M Abdul Fathah

M Abdul Fathah hails from the coastal Malabar region of South India and embodies the rich socio-cultural imageries of Islam in the region. He spent a considerable period of his school years with his immigrant parents in Riyadh and was drawn to frequent faith-based gatherings of the Malabari expatriate community. Fathah identifies himself as a product of migrant and transnational Islam, a subject that has captivated his academic pursuits in recent years. During his undergraduate studies at Jamia Madeenathunnoor in Calicut, he received rigorous training in Shāfi’ī and Asha’rī texts, alongside classical Arabic. Before joining the dual degree, he completed an MA in Political Science at the University of Hyderabad. His master's thesis explored how class and religion intervene in narratives of emigration within the Indian state and its subnational entities. He currently serves as an editor at Katib webmag (katib.in), where he curates articles and podcasts exploring the Islamicate religiopolitical imagination across the Indian Ocean world. As an MA candidate for the Columbia/Aga Khan dual degree in Islamic Studies and Muslim Cultures, he seeks to explore the academic field of Islam and particularly understand the religiopolitical discourses produced by South Asian Muslim immigrant organizations and itinerary Ulamā within the hierarchical space of the Arab Gulf states.

Liliana Bollinger

Liliana Bollinger graduated from UCLA with a BA in Political Science and a minor in Arabic and Islamic Studies. After studying in Morocco during her undergrad, she became interested in the ways communities have and continue to combat colonial power and influence, particularly how the Muslim and Arab worlds resist European/American imperialization and violence. Her specific areas of interest are the Maghreb, Iraq, and Palestine. She is also curious about the ways academia has and continues to aid and support violent colonial pursuits in this region, specifically the question: What role do academics, scholars, and academic institutions play in imperial wars? As a FLAS award recipient, Liliana is prioritizing the study of Arabic during her Masters, and is excited about the opportunity to deepen her understanding of Islam and Muslim cultures around the world. She is ecstatic to be working with such an inspiring faculty and incredible cohort.

Andrew Bielecki

Andrew Bielecki's research focuses on the development of Islamic thought in medieval and other pre-modern Islamic societies, particularly that of the Ottoman Empire and its contemporaries from around 1300-1600 CE. He is interested in Ottoman and other Eastern Mediterranean eschatological traditions, messianic movements, and other visionary and experiential approaches to end-of-times-related religious thought. He intends to study the role of İstanbul as a nexus for Ottoman eschatological thought, especially during and after the 1509 CE earthquake, the Kıyamet-i Suğra, the Şahkulu Rebellion of 1511 CE, and incursions into Ottoman territories by the Ṣafavids and their Kızılbaş allies. 

Noor Jabeen Bhaghani

Noor Jabeen Bhaghani is an incoming dual degree master’s student in Islamic Studies originally from San Diego, California. Recently, she graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada where she conducted self-directed research on pain and affect in Islamic thought and culture. As a third generation Pakistani and Muslim American growing up influenced by Sufism, her interests are shaped by her own experiences and those of her community. In her masters, Noor desires to conduct ethnographic research on the Muslim diaspora, focusing on the subject's relationship with God, the embodiment of religious ethics, and conceptions of healing and transformation found within and through Islam. She is curious about how these questions affect Muslim humanitarian efforts, global ethics of care and dialogue about the umma. As an artist and entrepreneur in her free time, she is an interdisciplinary individual who is passionate about creating community-oriented spaces which encourage enhanced spiritual and creative accessibility. 

Muna AlKhateeb

Muna is an incoming MA candidate in Islamic Studies at Columbia University from the UAE.

A Zayed University alumna (BA in International Studies), Muna has worked as a Consultant and Higher Education Strategy Senior Analyst across several government entities in MENA. Muna is a native Arabic speaker, is proficient in English, and is on a journey to learn French. Muna is interested in studying different formats of oppression in MENA to later develop actionable policy recommendations for governments in the region. Muna is also a creative writer/poet whose work delves into the human condition, guilt, religiosity, mental health, and love.

Sundus Al Ameen

Sundus Al Ameen is from Beirut, Lebanon. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in History and Comparative Literature, and a BEd in Secondary Education. In her undergraduate thesis, she examined the roles of women within subaltern resistance movements through a comparative analysis of the Lebanese Civil War and the Nicaraguan Revolution. Her research interests are inspired by her own ancestral history and connection to her homeland. As an incoming MA candidate in Islamic Studies and Muslim Cultures, her primary aim in research is to elaborate on and challenge the image of Shi’a women given the distinct characteristics of their ordinary lives, whether spiritual, secular, or somewhere in between. Outside of academia, Sundus enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with her cat, Leo.

Kayvan Seyedin

Kayvan Seyedin is a first-generation Iranian-American from San Diego, CA and born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. He graduated summa cum laude with Department Honors in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. His thesis focused on the recent recirculation and pedagogical mobilization of Iranian-French artist Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical film Persepolis (2007) in the aftermath of Iran's 2022 women-led uprisings. Deploying an anti-Orientalist and anti-Islamophobic framework, his research examines the knowledges codified in Persepolis about Iranian women, men, and post-revolutionary Iran in particular, and Muslim women, men, and collectivities more generally, as well as the discursive effects produced by the film's treatment as an ethnographic work. 

Kayvan's research interests are deeply informed by his Iranian-American background and Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. He is specifically interested in exploring self-representations produced by Iranian women filmmakers in post-revolutionary Iranian cinema in order to understand how women's identities are simultaneously negotiated and resist hegemonic discourses about Muslim women's oppression. Kayvan's broader research interests include the emergence of Shia liberation theology, political Islam, and manifestations of Islamic modernity in post-revolutionary Iran.