The College has decided not to renew the Religion department’s visiting assistant professor of Islamic Studies’ contract, generating pushback from students. On Monday, the department of Religion’s student-run Instagram page made a post decrying the College’s decision and announcing a petition to reinstate the position. Over the past few days, the post and petition have gained significant attention. The Instagram post has received over 800 likes and been reposted dozens of times, and the petition has been signed by over 500 students, faculty, alumni, and other members of the greater Oberlin community.
“The termination of the position not only derails the academic program of those in the department whose scholastic and intellectual focus is on Islam, but showcases the College’s understanding of which traditions, cultures, religions, and identities are deemed important enough to be taught,” the post reads.
The department of Religion’s Instagram account is run by the major representatives and does not necessarily reflect the views of the department as a whole. Major representatives were instructed by faculty to add language to the account’s bio to reflect this.
The Religion department requested the renewal of their visiting assistant professor of Islamic Studies position for the 2026–27 school year, however, their request was denied by the College Faculty Council, which allocates faculty with guidance from the Educational Plans and Policy Committee.
“Position requests are assessed according to a range of factors typically including enrollment patterns and pressures; coverage of courses required for majors, minors, and integrative concentrations; departmental workload as reflected in number of majors; and budgetary concerns,” Robert S. Danforth Professor of Religion and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Corey Barnes, OC ’98, wrote in an email to the Review.
Barnes is currently the chair of the Educational Plans and Policy Committee but recused himself from discussion of requests on behalf of the Religion department. He declined to comment specifically on the Religion department’s request for a visiting assistant professor of Islamic Studies.
The Religion department has not had a permanent professor specializing in Islam since Professor of Religion and Nancy Schrom Dye Chair of Middle East and North African Studies Mohammad Jafar Mahallati was placed on administrative leave in fall 2023. This followed years of controversy surrounding his alleged role in covering up the 1988 mass executions of Iranian political prisoners. Francesca Chubb-Confer has taught classes on Islam as a visiting assistant professor since fall 2024.
“The Religion department remains committed to securing a continuing faculty position covering Islam,” Barnes wrote, though he declined to comment on what conditions would be necessary for teaching faculty on the subject to be reinstated.
Currently, the Religion department has seven permanent professors and is currently hiring a tenure-track professor of applied religious ethics and a visiting assistant professor to teach East Asian religions while Associate Professor of East Asian Religions Andrew Macomber goes on sabbatical. Religion Student Representative and College third-year Aurora Gray said that the fact that the department is hiring for two new positions unrelated to Islamic Studies shows their lack of commitment to teaching the religion.
“This is an identity that will no longer be represented in the department, and that’s billions … of people right there that we’re just disregarding, for what? So that we can have a religious ethics professor — whatever that’s supposed to mean,” Gray said. “I’m not saying that it’s useless, but we can’t call it a budget issue and then create two new jobs.”
Gray first heard that the visiting assistant professor position was “indefinitely suspended” two weeks ago. She immediately began organizing with other students. Besides the Instagram post and petition, they have spoken with the incoming Religion department chair and reached out to alumni for external sources of funding. This year, a donation from an alum led to the creation of an endowed professorship of Arabic language. The group also plans to table in Mudd Center to draw student attention to the issue.
Gray feels she is affected as a Religion major who is primarily interested in Islamic Studies. She is hoping to pursue an honors thesis on the American Muslim and British Muslim experience next year and is unsure who her advisor will be with Chubb-Confer leaving.
“I feel like I’m just kind of in limbo,” Gray said. “I’m sure I can still write a nice thesis paper, but it would’ve been really convenient to have had somebody who could have supported me in that process.”
College third-year Lekan Aleshe-Shittu, who is a Religion minor, said he enjoyed taking classes with Chubb-Confer and feels the loss is unfair to students interested in Islam. He worries that without faculty specializing in the subject, students will lose the ability to study an important subject area.
“[Islamic studies] is not solely about Islam as a religion,” Aleshe-Shittu said. “It also relates to people’s cultures and identities. By taking that away … we are also taking away an avenue of understanding other people, certain people who are often marginalized or demonized in the context of the world we inhabit.”
Though she has no involvement in the student campaign to renew her position, Chubb-Confer explained why she thinks the study of Islam is integral to the study of religion in general.
“When professors like me are asked this question, people will often say [that] given current events, it’s important to have an understanding of Islam, and I think that is true,” she said. “But I think it’s also important on its own merits. It’s important to know about Islam because Islam and Islamic civilization and Islamic history [and] Islamic literature … [are] part of a collective human experience and are deserving of study.”
Chubb-Confer said she would be interested in staying at Oberlin if her position was extended.
