INTRODUCING...

Dr. Tamara Sonn

Tamara Sonn is the Wm. R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of William and Mary. She has a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Santa Clara, an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Her areas of specialization are Islamic intellectual history and Islam in the contemporary world.

 

            Professor Sonn's books include Interpreting Islam: Bandali Jawzi's Islamic Intellectual History(Oxford, 1996); Islam and the Question of Minorities (Scholars Press, 1996); Comparing Religions through Law: Judaism and Islam (with J. Neusner; Routledge 1999), and Judaism and Islam in Practice (with J. Neusner and J. Brockopp; Routledge 1999); and Between Qur'an and Crown: The Challenge of Political Legitimacy in the Arab World (Westview, 1990). She has contributed chapters and articles to numerous books and journals, as well as Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World,the Encyclopedia of Women and Religion, and Colliers Encyclopedia; and was senior editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Islam (2003) and associate editor of Oxford's new encyclopedia The Islamic World Past and Present (2004). Her most recent book is A Brief History of Islam (Blackwell 2004).

 

            Dr. Sonn is past-president of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, a member of the academic advisory council for the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, a member of the board of directors of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy; and a member of the editorial boards Muslim World, American Journal for Islamic Social Science, and several other journals. She isformer vice president of the Eastern Division of the American Academy of Religion and former associate editor of the Middle East Studies Association Bulletin.   She is also former editor of Religion and the Social Order, a Scholars Press publication series. Shehas lectured in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, and has received grants from the United States Institute of Peace, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the U.S. Department of State, among others.

 

Honorarium Range: $3,000 to $5,000

The College of William and Mary