David Sander
Associate Professor of History
Biography
Associate Professor of History David Sander explores world history in terms of aesthetic, moral, psychological and spiritual experience. As a scholar of the history of religions, he is interested in how “history” both shapes and is formed by religious experience, thought and expression. This approach connects him both to specialized study in Islamic, African and Indian traditions and to global questions in world history. He explores how mystical psychology has been interpreted in different historical contexts, and, in turn, mainstreamed or marginalized by dominant structures in society. His research focuses on ways in which popular cultures have carried or otherwise responded to mystical orientation.
Sander is interested in the imagination as a tool of historical inquiry and lets a wide range of stories and texts jostle with each other so their “telling details” can create a rich and multi-layered tapestry. Following Giambattista Vico’s contention that history is originally and properly poetic, he seeks and evaluates historical evidence for symbolic language that can communicate across cultural, religious and other divides.
Sander’s related interests include historical theory, comparative mythologies, cinema, literacies and poetics, economic history, and the cultural imagination of ecology. His research has been published in academic journals related to the study of religion, film and history. His most recent published work is a volume entitled A Poetic History: Islamic and Japanese Parallels in Film (Bloomsbury, 2026).
Education
- Ph.D., Islamic Educational Foundations, University of Colorado
- M.A., Religious Studies, University of Colorado
- B.A., History and Religious Studies, University of Colorado
Courses Taught
- Shamans, Prophets and Saints: Mystics in World History
- Ecological History of the World
- World History I
- World History II
- History of the Islamic World I
- History of the Islamic World II
- History of India
- Africa in Stories: History, Literature, and Film
- Islam in Cinema