"The students who come to the GTU for Islamic studies are interested in serious academic study of the Islamic tradition within its theological, historical, and cultural contexts, and they want to do so in an interdisciplinary, intercultural, interreligious and intra-religous environment, where practice of faith matters. Students at the Center for Islamic Studies come from diverse backgrounds and traditions, and value the environment here at the GTU where that diversity is respected."
--Munir Jiwa, Director, Center for Islamic Studies
Below you'll find a list of current students and graduates affiliated with the Center for Islamic Studies, along with each scholar's thesis or dissertation topic.
Toktar Aben
Islamic Studies
Faisal Azar
Islamic Studies
James Ford (on leave)
African-American Muslims
Yusuf Mullick
Philosophy of language, Philology, & Lexicography
Yasser Shohoud
Islamic Studies
Sundiata Al Rashid
Historical & Cultural Studies of Religion
Nosizwe Breaux-Abdur-Rahman
Islamic Studies
Investigates Early Diasporic African Muslims in North America: Identity, Belonging, Spiritual-Religious Resilience and Continuity
Jibreel Delgado
Forms of Life & the Written Heritage Through Modern Media
Reem Kosba
Refugee Studies
Laura Miller
Islamic Studies
Abdul Hamid Robinson-Royal (on leave)
Re/Imagining Masculinities: The Construction and Performance of an Aesthetics of American Muslim Subjectivity
Amin Tejpar (on leave)
Encountering Biotechnology: Religion, Technoscience and Nation-Building
Paula Thompson
Historical & Cultural Studies of Religion
Zeineb Vessal
Omar Naisan (Currently in MA program at PSR)
Therese Bjornaas
Andrew Lee
Bradley Seligmann (JST, Grad 5/18)
Benjamin Griffin (Common MA, Grad 5/13)
Meredith Jackson (PSR MDiv, Grad 5/13)
Dianne Muller (DSPT MA [Theology], Grad 5/11)
John Compaglia (Common MA, Grad 5/10)
Sara Mohr (Common MA, Grad 5/09)
Michael Gutzler (Common MA, Grad 5/06)
Alexis Easton (PSR MDiv, Grad 5/93)
Saad Akbar
Words and the World: An Analysis of Adler's Solution to the Problem of Meaning
Spring 2020
Sakinah Alhabshi
Spiritual Wellbeing and Resilience During a Prolonged Crisis: An Analysis and Integration of Contemplation-based and Action-based Practices from an Islamic Perspective
Spring 2022 (with Honors)
Sundiata Al Rashid
From Bean Pie to Baklava: Islam in the San Francisco Bay Area
Fall 2014
Huzaifah Bharucha
Contradictions between Āḥād Ḥadīth and Qiyās within the Ḥanafī Madhhab
Spring 2023
Murat Bilici
The Role of Islam in Kurdish Cultural Identity in America
Fall 2015
Suheyla Cetin
The Importance of Muslim Chaplains on University and College Campuses for the Well-Being of Muslim Students in the United States
Spring 2019
Mahjabeen Dhala
The Right to Choose Piety: Understanding Muslim Women’s God-centric Choice from a Shia Perspective
Spring 2017
Farah El-Sharif
"Making light" of Islam: Representations of Sufism in American Religion and the Public Sphere
Fall 2013
Imran Hyder Ghani
A Promenade of Memories: Reading Resistance and Revival in the Historiography of Maulana Hakim Sayyid 'Abdul Hayy al-Hasani
Spring 2019
Siddique A. Gilchrist
Faith and Spirituality: The African Muslim Slave Experience
Sarah Heddon
The Madrasa Early Childhood Program: An Integrated Model of Islamic Education in Kenya
Fall 2013
David Hiller
Breathe in Union: A Brief Look at Islamic Pluralism
Fall 2014
Brian Johnson
Islamic Spirituality and Philosophy
Deenaz Kanji
Transformation in Contemporary Sufism: Contested Meanings and New Mediations of the Qawwali Tradition
Spring 2014
Kamran Khan
Demonizing Islam with Islam: Political Motives and the Proliferation of Anti-Islamic Rhetoric
Fall 2020
Ahmed Khater
A Theoretical Study of Classical Islamic Jurisprudence: The Application of Marjuh Legal Opinions
Reem Kosba
Contemporary Christian-Muslim Relations in Egypt: Secularism, Violence, and the Challenges of Conflict Resolution
Fall 2016
May Kosba
From Ikhwanophobia to Islamophobia: Post-Colonial Cultural Nationalism in Post-Revolutionary Egypt
Fall 2016
Fateme Montazeri
Why Death?: An Inquiry into Text and Context in Persian Painting
Fall 2013
Hameem Rahman
In Search of True Enlightenment: A Comparative Study of Ghazaliam and Kantian Ethics
Spring 2019
Sammy Rahmati
Understanding and Countering Islamophobia
Fall 2015
Yahya Rhodus
Keys to the Revival: An Analytical Study of the Architecture of al-Ghazālī's Iḥyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn
Spring 2012
Rania Shah
Al-Ghazali on Reason and Revelation: A Revival in the Heart of the Islamic Scholarly Tradition
Fall 2016
Huzaifa Shahbaz
Islamophobia, White Supremacy, and the Far-Right
Fall 2020
Saad Shaukat
Shibli Nomani's Contribution to Kalam
Fall 2016
Asif Ali Sheikh
The Transformation of Sufi Metaphysical Thought in South Asia
Fall 2016
Taqwa Mahrani Surapati
Human Suffering in Perspective: Understanding Islamic Teachings on Life and Death
Spring 2021
Paula Thompson
A New Normal: Islam, Countering Violent Extremism, and The Creation of ‘Muslim Subjects’ in America
Spring 2016
James Whipple
Reviving the Heart: The Heart, Knowledge, and Spiritual Transformation in al-Ghazālī's Revival of the Religious Sciences
Fall 2012
Dr. Kamal Abu-Shamsieh
End of Life Care and Islamic Practical Theology
Fall 2020
Dr. Abdullah Ali
The “Negro” in Afro-Arabian Muslim Consciousness
Spring 2012
Dr. Ali Ataie
Authenticating the Johannine Injil: Sunnite “Polemirenic” Interpretive Methodological Approaches to the Gospel of John
Fall 2011
Dr. R. David Coolidge
Abd and Dāsa: A Muslim Understanding of Caitanya Vaisnavism
Spring 2023
Dr. Mahjabeen Dhala
The Sermon of Fatima: Retrieving the Female Scholar-Activist Voice Amidst Patriarchal, Secular, and Sectarian Biases
Fall 2020
Dr. Uzma Husaini
The Centrality of the Link Transmission (Isnād), Both Oral and Written, in the Preservation of Qur’anic Orthoepy, Orthography, and Variant Readings and Recensions
Spring 2022
Dr. Ahmed Mahmoud Khater
The Development of Islamic Law in the West: The Legal Operational Principles of Western Fiqh Councils
Fall 2020
Dr. May Kosba
The Race Question: Egyptian Intellectualism on the Periphery of the African Diaspora
Fall 2022
Dr. Som Pourfarzaneh
Muslim Cultural Producers in The United States: Countering Stereotypes With Media+, Social Networks, and Cultural Capital
Spring 2013
Dr. Mohammad Waqas Sajjad
For the Love of the Prophet: Deobandi-Barelvi Polemics and the Ulama in Pakistan
Spring 2019
Dr. Hatice Yildiz
Revisiting the Qizilbash/Alevi Tradition in Light of 17th Century Mecmua Manuscripts
Spring 2017
Dr. Hamza Yusuf
Faculty and Staff
