I am Rahimjon Usubjonovich Abdugafurov and I currently administer the Department for International Projects at Namangan Institute of Engineering and Economics, Namangan, Uzbekistan. I also direct the Language Center of my institute in addition to teaching English there. I previously worked at Namangan State University and held different posts. I earned my Master’s Degree in Education from Vanderbilt University, USA as a Muskie FSA Fellow, a program sponsored by the US Department of State. I have my five year higher education diploma from Namangan State University in Oriental Philology and received a qualification to teach Arabic and English. I spent my fourth year study of my latter education at Cairo University, Egypt, practicing my Arabic. My research interests include transmission of religious knowledge in Central Asia. I am particularly interested in studying methods and ways of delivering Islamic knowledge through conducting content analyses of textbooks used in religiously-affiliated institutions in Central Asia.

Rev. Viv Baldwin is a full time Chaplain with the West Midlands Police.  She is working at building up a team of chaplains and faith advisers to support the spiritual wellbeing of all members of the police service.  Her passion is to encourage true religious tolerance in a way that does not deny one’s own faith perspective but enriches and enhances it. 

Saira is a PhD Scholar from Pakistan She holds a MPhil degree in International Relations from the University of Peshawar and a postgraduate diploma in International Law of Human Rights and Islamic Law. Saira has published several articles in the areas of conflict resolution and diplomacy. She has worked on comparative study of Islamic and Western concepts of Human Rights specifically focusing on concept of Gender in both world views and also working on Islamic and Western concepts of Conflict Resolution and aspires for research on interfaith understanding on issues confronting International Politics. Her current work examines the Theory of Conflict transformation from an Islamic and Western perspective.

I am an angry person, though not always; I really don’t like many things that I see around in what is called Israel/Palestine. Sometimes it leads me to activity (was involved in a few Israeli-Palestinian direct-action groups) sometimes it leads me to passivity – and this, in turn, gives me time to study (got my PhD form the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2003), to enjoy my family (wife and 3 kids) to write (I’ve published a few books and articles, mainly on Jewish-Arab relations), and to teach Palestinian history at the Hebrew University.

Amanullah is a Scotsman who is a full time researcher and teacher at the Centre for the Study of Islam, School of Divinity, University of Glasgow having graduated with a BA Hons. Religious Studies and Education and M.Litt in Jerusalem Studies previously. Amanullah is currently finalizing his PhD on ‘The Notion and Construction of Masculinity in Indian Islamic Texts 1800-2000'. Amanullah was the Lead Researcher on a one-year project funded by the Ford Foundation New York titled ‘Philanthropy for Social Justice in the British Muslim Societies’. The final conclusions have been presented nationally and internationally and will be published shortly. He was short-listed for the University of Glasgow Teaching Excellence Awards 2007 and has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio Scotland’s Thought for the Day and called upon in the national media on issues relating to Islam. Amanullah plays a key role in Religious Education in Scottish schools. He has worked as a consultant to the Scottish Qualifications Authority authoring various publications on Islam and has provided a variety of courses and seminars for teachers on Islam. Amanullah blogs on 'Progressive Scottish Muslims' in hope to open up the critical and timely debates on Islam. In his spare time he runs half marathons, swims and can be seen officiating as an umpire at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London.

I am a graduate in Social Anthropology and Comparative Religious Science. My main fields of research are the history of religions, ethnicity and nationalism as well as symbolic anthropology and notions of local and global Islam. My studies have focused mainly on India and the Balkans, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina were I conducted several months of field work. I am engaged in several NGOs and associations that deal with cultural exchange between Western and Eastern Europe and interreligious dialogue in general.

Richard Gale is a post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, with special interests in demography and the urban sociology of religion. Presently, he is presently undertaking research in Birmingham on changing patterns of segregation in the city, particularly with regards to the experiences of Muslim communities.

