Teaching across Islamic theology, philosophy, religious studies, sociology, and political thought.
My teaching joins close engagement with Islamic texts and intellectual traditions to questions that cross disciplinary boundaries. Students learn to interpret theological and philosophical arguments, examine their historical and social settings, and consider their ethical and political implications. The aim is not simply to accumulate knowledge about Islam, but to develop the interpretive judgement and methodological awareness needed to analyse complex religious and public questions responsibly.
Teaching themes
Islamic Theology, Philosophy, and Textual Traditions
Jurisprudence, theology, philosophy, Qur’anic interpretation, and hadith studied as connected traditions of knowledge and ethical reasoning. Explore this theme →
Islamic Political Thought, Ethics, and Public Life
Authority, citizenship, justice, conflict, liberation, diplomacy, and public responsibility across classical and modern debates. Explore this theme →
Islam in History, Civilisation, and the Modern World
Islamic history and civilisation examined through intellectual change, colonialism, modernity, migration, and global exchange. Explore this theme →
Interdisciplinary Religious Studies, Research Methods, and Supervision
Comparative religious studies, research design, academic writing, and supervision from undergraduate work to doctoral research. Explore this theme →
Current teaching
Current teaching at Uppsala University spans Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic history, political theory, theology and philosophy, hadith, tafsir, Islamic philosophy and spirituality, contemporary Islamic movements and debates, and introductory and continuation courses in religious studies. It also includes undergraduate and Master’s thesis supervision and Euroculture MA methodology and research seminars.
International and comparative experience
Teaching in Sweden, Brunei, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Qatar has shaped a comparative pedagogical approach. Courses on Islamic civilisation, research methodology, Muslim world politics and diplomacy, war and peace, and Islam in the modern world have brought European, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian perspectives into the same analytical field.
Pedagogical approach
My pedagogical approach combines four closely connected practices: careful interpretation of primary texts, historically informed comparison, explicit ethical reasoning, and sustained reflection on research methods. Students learn to distinguish normative arguments from empirical claims, recognise how scholarly categories shape interpretation, and test ideas against concrete social and political cases. Seminar discussion, analytical writing, and supervised research are used to cultivate intellectual independence rather than reproduce predetermined conclusions. The aim is to enable students to explain how an argument works, why it matters, whose assumptions it reflects, and where its analytical or ethical limits lie.
Recognised as Teacher of the Year by the Theology Student Association at Uppsala University in 2022.
Emin Poljarević 