Alena Kulinich

Poverty: The Making of a Virtue in Pre-Modern Islam 

Research Interests:

Islamic intellectual history, Qur’anic studies, West Asian cultural history 

Biography: 

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. 

Educational Background: 

PhD. History, SOAS, University of London 

Recent publications: 

Kulinich A. 2023. “Ibn Shabīb, Muḥammad b. Abdallāh.” Fleet, Kate, et al., eds, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three, vol. II: 44–46. Leiden: Brill. 

Kulinich A. 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 

Kulinich A. 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 

Kulinich A. 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.