Speakers

Hassan Abbas

Senior Adviser, Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs

Distinguished Professor of International Relations at the Near East South Asia Strategic Studies Centre (NESA), National Defense University

Hassan Abbas is Distinguished Professor of International Relations at the Near East South Asia Strategic Studies Centre (NESA), National Defense University in Washington DC. He serves as a senior advisor at the Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs at...

Rameez Abbas

Associate Professor, National Defense University

Rameez Abbas is Associate Professor at the National Defense University, where she teaches courses on South Asian politics, statecraft, and the Muslim world. She has also been Lecturer and Program Coordinator at the MA in Global Security Studies at Johns...

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...

Huseyin Abiva

Bektashi Community of America

Dervish Huseyin Abiva holds a degree in history from the University of Maryland, and he is a dervish serving the Bektashi Community of America. Dervish Huseyin has translated a number of important Bektashi works into English, including the Vilayetname of...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...