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NTT Assistant Professor, Department of Critical Theory and Social Justice. swag����. 1600 Campus Road, LA, CA 90041. Spring 2020 -

NTT Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture. swag����. 1600 Campus Road, LA, CA 90041. 2017-2019.

NTT Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies. swag����. 1600 Campus Road, LA, CA 90041. September 2002- 2020.

Academic Training:

Ph.D. December 2001, Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Masters, 1996. Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

A.B. with College Honors, June 1992, Philosophy, Religious Studies, swag����, Los Angeles, CA.

Areas of Research

Social and Political Philosophy; Middle Eastern and North African social and political thought; Iranian intellectual and political traditions; Islamic and Middle Eastern Political Thought, Contemporary Islamic Thought; Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy; Political theology; Theoretical and practical approaches to surveillance and privacy; Bioethics (especially forensic psychiatry and genetics)

Selection of Types of College Courses Taught:

Religious Studies

• Introduction to Islam
• Islam and the West
• Islam, Gender and Sexuality
• Religious Atheism
• Sufism
• Contemporary European Religious Thought
• Islamic Thought and Philosophy
• Religion and Politics
• Contemporary Islamic Political Thought and Movements
• The Moral Life: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kierkegaard
• What is Enlightenment?
• Introduction to Hinduism
• Introduction to World Religions: Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism

Philosophy:

• Being and the Wor(l)d — The Foundations of Contemporary Literary Theory in Continental Philosophy
• Philosophy and Myth
• Bioethics:
• Logical and Critical Reasoning
• Theories of Slavery From Ancient Greece to 20th Century Colonialism
• Concepts of the Person
• Art of the Self: Self-Fashioning and Aesthetic theory from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche
• Introduction to Asian Philosophy

Iranian Studies:

• Iranian Political and Religious Thought — Ancient and Medieval Sources of Iranian Cultural and Political Forms
• Persian Language instruction

Directing Student Research

Heather Kanny, Summer 2003: “An analysis of the rise of political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypyt.” Went on to the National Conference for Undergraduate Research

Jake Hogue, Summer 2005: “Shi’ism and the rise of Political Islam in Iran.” Went on to the National Conference for Undergraduate Research

Nikolai Schweingruber, 2006-7: Special grant to study at the Special Court for Sierra Leone overseeing the “Truth and Reconciliation” process post Ethnic Cleansing. Research went on to be presented to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

Kevin Chaves, Summer 2007: “The Letter of Paul in Heidegger’s Early Philosophy”

Joseph Hernandez and Bernard Botz, 2007-2008: “Global Capitalism and the New Confucianism.” Went on to the National Conference for Undergraduate Research

Alex Wolf, Summer 2008: “Truth, Terror, Ontology and the Media”

Miles Painter, Summer 2009: Screenplay research on “Evin Prison, Iran: Torture, Confession and War. “

Thomas Rodriguez, Summer 2010. “Regrounding Charity in Absolute Excess: The Gift in Bataille and Derrida.”

Kaitlin Kelly: Summer 2010. “Sexual Humiliation in US Torture Practices from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib”

Margot Clifford: Summer 2011. “A Post-Colonial Feminism in the Arab World.”

David Cole. Summer 2012. “Deleuze, Metaphor and Political Transformation” swag���� Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

Brian Holtvedt. Summer 2014. “Heidegger and the Possibility of Freedom”

Venetia Boyce. Spring 2017. (NCUR) National Conference on Undergraduate Research. “Reverse Discourse: Shariati's Revolutionary Islam.”

Roee Perry. Beyond the Clash of Civilizations: Dialogue and Cultural Understanding. Summer 2019.

Malachy Mitchnik. Spring and Summer 2019. Mentoring during Intensive Persian Language Study Abroad (University of Yerevan, Armenia)

Selected Academic Events and Conferences Organized:

"The Possibility of American Islam and the Idea of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ — with Salam al-Marayati” (Executive Director, MPAC). swag����. Spring 2019.

Sara El-Amine, “Transforming Political Organizing.” Training Director Obama for America (2012) and Organizing for America. Public lecture and workshop, April1-2, 2013.

Laury Silvers, “Disappearing Women (on Hafsa): Women and the Sufi Tradition.” Public lecture and Seminar. October, 2012.

Islamophobia Now: A Roundtable Discussion. Fall 2011. swag����.

Panelists: Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Counil, Salam Al-Marayati; Public Outreach Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council; Public Education Director, Sikh-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Bhupy Kaur Malek; Los Angeles Police Department Terrorism Unit Deputy Chief, Michael Downing.

Torture, Detention and the Question of Accountability: The US After Abu Ghraib. Fall 2009

Main Speaker, ACLU National Staff Attorney, Ben Wizner. Response and Discussion with Professor Malek Moazzam-Doulat.

Zarathustra: Passages. Fall 2008. The Interdisciplinary Symposium on Theory III, swag����, Department of Religious Studies.

Participants: Ashby Kinch, English, University of Montana, Missoula; Sean D. Kirkland, Philosophy, Depaul University; Dan Fineman, ECLS, swag����; Dale Wright, Religious Studies, swag����; Damian Stocking, ECLS, swag����; Malek-Moazzam-Doulat, Religious Studies, swag����.

The Sacred and the Debased in the Thought of Georges Bataille. Spring 2008. The Interdisciplinary Symposium on Theory II, swag����, Department of Religious Studies.

Cosponsored by the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies and the Department of Critical Theory and Social Justice. An interdisciplinary examination of the work of the highly influential French writer and philosopher. Eight speakers including Sean Kirkland (Depaul University), Karmen MacKendrick (LeMoyne), Andrew Mitchell (Emory University), Jason Winfree (CSU Stanislaus). Procured funding, arranged venue and publicity; arranged travel, accommodations and transportation for visiting faculty. Established a Student Organizing Committee and oversaw the production of a documentary about the conference.

Progressive Islam: Alternative Voices and Visions. Fall 2004 – Spring 2005. swag����, Department of Religious Studies.

Co-organized with Anthony Chase, (DWA swag����). Eight speakers (international and US), film series and a play.

Selected Public Lectures

Nietzsche and the Hermeneutics of Generosity — Remembering David Allison. SUNY Stonybrook. Symposium. Spring 2019.

“European Refugees and Migrant Crisis” swag����. Panelist and Speaker. Spring 2016

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Groff Family Lecture, “Torture and the History of Truth: Medicine, Violence and the Body in the Tradition of Western Thought.” April 2010.

“The Intersection of Islamophobia and Torture” for National Religious Campaign Against Torture Lecture and Workshop. St. John’s Cathedral, Los Angeles. October 2009.

Selected Writing and Editing

“Art as Alibi in the Age of Surveillance” in The Nature Drawings of Peter Karklins. Depaul University. Depaul University Art Museum. Chicago, IL. 2012.

“Future Impossible: Carl Schmitt, Jacques Derrida and the Problem of Political Messianism.” Philosophy Today. Spring 2008.

Founding co-Editor: Studies in Practical Philosophy. Published by Humanities Press. Since Spring 1999.