Building Bridges Seminar

Alparslan Acikgenc is director of postgraduate studies at Yildiz Technical University. He previously was professor of philosophy and dean at Fatih University in Istanbul, Turkey. He has also taught at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, the University of Chicago, Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization in Kuala Lumpur, and the University of Jordan. He earned his B.A. at Ankara University, his M.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Turkish Philosophical Association and an honorary member of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences.

Asma Afsaruddin is a professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, Bloomington. She specializes in the religious and political thought of Islam, Qur’an and hadith, Islamic intellectual history, and gender. In addition to numerous articles, her books include Contemporary Issues in Islam (2015); Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought and Praxis (2013); Islam, the State and Political Authority: Medieval Issues and Modern Concerns (2011); and The First Muslims: History and Memory (2008). Afsaruddin is a member of the academic council of Georgetown's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and of the American Academy of Liberal Education's board of trustees. She has received research funding from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York, which named her a Carnegie Scholar in 2005. Afsaruddin earned her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University and previously taught at the University of Notre Dame and Harvard University.

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.

Denis Alexander is emeritus director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge. As a molecular biologist, Alexander previously served as an associate professor of biochemistry at the American University of Beirut and in a variety of senior positions at the Babraham Institute, including chair of the Molecular Immunology Programme; he also worked for the Imperial Cancer Research Laboratories (now Cancer Research UK). He is the editor of the journal Science Christian Belief, as well as the author of Rebuilding the Matrix: Science and Faith in the 21st Century (2001) and Beyond Belief: Science, Faith and Ethical Challenges (2004, with Robert White). Alexander holds a Ph.D. in neurochemistry from the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London.

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University, where he focuses on cross-cultural human rights issues, with an emphasis on Islam. He is also a faculty member of the Emory College of Arts and Sciences and the Emory University Center for Ethics. He directs projects on women and land in Africa and Islamic family law. During the fall 2009 semester he was a visiting professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Georgetown University, where he taught "The Future of Islamic Law," and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center. He is the author of African Constitutionalism and the Role of Islam (2006), Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari‘a (2008), and What is an American Muslim? Embracing Faith and Citizenship (2014). An-Na'im holds LL.B. degrees from the University of Khartoum and the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in law from the University of Edinburgh.

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.

Thomas Banchoff is director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and serves as vice president for global engagement at Georgetown University, where he is a professor in the Department of Government and the Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Nahide Bozkurt is professor of Islamic history at Ankara University, where she has taught since 1991. She previously worked as a religious education instructor at Cebeci High School in Ankara. During fall 2007 Bozkurt was a Fulbright scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and she has also been a guest lecturer at the Institute of Cultures and Religions of the Gregoriana University in Rome. Her publications include the textbook Prophet Mohammed’s Life (2002, published in Turkish) and numerous articles and essays. Bozkurt earned her Ph.D. from Ankara University.