Alex Khayo, a Palestinian Christian, born and lives in Jerusalem, holds a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering and a MBA from the joint program of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School, Tel Aviv University. He works as the Information Systems Manager/Consultant at the United States Agency for International Development for West Bank & Gaza. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Christian Arab Orthodox Club in Jerusalem.

Kym Iris King is currently the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Government Relations for Bering Omega Community Services in Houston, Texas. Bering Omega is known worldwide for its leadership and innovative healthcare services in the field of HIV/AIDS. Prior to this, she was appointed by the Mayor of the City of Houston to the post of Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities. Kym also has a background in radio and television production. One of her special areas of interest is using the media to reach across religious, cultural, and political divides. She develops educational media initiatives for The Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice University. Along with Dr. Jill Carroll, the Boniuk Center’s Executive Director, Kym hosts and produces “Peaceful Coexistence” a bi-weekly radio program that promotes conditions conducive to sustainable peace among people of the world’s religions.

I graduated from the psychological department of the Vitebsk State University (Belarus) in 2003. I have been working as psychologist with children, teenagers and adults. In 2007 I graduated from the post-graduate study course. The topic of my PhD research is “The psychological determinants of the stigmatization in adolescents”. I have analyzed the roots of stigmatization such as prejudice, defense mechanism, stereotypes, problems in communication, and others. I have experience in teaching such a university courses as psychology of work, developmental psychology, psychology of ideology. My interest and challenge is the psychological approach in resolving various social and public problems. And my permanent question is – WHAT CAN I DO to live in a better world?

Andrey Levitskiy graduated from Historical Faculty (The Urals State University, Ekaterinburg) and Theological Faculty (St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, Moscow). He was the author and editor of Fr John Meyendorff Memorial Publishing Project, supported by “Kirche in Not” Fund (Germany, 2002–2004). Currently he is a senior member of teaching staff Chair of Theology (Russian State Professional Pedagogical University, Ekaterinburg) and Chair of Socio-Cultural Education (Institute for Development of Regional Education, Department of Ministry of Education). He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ancient and Medieval Studies at the Urals State University, working on his thesis about Christological Debates of the Vth century Byzantium. Also he is a member of resource group, preparing educational programs for Secondary State Schools on religion through the perspective of multiculturalism and tolerance. The main task of this project is to attach pupils to basic socio-cultural terms and ideas (homeland, love, friendship, beauty, respect, rights etc.), through which they comprehend the value of religion, communal identities and loyalties. At the University he teaches courses on Dogmatic Theology, Comparative Theology, and Methodology of Historical Studies. His professional area: Byzantine Church history and theology, comparative religious studies, ecumenical and inter-orthodox dialogue, problems of multiculturalism and tolerance, religious education in State schools, interrelation of State and Church in Ural Region.

He is a Ph.D researcher in Sociology Department, University of Birmingham. He was a journalist in West Timor, Indonesia. He works with other humanitarian workers in Eastern part of Indonesia to find other alternatives to solve communal conflict related to religious and ethnic identities.

Mrs. Elitsa Markova is an analyst to the European Policies and Civic Participation Program of the Open Society Institute – Sofia and leads the Project Design Unit of the institute. She holds MA in International Relations form the University of Sofia and is currently PhD student at the faculty of political science. She holds an internship at the International Relations Department of the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Germany (2003) and fellowship at the European Foreign Policy, Research Institute of the German Council of Foreign Relations, Berlin, (2002). Some of the publications of which she is co-author include: The European Debates in 2003: Foreign Policy and Constitutional Aspects, Open Society Foundation, Sofia, 2004; Turkey’s long way to EU accession – facts and challenges, Open Society Foundation, Sofia, 2006; EU Funds Absorption – measuring the impact on the infrastructure, economy and social sphere, OSI- Sofia, 2007. Author of: Ensuring Democracy and Effective Human Rights Protection in the Black Sea Region briefing paper to the Directorate General External Policies of the Union of the European Parliament, November 2007.

