Religious Studies Professor Travels to North Africa
Assistant Professor Manuela Ceballos will bring a new perspective when she returns to the classroom for the fall semester at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. With a fellowship from the Center for Arabic Studies Abroad (CASA), she spent the summer in Morocco as a student and researcher.
Ceballos, who often teaches Introduction to the Study of Islam for the Department of Religious Studies, is in the early stages of researching her second book project, tentatively titled Pen, Paper, Prayer: Ritual and Practice in Moroccan Sacred Writing.
The 12-week CASA for Scholars program—her first trip to Morocco since 2009—was an opportunity to strengthen her Arabic language skills, access primary sources in Rabat, and network with other scholars and experts.
Teacher as Student
Through the Arab American Language Institute in Morocco, Ceballos attended multiple classes four days a week, with homework and additional activities, such as public lectures in different Moroccan cities.
“I have learned a lot while being here, both personally and professionally, which means that I have more to share with students, as well as a renewed enthusiasm for teaching,” Ceballos said while still studying in Meknes, Morocco, in July. “I have ideas for different classes, new material, and new approaches to try.”
While Ceballos began teaching as an undergraduate, this was her first time in the classroom as a student in recent years. “It’s much more difficult than I remember, which has made me rethink some of my practices as a teacher and try to come up with new ways to keep students engaged and foster curiosity.”
Religious Studies Opens a World of Wonder
A religious studies course during her first semester of college sparked Ceballos’s interest in Islam.
“The professor who taught the class specialized in Islamic studies and was impressive in his command of the subject matter, but, crucially for me, he was a very dedicated writing instructor and a patient mentor,” she said. “That class opened a whole world of wonder for me, as religious studies classes can and often do.”
While she continued taking classes on Islam, the college she attended did not have a dedicated Arabic program. Ceballos, whose native language is Spanish, pursued a double major in comparative literature and French.
“One night, while writing a paper for a class, I stumbled upon Moroccan author Abdelfattah Kilito’s “Les mots canins” (“Dog Words”), a short text, in French, that draws on medieval Arabic literary traditions to discuss the role of language in shaping power relations—even between humans and animals—communal belonging, and identity,” Ceballos said. “I became very interested in Morocco’s history, languages, and literatures after that point, and in the historical relations between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.”
At UT she teaches courses on Islamic literature, history, and culture, and in 2023 her translation of a book by Kilito into Spanish was published. “The work focused on what medieval Islamic sources said about the language that Adam, a prophet in Islam, was supposed to have spoken in Paradise,” Ceballos explained.
In December 2025, her first monograph, Between Dung and Blood: Sainthood, Purity, and Power, will be published by the University of California Press.
Her current research is focusing on the intersection of material, bodily, and spiritual notions of purity and impurity in Islamic calligraphy in Morocco between the 16th and early 20th centuries.
“I have been able to discuss the project with different experts, both academics and practitioners, who have been immensely generous with their time and knowledge,” Ceballos said of her experience during the CASA fellowship.
By Amy Beth Miller