CIS News for October 2016

News and Updates from the GTU Center for Islamic Studies

Congratulations to Islamic Art Historian and CIS Visiting Scholar, Dr. Carol Bier, who will be participating in the Third Global Islamic Economy Summit, in Dubai, UAE, 11-12 October 2016, under the patronage of H. H. Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid al Maktoum. Carol is one of several international speakers in a panel addressing "Reviving Islamic Art & Design: Unconventional Applications of Architecture, Geometry, and Calligraphy." She will also be lecturing faculty and students at the United Arab Emirates University in Al 'Ain.

Congratulations to CIS Visiting Scholar, Dr. Kei Takahashi, who served as a discussant in the joint seminar of French and Japanese scholars on Sufi Doctrine and Rituals, which was co-hosted by CNRS, Sophia University and Kyoto University and held in Paris, France, on 6 September 2016.

Fall 2016 MA and PhD Graduates in Islamic Studies

Center for Islamic Studies at the GTU is delighted to share with you that we have four more CIS students who have completed their MA in Islamic Studies and two students who have completed their PhD in Islamic Studies within the area of Cultural and Historical Studies of Religions. Formal and official conferral of degrees will take place at the GTU graduation in May 2017.

Congratulations to the following students and their families:

MA 

  • May Kosba, From Ikhwanophobia to Islamophobia: Post-Colonial Cultural Nationalism in Post-Revolutionary Egypt 
  • Reem Kosba, Contemporary Christian-Muslim Relations in Egypt: Secularism, Violence, and the Challenges of Conflict Resolution
  • Rania Shah, Al-Ghazali on Reason and Revelation: A Revival in the Heart of the Islamic Scholarly Tradition (with honors)
  • Saad Shaukat,  Shibli Nomani's Contribution to Kalam

PhD

  • Abdel Ali, The “Negro” in Afro-Arabian Muslim Consciousness
  • Ali Ataie, Authenticating the Johannine Injil: Sunnite “Polemirenic” Interpretive Methodological Approaches to the Gospel of John 

They join a distinguished number of GTU alums in Islamic Studies, and we commend them for their excellence in scholarship, and for playing important leadership roles in bridging academia with the larger public.