Nisreen lives in Gaza Strip / Palestine, married and has 4 children. She has been working with USAID in the democracy and governance office as Democracy and Governance Specialist since November 05 till now. Before working with the USAID she worked with CARE international in Gaza as a Civil Society Specialist in one of USAID funded projects for almost five years. Nisreen has worked at the UNDP as Project Manager for youth project and in UNRWA as Women’s Program Officer for almost ten years. She has MA in the field of Peace and Development Studies from Sweden, and a BA in Sociology from Bir Zeit University / West Bank / Palestine. Nisreen has participated in a large number of training courses regarding civil society, human rights, peace building and reconciliation, conflict resolution, adult education, leadership and refugees’ issues. In addition Nisreen has participated in designing and developing adult education manuals and post graduate modules and gender and participation training courses.

Mohammad Naamneh is the director of the educational program "Budding Leaders—Cultivating young leadership in the Bedouin Community" conducted by the Israeli Association of Community Centers. IACC’s after-school Budding Leaders program in Abu Basma, Hora & Lakia schools aims to create a cadre of Bedouin youth who will excel academically and become leaders and agents of social change in their communities. The program includes 230 ninth- twelfth grade students in the 5 participating schools who have potential for excellence and leadership qualities. The program works directly with students as well as with their schools and families. Budding Leaders includes two elements: Academic excellence; leadership development and social responsibility.

Dorina Nikolla is a project manager working at the field of local governments and public policy research at Co-PLAN, Institute for Habitat Development in Tirana, Albania. She received a BA in Psychology and MSc. in Political Science and Public Administration from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. She worked for UNICEF, Albania in a project related to integration of Roma, orphans and disabled youth to the labor market through offering professional trainings and establishing YAPS, (Youth Albanian Professional Service) as a means of hiring the marginalized Albanian youth. Currently, she is working on local economic development, public service improvement and policy research for the central government. Academic research on urban sociology, EU integration, relations between culture and the city through different historic periods are her interest. She has attended several workshops and conferences on human rights issues in the post-communist Balkans focusing on the political dimension of the recognition of violence. Dorina is an instructor of Research Methods for Urban Planning at Polis University, International School of Architecture and Urban Development Policies.

David recently trained as a secondary Religious Education teacher (in Exeter and Cornwall) and moved to Birmingham for his first post. Although not currently teaching he is delighted to be living in such a culturally diverse city and is joining others working with young people. He is excited about the prospect of introducing teenagers of different faiths to each other and encouraging friendships that challenge prejudice. A believer in Jesus, he is keen to remain a learner and live out his faith honestly and peacefully.

Avril Promislow is Assistant Director of International Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee. In this position she works closely with Rabbi David Rosen, developing programs, researching the emerging and burgeoning world of interfaith relations in the region, and overseeing the administration of the IA Department's Jerusalem-based office. Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, Avril has lived in Jerusalem for almost thirty years and over the years has been involved in a number of grass-roots efforts to bridge the gap between East and West. In addition to a liberal arts BA from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, she is also a registered tour guide in Israel since the mid- 1980's.

Annie Rubienska is a lecturer and consultant with the International Development Department at University of Birmingham, specializing in leadership, HR and social marketing, working with practitioners and students in India, Bangladesh, Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Kiev, Romania and more recently in China. Understanding the significance of the relationships between religion and public life is a critical aspect of IDD’s work and Annie hopes to deepen her understanding through participation and dialogue with members of this Summer School

Dina Sijamhodžić-Nadarević is an assistant professor for pedagogy group of courses at the Faculty of Islamic studies in Sarajevo, University of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). She graduated from the Faculty of Islamic studies in Sarajevo in 2004 (Islamic theology department) and from the Faculty of Philosophy in 2006 (Pedagogy department). At the moment, she is postgraduate student of Religion pedagogy at the Faculty of Islamic studies in Sarajevo and she is doing her master’s thesis. Dina has participated in many interfaith dialogues. The last project was on the broad topic, “Faith Communities and Civil Society: a dialogue” for religious leaders, laypeople, and scholars from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Arizona that occurred in Arizona (USA) in January 2008 and in Bosnia and Herzegovina in June 2008.

