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PROFILES
OF KEYNOTE SPEAKERS AND CONCURRENT SESSION CHAIRS
Moncef Ben Abdeljelil, is Associate Professor at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, where he is also a lead member of the faculty team developing educational programmes. Previously Professor of Islamic Thought and Arabic Civilisations at the University of Sousse, Tunisia, Abdeljelil has made significant contributions to the reform of the education system in Tunisia. In particular, he helped to bring reform to primary and secondary schools while in his capacity as advisor to the Minister of Education and Sciences. He also spent several years working with the Minister of Higher Education to reform the religious and Islamic studies programme at Zitouna University, Tunisia.
Haroon Ahmed is a Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University since 2000; he has been a Fellow of the College for 33 years. He is Professor of Microelectronics and the Head of the Microelectronics Research Centre of the University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and holds the degree of Doctor of Science from Cambridge University. His current interest is in the digital imaging of medieval manuscripts which were given to his College by its 14th Master, Matthew Parker, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This research project presents the unique challenge of combining the advances in scientific imaging technology with the needs of scholars working on medieval manuscripts.
Zaki Badawi is Principal of the Muslim College in Britain, a seminary responsible for the training of imams and Muslim leaders in the West. He is also co-founder of the Three Faiths Forum, Vice Chairman of the World Congress of Faiths and Director and Trustee of the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism. He was previously Director of the Islamic Cultural Centre and the Chief Imam of London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park. In addition to his publications, he co-edits Encounter Magazine with the Archbishop of York and the Chief Rabbi and is also Chairman of The Arabic Forum, the Islamic Religious Council and the National Council for the Welfare of Muslim Prisoners.
Ronald Barnett is Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. He joined the Institute of Education in 1990 and in 2001 became Dean of Professional Development and coordinator of quality affairs, overseeing the development of all quality systems, both academic and administrative across the Institute. He is also Chairman of the Society for Research into Higher Education.
Bahram Bekhradnia became the first Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute on its creation in 2002. Prior to that he had been Director of Policy for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) since its formation in 1992, having briefly worked for the Universities Funding Council (UFC). While at HEFCE he was at the heart of many of the key developments affecting higher education during the decade, serving on a number of national committees, some of which he chaired. Before joining the UFC he spent his career in the Department of Education and Science (as it then was), where he was head of the Teacher Supply Division.
Rahma Bourqia is President of the Université Hassan II, Mohammadiya, where she was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for four years. Previously Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Mohammed V University in Rabat, she is the first woman president of a Moroccan university and has researched and written widely on social, educational, gender and health issues within Moroccan society.
Colin Bundy took office as Principal and Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies in May 2001; he is also Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of London. Previously, he served as Vice Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and has held chairs in history at the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape (UWC). In 1994 he served as Vice Rector (Academic) at UWC before moving to the Witwatersrand in 1997. He has written several books and over 40 scholarly articles and chapters on South African history and politics.
Ahmet O. Evin is founding Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sabanci University, Turkey, a private institution of higher learning, where he also teaches. Prior to his appointment as dean, he participated in the curriculum development of Sabanci University. He has taught at a number of universities, including NYU, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania (where he served as Director of the Middle East Centre), Hacettepe University (Ankara) and Bilkent University. He is currently an Alexander Onassis Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy in Athens, working on Greek-Turkish relations as well as Turkey and the EU enlargement.
Abdou Filali-Ansary is Director of Aga Khan University–Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London. Previously he served as founding Director of the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences in Casablanca, Morocco and as secretary-general of the Mohammed V University in Rabat, having also taught modern philosophy there. He has contributed widely to the academic discourse on Islam and modernity and on democratisation and civil society in the Middle East.
Rafia Obaid Ghubash is President of the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) in Bahrain and associate professor and consultant psychiatrist. She holds a PhD in community and epidemiological psychiatry from the University of London. Before assuming her responsibilities as President of AGU, Ghubash was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. She was also a member of the team that wrote the UNDP Arab Human Development Report 2003.
