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People

Our program is under the leadership of the director, our executive board, and affiliated faculty from various departments at Cornell. All of these faculty members represent different disciplines and different parts of the world where Islam has a substantial presence.

Assistant Professor, Government

Begüm Adalet is a political theorist with research and teaching interests in anti-colonial thought, transnationalism, the Cold War, development, land, and the built environment.

Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Studies

Benjamin Anderson studies the visual and material cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and adjacent landmasses, with a particular focus on late antique and Byzantine art and architecture. His first book, Cosmos and Community in Early Medieval Art, addresses the reception of Greco-R

Professor, Near Eastern Studies

Jonathan Aaron Boyarin is the Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies. His work centers on Jewish communities and on the dynamics of Jewish culture, memory, and identity. 

Associate Professor, Government

Allen R. Carlson is an associate professor of government. He earned his PhD from Yale University’s Department of Political Science. His undergraduate degree is from Colby College.

John H. Burris Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Studies

Geographic Research Area: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Middle East

Teaching/Research Interests: Modern and contemporary art, methodology and intellectual history, and film, media, and popular cultures

H. Stanley Krusen Professor of World Religions, Asian Studies

Trained in classical Islamic studies and the history of Islam in Indonesia - in Italy (University of Rome) and London (SOAS) respectively, Chiara Formichi has held positions in Singapore (post-doctoral fellow at the Asia Research Institute), Leiden (research fellow at the KITLV), and at the City

Assistant Professor, Near Eastern Studies

Seema Golestaneh studies the anthropology of Islam, contemporary Sufi and Shi'i thought in Iran, and literary cultures.

Goldwin Smith Professor, Africana Studies
Associate Professor, Anthropology

Saida Hodžić studies women’s rights activism, NGO advocacy, humanitarianism, and civic environmental activism.

Adjunct Professor, Comparative Literature

Gail Holst-Warhaft is an adjunct professor in the Departments of Classics, Comparative Literature, and Near Eastern Studies. Her research interests include translation, modern Greek literature and music, Greek literature from antiquity to the present, water, and culture.