Diana Skelton is from Washington, DC and is part of the full-time Volunteer Corps of ATD Fourth World, a movement of partnership with people living in extreme poverty working toward a more fair society. ATD's work includes supporting families and individuals through its grass-roots presence and involvement in disadvantaged communities, creating public awareness of extreme poverty and influencing policies. Diana is currently part of ATD's International Leadership Team, based in France. Previously she worked with ATD's projects in Madagascar and New York City where she directed a UN-funded study entitled /"How Poverty Separates Parents and Children: A Challenge to Human Rights." She is married and has three daughters.

Dr. Rachel Tal has been working as head of English studies and educational projects for the Amal Network of colleges and comprehensive high schools for more than twenty years. The Amal Network operates 56 high schools in the Jewish, Arab, Bedouin and Druze sectors in Israel. She has initiated many projects such as STAR-Styles of Tolerance and Respect and a Jewish-Arab Debating Program which promote peace and understanding between Jewish and Arab students in Israel. She initiated and developed with colleagues the Tri-lingual Literacy Program: Arabic, Hebrew and English, which is a unique intervention program that advances reading comprehension and writing skills in three languages simultaneously. This program was implemented successfully in a number of high schools. Research conducted among high school students in the Negev proved the program to be highly effective. Currently, Dr. Tal heads a unique program for the advancement of Bedouin students in the south of Israel sponsored by the American Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Dr. Tal received a BA and an MA degree in English and American Literature from Tel Aviv University and a PhD in Philology from Bucharest University, Romania. She co-authored a textbook for teaching English for high school students, entitled Score High and has published articles on teaching English to at-risk students and presented at conferences in Israel and the USA. She was a 2006-7 Hubert Humphrey Alumna and during her Humphrey year at Boston University, Dr. Tal enhanced her knowledge of literacy development and assessment, project management, and social entrepreneurship.

Josh Thomas is a PhD Student in religion at Emory University, Atlanta, GA. His study in religious education & practical theology focuses on practices of interfaith peacebuilding with children & youth, building on experiences conducting developmental psychology research and coordinating peace education programs with youth from Bosnia-Herzegovina & Jerusalem. For the past three years, Josh has served as a counselor & dialogue facilitator for Kids4Peace, which brings together Jewish, Christian & Muslim children, ages 11-12, with peers from the USA for a two-week camp immersion experience. His dissertation will examine ways to support and sustain the learning from these intensive educational efforts, over time after youth return home. Josh also works in the areas of outdoor & experiential education, theologies of peace, narrative approaches in theology & psychology, religion & sexuality, and youth & young adult religious education. A graduate of Dartmouth College (A.B., 2000) and Union Theological Seminary in New York (M.Div., 2005), Josh is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church and now works in campus & young adult ministry in the Diocese of New Hampshire.

Hana van Ooijen holds an LL.M. degree in International and European law of Utrecht University. In 2007 she commenced a legal Ph.D. research in the field of human rights with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights in 2007. Her research focuses on the scope allowing public servants to manifest their religion or belief. Such manifestations in particular and religion in general keep spurring debate in the Netherlands which offers an excellent and inspiring environment to conduct her research. It touches on topical issues ranging from teachers at public schools wearing headscarves to registrars who are not willing to perform same-sex marriages. She has also written on topics somewhat beyond the horizon of her research such as the ongoing discussions on a possible nationwide prohibition on face veils. She is an active member of the Ph.D. council of the university and of the Dutch Section of the International Commission of Jurists. Additionally, she is actively involved in a political party and currently, she is the president of the Dutch Association of Korean Adoptees in the Netherlands. In 2007, she participated in the summer school and was affected by the unique combination of sharing academic knowledge and experiencing religious practice. The great diversity of the fellows coming from a wide range of countries, backgrounds and religious affiliations has been a real enrichment.

