On September 28, 2018, the Alwaleed Program hosted a day-long conference in honor of Professor William A. Graham's career and scholarship. Professor Graham retired in July 2018 after a long and distinguished career at Harvard that included serving as the Faculty Director of the Alwaleed Program, Dean of Harvard Divinity School, Faculty Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Committee on the Study of Religion and the Core Curriculum Committee on Foreign Cultures at Harvard.
The conference was assembled by Professor Ahmed Ragab of Harvard Divinity School and brought together world-renowned scholars of Qur'anic Studies, Comparative Religion and History of Religion that presented their work and offered remarks on Professor Graham's scholarship and legacy.
This event was co-sponsored by Harvard Divinity School, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for the Study of World Religions, the Science, Religion and Culture Program at Harvard Divinity School and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
Panel 1: The Qur’an and Scriptural Studies
Chair: Kimberley Patton, Harvard Divinity School
Mohsen Goudarzi, University of Minnesota
Jane McAuliffe, Library of Congress
Shady Nasser, Harvard University
Walid Saleh, University of Toronto
Panel 2: The Future of the Study of Abrahamic Traditions
Chair: Charles Stang, Harvard Divinity School
Elizabeth Lee-Hood, Harvard Divinity School
Ahmed Ragab, Harvard Divinity School
Guy Stroumsa, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Panel 3: Integrating Islamic studies Within Religious Studies
Chair: Ahmed Ragab, Harvard Divinity school
Ali Asani, Harvard University
Diana Eck, Harvard Divinity School
Roy Mottahedeh, Harvard University