Notes on Contributors
Ola Alkahlout
has a Ph.D. in Sociology of Religion, a MA in Islamic Banking, Finance and Management and a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science. The focus is the theological and sociological aspects of religion practice affect the everyday lived experience of Muslims. Her research employs quantitative and qualitative methods (including BOS, SPSS and NVivo programmes). She is seeking an opportunity to contribute both to knowledge and expertise, and to further her research and understanding of global and regional issues in the areas of the contemporary practice of religion/Islam, taking into consideration the challenges and opportunities of Muslims’ lived experiences/religion within sociology of religion.
William Andrews
is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His main scholastic focuses are social cognitive and organizational psychology with a concentration in leadership processes and cognitive decision-making. He received his Masters in Business Administration and brings applied experience in anthropology and supply chain management to multidisciplinary research teams.
P. K. Yasser Arafath
is a Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar in the Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania (2023–2024). He teaches medieval and early modern history in the department of history at the University of Delhi. His research primarily focuses on Kerala, and his areas of interest include South Asian intellectual traditions, Arabi-Malayalam literature, the history of violence, Indian Ocean communities, and the cultural history of the body and hygiene. He is also interested in the history of science, technology, and gastro-politics. Routledge published his first book (co-edited with Haris Qadeer), titled Sultana’s Sisters: Genres, Gender, and Genealogy in South Asian Muslim Women’s Fiction (London and New York, 2021), while the second book, The Hijab: Islam, Women, and the Politics of Clothing, got published by Simon & Schuster (New Delhi and London, 2022). In 2017, he was at the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, as the Dr. L. M. Singhvi Visiting Fellow.
Fouzia Azzouz
holds a Ph.D. from the School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies (SPAIS) at the University of Bristol. She is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at University of Algiers II, Algeria, and teaches on various subjects including British and American studies and research methodology. Her research focuses on the marriage and divorce practices of Muslims in Britain, examining state accommodation of British Muslims, legal pluralism, multiculturalism, and Sharia councils. She has written various papers on these topics and is currently working on a book dealing with Sharia councils and Muslim women’s experiences of abuse in the contexts of marriage and divorce.
Prithiraj Borah
is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore. He completed his post- doctoral fellowship from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Bombay. He was also awarded the Excellence in PhD award from IIT Bombay. He received Zubaan-Sasakawa Peace Foundation Grants for young researchers from Northeast India. His research areas are associated with the student movements in South Asia, gender and trade union politics inside the tea plantations of Assam, university spaces and visual ethnography.
Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor
is Professor in the Sociology of Islam at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK. She is Chair (2020–2023) of the Muslims in Britain Research Network (MBRN) and edits Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion (RSSR). As a feminist sociologist, she interrogates the power dynamics within knowledge production and the implications of the processes and systems of knowledge on society as a whole. Her research portfolio currently includes research on digital religion, vulnerable children, definitions of security and inter-convictional dialogue. She has several publications including her latest title Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950: 100 Years of Hidden History (Hurst, 2023).
Nia Deliana
teaches comparative historical research methodology and international relations theory at Faculty of Social Sciences of Universitas International Islam Indonesia. She has published on numerous issues. Her latest work on humanitarianism includes a chapter on the Rohingya during the Covid-19 pandemic published in CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age (edited by Emily Zoe Hertzman et al., 2023).
Jyoti Diwakar
is a doctoral student at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. Her research areas focus on the intersections of caste, gender and violence on which she has published in various journals. She has also participated in many field-based research studies.
Matthew Durham
is a project manager for the Faith Development study at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) where he received his M.Sc. in Psychology. Matthew worked in cancer research for eight years prior to returning to academia to pursue his interest in studying intergroup contact, prejudice, and discrimination.
Leslie J. Francis
is Professor of Religions, Psychology and Education and Co-Director of the World Religions and Education Research Unit at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, England and Professor Emeritus of Religions and Psychology at the University of Warwick, England. He received his Ph.D. and Sc.D. from the University of Cambridge, his DD from the University of Oxford, and his D.Litt. from the University of Wales. His recent books include Lessons in Spiritual Development (2017), Religion and Education: The Voices of Young People in Ireland (2019), Personality, Religion, and Leadership (2020), A New Lease of Life? Anglican Clergy Reflect on Retirement (2020), and The Science of Congregation Studies (2021).
Nagaraju Gundemeda
a Ph.D. from the University of Hyderabad, is Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad in India. His research portfolio includes various segments of sociology, viz. Sociology of India, Education, Youth, Marginal Groups and Clinical Sociology. He has completed projects such as “Contested Youth Identities – A Case of India and South Africa,” “Educational Achievements of the Scheduled Caste in Andhra Pradesh” and “Teacher Absenteeism in Schools, Gender, Education and Exclusion in Andhra Pradesh, India.” Nagaraju has publications of several books and articles to his credit.
S. M. Morsalin Hider
is an independent researcher. Hider completed an LLM (Thesis) from the Faculty of Law, McGill University, as an O’Brien Graduate Fellow. He is also an advocate of the Dhaka Bar Association.
Muhammed Hussain AV
is a doctoral research scholar in the Department of Sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Indore. His area of research is faith healing and political Islam. He has completed his post-graduate degree from Pondicherry University in Sociology. His other research interests include gender studies, medical sociology and political philosophy.
