Understanding Islam – Fox News NY

State of Formation – The Aga Khan and the Human Connection. Following my previous post on putting the Aga Khan’s speech at Brown in a historical context, I want to spend some time on his discussion of technology and human interaction. Rather than speaking only to the Nizari Ismaili community, or to concerns that affect only Nizari Ismailis, he is addressing a larger human concern. If, as the Qur’an states, the Prophet Muhammad was sent as a mercy to all mankind, than it is only logical that his descendants and the inheritors of his spiritual authority should continue to speak…

Why I was scared to attend the AAR Conference this year | Bulletin for the Study of Religion. Like many scholars of religion, I normally make my plans to attend the annual national meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). This year, I decided I would not attend. Some of my friends and colleagues thought it was perhaps because I was an adjunct, and had no funding to attend the most important professional conference of our discipline. This concern is real for so many of our members, but was not my issue this year. Instead, it was that we…

Adjuncts fight for a living wage | Al Jazeera America. Picture a professor, and you probably don’t think of someone struggling to put food on the table. But that’s the reality for many adjunct faculty, with some earning the equivalent of a fast-food wage.  A recent study says more than 75% of professors are now adjunct. Are they being exploited and how do their working conditions impact higher education?