Dr. Ash Geissinger ( They/Them )
Religion, Associate Professor
- B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (Toronto)
- 2A37 Paterson Hall, Ӱԭ University
- 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6
- Email Dr. Ash Geissinger
- 613-520-2600 ext 3108
Ash Geissinger’s doctoral studies at the University of Toronto sparked an ongoing interest in classical Qur’an commentaries (tafsir), and how these texts gender interpretive authority. Their research is located at the intersection of the study of classical Qur’an commentaries, the Hadith literature and its history of interpretation, gender, and sexuality. Current research interests include the ways that Muslims today selectively draw upon and reinterpret these texts, resignifying certain female figures from early Islamic history in order to address contemporary concerns.
Geissinger joined the Religion Program at Ӱԭ in 2009, and teaches courses on Islam, as well as on gender, sexuality and religion.
Research Interests
- The Qur’an and its histories of interpretation
- The Hadith literature and its interpretive traditions
- Gender and sexuality in Qur’an commentaries and the Hadith
- North American Muslim interpretations and rereadings of classical texts
Selected Publications:
Book:
Gender and Muslim Constructions of Exegetical Authority: A Rereading of the Classical Genre of Qur’an Commentary (Leiden: Brill, 2015).
Articles and Book Chapters:
“Gendered Memories of Early Medina and Hafsa Bint ‘Umar Ibn al-Ḫaṭṭāb: Towards a Critical Re-Examination of Two Traditions,” in Muḥammad’s Ḥiğāz in Focus: Philological Contributions, eds. Ayşe Başol, Daniel Birnstiel and N. Miriam Djahani (Berlin: EB-Verlag, 2025), pp. 125-148.
“Notes on the Siege’s Aftermath and Gendered Rhetoric in the Qur’an: Towards a Reconsideration of Q 33:34,” ReOrient 9.1 (Oct. 2024): 27-49. DOI:
“Applying Gender and Queer Theory to Pre-modern Sources,” in The Routledge Handbook ofIslam and Gender, ed. Justine Howe (London and New York: Routledge, 2021), 101-115.
“Female Figures, Marginality, and Qur’anic Exegesis in Ibn al-Jawzi’s Sifat al-safwa,” in Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice: Processes of Canonization, Subversion, and Change, eds. Nevin Reda and Yasmin Amin (Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), 151-178.
“No, a Woman did not ‘Edit the Qur’an’: Towards a Methodologically Coherent Approach to a Tradition Portraying a Woman and Written Quranic Materials,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 85.2 (June 2017), 416-445.