AIC Welcomes Dr. Mahan Mirza, Visiting Vice President for Academic Affairs
AIC BULLETIN
AIC WELCOMES DR. MAHAN MIRZA TO THE TEAM!
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
Tuesday, May 28th @6:30pm
Speaker Biography:
Ibrahim N. Abusharif, PhD, is an associate professor in residence in the Journalism and Strategic Communication Program. His fields of research include narrative journalism, religious studies, and the decolonization of storytelling. Specifically, his academic interests include the study of the intersections of religion and media, particularly digital media disruptions and their effects on contemporary religious authority. He also researches the origins, promulgation, and effects of key journalistic framing terminologies used in prominent Western news sources in their coverage and reportage of the Middle East and Muslim minorities in the West.
'Religious Authorityin Contemporary Islam and
Digital Media Disruptions'
Date: Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Time: 6:30 PM
Venue: In-Person, AIC 640 W Irving Park Rd Chicago, IL 60613
Registration:
Free, registration required.
More About Dr. Abusharif:
Born and raised in Chicago, he studied the biological sciences as an undergraduate, and later he received his master’s from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and his doctorate in religious and Islamic studies from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
ARABIC LANGUAGE INSTITUTE (ALI)
SUMMER 2024
Registration is Still Open
Qur'anic Arabic Course - $600
The Arabic Language Institute is offering:
Qur’anic Arabic Course, $600
- Dates: May 20 – July 18
- Days: Tuesday and Thursday
- Timing: 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm CT
- Venue: Online
- Textbooks: A New Arabic Grammar of the Arabic language, by Haywood and Nahmad & Arabic Through Quran, by Allen Jones.
IT'S TIME TO GET THAT DEGREE:
ACCEPTING BA & MA APPLICATIONS FOR
FALL 2024
AMERICAN ISLAMIC COLLEGE
| 773-281-4700
[email protected]|www.aicusa.edu