About
Rachel Woodlock, M.Islam.Std., is a lecturer, researcher and doctoral candidate at the Centre for Islam & the Modern World, in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, studying the social attitudes of religious Muslims in Australia.
Her other research interests include Sufism, Zaydi Shi’ism, conversion, religious pluralism, Muslim feminism, and the Babi and Baha’i faiths. She contributed ‘Islamic Beliefs and Practices’ to the Encyclopedia of Religion in Australia, (Port Melbourne, Vic: Cambridge University Press, 2009) edited by James Jupp. She also contributes occasional op-eds and faith columns for The Age and The Sunday Age.
Rachel has an A.Mus.A diploma; she plays the violin (well) and the piano (badly). Rachel was raised in a Baha’i family in Melbourne, Australia and has always delighted in the variegated world of religion but most especially Islam, which she made her spiritual home many years ago. She married a Tipp lad from Fethard and together they have one daughter and two cats.
Degrees
- Master of Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne, 2004.
- Bachelor of Arts (Arabic & Islamic Studies), University of Melbourne, 2000.
- Bachelor of Music, University of Melbourne, 2000.
- Associate Diploma in Music, Australia, 1991.
Memberships
- Member of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR).
- Member of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA).
- Member of the Editorial Board of Islamic Perspective, Center for International Studies (IPCIS).
- Member of the Editorial Board of Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies (SOIMS)
- Member of the TeX Users Group (TUG).