Known For: Professor, Indiana University, Shura Council Member
Country: United States

About

Asma Afsaruddin is Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at Indiana University, Bloomington and received her Ph.D in Arabic and Islamic studies from Johns Hopkins University. Professor Afsaruddin’s fields of specialization are the religious and political thought of Islam, Qur’anic hermeneutics and hadith, and gender. She has previously taught at both Harvard University and the University of Notre Dame. In fall 2003, Professor Afsaruddin was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Islamic Studies at the School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, UK. 

Professor Afsaruddin is the author and/or editor of four books, including The First Muslims: History and Memory and Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership. She has also written over fifty research articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries on various aspects of Islamic thought and has lectured widely in the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

Professor Afsaruddin is currently chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy in Washington, D.C, and a member of the advisory board of Karamah, the women’s and human rights organization based in Washington, D.C. She frequently consults with US governmental and private agencies on contemporary Islamic movements, inter-faith, and gender issues. Among her current research projects is a book manuscript about competing perspectives on jihad and martyrdom in pre-modern and modern Islamic thought. Professor Afsaruddin’s research has won funding from the American Research Institute of Turkey, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.