Andrew Witmer is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. His research explores the intersection of religion, science, and racial thought in the nineteenth-century United States, with particular attention to competing understandings of the human person and efforts to deny full humanity to some racial groups. He is currently at work on a book manuscript that examines the influence of nineteenth-century Protestant missionary work in sub-Saharan Africa on American conceptions of race and approaches to race relations.

Mujesira Zimic-Gljiva is an assistant teacher at The Religious Pedagogy Department of The Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Sarajevo. She teaches The Religion Teaching Methods. She is doing her master papers on the analyses of the Islam teaching textbooks in Bosnian primary schools. As a member of the women section of The Inter-religious Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina she took part in several projects organized and run by women of different faiths in BiH and the region. She is involved in two Muslim women educational organizations’ activities in Sarajevo – Nahla and Kevser.

Dr Dick Atkinson is a community activist and Chief executive of Balsall Heath Forum. In 1970 his appointment to a lectureship at Birmingham University was vetoed and he taught sociology unofficially at the University before turning his back on the 'ivory tower' and engaging in the community politics that his sociological arguments endorsed. On the basis of his first book, Orthodox Consensus and Radical Alternative: A Study in Sociological Theory (Heinemann, 1970), he was described by the distinguished American sociologist, Robert Nisbet, as "the radical sociologist of our day". He has been publishing work on communities and upsetting applecarts ever since. He was awarded the OBE in 2007.

Beckford is Reader in Black Theology and Culture at Oxford Brookes University and is the author of a number of books in the field of religion, popular culture and politics, including a study of Gang Culture in Birmingham and an examination of reggae-dub. He first taught adult literacy at Bournville College in the early 1990s and then became a tutor in theology at Queens College in Birmingham where he taught trainee clergy. Robert began teaching at the University in 1999, working first as a research fellow with offenders at Birmingham prison and then moving to the teaching staff in 2001. A firm believer in teaching for social change, Robert also educates in community centres, care homes and male prisons. He currently supervises post graduate students in religion, politics and cultural studies. As well as teaching Robert has presented a number of documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 covering a range of subjects including Jamaican Independence, the rise of fundamentalist Christianity, historical revisions of empire, the Bible and world conflict, Gospel Music, Reparations and Patron Saints. He gained a BAFTA in 2001 for diversity in educational broadcasting.

Felderhof is a Senior Lecturer in Systematic and Philosophical Theology in the Department of Theology and Religion at University of Birmingham. He has research interests in systematic and philosophical theology, philosophy of religion and the philosophy of religious education. He is currently working on Kierkegaard and myth and on a project on faith based schools of discipline. Marius was drafting secretary to the conference of teachers, local faith groups and local politicians that produced the Birmingham 2007 Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. This was the first major revision of the curriculum since 1995 and the curriculum developed in Birmingham is significantly different than that produced by other local education authorities in the UK.

Ferrari is Professor at the Law Faculty of the Universita degli Studi di Milano and president of the International Consortium for Law and Religious Studies. He is one of the experts on the legal status of Islam in Europe. He is a frequent contributor to journals, workshops and conferences dealing with these and other legal issues, spanning the civil and canon law traditions. His many publications include: Islam and European Legal Systems (edited with A. Bradney, Aldershot, 2000), Musulmani in Italia (Bologna, 1996), Law and Religion in post-Communist Europe (Leuven, 2003).

Fischer will be teaching next year in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University and in the School of Education of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was awarded his Ph.D. degree in June 2007 from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in Hebrew University. His edited book (together with Adam Seligman), The Burden of Tolerance: Religious Traditions and the Challenge of Pluralism was published (in Hebrew) by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and by HaKibbutz HaMeuchad in 2007. Fischer has worked in the field of education for the past 25 years. In the past 10 years he has worked in the field of religion, democracy and tolerance. From 1996-2007 he has been the founder and executive director of Yesodot—Center for Torah and Democracy which works to advance education for democracy in the State Religious school sector.

