Mahan Mirza

At the Keough School

Mahan Mirza is a teaching professor of Islam and Science in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and serves as executive director of the Rafat and Zoreen Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion in the Keough School.

An Islamic studies scholar with a lifetime of interreligious engagement, Mirza brings extensive pedagogical and administrative experience to his role, including serving as dean of faculty at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, America’s first accredited Muslim liberal arts college (2013-2016). In 2024-2025, Mirza was a "living bridge" between Notre Dame and American Islamic College in Chicago as visiting vice president of academic affairs, affording him the unique distinction of having served as the chief academic officer for America's first two independently accredited Muslim colleges.

Mirza joined Notre Dame in 2016 as professor of the practice for the Keough School’s Contending Modernities research initiative, housed at the time in the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, where he led the implementation of Notre Dame's Madrasa Discourses project, which equips Islamic religious leaders in India and Pakistan with the tools to confidently engage with pluralism, modern science and new philosophies. Since 2019, Mirza has served as the executive director of the Keough School's Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion.

Mirza has taught a range of courses in Arabic-Islamic studies, world religions, history and philosophy of science, and global affairs, along with foundational subjects in the liberal arts including logic, rhetoric, ethics and politics. His doctoral research was on the intellectual world of al-Biruni, an 11th-century scientist from Central Asia. Mirza has edited two special issues of The Muslim World; a special issue on faith-based economic theories for the Journal of Economics, Management, and Religion; and served as assistant editor of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought.

Mirza holds a bachelor of science. in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, an master of arts in Christian-Muslim relations from Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, and a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University.

Courses

• Introduction to Global Affairs and Integral Human Development (Keough School foundational course for undergraduates)
• American Adventurism in the Muslim World (elective for undergraduates, open to graduate students)
• Our Cosmic Stories (integration course in the core curriculum for undergraduates, open to graduate students)

Recent Work

• “Between tyranny and anarchy: Islam, COVID-19, and public policy” (Religions) 
• “Deed over idea: Toward a shared Caliphate” (The Routledge Handbook for Religious Literacy, Pluralism, and Global Engagement)
• “Between Tyranny and Anarchy: Islam, Covid 19, and Public Policy,” (Religions)
• “Divine Command and Religious Liberty: A Theological Reflection on Islamic Constitutionalism” (Islam, Religious Liberty, and Constitutionalism in Europe)
• "Mercy and Grace in the Medinan Qur'an," (Mercy and Grace: Christian and Muslim Perspectives)
• “Faith-Based Economic Theories,” (a special issue of the Journal of Economics, Management and Religion)
• “Egalitarian Turn as Copernican Revolution: Theorizing Continuity and Change in Islamic Theology and Law” (Engaging the Madrasa: Education and Islamic Thought in a Changing World ).
• “Effective Both-Siderism in the Midst of a Genocide: Whiplash Pedagogy on Israel-Palestine,” (Journal of Interreligious Studies)