Remembering Frederick Denny
It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Frederick Denny, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at CU Boulder, in March 2025.
Fred Denny was a giant in the field of Islamic studies. He marked the field in Qur’an and ritual studies and authored the foundational and widely used textbook, An Introduction to Islam (4th edition Prentice-Hall, 2010), as well as numerous articles on Islamic and Religious Studies topics. His projects over the last few years focused principally on Islam and human rights, religion and ecology, religion-focused cartography, and Unitarian Universalist history and thought.
He is remembered as a dedicated and gifted scholar and teacher. His passion for teaching was apparent to all who knew him. The faculty remember him as an unfailingly kind and generous colleague, mentor, and friend. Colleagues across the field of Religious Studies share that his warm presence and down-to-earth nature will be sorely missed.
His contributions to the discipline, to the American Academy of Religion, and to the Department of Religious Studies are immense and lasting, and we will remember him with deep gratitude.  Â