Holmwood is Professor of Sociology at the University of Birmingham. His main research interests are the relation between social theory and explanation and social stratification and inequality. His current research addresses the challenge of global social inquiry and the role of pragmatism in the construction of public sociology. He is currently working on issues of public sociology in post-secular society.

Rev Dr Toby Howarth is a parish priest in the Diocese of Birmingham and the Bishop's Advisor for Interfaith Relations in Birmingham. He has studied and worked in the USA, India and the Netherlands, and has made a special study of Shi’ite Muslim preaching.

Jhutti-Johal is a Lecturer in Sikh Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham. She has research interests in the Sikh Diaspora, the anthropology of religion, gender issues in the Asian communities as well as in Sikh theology and its application in a multicultural society. She is currently working on issues of race, religion, culture, and ethnicity in the Family Justice System and is looking at the position of Sikh women in religious texts and their position in today’s society.

Montgomery received his PhD in Religion and Society and his dissertation—The Transmission of Religious and Cultural Knowledge and Potentiality in Practice: An Anthropology of Social Navigation in the Kyrgyz Republic—focused on how the transmission of religious and cultural knowledge influences the practice of religion and culture. He is a post-doctoral fellow in the Initiative in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding at Emory University and a past Rockefeller Visiting Fellow in the Program on Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. In addition, he has been a research fellow at the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs and the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy, both at Boston University; has worked as a Legislative Assistant for the U.S. House of Representatives; and has served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer. He has conducted long-term anthropological field research in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as an IREX Individual Advanced Research Opportunities Scholar and in Albania as an American Councils Title VIII-grant recipient, and holds graduate degrees in medical ethics from Michigan State University and in international relations from Boston University. His publications include writings on the diversity of everyday religious life in Central Asia and his current research on the social aspects of religious change in Central Asia and the Balkans.

Kenyan-born, Fuad is of Yemeni descent. He is the Executive Director of the Radical Middle Way, an international consultancy specializing on developing and implementing strategic initiatives related to Islam and Muslim affairs. He is a Senior Fellow and Director of Programmes at the Muslim College, London [www.muslimcollege.ac.uk] where he teaches and conducts research on aspects of British Islam, specializing on inter-community issues. Fuad is also an executive member of the Tripoli-based World Islamic Peoples’ Leadership Congress and strategic and media consultant to the World Islamic Call Society (WICS)—one of the largest Muslim NGOs with significant presence in Africa, Central Asia, Asia-Pacific, and the Caribbean. One of the most accomplished Muslim journalists in the West, he is the Founding Editor and publisher of Q-News [www.q-news.com], Europe’s leading Muslim current affairs magazine. In 2004 he founded Mahabba Unlimited, a not-for-profit educational group aimed at developing a British Muslim cultural strategy based on the Mawlid, the celebration of the birthday of the Noble Prohpet. Over the years, he has produced numerous strategic and briefing documents and clients include the OIC, WIC, HSBC, Abu Dhabi Television, UNHCR, FCO, ISESCO, Economist Intelligence Unit, Amnesty International, Co-existence of Civilisation Initiative and the European Union.

O'Toole is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests are in the fields of political participation and mobilization, ‘race’, ethnicity and youth studies. She is currently working, with colleagues from the Department, on a Leverhulme Trust funded project on Political Interest and Engagement among Black and Minority Ethnic Young People, examining political activism and imaginaries among black and minority ethnic young activists in Birmingham and Bradford. She is also doing a participant-observation study of an inter-faith broad-based organizing movement, looking at participative governance and the intersections between faith, ethnicity and neighborhood in animating political and social action.

