Education

Ph.D. SOAS, University of London

Statement

Alena Kulinich is Associate Professor of West Asian Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations at Seoul National University. She received her PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where she also taught as Senior Teaching Fellow. She later held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowship at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. Her academic interests focus on Islamic intellectual history and Qur’anic hermeneutics. Her current research project explores the discourses on wealth, poverty, and morality in pre-modern Muslim societies.

Publications

2023. “Ibn Shabīb, Muḥammad b. Abdallāh.” Fleet, Kate, et al., eds, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three, vol. II: 44–46. Leiden: Brill.
2022. “‘Personal opinion’ in Qur’ānic exegesis: medieval interpretations of al-tafsīr bi-l-ra’y.” Der Islam 99 (2): 476–513. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2022-0024
2022. “Moral Visions in Medieval Muslim Interpretations of Sūra 102 Al-Takāthur: Warnings against Pride, Wealth, or Pleasure?” Religions 13 (1)/68: 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13010068
2022. “Memories of tomorrow: The modern relevance of the Mu‘tazilah in the writings of Aḥmad Amīn (1886–1954).” Asia Review 12/1: 101–130. https://asiareview.snu.ac.kr/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/04-2_Alena-Kulinich.pdf
2019. “And if one asks… it is answered: The question-and-answer pattern in al-Ṭabarī’s (d. 310/923) commentary on sura al-Fātiḥa.” Journal of Arabic Language & Literature 23/3: 145–170.
2019. “Discourses on diversity in medieval interpretation of the Qur’ān.” Journal of Korean Association of Islamic Studies 29/2: 1–34.
2018. “Textual encounters: The Sabians in Qur’ānic exegesis.’ Journal of Humanities 75/4: 13–50.
2017. ‘Ḥafṣ al-Fard.’ Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. Leiden: Brill, 2017, I: 95–97.
2015. “Rethinking Mu‘tazilite tafsīr: from essence to history.” Religion and Culture 29: 227–262
2015.“Beyond theology: Mu‘tazilite scholars and their authority in al-Rummānī’s tafsīr.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 78/1: 135–148.
2007. “Translation of the Qur’ān by Lithuanian Tartars: Historiography and agenda for future studies.” Chetvertye Torchinovskie Chteniya. St. Petersburg 2007, 138–146. In Russian.

Courses

Undergraduate courses:
Introduction to Islam
Origin and Development of Islamic Civilization
Diversity in Islam: the Sunni and the Shi‘a
Readings in Classical Islam
Topics in Islamic Thought
Topics in West Asian Civilization
Reading Classics 1 & 2

Graduate courses:
Seminar in West Asian Civilization
Modern Interpretations of Asian Classics