Building Bridges Seminar

Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem is the King Fahd Professor of Islamic Studies and director of the Centre for Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University, as well as editor of the Journal of Qur’anic Studies. Born in Egypt, he learned the Qur’an by heart during childhood. Haleem has published two translations of the Qur'an: The Qur'an: English Translation with Parallel Arabic Text (2010) and The Qur'an: A New Translation (2004). He has also published several other works in this field, including Understanding the Qur’an: Themes and Style (2001) and, together with Elsaid M. Badawi, Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage (2008).

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.

Akintunde Akinade is professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. Before coming to Georgetown University, he taught courses in comparative religions, Christian thought, and Christian-Muslim relations at High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, for 12 years. He has also taught at Wesleyan University, College of New Rochelle, and New York Theological Seminary. Akinade serves on the editorial board of The Muslim World, Religions/Adyan, Trinity Journal of Church and Theology, and The Living Pulpit. He is also the book review editor for the Journal of World Christianity. Within the American Academy of Religion, he serves on the Committee on the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession. He earned his B.A. in Religious Studies from Obafemi Awolowo University, M.Div. from Southern Methodist University, and M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

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.

Caner Dagli is an associate professor in religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, specializing in Qur'anic studies, interfaith dialogue, and philosophy. He previously taught at Roanoke College in Virginia. Born in the United States, Dagli is of Ciracassian descent and has done fieldwork in Turkey. He also spent a year working as special advisor for interfaith affairs to the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan from 2006 to 2007. Among his works are the HarperCollins Study Quran (2015, edited with Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Maria Massi Dakake, Joseph E.B. Lumbard, and Mohammed Rustom) and The Ringstone of Wisdom (2004). Dagli holds a M.A. from George Washington University's Department of Religion and a Ph.D. from Princeton University's Department of Near Eastern Studies and was a 2004-2005 Fulbright scholar. Dagli was one of the 138 Muslim signatories in October 2007 of A Common Word Between Us and You.

Susan Eastman is an associate research professor emerita of the New Testament at Duke Divinity School. Her scholarly focus is on Paul’s letters in conversation with issues of personhood in science and philosophy. She is the author of Recovering Paul’s Mother Tongue: Language and Theology in Galatians (2007; 2nd edition 2022), Paul and the Person: Reframing Paul’s Anthropology (2017), the forthcoming Commentary on Paul’s letter to the Romans (Interpretation Commentary series), and Oneself in Another: Participation and Personhood in Pauline Theology (forthcoming), as well as numerous articles and conference papers. She is also ordained in the Episcopal Church. Eastman holds a B.A. from Pomona College, M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and Ph.D. from Duke University.

David Ford is an Anglican theologian, the Regius Professor of Divinity emeritus at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Selwyn College. He was the founding director of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme from 1992 to 2015. Ford also taught for 15 years at the University of Birmingham. His work in the area of Christian theology has been inspired by post-liberal and narrative theology. Ford is one of the founders of scriptural reasoning and has been extensively involved in generating new modes of engagement for interfaith relations in the post-9/11 world. He is the author of The Future of Christian Theology (2011) and Christian Wisdom: Desiring God and Learning in Love (2007), as well as co-editor of The Promise of Scriptural Reasoning (2006) and Fields of Faith: Theology and Religious Studies for the Twenty-First Century (2005). In 2013, Ford was named an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to theological scholarship and interfaith relations.

Revd. Lucy Gardner is a tutor in Christian doctrine at St. Stephen's House, University of Oxford, where she has taught since 1993. She was ordained priest in the Church of England in June 2013, following her ordination as deacon in 2012. She studied theology at St John’s College, Oxford, and Bonn University, and her research interests include Schleiermacher, Balthasar, and feminist theology.