Berkley Center

Dr. Natana J. DeLong-Bas is associate professor of the practice of theology and Islamic civilizations and societies at Boston College. Dr. Natana J. DeLong-Bas is the author of Shariah: What Everyone Needs to Know (2018), Islam: A Living Faith (2018), and numerous other publications. She was formerly president of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS).

Nora Derbal is a visiting assistant professor (2018–2021) at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the department of sociology, egyptology, and anthropology. Her dissertation, Charity for the Poor in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1961–2015, won the German Dissertation Price in 2018. She is currently turning the thesis into a book, Charity in Saudi Arabia: Associational Life under Authoritarianism (working title).

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, a syndicated columnist, and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer. As a foreign correspondent Dorsey focuses on political and social change in the Middle East and North Africa, the impact of change in the Middle East and North Africa on Southeast and Central Asia and the nexus of sports, politics and society in the Middle East and North Africa and Asia.

Dr. Andrew Hammond teaches Late Ottoman and Turkish history at Oxford University. He was previously Middle East policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Reuters bureau chief in Riyadh, and authored The Islamic Utopia: The Illusion of Reform in Saudi Arabia (2012) and Popular Culture in North Africa and the Middle East (2017).

Noorhaidi Hasan is professor of Islam and politics and dean of the graduate school at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He is the author of Public Islam in Indonesia: Piety, Politics, and Identity (2018).

Dr. Harun Karčić is a journalist and political analyst covering the Balkans. Over the past decade, he has authored numerous articles on geopolitics and religion, particularly Islam, in the post-communist Balkans. He also writes about the role played by foreign powers including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey. His scope has more recently expanded to include China and Russia as well. He also regularly reports on Muslim minorities in Europe and rising right-wing nationalism.

Nazli Kibria is professor of sociology and CAS associate dean of the faculty for the social sciences at Boston University. Her most recent books include Race and Immigration (2013) and Muslims in Motion: Islam and National Identity in the Bangladeshi Diaspora (2011).

Peter Mandaville is a professor of international affairs at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where he also serves as the director of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies. He was a Berkley Center senior research fellow from April 2018 to April 2024 and from 2022 to 2024 served as a senior advisor on religion and inclusive societies at the United States Institute of Peace. Previous government experience includes serving as a member of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff (2011-2012) and as a senior advisor in the department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs (2015-2016). He has also been a visiting senior fellow at the Pew Research Center. His research focuses on the intersection of religion and international affairs, with a primary focus on Islam and the Muslim world. His publications include, among others, The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power: How States Use Religion in Foreign Policy (2023),  Wahhabism and the World (2022), Islam and Politics (2014, 2020), Global Political Islam (2007), and Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001). He holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews and the University of Kent and has studied at the American University in Cairo.