Dr. Celene Ibrahim is an accomplished scholar, author, and teacher. She is widely published on academic and popular forums, and her contributions to enhancing cultural and religious literacy have been featured by numerous media outlets. Her forthcoming book,Women and Gender in the Qur'an (Oxford University Press, 2020), provides detailed analysis of women figures in Islamic sacred history. Her first book, One Nation, Indivisible: Seeking Liberty and Justice from the Pulpit to the Streets (Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2019), is an edited anthology exploring racial and religious bias in the United States with a focus on Islam and Muslims.
Ibrahim currently teaches ethics and comparative religion at Groton School where she is a faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy. She served as the Muslim Chaplain at Tufts University (2014–2019) and as Islamic Studies Scholar-in-Residence at Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School. During this time, she co-directed a nationally recognized program on interfaith studies known as the Center for Inter-Religious and Communal Leadership Education (CIRCLE) (2014–2017). She has served in the department of Religious and Theological Studies at Merrimack College (2011–2014) where she offered courses on Islam and interreligious encounter. She has also offered Islamic studies courses at the Boston Islamic Seminary, Hartford Seminary, and Episcopal Divinity School.
Ibrahim earned a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Civilizations and a master's degree in Women's and Gender Studies and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School with a focus in Muslim ministry, and a bachelor's degree with highest honors in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. She is a graduate of the United World College of the American West.
Ibrahim's pioneering scholarship and service have earned her many awards and honors, including as a Harvard Presidential Scholar, an Andrew A. Mellon Fellow, a Fellow in the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, an HRH Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Fellow in Non-Profit Management and Philanthropy at the Islamic Society of North America, and a Davis Scholar at Princeton University.
Ibrahim currently serves on the boards of the Boston Islamic Seminary, the Feminist Studies in Religion Forum, the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership, the Harvard Divinity School Alumni/ae Council, and the U.S. Selection Committee of the United World College. She is a member of several academic working groups, including the board of the Journal of Inter-Religious Studies, the academic policy committee of The Islamic Seminary of America, the Multifaith Campus Chaplaincy Project at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the chaplaincy training working group of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, and the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Unit of the American Academy of Religion.
As a public voice on issues of religion and civic engagement, Ibrahim is deeply committed to counteracting bigotry and fostering values of pluralism, integrity, and civic responsibility. Ibrahim offers lectures and workshops around the United States and frequently leads educational seminars to destinations around the world.
Dr.Celene Ibrahim
Photo by Simon Goodacre
Photos by Alonso Nichols
