The Duke Islamic Studies Center, also known as DISC, is an inter-departmental, cross-cultural center at Duke University dedicated to the study of Islam and

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abra ...

. DISC approaches Islam as a global religion with many distinctive historical and cultural expressions. Duke's tradition of humanistic approaches to the study of Islam and Muslims scholarship is complemented by emerging strength in social science approaches to Islamic Studies. Established in 2006 as a sequel to the Center for the Study of Muslim Networks, the Duke Islamic Studies Center (DISC) continues to foreground Muslim networks, especially educational networks, as essential instruments for advancing cross-cultural understanding.

Faculty Leadership

Eve M. Duffy, Associate Vice Provost for Global Affairs at Duke, serves as the interim director of Duke Islamic Studies Center. The center was previously led b
Ellen McLarney
from 2019 - 2022 and by Omid Safi from 2014 - 2019. Other prominent faculty leadership includes Jen'nan Read (Assistant Director of Special Initiatives). Prominent past faculty leadership includes Abdullah Antepli (Chief Representative for Muslim Affairs) from 2014 - 2019. Core faculty includes: * Azeddine Chergui * Fadi Bardawil *

Miriam Cooke Miriam Cooke (she spells her name in lowercase) is an American academic in Middle Eastern and Arab world studies. She focuses on modern Arabic literature and critical reassessment of women's roles in the public sphere. She was educated in the Unit ...

* Erdağ Göknar * Mona Hassan * Engseng Ho * Maha Houssami *

Mohsen Kadivar Mohsen Kadivar ( fa, محسن کدیور; born June 8, 1959) is a mujtahid, Islamic theologian, philosopher, writer, leading intellectual reformist, and research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. A political Iranian dissident, Kadi ...

Claudia Koonz Claudia Ann Koonz is an American historian of Nazi Germany. Koonz's critique of the role of women during the Nazi era, from a feminist perspective, has become a subject of much debate and research in itself. She is a recipient of the PEN New En ...

Timur Kuran Timur Kuran is a Turkish-American economist and political scientist, Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. His work spans economics, political science, history, and law. ...

Bruce Lawrence Bruce Bennett Lawrence is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion at Duke University. He has taught at Duke since 1971. Education A graduate of Fay School and Princeton University, with a Master of Divinity from Episco ...

* Mbaye Lo * Adam Mestyan * Ellen McLarney *

Negar Mottahedeh Negar Mottahedeh is a cultural critic and film theorist specializing in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to the fields of Middle Eastern Studies and Film Studies. Early life She is known for her work on Iranian Cinema, but has al ...

* Jen'nan Read * Omid Safi * David Schanzer * Rebecca Stein * Sean Swanick * Mustafa Tuna Affiliated faculty includes: * Chris Bail * Mark Emamian * Shai Ginsburg * Adam Hollowell * Jayne Huckerby *

Bruce Jentleson Bruce W. Jentleson (born June 26, 1951) is a professor of public policy and political science at Duke University, where he served from 2000 to 2005 as Director of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. He previously was a professor at the ...

* Bruce Kuniholm * Meredith Riedel * Lucas Rompay * Erika Weinthal * Joseph Winters Geographies of Gender in the Arab Revolutions Conference

Projects and Initiatives

In addition to putting on a full slate of programs and events each semester, the Duke Islamic Studies Center sponsors special initiatives that reflect emerging leadership priorities and faculty interests. DISC's most recent and most ambitious initiative is the Transcultural Islam Project. This multi-year project was launched in July 2011 with funding support from the Carnegie Corporation. This initiative has two overarching goals: 1) to inform public discourse and policy by publicizing and promoting scholarly and research-based information about Islam and Muslims; 2) to support scholarship and scholarly collaborations to advance research about Islam and

across the globe. Both of these initiatives were funded by the Social Science Research Council. * ISLAMiCommentary * TIRNScholars: Transcultural Islam Research Network * Duke-RTI Professors & Practitioners Series * British Council Our Shared Future * Durham Library- Muslim Bookshelves * DISC-Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) Partnership * DISC Media Fellows DISC Board in DC

DISC Advisory Board

* D. Randall Benn * Ken Close * Eugene V. Fife * Seham Al Foraih * James P. Gorter * Nauman Khan *

Bruce B. Lawrence Bruce Bennett Lawrence is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion at Duke University. He has taught at Duke since 1971. Education A graduate of Fay School and Princeton University, with a Master of Divinity from Episcopa ...

* Bettye Musham * Charles Ogburn, Co-chair * Kimberly Reed * Hooman Sabeti-Rahmati, Co-chair * Ayşe Soysal * Marzuki Usman * Dato Wan Ariff Wan Hamzah * Hasnain Zaidi

References

{{reflist Islamic Studies Center Islamic studies