Name : Prof Dr Robert Eisenmen
Institution : California State University, USA
Date of Visit(s) : 23 February – 20 March 2010
E-mail : r5e5@yahoo.com
Brief Biodata
Dr. Robert Eisenman is professor of Middle East Religions and Archaeology and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins at California State University, Long Beach. He has a Ph. D. from Columbia University in Middle East Languages and Cultures and Islamic Law. Prof. Eisenman is a Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College at Oxford University, a member of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Center for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies. He has written many books, such as James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1998), The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians (1996), Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel: A History of the Survival of Tanzimat and Shari'ah (1978), and is co-editor of The Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1989) and The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (1992). In 1991-92, he was the Consultant to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, when it decided to open its historical documents and allow free access for all scholars to the previously unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls.
Name : Prof Dr Robert Eisenmen
Institution : California State University, USA
Date of Visit(s) : 23 February – 20 March 2010
E-mail : r5e5@yahoo.com
Brief Biodata
Dr. Robert Eisenman is professor of Middle East Religions and Archaeology and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins at California State University, Long Beach. He has a Ph. D. from Columbia University in Middle East Languages and Cultures and Islamic Law. Prof. Eisenman is a Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College at Oxford University, a member of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Center for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies. He has written many books, such as James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1998), The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians (1996), Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel: A History of the Survival of Tanzimat and Shari'ah (1978), and is co-editor of The Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1989) and The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (1992). In 1991-92, he was the Consultant to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, when it decided to open its historical documents and allow free access for all scholars to the previously unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls.
Name : Prof Dr Samuel Oluoch Imbo
Institution : Hamline University, Minnesota, USA
Date of Visit(s) : 15 June – 3 September 2010
2 May – 16 July 2011
29 June – 17 August 2012
15 May – 16 June 2013
E-mail : simbo@gw.hamline.edu
Brief Biodata
Sam Imbo is Kenyan by birth and American by choice. He is a professor of philosophy and the director of the African American Studies Program at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A. He also held the Hanna Chair in Philosophy at Hamline University from September 2005 until May 2009. He earned his B.A. (Hons) in 1985 from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He received both his M.A. (1990) and Ph.D. (1995) degrees from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A. His teaching, writing and research interests are in the areas of comparative philosophy, Africana philosophy, and social and political philosophy. He is the author of two books. His first book, An Introduction to African Philosophy, was published in 1998. His second book, Oral Traditions as Philosophy: Okot p’Bitek’s Legacy for African Philosophy, was published in 2002. His interest in Islam was sparked by teaching a philosophy of religion course and by an international faculty seminar in June 2007. The seminar, organized by the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE) took 14 American professors to France and The Netherlands with a focus on the theme of contemporary European Muslims. In 2008, Professor Imbo taught a seminar at Trier University in Germany on the theme of American Islam.
Name : Prof Dr Carl Ernst
Institution : University of North Carolina, USA
Date of Visit(s) : 7 January – 31 May 2005
10 – 31 October 2010
E-mail : cernst@email.unc.edu
Brief Biodata
Carl W. Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His published research, based on the study of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, has been mainly devoted to the study of Islam and Sufism. His book Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (UNC Press, 2003) has received several international awards, including the Bashrahil Prize for Outstanding Cultural Achievement (Cairo, 2004), and another of his books has been awarded the Farabi International Award in the Humanities and Islamic Studies by the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (2008). He has received research fellowships from the Fulbright program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current research projects include a study of the Qur’an as literature, studies of Muslim interpreters of Indian religions, and a translation of the Arabic poetry of al-Hallaj. He is the co-editor (with Richard Martin) of Rethinking Islamic Studies: From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism (University of South Carolina Press, 2010). His publications include Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond (co-authored with Bruce Lawrence, 2002); Teachings of Sufism(1999); a translation of The Unveiling of Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master by Ruzbihan Baqli (1997);Guide to Sufism (1997); Ruzbihan Baqli: Mystical Experience and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism (1996); Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center(1993); and Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (1985).
He studied comparative religion at Stanford University (A.B. 1973) and Harvard University (Ph.D. 1981). He has taught at Pomona College (1981-1992) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has been department chair (1995-2000) and Zachary Smith Professor (2000-2005). He is now William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor (2005- ) and Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations. He and Bruce Lawrence are co-editors of the Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Series at the University of North Carolina Press.
Name : Prof Dr Sami Adwan
Institution : Bethlehem University
Date of Visit(s) : 15 – 26 June 2010
E-mail : sadwan@bethlehem.edu
Brief Biodata
Sami Adwan is a professor of education, a teacher and a trainer at the Bethlehem University. He is the Palestinian director and cofounder of the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME). Prof. Adwan’s research focuses on Palestinian education, the role of education in building peace, and religious education and co-existence between different religions and believers.
His publications include: The status of Religious Education in Palestinian schools(2001), Comparative Analysis of the Israeli and Palestinian Conflict in History and Civic Education(2004); Two Conflicts, Four Countries (Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Palestine); and The Historical Perception of Israeli and Palestinian Youth, He is also co-editor, with Dr. Dan Bar-On, of three works The Role of Palestinian and Israeli NGOs in Peace Building, Victimhood and Beyond, and Learning Each Other’s Historical Narrative: Palestinians and Israelis (Part I, 2003; Part II, 2006 and part III, 2008). He serves in many committees and is editor of scientific journals.
In 2001, Dr. Adwan and Dr. Bar-On were awarded the Alexander Langer Foundation Prize for their work and their dedication to peace as co-directors of PRIME. Similar honors were bestowed on them in 2005 when they received the Victor J. Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace and the European Association for Education of Adults Prize. Dr. Adwan was awarded the joint Legislative Resolution of the Senate and the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey in March, 2007.
Name : Prof Dr Carolina López C
Institution : Tecnólogico de Monterrey University, Mexico
Date of Visit(s) : 1 October 2009 – 19 August 2010
E-mail : lopez.c.carolina@gmail.com
Brief Biodata
Prof. Dr. Carolina Lopez is Professor of International Relations at Tecnólogico de Monterrey University in Chihuahua, México. In the early Nineties, she founded the Center for Dialogue and Human Wellbeing at her university, which collaborates with like-minded academic and civil society organizations both locally and around the world.
From Prof. Lopez’ work has emerged the Ideological-Structural Analysis — a theory which has been utilized in Latin America, Europe and Asia in situations of both conflict and collaboration among groups of dialogue.
Prof. Carolina has 40 publications in the areas of intercivilisational and intercultural dialogue, human rights and wellbeing, international relations and politics. In addition to their academic work, personnel at her Center for Dialogue and Human Wellbeing maintain columns in the popular press in México, in order to ensure the application of academic work at the level of civil society.
At the informal level, Prof. López is involved in interfaith groups and activities, as part of a collective effort to help the “dialogical way of life” become more and more normative around the world.
Last Update: 19/06/2020