Zayn Kassam is the John Knox McLean Professor of Religious Studies at Pomona College, Claremont, California. A graduate of McGill University (Ph.D. 1995), she teaches courses on mysticism, gender, literature, ethics, and the environment.

She has lectured widely on gender issues in the United States, Canada, and Britain. She has been honored with three Wig Awards for Distinguished Teaching at Pomona College, as well as an American Academy of Religion Excellence in Teaching Award.​

Kassam is the author of Introduction to the World's Major Religions: Islam (2006), and editor of Women and Islam (2010) and Women in Asian Religions (2018). She is also the section editor for Islam for the volume on Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism for the Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (2018).

She has chaired the department of religious studies at Pomona College, and has coordinated the programs in gender and women’s studies, Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies. She is currently the director of the Pacific Basin Institute. She serves on several national editorial boards, including the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

Zulfikar Hirji (DPhil, Oxford) is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Coordinator of the Individualized Studies Program at York University, Toronto.

His research explores knowledge production, representation and identity, material, visual and sensory cultures, and critical pedagogies, with a focus on Islam and Muslim societies in a range of historical and contemporary contexts, particularly coastal East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean. He has conducted archival, field-based, and community-engaged research in East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, and North America. His current research is focused on the ‘Muslim Materialites of coastal East Africa’ and includes the study of a corpus of 18th-19th century illuminated Qur’ans produced in the Lamu Archipelago.

His published works include Approaches to the Qur’an in sub-Saharan Africa (2019), Islam: An Illustrated Journey (2018) with Farhad Daftary , Between Empires: Sheikh-Sir Mbarak al-Hinawy (2012), Diversity and Pluralism in Muslim Contexts (2010), and The Ismailis: An Illustrated History (2008) with Farhad Daftary.

Karim H. Karim is a Chancellor’s Professor at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, of which he was previously the Director. He is currently the Director of the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam. Karim has also served as a Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies and has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and Visiting Professor at the Simon Fraser University and the Aga Khan University’s joint program. He was the winner of the inaugural Robinson Prize for excellence in Communication Studies for his critically acclaimed book Islamic Peril: Media and Global Violence. A major focus of Karim’s current writings is contemporary Ismaili communities, leadership and institutions. His publications have been extensively cited around the world and he has been a distinguished lecturer on several continents. He has participated in scholarly consultations organized by branches of the Canadian and American governments and has been interviewed by major media in several countries. Professor Karim has served in advisory capacities for the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications, Nairobi, Kenya and University of Central Asia’s Communication and Media major. He has been honoured by the Government of Canada for facilitating collaboration between religious communities.