Building Bridges Seminar

Muhammad Modassir Ali is an assistant professor at the Muhammad Bin Hamad Al Thani Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization in Hamad Bin Khalifa University's College of Islamic Studies. His academic interests include Islamic studies, ancient and medieval philosophy, spirituality, Hinduism, Christianity, and sira. Ali previously was a teaching assistant and assistant dean of student affairs at the Qatar University College of Sharia & Islamic Studies and an assistant professor and head of the Department of Comparative Religion at International Islamic University Islamabad. His master's degree dissertation for that institution was entitled “The Concept of Revelation and Prophecy in Hinduism: A Critical Study.” He also completed his Ph.D. at International Islamic University Islamabad, where his dissertation was on "The Catholic Concept of Revelation since the Second Vatican Council and its Impact on the Christian View of the ‘Other’.”

Dr. Matthew Anderson is a lecturer in Georgetown University's Department of Theology and Religious Studies. His research focuses on Christian-Muslim relations, Islamic approaches to modernity, and the theological and social challenges posed by religious diversity. While completing his Ph.D. at Georgetown, Anderson was twice granted a summer dissertation fellowship with the Religious Freedom Research Project (2015, 2017). He also served as a co-editor for the Religious Freedom Research Project's 2014 volume, "Islam and Religious Freedom: A Sourcebook of Scriptural, Theological, and Legal Texts." 

Betül Avcı is an associate professor of religious studies at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul. Her academic research includes comparative theology, Christian-Muslim relations, cultural-religious translation, and alternative contemporary spiritualities. She is currently working on an oral history project on her family between the Late Ottoman and Early Republican eras, a monograph on Christian-Muslim relations, as well as an edited book on alternative spiritualities in contemporary Turkey. She holds a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Mehdi Azaiez is a professor of Islamic studies at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Belgium. He also manages a website dedicated to Qur’anic studies. Previously, he was an instructor on Islamic studies and co-director of the Qur’an Seminar, an international project based at the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of the publications and research committee of the International Qur’anic Studies Association, a scientific member of the Bulletin Critique des Annales Islamologiques, and an associate researcher at the Institute for Islamic and Muslim World Studies (Institute de Recherches et d’Etudes sur le Monde Musulman). His publications include Le contre-discours coranique (2015). Azaiez holds a Ph.D. in Islamic studies from the University of Aix-Marseille.

Alexandra Brown is the Fletcher Otey Thomas Professor of Bible at Washington and Lee University. Her research interests are focused in New Testament studies, particularly the letters of Paul and Paul’s reception in late modernity. She is author of The Cross and Human Transformation: Paul’s Apocalyptic Word in 1 Corinthians (1996, 2008) and co-editor with Virginia Wiles of Putting Body and Soul Together: Essays in Honor of Robin Scroggs (1997). Since 2021, she has been a co-editor of Noli Me Tangere/Touch Me Not, an ongoing web-based project of the Center for Religion and the Human at Indiana University. She holds a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University.

Stephen Cook is the Catherine N. McBurney Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Virginia Theological Seminary. His recent publications include The Prophets: Introducing Israel’s Prophetic Writings (2022), Ezekiel 38–48: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (volume 22B of the Anchor Yale Bible series, 2018), and Reading Deuteronomy (2015). His other publications include additional books, numerous journal articles, and several introductions and annotations to biblical books for both the New Oxford Annotated Bible and the Harper Collins Study Bible, as well as several entries for the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. He is also a team member for the NRSV Updated Edition (NRSVue) of the Bible (2022). He holds a Ph.D. in Old Testament from Yale University.

Maria Massi Dakake is an associate professor of religious studies at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Virginia. She is the director of the undergraduate interdisciplinary Islamic studies program at GMU, and is a founding member and former co-director of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies. Her research interests and publications lie in the fields of Islamic intellectual history, with a particular interest in Quranic studies, Shiite and Sufi mystical traditions, and women’s religious experiences. She is co-editor with Daniel Madigan and George Archer of the Routledge Companion to the Qur’an (2021); associate editor and co-author of The Study Qur’an (2015); and author of The Charismatic Community: Shi`ite Identity in Early Islam (2008). She is currently completing a monograph, Toward an Islamic Theory of Religion (forthcoming 2023). She holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University.

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.