Ruffle, Karen

Karen Ruffle is Professor in the Department of Historical Studies and Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, where she specializes in South Asian Shiʿism and Sufism. Her research focuses on devotional texts, ritual practice, and Shiʿi material practices in South Asia. Ruffle obtained her BA in Religion from Middlebury College and her MA and PhD in Religious Studies (History of Religions) from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her first book Gender, Sainthood, and Everyday Practice in South Asian Shiʿism was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2011. Her second monograph, Everyday Shiʿism in South Asia was recently published (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021). She is currently working on two book projects focusing on Shiʿi material culture in India and Pakistan; the first is tentatively titled, “Presence, Absence, and Object Agency in South Asian Shiʿi Materiality,” and the second book is titled, “Objects of Devotion in South Asian Shiʿism.”