Hafza Iqbal
is an early career researcher, having completed her Ph.D. in the field of Sufi studies and Islamic Practical Theology in 2022, at Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations. Prior to the commencement of her doctoral research, based on Muslim communities in contemporary Britain, she completed a Masters in Theology at the University of Birmingham and studied Islamic Theology in the faculty of Usool in Madina Institute, South Africa. Her areas of research and writing continue to be based on contemporary religious communities and the history, development and modern expressions of Sufism. She has also theorised Islamic Practical Theology and is dedicated to highlighting and using the lived experiences of contemporary Muslims to produce new, contextualised and innovative theological understandings and adding nuance and depth to contemporary theology and Islamic studies.
Ursula McKenna
is Senior Research Fellow within the Edward Bailey Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion and World Religions and Education Research Unit at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, England. She received her Ed.D. from the University of Warwick. Her research engages with both qualitative and quantitative methods, and she has published widely as part of a research group concerned with religion, psychology, and education. Recent articles include, ‘Anglican Cathedrals and Implicit Religion: Softening the Boundaries of Sacred Space’ (HTS Theological Studies, 2022) and ‘Through the Eyes of Retired Clergy: The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Future for the Church’ (Rural Theology, 2023).
Shailaja Menon
teaches Modern Indian History at the School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi. Her research interests revolve around gender, urban studies, social exclusion and marginality on which she has published in national and international journals. She has also conducted research projects on these themes.
Ashok Kumar Mocherla
is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India. His academic areas include sociology of religion, caste system, minority studies, public health, missionary medicine, and faith healing. He is the author of Dalit Christians in South India: Caste, Ideology, and Lived Religion (Routledge, 2020) and editor of Democratization of Indian Christianity: Hegemony, Accessibility and Resistance (Routledge, 2024). He has held visiting positions at Harvard University, USA, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA, and Bielefeld University, Germany.
C. K. M. Nabeel
received his master’s degree in Mass Communication and Journalism and worked as a freelance journalist specializing in environment and ecology. Besides, he spent a year teaching journalism as a guest lecturer at a government college in Kerala. Currently, he is a doctoral candidate at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Campus, India. His research is a critical inquiry into social anthropology that explores the intersection of Islam, the environment, and social movements. He is interested in ecology, religion, specifically Islam and environmental justice and movements.
Ramesh Babu Para
is currently National Research Scholar, Andhra Pradesh State Archives a nodal Institute for Nehru Memorial Museum and Library under the Tagore National Fellowship for Cultural Research, Ministry of Culture, Government of India on depuration. He was post-Doctoral Fellow at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in collaboration with Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur (2020-2022). He is Assistant Professor at Gandhi School of Humanities and Social Sciences, GITAM (Deemed to be) University (2022), Andhra Loyola College (Autonomous), (2018–2020) affiliated with Krishna University, India, and St. Francis College for Women, Hyderabad, India (2010). He has studied politics, society, and governance. Dr. Para holds Ph.D. in Political Science, from the University of Hyderabad (2018), an M.Phil. (2005) in Political Science, and a Master’s in Political Science from the same university (2003). He has published 26 peer-reviewed research papers, articles, book chapters, edited books, and books to his credit. He is associated with Sage Journals as an associated editor and part of the government of India-run magazine.
Najla P. V.
is currently an independent research scholar. She has completed her post-graduation and M.Phil. in Sociology from the Department of Sociology at the University of Hyderabad. She qualified for UGC-NET in sociology and has worked as an Assistant Professor on contract at a private college in her hometown of Kerala, India. Her M.Phil. research falls within the broad area of sociology of education and is especially focused on Muslim women research scholars in science disciplines. Her research interests include gender, minority communities, and higher education. She has given a number of paper presentations at several national and international seminars and conferences.
Anusha Renukuntla
is a doctoral student at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India. She has completed her M.Phil. (Sociology) and M.A. (Sociology) from the University of Hyderabad. Her research portfolio currently includes higher education in India, gender, and minority studies.
Muhammad Rezaur Rahman
is pursuing D.Phil. in Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. He is an affiliated member at the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, University of Bristol. He is also an Associate Lecturer of Politics at the University of the West of England. Rahman worked as an external research collaborator for the GREASE Project under the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute.
Christopher F. Silver
Ed.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Sewanee, University of the South. Dr. Silver conducts research within two domains, the first is psychology of religion and spirituality and the second is diversity research with a focus on between-group perceptions of stigma. Further, Dr. Silver is a multidisciplinary psychologist working in social cognition, development, identity, and personality research in religion and diversity research. Dr. Silver taught psychology as well as learning and leadership in a doctoral program before teaching psychology at Sewanee.
Kundan Singh
Ph.D., teaches Transpersonal Psychology at Sofia University, Palo Alto and is the President of the Cultural Integration Fellowship, San Francisco. He has authored a book titled The Evolution of Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrishna, and Swami Vivekananda and several book chapters in edited works such as “Beyond Mind: The Future of Psychology as Science,” “Beyond Postmodernism: Towards a Future Psychology,” “Relativism, Self-Referentiality, and Beyond Mind,” “Relativism and its Relevance for Psychology,” and “There isn’t Only Cultural Blindness in Psychology; Psychology is Culture Blind” among others. He has lectured extensively in the San Francisco Bay Area and has made several paper presentations at conferences in the United States and India.
Francis Stewart
is Lecturer in Sociology (Social Theory) in the Department of Sociology, Social Policy, and Criminology at the University of Stirling, Scotland, and Director of the Edward Bailey Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, England. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Stirling in 2011 for her work on Implicit Religion and Straight Edge punk. She has published on Straight Edge punk, animal rights activism and punk, curation and marginalisation within punk, and punk in Northern Ireland. Her recent publications include: Punk Pedagogies: Disruptions and Connections (Intellect Books/University of Chicago, 2023) and Beyond Boundaries? Disability, DIY and Punk Pedagogies (Research in Education, 2023).