Ashik Veysel.

Conference Papers

• “Lokma Almak, Dem Görmek: Bektaşi Sofrasında Sindirim,” 1^st International Symposium on Bektashism and Alevism, Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey, 2005
   

• “The Patron Saints of Turkish Humanism: Mysticism and the Formation of the Turkish Nation,” Conference on Nationalism, Historiography and the (Re)Construction of the Past, University of Birmingham, U.K., 2004
   

• “A Performance Approach to the Study of Alevi Identity,” Middle East Studies Association Meeting, Washington, D.C., 2002
  “Dem Görelim Canlar: Ingestion and Digestion in the Bektashi Ritual Meal,” Middle East History and Theory Conference, University of Chicago, 2001