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I am currently a professor of Politics as well as the director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity in Ithaca College, New York. In Spring 2008, I also held the Spinoza Chair in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I have a Ph.D. in International Studies (University of Denver), an M.A. in Journalism (University of the Punjab, Pakistan) and a B.A. in English Literature and Philosophy (Kinnaird College for Women, Pakistan).

My research interests vary quite a bit and have changed over time. In graduate school, I focused on the politics of military rule and representative democracy (Democracy, Nationalism and Communalism, 1995); for the last several years, however, I have written about Qur'anic hermeneutics, Muslim sexual politics and the relationship between "Islam and the West" (Re-understanding Islam, 2008; Islam, Muslims, and the U.S., 2004; "Believing Women" in Islam, 2002). These days, I am exploring issues of religious embodiment and violence, on which I have presented a couple of papers.

My work on the Qur'an has been translated into many languages (Bengali, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Urdu), and I have also been invited to speak about it in several venues in the U.S. and abroad (Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Germany, Finland, Iceland, Italy, U.K, and the Netherlands).

For a full list of my publications, please see my c.v.