Locating the Qibla of the Heart

Faciliated by Dr. Nicholas Boylston with special guest Dr. Ogunnaike

Wasat Study Circle:

This gathering is facilitated by Dr. Nicholas Boylston. Dr. Boylston is a specialist in Persian literature and Islamic mysticism who studied for multiple years at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in Tehran. He obtained his PhD in Persian Literature from Georgetown University. He has previously taught at Harvard and is currently professor of Islamic Studies at Seattle University.  He will be joined by our special guest, Dr. Ogunnaike who will be speaking on the topic "Locating the Qibla of the Heart".

Oludamini Ogunnaike is an Associate Professor of African Religious Thought at the University of Virginia specializing in the intellectual and aesthetic dimensions of West and North African Sufism and Yoruba oriṣa traditions. He is the author of D eep Knowledge: Ways of Knowing in Sufism and Ifa, Two West African Intellectual Traditions (Penn State University Press, 2020)  winner of the ASWAD's (Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora) Outstanding First Book Prize and Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection: West African Madīḥ Poetry and its Precedents (Islamic Texts Society, 2020). He is currently working on two book projects,  The Logic of the Birds: An Introduction to Sufi Poetry and Poetics and a book on Yoruba Mythology. He received his PhD in African and African American studies and Religion at Harvard University and his A.B. in African Studies and Cognitive Neuroscience from Harvard College.