# Teren Sevea Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Associate Professor of Islamic Studies ![Teren Sevea](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/hds2/files/terensevea_headshot2020.png?itok=XoWO1rOZ) location\_on Divinity 406B email ## On leave - Fall 2025, Spring 2026 ## Education - AB, National University of Singapore - MSc, London School of Economics and Political Science - PhD, University of California, Los Angeles ## Profile Teren Sevea is a scholar of Islam and Muslim societies in South and Southeast Asia, and received his PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining HDS, he served as Assistant Professor of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Sevea is the author of *Miracles and Material Life: Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya* (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which received the 2022 Harry J.Benda Prize, awarded by the Association of Asian Studies. Sevea also co-edited *Islamic Connections: Muslim Societies in South and Southeast Asia* (ISEAS, 2009). He is currently completing his second book entitled *Singapore Islam: The Prophet's Port and Sufism across the Oceans,* and is working on his third monograph, provisionally entitled *Animal Saints and Sinners: Lessons on Islam and Multispeciesism from the East*. Sevea is the author of book chapters and journal articles pertaining to Indian Ocean networks, Sufi textual traditions, Islamic erotology, Islamic third worldism, and the socioeconomic significance of spirits, that have been published in journals such as *Third World Quarterly, Modern Asian Studies, The Indian Economic and Social History Review* and *Journal of Sufi Studies*. In addition to this, he is a coordinator of a multimedia project entitled “The Lighthouses of God: Mapping Sanctity Across the Indian Ocean,” which investigates the evolving landscapes of Indian Ocean Islam through photography, film, and GIS technology. ## Courses View [HDS courses taught by Teren Sevea](https://courses.my.harvard.edu/psp/courses/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/h/?tab=HU_CLASS_SEARCH&SearchReqJSON=%7B%22ExcludeBracketed%22:true,%22Exclude300%22:false,%22SaveRecent%22:true,%22Facets%22:%5B%5D,%22PageNumber%22:1,%22SortOrder%22:%5B%22SCORE%22%5D,%22TopN%22:%22%22,%22PageSize%22:%22%22,%22SearchText%22:%22(%20Teren%20Sevea%20)%20(ACAD_CAREER:%5C%22HDS%5C%22)%22%7D) in the my.harvard Course Search. Also view [FAS courses taught by Teren Sevea](https://courses.my.harvard.edu/psp/courses/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/h/?tab=HU_CLASS_SEARCH&SearchReqJSON=%7B%22PageNumber%22:1,%22PageSize%22:%22%22,%22SortOrder%22:%5B%22IS_SCL_SUBJ_CAT%22%5D,%22Facets%22:%5B%5D,%22Category%22:%22HU_SCL_SCHEDULED_BRACKETED_COURSES%22,%22SearchPropertiesInResults%22:true,%22FacetsInResults%22:true,%22SaveRecent%22:true,%22TopN%22:%22%22,%22SearchText%22:%22(IS_SCL_DESCR_IS_SCL_DESCRL:%5C%22Teren%20Sevea%5C%22)%20(ACAD_CAREER:%5C%22FAS%5C%22)%22%7D). (HDS students: for jointly offered and reading and research courses, please enroll in the HDS version of the course.) [All Harvard courses](https://courses.my.harvard.edu) ## Selected publications ### Books: - *Miracles and Material Life: Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya.* Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Awarded the 2022 [Harry J. Benda Prize](https://www.asianstudies.org/grants-awards/book-prizes/benda-prize/) from the Association of Asian Studies. - *Islamic Connections: Muslim Societies in South and Southeast Asia* (co-edited with R. Michael Feener), Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009. ### Articles and chapters: - ‘Sufism, Miracles and Oceanic Fatwas: From Jakarta with Love’, *Journal of Sufi Studies,* 11: 1, 2022. - ‘Exilic Journeys and Lives: Paths leading to a Mughal Grave in Rangoon’, *The Indian Economic and Social History Review*, 59:2, 2022. - ‘Indian Ocean Studies and Saintly Materials from the Islamic East’, *History Compass*, 20:7, 2022. ‘Miracles and Madness: A ‘Prophet’ of Singapore Islam’, *Comparative Islamic Studies*, 14: 1-2, 2021. - ‘Reading Alatas’s Thomas Stamford Raffles in 2021: Whose lives matter?’, *Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography*, 43:1**,** 2022. - ‘*Pawang*s on the Frontier: Miracles, Prophets and Divinities in the Ricefields of Modern Malaya’, *Modern Asian Studies*, 54, 2019. - ‘Writing a History of a Saint: Writing an Islamic History of Singapore’, *NSC Working Paper*, Number 27, 2018. - ‘*Keramat*s Running Amok: Islamic Histories and Parahistories of Travel, Belonging, ‘Crimes’ and ‘Madness’’, *Belonging Across the Bay of Bengal: Migrations, Networks, Circulations. Religious Rites, Colonial Migrations, National Rights*, Michael Laffan ed., London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. - ‘Sex to the Next-World: Esoteric Science for the Penis-bearing *Mualad*’, *Shi'ism in South East Asia: 'Alid Piety and Sectarian Constructions*, Michael Feener and Chiara Formaichi, eds., London: Hurst, 2016. - ‘Making Medinas in the East: Islamist Connections and *Progressive Islam*,’ *Islamic Connections: Studies of Muslim South and Southeast Asia*, Feener and Sevea, eds., Singapore: ISEAS, 2009. - ‘Islamist Intellectual Space: 'True Islam' and the *Ummah* in the East,’ *Asian Journal of Social Science*, Volume 35, Numbers 4-5, 2007. - ‘Islamist Questioning of Colonialism: Towards an Understanding of the Islamist Oeuvre,’ *Third World Quarterly*, Volume 28, Issue 7, 2007. ### Public-facing scholarship: - Podcast Conversation (Akbar’s Chamber - Experts Talk Islam) on [Singapore Islam: How a Commercial Hub became a Muslim Melting Pot](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/singapore-islam-how-a-commercial-hub-became-%20a/id1532553011?i=1000584540852) - "[Keramat: Beyond Imagined Divisions](https://crh.indiana.edu/teaching-religion-in-public/trip-engaging-religion/essays/sevea-essay.html)", *Engaging Religion*, Teaching Religion in Public Initiative, Indiana University’s Center for Religion and the Human - Podcast Conversation (New Books Network), on [Miracles and Material Life](https://newbooksnetwork.com/teren-sevea-miracles-and-material-life-rice-ore-traps-and-guns-in-islamic-malaya-cambridge-up-2020) - Podcast Conversation (Ajam Media Collective) on [Sufi Miracle Workers of Malaya](https://ajammc.com/2021/04/26/ajam-podcast-37-miracle-workers-of-malaya/) - Podcast Conversation (Ajam Media Collective), [Of Gardens and Graves in Kashmir](https://ajammc.com/2019/11/03/ajam-podcast-18-kashmir/) - ‘Listening to Leaves: Historical Memory of a Keramat in Contemporary Singapore.’ *The Sufi and the Bearded Man: Re-Membering a Keramat in Contemporary Singapore.* Singapore: NUS Museum, 2011. ## Support To reach Harvard Divinity School's faculty coordinators, email [div-faculty\_coordinators@calists.harvard.edu](mailto:div-faculty_coordinators@calists.harvard.edu). For media inquiries or requests, please [contact Tyler Sprouse](mailto:tsprouse@hds.harvard.edu) in the Office of Communications. - ## Affiliation [Faculty](/affiliation/faculty) - ## Alpha Grouping [P-T](/alpha-grouping/p-t) - ## Faculty Type [Faculty of Divinity](/faculty-type/faculty-divinity)