Our Faculty

The core faculty members of the Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program (AISP) come from academic departments and centers from across Harvard University. They are deeply involved with AISP activities, lecture widely and teach courses focused on the wider Islamic world. Some serve as members of AISP’s Steering Committee.

In addition to the core faculty, there are dozens of other faculty who teach and do research in subjects related to the global Islamic world from disciplines as diverse as arts & architecture and global health. While they are not as deeply rooted in the Program’s activities, these scholars play an integral role in promoting a broad, interdisciplinary understanding of Muslim societies and cultures. In an ongoing effort to deepen scholarly understanding of global and transnational Islam, and to better educate the public about Muslim cultures and societies, our faculty lecture widely and often in both academic and public settings.

Alwaleed Professors

Teren Sevea
Alwaleed bin Talal Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies
Teren Sevea is a scholar of Islam and Muslim societies in South and Southeast Asia, and received his PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining HDS, he served as Assistant Professor of South Asia Studies at the...
Teren Sevea

Faculty Steering Committee

Gareth Doherty
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
Director of the Master in Landscape Architecture Program
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Gareth Doherty takes a human-centered approach to design that aspires to shape environmentally and socially just landscapes. Doherty contributes to core knowledge in landscape architecture through applying ethnographic fieldwork and participatory design...
garethdoherty

Mohsen Goudarzi
Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies
Mohsen Goudarzi joined the Harvard Divinity School faculty in July 2021, having taught previously at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). He is a scholar of religion who studies the Qur’an and early Islamic history using a variety of analytical...
Mohsen Goudarzi

Annette Damayanti Lienau
Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature
Professor Lienau’s core research uses the legacy of the Arabic language as a lens for comparative studies of post-colonial literature, offering an alternative approach to the often binary (colonial/post-colonial) constructions used in more isolated...
Annette Lienau

Teren Sevea
Alwaleed bin Talal Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies
Teren Sevea is a scholar of Islam and Muslim societies in South and Southeast Asia, and received his PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining HDS, he served as Assistant Professor of South Asia Studies at the...
Teren Sevea

Faculty

William A. Graham
Former Director of the Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program
Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
Murray A. Albertson Research Professor of Middle Eastern Studies
Professor William A. Graham is the Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and University Distinguished Service Professor. Currently the Director of the AISP since 2016, he is also a member of the...
graham_william

Tarek Masoud
Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance
Harvard Kennedy School
Tarek Masoud is the Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is the co-Editor of the Journal of Democracy of the National Endowment for Democracy, and serves as the Faculty...
tarek_masoud

Gareth Doherty
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Director of the Master in Landscape Architecture Program, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Gareth Doherty’s research and teaching focus on the intersections between landscape architecture and anthropology. Doherty's recent research projects have centered on landscape-related practices at various sites across the postcolonial and Islamic worlds...
garethdoherty

Gareth Doherty
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
Director of the Master in Landscape Architecture Program
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Gareth Doherty takes a human-centered approach to design that aspires to shape environmentally and socially just landscapes. Doherty contributes to core knowledge in landscape architecture through applying ethnographic fieldwork and participatory design...
garethdoherty