Dr. Amyn B. Sajoo
As a specialist in civic culture, religion and law, Amyn Sajoo's current research is at the interface of citizenship, human rights, and religion. He teaches in the departments of History and International Studies here at SFU. Sajoo is the editor of the Muslim Heritage Series (London: I.B. Tauris), in which the fifth volume, The Shari'a: History, Ethics, and Law, was recently published. His paper on “Liberal Citizenship and Religion: Beyond Identity Politics” will be published in a special issue on “Religion & Conflict” this year, of the peer-reviewed journal Politics & Governance.
Since 2018, Sajoo has hosted a series of public conversations at the intersection of identity, Islam & citizenship, co-sponsored by CCSMC and the Ismaili Centres in Vancouver and Toronto. Onstage guests in the series have included John Ralston Saul, one of Canada’s leading public intellectuals, Catherine Dauvergne, dean of the UBC Law School, Benjamin Berger, author of the acclaimed Law’s Religion, Abdallah Daar, one of the world’s leading experts on public health, and the celebrated Vancouver architect, Farouk Noormohamed. Bioethics was the focus of two conversations, featuring Drs. Akber Mithani (UBC-Providence Healthcare) and Naheed Dosani (University of Toronto). Upcoming sessions will explore the role of creative arts and empathy in bridging secular and religious identities. Indeed, this was also the theme of Sajoo’s contribution to the Centre’s 2019 Ibadi summer school, in which he explored the evolving aesthetics of religiosity.
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