Superintendent Andrew Pratt has been a police officer for 26 years. He has spent most of his service policing a small Northern mill town, Blackburn, which has the highest density of Muslim residents in the UK according to the 2001 census. He has extensive experience of trying to meet the policing needs of Muslim communities; this includes racist and Islamophobic offences against them but also the issues of 'honour crimes'. He has written the national Police response to the Prevention of Terrorism and Violent Extremism Act (April 2008). He is married with four children and a Christian who seeks to put his faith into action through his work. He plays the French Horn and holds a national swimming record for freestyle.

Schapiro is an attorney practicing in Boston, Massachusetts and presently serves as the corporate attorney for the ISSRPL. His legal interests are in issues that relate to the public interest and the public sphere as well as in Jewish education. He has served as a Board Member for twenty years and President for seven years of Camp Ramah of New England. Camp Ramah is a Hebrew speaking overnight summer camp for Jewish youth that is operated under the educational supervision of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (the rabbinical seminary for the Conservative Movement.) Most recently, in his law practice, he successfully defended the decision of the Boston Redevelopment Authority to convey a parcel of land to the Islamic Society of Boston for the construction of a Mosque and Community Center against a challenge that the conveyance violated the principle of separation of church and state.

Seligman is Professor of Religion at Boston University and Research Associate at the Institute for Culture, Religion and World Affairs there. He has lived and taught at universities in the United States, in Israel and in Hungary where he was a Fulbright Fellow from 1990-1992. He lived close to twenty years in Israel where he was a member of Kibbutz Kerem Shalom in the early 1970s. His books include The Idea of Civil Society (Free Press, 1992), Inner-worldly Individualism (Transaction Press, 1994), The Problem of Trust (Princeton University Press, 1997), Modernity’s Wager: Authority, the Self and Transcendence (Princeton University Press, 2000) with Mark Lichbach Market and Community (Penn State University Press, 2000), Modest Claims: Dialogues and Essays on Tolerance and Tradition (Notre Dame University Press, 2004) and with Robert Weller, Michael Puett and Bennett Simon, Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity (Oxford University Press, 2008). His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.

Dr Chris Shanahan is a Methodist Minister, urban theologian, and community activist with Birmingham Citizens.

Smith is postdoctoral research fellow in Sociology at the University of Birmingham. Trained as an anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh, Alex has interests in grass roots political organization and is currently engaged in research on Christian political organization in the USA. In particular, he is looking at how science and religion intersect and have created a fissure within the Republican Party in the USA between conservative and moderate Christina activists. He is beginning comparative research into religion and politics in the USA and UK, looking at Kansas and Birmingham as two sites of possible politico-religious activism.

Stringer is Professor of Liturgical and Congregational Studies in the Department of Theology and Deputy Head of the School of Historical Studies. His research interests include the anthropology of religion, ritual, Christian worship, the popular articulation of faith, religion in an urban context, and sexuality and theology. He is currently working on a book on popular understandings of religion in contemporary Britain and an international research project on religion and urban modernities.

Stone is Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law and Director of Yeshiva University’s Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at Cardozo. In the fall of 2007, she was the Gruss Professor of Talmudic Civil Law at University of Pennsylvania Law School and, in spring 2008, she is Visiting Professor of Religion at Princeton University. In 2006-07, she was a visiting professor at Columbia University Law School and at the Hebrew University Law School. In 2004-2005, she held the Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Visiting Chair in Talmudic Civil Law at the Harvard Law School. She also has taught Jewish Law at Haifa Law School and Tel Aviv Law School as a Cegla Scholar in Residence. In addition to teaching courses on Jewish Law, Professor Stone teaches Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, and Law, Religion and the State. A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University Law School, Professor Stone also was a Danforth Fellow in Jewish History and Classical Religions at Yale University. Before joining the Cardozo faculty, Professor Stone clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and then practiced litigation at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. She is the co-editor-in-chief of Diné Israel, a peer review Journal of Jewish Law, co-edited with Tel Aviv Law School. She is also on the editorial board of the Jewish Quarterly Review and the Journal of Hebraic Political Studies. She is co-curator of the Jews and Justice Series at the Center for Jewish History and a member of the board of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, the Center for Ethics of Yeshiva University, and the International Summer School in Religion and Public Life. Professor Stone writes and lectures on the intersection of Jewish legal thought and contemporary legal theory. Her publications include: "In Pursuit of the Countertext: The Turn to the Jewish Legal Model in Contemporary American Legal Theory," (Harvard Law Review); "The Jewish Conception of Civil Society," in Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society (Princeton University Press); and "Justice, Mercy and Gender in Rabbinic Thought." Professor Stone's work has been translated into Italian, German, Hebrew, and Arabic. In 2004, she was chosen, along with five other path-breaking scholars in the field of Jewish Studies, to reflect on her scholarly career in the first edition of the revised Jewish Quarterly Review.

