Building Bridges Seminar

Monsignor Khaled Akasheh is secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims and bureau chief for Islam at the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue.  Ordained in 1978 in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, he joined the pontifical council in 1994. Akasheh was one of the Vatican's participants in the 2008 Catholic-Muslim Forum following the publication of the open letter "A Common Word Between Us and You." He earned a Ph.D. in biblical theology from the Pontifical Lateran University and a licentiate from the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies.

Seyed Amir Akrami is an Iranian scholar with research interests that include​Islamic philosophy and interreligious relations. Currently based at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (Tehran), he was a visiting professor at the Eastern Mennonite University Center for Interfaith Engagement from 2012 to 2015. He has also been a lecturer at the Al-Mahdi Institute in Birmingham, United Kingdom, and a member of the Iranian Institute of Philosophy. Akrami holds a B.A. in Islamic studies, M.A. in religion and mysticism, and Ph.D. in the philosophy of religion.

Yousif al-Khoei is the director of public affairs at the Al-Khoei Foundation in London and director of the Centre for Academic Shi'a Studies. He is a founding trustee of several Muslim organizations, including the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. Yousif al-Khoei is a founding member and Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board and the National Council for the Welfare of Prisoners in the United Kingdom.

Archbishop Angaelos became the first Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London in 2017, having served as general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom since 1999. He oversees the church’s ecumenical and public relations in the United Kingdom and works extensively in interreligious relations. Angaelos was consecrated a monk in 1990 by the late Pope Shenouda III, serving as the pope's private secretary until 1995; he then moved into pastoral ministry in the United Kingdom. Angaelos was honored an an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for services to international religious freedom.

John Azumah is a professor of world Christianity and Islam and the director of international programs at Columbia Theological Seminary. He specializes in Islam and Christian-Muslim relations and is interested in Islamic and Christian theology of religions, missions, and missiology. Previously the director for the Centre of Islamic Studies at the London School of Theology, he has taught in theological seminaries in India, South Africa, and Ghana and was a research fellow at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute in Ghana. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. Azumah earned his Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham.

Osman Bakar is a distinguished professor and the director of the Sultan Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies at University Brunei Darussalam. His interests include Islamic theology and philosophy, as well as interfaith dialogue. An emeritus professor of philosophy of science at the University of Malaya's Department of Science and Technology Studies, he also founded the university’s Center for Civilizational Dialogue and served as a deputy vice chancellor. Other previous positions include the Malaysia Chair of Southeast Asian Islam at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and deputy chief executive officer of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies in Malaysia. He was a member of the Council of 100 Leaders of the World Economic Forum's West-Islamic World Initiative for Dialogue. Bakar earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of London and doctorate in Islamic philosophy from Temple University.

Vincent J. Cornell is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies at Emory University. His interests span Islamic thought from the doctrinal and social history of Sufism to philosophy and Islamic law. From 2000 to 2006, he was professor of history and director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas; from 1991 to 2000 he taught at Duke University. He is the editor of the five-volume Voices of Islam (2007) and author of, among others, Do Jews, Christians, and Muslims Worship the Same God? (2012, with Baruch Levine, Jacob Neusner, and Bruce Chilton) and Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism (1998). Cornell received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ahmad Dallal is the dean of Georgetown University in Qatar. His academic training and research cover early modern and modern Islamic thought and movements. His writings and lectures focus on the history of science, Islamic revivalist thought, and Islamic law. He was professor of history and was the provost at the American University in Beirut from 2009 to 2017. He previously served an associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies and chair of the Arabic and Islamic Studies Department at Georgetown University from 2003 to 2009. He taught at Stanford University (2000-2003), Yale University (1994-2000), and Smith College (1990-1994). Dallal earned his Ph.D. in Islamic studies from Columbia University.