Expertise

Global religion and human development; classical and modern Islamic thought

At the Keough School

Ebrahim Moosa (PhD, University of Cape Town 1995) is Mirza Family Professor of Islamic Thought and Muslim Societies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He  co-directs, with Scott Appleby and Atalia Omer, Contending Modernities, the global research and education initiative examining the interaction among Catholic, Muslim, and other religious and secular forces in the world. He is a faculty fellow of the Keough School’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.

Courses

• Research and Dissertation (PhD program in peace studies)
• Introduction to Global Affairs & Integral Human Development (course for undergraduate major in global affairs)
• Modern Islamic Thought (undergraduate elective)

Research and Publications

Moosa’s interests span both classical and modern Islamic thought with a special focus on Islamic law, history, ethics and theology. His book What Is a Madrasa? was published in 2015 by the University of North Carolina Press. Moosa also is the author of Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination, winner of the American Academy of Religion’s Best First Book in the History of Religions (2006) and editor of the last manuscript of the late Professor Fazlur Rahman, Revival and Reform in Islam: A Study of Islamic Fundamentalism.

Other publications also include the co-edited book The African Renaissance and the Afro-Arab Spring (Georgetown University Press, 2015); Islam in the Modern World (Routledge, 2014), and Muslim Family Law in Sub-Saharan Africa: Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Challenges, (Amsterdam University Press, Spring, 2010).

Recent Work

Policy paper: Powers, Gerard, Ebrahim Moosa, and R. Scott Appleby. “The Role of Religious Engagement in Implementing the Global Fragility Act.” September 21, 2020.

Video: Fighting for religious understanding

News: Professor launches project to advance scientific and theological literacy among madrasa graduates in India

Biography

Moosa holds a joint appointment in Notre Dame’s Department of History. He came to Notre Dame in the fall of 2014 from Duke University, where he taught in the Department of Religious Studies for 13 years. He previously taught in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town (1989-1998) and in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University (1998-2001). In 2005, Moosa was named a Carnegie Scholar to pursue research on Islamic seminaries of South Asia.

Born in South Africa, Moosa earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cape Town. He also holds a degree in Islamic and Arabic studies from Darul Ulum Nadwatul `Ulama in Lucknow, India, a B.A. degree from Kanpur University, and a postgraduate diploma in journalism from the City University in London.

News and Blog Posts

Blog post: “Secularism’s prisoners” (Contending Modernities)