{"id":465642,"date":"2021-01-11T14:02:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T19:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=465642"},"modified":"2021-01-12T09:50:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T14:50:29","slug":"emil-homerin-an-american-religion-scholar-remembered-465642","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/emil-homerin-an-american-religion-scholar-remembered-465642\/","title":{"rendered":"Emil Homerin: An American religion scholar remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"

A leading scholar of Sufi poetry and mysticism, Emil Homerin is remembered by his students and colleagues for his enthusiasm and generosity. <\/h2>\n
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Tributes to Emil Homerin<\/h2>\n

The University flag will be lowered on January 19.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Department of Religion and Classics tribute<\/a><\/p>\n

TableTop Opera tribute by Matthew Brown of the Eastman School of Music<\/a><\/p>\n

Obituary of Thomas Emil Homerin by Nora Walter<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

A scholar of Arabic literature and Islam, Th. Emil Homerin, professor of religion and the former chair of the Department of Religion and Classics<\/a> at the University of Rochester<\/a>, \u201cwas at the top of his game\u201d when he died in December, says his long-time colleague, Douglas Brooks<\/a>. The cause was pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

A formidable translator of Arabic and Sufi poetry, Homerin had \u201cimmense skill, because he was encyclopedic, he was comprehensive,\u201d added Brooks, a professor or religion at Rochester who first met Homerin at an academic conference nearly 40 years ago. \u201cThe way you get that sensitive to translation is he isn\u2019t simply translating the text, he\u2019s read dozens of others, to just get to this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Homerin joined the University\u2019s religion and classics department in 1988, after a two-year stint as an assistant professor at Temple University. He was promoted to full professor in 2000.<\/p>\n

He was an \u201centhusiast and had such enthusiasm for his work and the work of his colleagues,\u201d says Nora Rubel<\/a>, the Jane and Alan Batkin Professor of Jewish Studies and chair of the Department of Religion and Classics.<\/p>\n

Anne Merideth<\/a>, religion and classics department professor of instruction and the director of undergraduate studies, says Homerin was an \u201centhusiastic, upbeat, positive presence in the department and in the college.\u201d Calling him one of her early mentors, she recalls the advice he gave her when she joined the department as a young scholar and teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018you got to teach the students that are in front of you. Where are they? How can you bring them along,\u2019 to learn about Islamic poetry, about mysticism. When he was teaching, he was teaching those students and not just, \u2018I have to get through this material.\u2019 It was a really an important lesson for me, since I hadn\u2019t taught beyond being a graduate student,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Born Thomas Emil Homerin in Pekin, Illinois, Homerin attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he obtained a bachelor\u2019s degree in 1977 and a master\u2019s degree in 1978. It was at college that he met his wife, Nora Walters, and when he began going by his middle name, Emil. He completed his PhD with honors at the University of Chicago, where he wrote his dissertation<\/a> about the Arab poet Ibn al-F\u0101rid, under the advisement of Jaroslav Stetkevych, professor emeritus of Arabic literature.<\/p>\n

Homerin and Walters had two sons together, Luke and Elias. They were active members of the First Unitarian Church and regularly invited friends and colleagues into their home. \u201cHe and Nora were incredibly hospitable,\u201d says Merideth, recalling the many receptions and dinner parties they hosted.<\/p>\n

His childhood friend, artist and art historian Mark Staff Brandl,<\/a> tweeted an image of a collage<\/a> dedicated to their friendship and wrote a tribute on his webpage calling Homerin \u201ca true genius, a good human with a big heart, and the hardest-working person I have ever met.\u201d With a nod to Homerin\u2019s working-class background, Brandl wrote that he was the \u201cblue collar scholar,\u201d who always rode the bus to work and brought a lunch from home.<\/p>\n

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