Dr. Sherman A. Jackson

Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California

Dr. Sherman A. Jackson is the King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Prior to this, he was an Arthur F. Thurnau professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan. He is author of Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihâb al-Dîn al-Qarâfî (Brill, 1996), On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî’s Faysal al-Tafriqa (Oxford, 2002), Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Towards the Third Resurrection (Oxford, 2005), Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (Oxford, 2009), Sufism for Non-Sufis?: Ibn Atâ’ Allâh al-Sakandarî’s Tâj al-‘Arûs (Oxford, 2011-12) and Re-Thinking Jihad: Sadat’s Assassins and the Renunciation of Political Violence (under review).

He has authored numerous articles on various aspects of Islamic law, theology, history and Islam and Muslims in modern America. He is listed by Religion Newswriters Foundation's ReligionLink as one of the top ten experts on Islam in America. And he was named among 2009’s top 500 most influential Muslims in the world by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.