Jessica Radin
Ph.D. Candidate, Department for the Study of Religion
Jessica L. Radin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral work focuses on the relationship between imagination and politics in Jewish and Islamic sources. She lived in Syria from 2006 to 2008, matriculated at the government-run Institute for the Teaching of Arabic to Non-Native Speakers in Damascus, and conducted research in Beirut, Lebanon in 2012.
Alex Thurston
International Affairs Fellow, Religion Department
Alex Thurston holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Northwestern University in the Islam in Africa track. His dissertation focuses on Islamic scholars and activists in postcolonial Northern Nigeria. Other research interests include the intersection of Islam and politics in the Sahel region, ties between Africa and the Arab world, and American foreign policy toward Africa. Thurston holds an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Senegal in 2006 to 2007. He writes about politics and religion in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa on his Sahel Blog and has contributed to Foreign Policy, The American Interest, World Politics Review, and the Christian Science Monitor website.