Syeda is a former General Practitioner who counsels on women’s issues and family matters at the Birmingham Central Mosque.

Wasserfall is the newly appointed Director of Evaluation and Liaison to Schools of The Center for the Advancement of Hebrew Teaching and Learning Inc. She is leaving her position as a Senior Research Associate with Education Matters Inc. She is an anthropologist with a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who has wide experience in three different continents. For many years her work focused on gender and ethnic studies in Israel, and in the Jewish world. She taught gender studies and qualitative methodology classes at the Hebrew University, Duke University, Chapel Hill (NC), University of Colorado, Boulder and Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. She has been a Fulbright fellow as well as a beneficiary of Ford Foundation grants. She has widely published in the area of gender and is the editor of Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life and Law (UPNE, 1999). With her move to Boston, Wasserfall shifted her interest to Jewish education. She was the Special Coordinator at JCDS (Boston Jewish Community Day School) in which capacity she directed the AISNE accreditation process. She also co-authored (with Susan Sevitz) a study on Jewish pluralism in a local Day School. She has wide experience in qualitative evaluation and is the yearly evaluator of the ISSRPL. At Education Matters, Wasserfall co-led the Special Education Initiative and contributed to the Peerless Initiative and other projects. In her newly appointed position she will focus on internal evaluation and be part of the senior leadership at the Center for the Advancement of Hebrew teaching and Learning, Inc. She is also a committed yoga practitioner and teacher, having completed teacher training in the Iyengar tradition.

Christopher Winship, Diker-Tishman Professor of Sociology, was born in Topeka, Kansas and grew up in New Britain, Connecticut. He did his undergraduate work in sociology and mathematics at Dartmouth College and his graduate work in this department, receiving his degree in 1977. After leaving Harvard he did a one year post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin and a two-year fellowship at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. In 1980 he joined the Sociology Department at Northwestern University. During his twelve years at Northwestern he was Director of the Program in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences and for four years chair of the Department of Sociology. He was a founding member of Northwestern's Department of Statistics, and held a courtesy appointment in Economics. From 1984 to 1986 he was Director of the Economics Research Center at NORC. He has been a member of the Harvard department since 1992. He is currently doing research on several topics: The Ten Point Coalition, a group of black ministers who are working with the Boston police to reduce youth violence; statistical models for causal analysis; the effects of education on mental ability; causes of the racial difference in performance in elite colleges and universities; changes in the racial differential in imprisonment rates over the past sixty years.

Dr. Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip is Associate Professor & Reader in Sociology at the University of Nottingham. His research interest includes: contemporary religious/spiritual identities; contemporary sexual (particularly lesbian, gay, and bisexual) identities; Islam and Muslim communities in the West; close (particularly same-sex) relationships; and ageing within national and transnational contexts. He is the author of Gay Male Christian Couples: Life Stories (Praeger, 1997), A Minority within A Minority: British Non-heterosexual Muslims (Economic & Social Research Council, 2003), and co-author of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Lives Over 50 (York House Publishing, 2003). His articles have appeared in journals such as British Journal of Sociology, Sociology, Sociological Review, Social Policy & Society, Sexualities, Theology & Sexuality, and Sociology of Religion. He is currently co-writing a book entitled The We of Me: Queer Spiritual Spaces.