Senior Profile | Aqiil Gopee
Scholar, Writer, Future Teacher A world-renowned poet, Aqiil Gopee trailblazes across the boundaries of disciplines, by merging academic pursuits of literature, religion and history. —Arielle Kirven ’21 In his home country of Mauritius, Aqiil Gopee ’20 is celebrated as something of a celebrity for his creative writing. But when he came to Amherst, Gopee initially evaded the humanities. Instead, he hoped to fall in love with something new. Despite experimenting with different disciplines, Gopee found himself again entrenched in literary studies — this time within the realm of the Quran. As I spoke with Gopee during the last week of school, he recounted his Amherst experience with sharp specificity, despite being visibly tired in the wake of his last finals push. Coming off the heels of his thesis defense (literally minutes before our Zoom call), he spoke of his work with passion and enthusiasm, indicating a real love of his chosen academic subject, the Quran. Notably humble, Gopee avoided speaking about his accolades, not wanting to give himself too much credit. A Scholar of Literature In high school, Gopee’s writing was recognized internationally. Yet, he waited until the end of the interview to volunteer such information about himself. In 2014, he was named the Laureate of the Prix International du Jeune Écrivain de Langue Française, an award widely recognized throughout the Francophone world. The commission flew him to Paris as a representative for Mauritius, and when he returned home, things were a little
bit different. “When I went back, it was weird,” Gopee remembers. “Mauritius is such a small country, and I became sort of famous. Everyone was so excited because people don’t even know what Mauritius is or who Mauritians are.” While his accolades were recognized globally, Gopee faced a lot of pressure from those around him. He was constantly asked about his next projects, and it seemed everyone started to expect the same level of success. At the same time, Gopee became insecure about his abilities, fearing that he was “only good at literature.” His first book, “La Pièce,” was published in April 2012 after receiving a jury mention in the Prix du Livre d’Or. In 2013, he published two other books titled “Fantômes” and “Orgasmes.” In 2014, he was proclaimed laureate of the Prix du jeune écrivain de langue française in France for his short-story “Loup et Rouge,” a reconstruction of Little Red Riding Hood. Starting college in the United States gave Gopee the blank slate that he desired. When he started at Amherst, he chose to explore different passions in hopes of shielding himself from the immense amount of pressure that he experienced at home. This led him to the geology department, where he took the department’s introductory course, during the first semester of his first year. “It didn’t turn out very well,”
24 | The Amherst Student | May 31, 2020
Gopee admitted. In response, he abandoned his hopes of majoring in geology and turned his eye towards the humanities once again. Gopee cited Religion 111, Introduction to Religion, as the course that permanently changed his academic trajectory. As a practicing Muslim, he appreciated the opportunity to explore his faith in an academic context. He was able to reconnect with the Quran, which planted the seeds for his future senior thesis. In this class, he developed a relationship with Associate Professor and Chair of Religion Tariq Jaffer, who studies the theology and philosophy of the Islamic world. Seeing Gopee’s interest in the material, Jaffer encouraged Gopee to declare a major in religion. For a time, Gopee also declared a major in history. He enjoyed his classes in Middle Eastern history and civilizations, but he thought that religion as a discipline was more receptive to his interests. “It became clear to me that my approach to history was quite different. These different fields are very conceptual, there is no boundary that necessarily defines what history is or what religion is,” Gopee notes. “The difference lies in what you choose to focus on. My thesis was a literary analysis of the Quran. That is not something that would be considered history at all.” Finding His Focus Throughout his time at Amherst, Gopee built on his interests
Photo courtesy of Aqill Gopee ‘20
Known for his contributions to religious studies, multilingualism and Francophone culture on campus, Gopee is also a world-renowned creative writer and thinker. from that introductory religion course. In his first year spring semester, he took the course “The Quran and Its Controversies with Jaffer,” which allowed him to hone in on his perspective of the Quran as a literary text. In his sophomore year, Gopee pushed the boundaries of his knowledge and pursued many courses in religion, history and French literature. With Jaffer, he created special topics courses that dealt with issues such as the apocalypse in the Quran, and the Quran’s history. He expanded his context of Islam with Monica Ringer, professor of history and Asian languages and civilizations, taking her Middle Eastern History and Early Islam courses. Gopee wasn’t expecting French literature to have the impact that it did on his work, as it was something that he pulled away from at the beginning of his experience. He beamed as he talked about his course with Rafael Sigal, assistant professor of
French, titled “What’s the Magic Word?” The Power of Literature. In that course, Gopee was able to reconnect with his own literary power. “It was one of the best classes I’ve taken in my time at Amherst. It’s about magic in literature but in the most theoretical sense. We went through the history of literature and how literature and words are used for magic. In ancient societies, only magicians would have access to [written] words, as in the ancient Egyptian tradition,” Gopee recounted. “This performative aspect of literature and words — as something that does something — has been my premise for my analysis of the Quran. The Quran has rarely been seen as a text that is self-reliant or self-standing. It has always been seen through the lens of tradition.” This course propelled him into a subsequent special topics course with Sigal. The course focused on text-world theory, or how every book or discourse
