Visiting Fellows - 2012

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 Golam Dastagir
Institution                   : University of Toronto, Canada
Date of Visit(s)           : 7 July – 26 September 2012
                                       8 April – 25 October 2013
E-mail                         : dastagir02@yahoo.com

Brief Biodata
Born in 1962, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Dr Golam Dastagir is Professor of Islamic Philosophy at Jahangir Nagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He started his teaching career in January, 1990. Over the last four years, he has been affiliated with the University of Toronto as a Visiting Professor. Prof Golam Dastagir did his B.A. (Hons) and M.A. in Philosophy in 1985 and 1986 respectively with First Class from the University of Dhaka. In 1992, he was awarded a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue higher studies. In 1993, he went to England on a Commonwealth Scholarship and did PhD in Islamic Philosophy at the University of Hull, England in 1998. Dr Dastagir was immensely helped by Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, while he was researching for his PhD dissertation on Ibn Sina. In 2008, he was nominated for the award of ‘Fulbright Visiting Specialist Program: Direct Access to the Muslim World’ sponsored by the US State Department. Prof Golam Dastagir is former Chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Philosophical Research and Activities, Bangladesh. At the invitation of Professor George McLean, Dr Dastagir participated in a month-long Islamic Seminar on ‘Faith and Reason Today: Fidelity in Our Time’ sponsored by Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, Washington, D.C. With his initiatives, the International Society for Islamic Philosophy (ISIP) was launched at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC in 2008. Prof Dastagir is former Secretary General of the Bangladesh chapter of Asian Conference of Religions for Peace (ACRP), a sister concern of Religions for Peace, NY, USA. He is Vice President of Bangladesh Philosophical Association and Country Representative of International Association of Sufism (IAS), California.

Name                           : Assoc Prof Dr Stefan Bucher
Institution                   : Sultan Idris Education University (UPSI), Malaysia
Date of Visit(s)           : 2 October – 31 December 2006
                                      10 April – 11 July 2007
                                       29 March 2012 – 30 September 2013
E-mail                         : st_bu@yahoo.com

Brief Biodata
Dr. Stefan Bucher received his PhD (magna cum laude) in philosophy in 1989 at the University of Münster (Germany). He has been an Asst./Assoc. Professor at Kyungbuk National University (Korea), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tamkang University (Taiwan) and Sultan Idris Education University. He has served on committees and boards in universities, academic associations and an NGO. In Malaysia, he has been collaborating with SUHAKAM in organising Human Rights Days and researching Human Rights education. He has been lecturing and giving talks in numerous countries across Europe, Asia and America covering moral, social and intercultural issues and conducted research on peace, human rights and education while being affiliated with academic research centres in Europe and Asia. One of them is the UM Centre for Civilisational Dialogue, where he had two short-term attachments in 2006 and 2007 and where he serves currently as a Senior Research Fellow, since March 2012.

Name                           : Dr Syed Nomanul Haq

Institution                   : Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)

Date of Visit(s)           : 8 July – 29 August 2012

E-mail                         : noman@lums.edu.pk

Brief Biodata

Dr. Syed Nomanul Haq is a scholar of Islamic intellectual history who studied at Harvard and at University College London. He is currently a senior faculty member in the School of Humanities and the Social Sciences at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Prior to this, he served on faculty of Tufts in the USA, and also at Brown as well as the University of Pennsylvania; he continues his faculty affiliation with the latter. Dr. Haq is General Editor of Oxford University Press' book series “Studies in Islamic Philosophy”, and serves as Chief Editor of the journal of Urdu Studies “Bunyaad”. He is widely published internationally, having shared the prestigious 2012 Waldo Leland Prize of the American Historical Association for his writings in the “New Cambridge of Islam”. Recently he held the position of Scholar-in-Residence at the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, funded by the US State Department.

Name                          : Dr Zulkifli

Institution                   : Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, Indonesia

Date of Visit(s)           : 15 May – 15 November 2012

E-mail                         : zul_harmi@yahoo.com

Brief Biodata

Dr. Zulkifli is currently teaching at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta. He had been a lecturer at State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) in Palembang, South Sumatera (1991-2007) before he was appointed as the rector of the newly established state college for Islamic Studies in Bangka Belitung. He obtained his doctorandus (Drs) in Islamic education from IAIN Palembang (1990), MA in anthropology from Australian National University, Canberra (1994), and PhD in Islamic Studies from Leiden University, the Netherlands (2009).  The areas of his teaching, writing and research interest include Islamic education, Islamic movements, and anthropology. His publications include Ulama of South Sumatera (1999), Sufism in Java (2002) and the Struggle of the Shi’is in Indonesia (in press, 2012).

