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).

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.

Mahmoud M. Ayoub is a faculty associate in Shi’ite Islam and Christian-Muslim relations affiliated with the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. Ayoub is also a visiting professor at the University of Balamand in Lebanon and editorial consultant for the Oxford Dictionary of Islam. From 1988 to 2008 Ayoub was a professor and director of Islamic studies in the Department of Religion at Temple University. His publications include The Crisis of Muslim History: Religion and Politics in Early Islam (2005), Islam: Faith and History (2004), and The Qur’an and Its Interpreters, vol. 1-2 (1984/1992), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Born in South Lebanon, Ayoub earned a B.A. at the American University of Beirut, an M.A. at the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. at Harvard University.

Azyumardi Azra is the director of the graduate school at Sharif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta. He served as the rector of the same university from 1998 to 2006. He was previously a professor of history at Universitas Islam Negeri in Jakarta, Indonesia. After graduating from the State Institute for Islamic Studies in Jakarta he studied for his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Studia Islamika, an Indonesian journal for Islamic studies. He has published widely, particularly on contemporary Southeast Asian Islam. In 2010, he received the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire, an honorary order from the United Kingdom.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian politician who served as prime minister of Malaysia from 2003 to 2009. He was president of the United Malays National Organization and led the governing Barisan National parliamentary coalition. Abdullah succeeded Mahathir Mohamad in 2003, rising from the position of deputy prime minister. As premier, he emphasized anti-corruption policies and focused his economic policies on sustaining previous economic gains rather than continued growth. He strengthened Malaysia’s agricultural sector and promoted moderate Islam. Prior to being deputy prime minister, Badawi held the positions of minister in the prime minister's department, minister of education, minister of defense, and minister of foreign affairs. Badawi stepped down in favor of Najib Tun Razak in April 2009.

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.

Ellen Davis is Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School. Her research interests focus on the bearing of biblical interpretation on faith communities and their response to public issues, particularly the environmental crisis and interfaith relations. She is the author of, among others, Preaching the Luminous Word (2016), Biblical Prophecy: Perspectives for Christian Theology, Discipleship and Ministry (2014), and Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible (2009). Davis holds an M.Div. from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Ph.D. from Yale University.