Amyn B Sajoo

Educated at the University of London (King’s) and at McGill University, Montreal, where he received his doctorate, Amyn spent his early years in Kenya and Tanzania. He went on to serve with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Ottawa (1989-1992) — and returned to the federal Justice department in 1999. He was the 1993/1994 ‘Canada Fellow’ at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, which led to the book Pluralism in Old Societies and New States (1994). This was the beginning of a series of projects on the interface of civil society and human rights – with particular regard to the role of religion in democratic life. Collaborative work at McGill, Cambridge University and the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London) has resulted in several books, including Civil Society in the Muslim World (2002) and Muslim Modernities: Expressions of the Civil Imagination (2008).

Amyn has taught at SFU since 2003 in the departments of political science and history, and more recently in the Seniors Program. He is also a frequent commentator in the newsmedia — including the Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, and CBC Radio.