Amir Hussain, a Canadian Muslim with a dissertation on Muslim communities in Toronto, found himself some twenty years ago teaching at a Catholic university in Los Angeles. In 2009, he became the first non-Christian scholar to be tenured in his department (which was founded with the university almost 100 years earlier). He then served a term as chair of that Department of Theological Studies. In this presentation, Amir will talk about his journey, from graduate work in a secular department for the study of religion, to first teaching in a large public state university, and then seeking out a position in a Jesuit university’s theology department. He’ll also talk about why he, as a Muslim, couldn’t imagine a better place for him to thrive than at a Catholic university, and also about how non-Christians, not to mention non-Catholics, can contribute to the mission of Catholic universities.
Amir Hussain
Dr. Amir Hussain is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, the Jesuit university in Los Angeles, where he teaches courses on religion and comparative theology. His own particular speciality is the study of Islam, focusing on contemporary Muslim societies in North America. His academic degrees (BSc, MA, PhD) are all from the University of Toronto where he received a number of awards, including the university’s highest award for alumni service. He served as President of the American Academy of Religion in 2023. From 2011 to 2015, Amir was the editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the premier scholarly journal for the study of religion. In 2016, he was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California. He was an advisor for the television series The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, and appears regularly on Ancient Aliens, History’s Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne, and The UnXplained with William Shatner. In 2008, he was appointed a fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. The author or editor of 6 books, he has also published over 60 book chapters and scholarly articles about religion.