Name                           : Prof Dr Fumiaki Taniguchi
Institution                   : KONAN University, Japan
Date of Visit(s)           : 5 – 20 August 2009
                                      12 – 19 May 2011
                                       28 August – 2 September 2012
E-mail                         : fumiaki@konan-u.ac.jp

Brief Biodata
Professor Fumiaki Taniguchi obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Economics at the KONAN University in year 1969 and later Master degree in Philosophy and Ethics at the OSAKA University in 1977. Prof. Fumiaki Taniguchi is a philosopher in the Department of Human Sciences, Faculty of Letters, at Konan University. He is the Director of the General Institute of the Environment at Konan University. He also serves as President of the Japan Academy for Health Behavioral Science, as Director of International Exchange Committee of the Japan Society of Environmental Education and an Editorial Team Member of the Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, Canada. His academic background is in philosophy, ethics, environmental ethics and bioethics. He has worked on environmental education to specialize in the integral systems approach between environmental health and healthy life, also in the bridge between ethical norm and behavioral change. His books include The Current of Modern Philosophy (with Gunshi Satomi, Minerva Shobo, 1996) and Topology of Modern Thought (ed. G. Satomi, Horitsu Bunkasya, 1991). A parallel and long-standing interest is in establishing networks for glocal partners in the Asia-Pacific Region. He has organized and participated in many international conferences and seminars. He has been a Visiting Professor at Phranakhon Rajabhat University, Thailand (1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003), at University of Victoria, Canada (1997 and 2003) and at University of Malaya, Malaysia (2009). He also worked as Honorary Visiting Professor at Heibei University (1997-), Peking University (2000-), Peking University Resource College (2008-), China and an International Advisor, Advisory Panel of the University of Malaya Centre for Civilisational Dialogue (2011-2012).

Name                           : Dr Mohammad Ismath Ramzy
Institution                   : International Islamic University Malaysia
Date of Visit(s)           : 1 October 2012 – 31 May 2013 (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow)
                                       3 June 2013 – 2 June 2014 (Research Fellow)
                                       10 June – 9 December 2014 (Research Fellow)
                                       10 December 2014 – 9 June 2015 (Research Fellow)
                                       10 August – 9 November 2015 (Research Fellow)
E-mail                         : ismathramzy@gmail.com

Brief Biodata
Dr. Mohammad Ismath Ramzy received PhD in Comparative Religion from International Islamic University Malaysia in 2012. Ismath Ramzy’s publications cover women and peace, peace education, legacy of Ven. Walpola Rahula and Muslim-Buddhist co-existence. His interest extends over the aspects of peace, multiculturalism, co-existence, interfaith dialogue, contemporary Asian religious thoughts and Islamization of Knowledge.

Name                           : Emeritus Prof Dr Shaharir Md Zain

Institution                   : University Kebangsaan Malaysia

Date of Visit(s)           : 12 January 2011 – 11 January 2012

                                       13 January 2012 – 12 January 2013

                                       4 February 2013 – 3 February 2014

                                       10 March 2014 – 9 March 2015

E-mail                         : riramzain@yahoo.com

Brief Biodata

2011- now: Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue, UM

1983-2008: Professor of Mathematics at UMT (2006-2008) and

Professor of Mathematical Physics at Univ. Kebangsaan Malaysia since 1983

1988-1994: Deputy Vice Chancellor at Univ. Kebangsaan Malaysia

Fellowship, Scholarship and Memberhip:

2006: Felo Persatuan Sains Matematik Malaysia (Offered)

1996: Felo Akademi Sains Malaysia

1990: Fellow of the Institute Mathematics and Its Applications, UK

1992:Honorary Member of The Muslim Assoc. for the Advancement of Science (MAAS) India

1988: Felo Institut Fizik Malaysia 1987:Fellow of the Islamic Academy, UK

1987: Listed as a Mathematician by IMU (International Mathematical Union)

1985/86: Fulbright Scholar , USA

1979: Commonwealth exchange scholar

1967-1974: Colombo Plan Scholar

Education:

Received an education in a Malay Medium School up to Sixth Form (Arts Stream up to Form Five; Science Stream from Sixth Form onwards). B.Sc. Hons (in Pure and applied Maths) and Ph.D (in Quantum Mechanics) at Lat Trobe Univ. Melbourne, Australia under the Colombo Plan Scholarship

General Aims and Purposes in Scientific Activities:

To produce scientific knowledge based on local values and culture and to strengthen Malay as one of languages of science and mathematics.

Scientific Products:

Several yearly articles in Mathematical Physics, Finance & Management Science, History and Philosophy of Mathematical Science, Indigenisation & Islamisation of Mathematical Science, Mathematical Education, Discourses and Engineering in Malay Language,

Have produced more than 30 university text and reference books in Malay, Hundreds of articles in Malay & English.