Speakers

Aurélie Daher

Lecturer, Paris-Dauphine University

Aurélie Daher is a French, English and Arabic-speaking academic who teaches political science and the sociology of conflicts at University of Paris-Dauphine (PSL), Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS Ulm) and Sciences Po Paris. At Paris-Dauphine, she is co-head...

Aghiad Ghanem

Fellow Researcher, SciencesPo Centre for International Studies

Aghiad Ghanem is a fellow researcher at SciencesPo’s Centre for International Studies (CERI) and at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies (IFEA). He holds a master and a Ph.D. degree in Political Science and International Relations from SciencesPo...

Ali Asani

Chair, Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs.

Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Harvard University.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Ali Asani is Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures. He served as the Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard...

Amin Mawji

Diplomatic Representative, Aga Khan Development Network

Amin Mawji is the Diplomatic Representative of the Aga Khan Development Network in Uganda. He is a former President of the Shia Imami Ismaili National Council for the UK and a Founding Trustee of Freedom Declared Foundation, a UK Charity promoting freedom...

Dagikhudo Dagiev

Senior Research Associate, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Dagikhudo Dagiev is a Senior Research Associate in Shiʿi Studies Unit at the Department of Academic Research and Publications, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where he teaches courses on the history of the Islamic world with a particular focus...

Deniz Coşan Eke

Post-doc Researcher, University of Vienna

Deniz Cosan Eke (Dr. phil.) works as a post-doc researcher in the Alevi Theological Studies at the University of Vienna in Austria. She received her BA and first MSc in Sociology from Middle East Technical University, Ankara in Turkey. She completed...

Devin Stewart

Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Emory University

Dr. Stewart received a B.A. magna cum laude in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 1984, completed the CASA program in Arabic at the American University in Cairo in 1985, and earned a Ph.D. with distinction in Arabic and Islamic Studies from...

Farhad Daftary

Co-Director, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Farhad Daftary completed his early and secondary education in Tehran, Rome, and London, before going to Washington, D.C., in 1958. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the American University there, and then continued his graduate studies at the...

Gurdofarid Miskinzoda

Head of Shiʿi Studies Unit, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda is the Head of Shiʿi Studies Unit (SSU) and Managing Editor of the Shiʿi Heritage Series in the Department of Academic Research and Publications (DARP) of The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. She also teaches on aspects of...

Hüseyin Cicek

Deputy Head, Department of Islamic-Theological Studies, University of Vienna

PD Mag. Dr. Hüseyin Cicek holds a doctorate in political science and a habilitation in religious studies. He currently works at the University of Vienna and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. His research interests include the Islamic and Alevi...

Hussain Jasani

Head, South Asian Studies, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Hussain Jasani is the Head of the South Asian Studies (SAS) Unit at The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), London. As the founding member of the SAS unit at the IIS, Hussain has the responsibility of defining the strategic vision for the Unit, setting...

Mohammad Sagha

Humanities Teaching Fellow, University of Chicago

Mohammad Sagha (PhD, University of Chicago) is a postdoctoral Division of Humanities Teaching Fellow at the University of Chicago where he teaches courses on Islam, history, global reading cultures, and politics. He is also a Faculty Affiliate at the...

Mustafa Şen

Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Middle East Technical University

Mustafa Şen is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. He received his PhD in Sociology from METU with the thesis entitled “Turkish Entrepreneurs in Central Asia: The Case of...

Najah Bazzy

Founder and CEO, Zaman International

Najah Bazzy, RN, is an internationally recognized healer, humanitarian and interfaith leader who left a six-figure salary as a critical-care nurse to build Zaman International. The Metro-Detroit based non-profit empowers marginalized women and children to...

Nicholas Boylston

Assistant Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, Seattle University

Dr. Nicholas Boylston, Assistant Professor at Seattle University, is a scholar of Islamic Studies focusing on Shii Studies, Quranic Studies, Sufism and Persian literature. He received his BA from Harvard College, his MA from the University of Tehran, and...

Olly Akkerman

Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

Olly Akkerman (Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin) is a specialist on Arabic manuscripts and Shi'i Islam. Her research examines the social life of manuscript repositories, and other forms of material culture among the Bohras in South...

Orkhan Mir-Kasimov

Senior Research Fellow, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Dr. Orkhan Mir-Kasimov is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), London. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teaches on the IIS graduate programmes (GPISH & STEP) . Previously, he lectured at the Ecole...

Paul Walker

Deputy Director for Academic Programs, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago

Paul Walker, Deputy Director for Academic Programs, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago, (Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1974). A former director of the American Research Center in Cairo (1976-86), he has published more than a dozen...

Payam Mohseni

Director, Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs

Lecturer, Department of Government, Harvard University

Dr. Payam Mohseni is the Director of the Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs at Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and manages Visions, Harvard's premier online publication on all matters pertaining to global Shi'ism. He...

Rizwan Arastu

Founding Director, Islamic Texts Institute

Shaykh Rizwan Arastu is a graduate of the Islamic Seminary of Qum and Princeton University. He is the founding director of the Islamic Texts Institute, a non-profit aimed at making Islamic sources accessible to non-specialists. He is also the founder of...

Rula Jurdi Abisaab

Professor, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University

Rula Jurdi Abisaab is a Professor of Islamic History at McGill University with a focus on Safavid Iran and Twelver Shi'ism. Her scholarship deals with Twelver Shi'a doctrinal, legal and juristic developments during the late medieval period, and their...

Scott Lucas

Associate Professor, University of Arizona

Dr. Lucas is an associate professor of Islamic Studies. His research explores the creative process by which Sunni and Zaydi scholars composed works in the genres of law, hadith, and Qur’anic commentary during the classical period of Islamic civilization...

SeyedAmirHossein Asghari

Ph.D. Candidate, Indiana University

SeyedAmirHossein Asghari is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University Bloomington. He will defend his dissertation “Philosophy and Sufism in the Contemporary Shia Seminary” in May 2022 and will join...

Seyfeddin Kara

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow, The University of Toronto

Dr Seyfeddin Kara is Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow at The University of Toronto. He was awarded a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Durham, the UK in 2015. He is a Board Member at the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies...

Sumaiya Hamdani

Associate Professor, George Mason University

Sumaiya Hamdani is Associate Professor of History at George Mason University, where she teaches courses on Middle East, Islamic and world history, as well Women in Islam, Race and Slavery in Islam, and Crusade and Jihad, among other topics. She also...

Yahia Baiza

Research Associate, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Dr Yahia Baiza is a research associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, United Kingdom, researching education, history, and Islamic and Afghanistan studies, as well as the study of refugee and diaspora communities in Europe, and manuscript...

Yousef Hamidaddin

Managing Partner, Venture X

Yousef Hamidaddin has worked as an advisor to the World Bank and The Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund (“ISSF”) which is a private sector USD 98 million fund making investments in innovative startups and early stage SMEs. He was a board member of ICTAC...

 Maria De Cillis

Senior Research Associate, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Maria De Cillis is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where she is also the Series Editor of the Shiʿi Heritage Series. She has authored Salvation and Destiny in Islam: The Shiʿi Ismaili Perspective of Ḥamīd al-Dīn al...