We are delighted to welcome Dr. Mahan Mirza to the talented, diverse, and growing AIC team. Dr. Mahan serves as the Executive Director of the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion at the University of Notre Dame. The Ansari Institute is part of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, where he also serves as a Teaching Professor. Acting as a living bridge between Notre Dame and AIC, Dr. Mahan will continue to direct the Ansari Institute while assuming his new responsibilities as AIC’s chief academic officer in 2024-2025. Like AIC, Notre Dame is a faith-based institution that fosters academic freedom, celebrates diversity, and advances social justice as it seeks “to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good” (https://dulac.nd.edu/university-mission-and-vision/mission/). We look forward to fruitful collaborations in the many areas where our institutional missions and visions align, in sha’ allah. As a graduate of Notre Dame myself, I am particularly excited about the possibility of such collaborations.
Dr. Mahan earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Texas Austin, his MA from Hartford Seminary in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, and his PhD in Religious Studies (specializing in Islamic Studies) from Yale University. His doctoral research was on the intellectual world of al-Biruni, an 11th-century Muslim scientist from Central Asia, and Dr. Mahan has an abiding research interest in field of cosmology. At Notre Dame, he was responsible for implementing Madrasa Discourses, a project led by Prof. Ebrahim Moosa to advance scientific and theological literacy at the Keough School’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Prior to that, he served as Dean of Faculty at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California. Throughout his career, he has taught a wide range of courses in Arabic and Islamic studies, western religions, history of science, and global affairs, along with foundational subjects in the Liberal Arts, including logic, rhetoric, ethics, and politics. Dr. Mahan has also edited two special issues of The Muslim World and has served as assistant editor of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. His recent articles include “Deed over idea: Toward a shared Caliphate” (2022), “Between Tyranny and Anarchy: Islam, Covid 19, and Public Policy” (2023), and “Divine Command and Religious Liberty: A Theological Reflection on Islamic Constitutionalism” (2024).
Dr. Mahan comes to AIC at a critically important time. With our academic accreditation now secured, he will, in sha’ allah, help to guide the process of growing the College into a vibrant American university that is proudly Muslim, firmly committed to the benefit of all of humankind, and deeply conscious of our responsibilities as stewards of the creation. Welcome, Dr. Mahan!
Timothy J. Gianotti, Ph.D.
President and Acting Provost