Academic Experts

We are honored to collaborate with our academic advisors, who bring a diversity of expertise and specialist knowledge of the subjects, themes, and time periods we cover. These scholars are involved in every stage of the creative process and are critical to ensuring historical accuracy and cultural sensitivity. We are grateful for their contributions.

Zain Abdullah

Independent Scholar, Curator, and Consultant. Associate Professor Emeritus of Religion & Society and Islamic Studies, Temple University.

Donna Auston

Foundation Anthropologist, Disciplinary Conversations & Public Programs at Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Edward E. Curtis IV

Millennium Chair of Liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.

Sylvia Chan-Malik

Associate Professor, Departments of American and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Rutgers University.

Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

Professor of Religion, Carleton College.

Zareena Grewal

Associate Professor of American Studies, Religious Studies, and Anthropology, Yale University.

Specialist Advisor

Ali Asani

Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Studies, Harvard University.

Specialist Advisor

Denise Spellberg

Professor of History and Middle Eastern History, University of Texas at Austin.

Specialist Advisor

Sally Howell

Associate Professor of History. Director of the Center for Arab American Studies, University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Specialist Advisor

Michael Gomez

Silver Professor, Professor of History and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, New York University.

Specialist Advisor

Precious Rasheeda Muhammad

Independent Scholar.

Specialist Advisor

Richard Brent Turner

Professor of African American Religious History, University of Iowa.