Timothy Gutmann

This is the personal scholarship page for Timothy Gutmann. My PhD in religion is from the University of Chicago. I focus on Islamic and East Asian traditions.

My research and teaching also focus on intellectual and social history, epistemology and philosophy of education, the politics of belonging and the minority question, and critical theory and postcolonial thought.

Having taught at the UChicago and elsewhere, I am Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Southern Mississippi. I split my time between Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Kenwood, Chicago.

As an interdisciplinary teaching scholar, I am excited and challenged to teach students with a wide range of interests and backgrounds. As such, I work to make my classrooms spaces where we can share our knowledge and learn from each other. Teaching is work. But it’s also a passion and a calling.

To get a sense of my approach to pedagogy, here is an essay on my teaching philosophy, and here are the syllabi for some classes that are representative of my research and teaching interests. Take a look at What Is School For?, Modern Muslim Life, Humanism in East Asian Thought, and Gender, Sexuality, and Islamic Traditions. I am always updating these, and I am eager to discuss these and other offerings with fellow teachers and students.

I also have an integrated approach to the core skills of the humanities: critical reading and writing. Here is a video that introduces my model for the academic writing process. It’s the first of a suite that includes videos on a comprehensive walkthrough of a hypothetical course paper, the revision process, making claims, writing introductions, and taking notes.

Background Photo: Aasil K. Ahmad