Sachedina and Yilmaz to bolster ranks of Islamic Studies faculty

Sachedina and Yilmaz to bolster ranks of Islamic Studies faculty
Abdulaziz Sachedina (left) and Huseyin Yilmaz

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Ali Vural Ak Center are pleased to announce that two new faculty members will soon be joining Mason’s bourgeoning Islamic Studies program.

Professor Abdulaziz Sachedina will be arriving in January 2013 from the University of Virginia to take up the IIIT Chair in Islamic Studies at Mason. Sachedina is a major figure in contemporary Islamic thought. His pioneering excavations of classical Islamic sources in relation to major contemporary themes such as democracy, human rights, and biomedical ethics have established him as a scholar of truly international standing. Key recent books include The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism, Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights, and Islamic Biomedical Ethics - all with Oxford University Press. Professor Sachedina will be based in Mason's Department of Religious Studies.

This coming fall, Professor Huseyin Yilmaz will be arriving at Mason from the University of South Florida and will take up a position as an Assistant Professor in the History Deparment. With a PhD from Harvard, Yilmaz is a leading specialist in Ottoman political thought. His research will reinforce the Ali Vural Ak Center's track record of reassessing conventional readings of the history of relations between Europe and the Muslim world. Yilmaz will also serve as Co-Director of the Ali Vural Ak Center.

Mason is proud to attract scholars of this caliber, a testament to the university's commitment to become a global center of excellence for teaching, research, and outreach in Islamic studies.