Zulfiqar Gilani is Rector of Foundation University, Islamabad, a private-sector institution of higher learning. He is also the Director of the Centre for Higher Education Transformation, which develops policy briefs for the Higher Education Commission and other policymaking bodies in the country. Between 2000 and 2004 Gilani was Vice Chancellor of the University of Peshawar. He was a member of the Task Force for Improving Higher Education and Chair of the Sub-Committee on Vision and Governance, while also serving on the Steering Committee for Higher Education.
Shamsh Kassim-Lakha is former President and a founding Trustee of Aga Khan University, chartered in 1983 as Pakistan’s first private international university. Kassim-Lakha has served on the boards of numerous organisations and senior governmental advisory panels in areas of finance, energy, environmental protection, health and education. In 2002 he was appointed Chairman of the Steering Committee on Higher Education to oversee reforms to Pakistan’s higher education system. He is the recipient of several awards, including the award of Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite and more recently, in 2002, the prestigious Civil Award of Hilal-i-Imtiaz.
Muhammad Memon is Director of the Institute for Educational Development, Aga Khan University (AKU-IED), Pakistan. He obtained his PhD in Education from the University of Surrey, England and MA in Educational Planning and Management from the Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad. Before joining AKU-IED, Memon served in the public sector as a teacher educator, project manager, educational planner and evaluator. His research work focusing on teacher education and educational leadership is widely published in national and international journals.
Seyyed Ataollah Mohajerani is a former Iranian Minister of Culture (1997–2000) and a former Deputy Prime Minister in charge of parliamentary and legal affairs. He has a PhD in the history of Iran and Islam and has also spent many years in academia, first as a teacher, and from 2000 to 2003, as Head of the International Centre for Dialogue among Civilisations. Since 1992 he has been involved in publishing, serving as editor-in-chief of a number of journals; he is currently managing editor of Goft-o-go, a political/current events discussion magazine. He is also the author of several novels. In 2000 he was awarded the Star of Pakistan (national award).
Sohail Naqvi is a member of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Pakistan, set up to facilitate the development of universities in Pakistan to be world-class centres of education, research and development. He has an MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, Indiana, USA. Previously, from 1995 to 1999, he was Dean of the Faculty of Electronics, Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK) Institute of Technology, Topi, Pakistan. During his tenure at GIK, the Faculty of Electronics became established as a premier electronics engineering department in South Asia. He was also Assistant/Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA, from 1988 to 1995.
Azim Nanji has been Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies since 1998. Previously he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. He has served as co-chair of the Islamic section at the American Academy of Religion, as a member of the Philanthropy Committee of the Council on Foundations and has been the recipient of awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Canada Council and the National Endowment for Humanities. Presently he serves as Vice Chair of the Aga Khan Foundation’s madrasa-based Early Childhood Education Programme in East Africa and as member of the editorial board for the new edition of The Encyclopedia of Religion.
Richard Pring is lead Director of the Independent Nuffield Review of 14 to 19 Education and Training, England and Wales. A former Director of the University of Oxford’s Department of Educational Studies, he began his career teaching in a London comprehensive school, later becoming a lecturer at Goldsmiths College and the Institute of Education, London. He was a consultant for ten years to Aga Khan University-Institute of Educational Development and has been closely involved in the national and international debate around teacher education, vocational preparation and the philosophy of education.
Mojtaba Sadria is Professor of Cross-Cultural/East Asian Studies at Chuo University, Faculty of Policy Studies, Japan. He has taught and done research in a number of European countries and in North America, including Tsuda University; Sophia University; Tokyo University and the Université du Québec à Montréal. He holds PhDs in philosophy and in international relations. His graduate work is in history and philosophy and his primary area of interest is cross-cultural relations. He has done work on the Japanese outlook on Asia, globalisation and public space.
Burhan Senatalar is Professor of Economics and since 2001 Head of the Economics Department of Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey. He is also a member of the Higher Education Council of Turkey and previously served as Head of the Public Finance Department at Istanbul University and as General Secretary and later President (from 1993 to 1998) of the Association of University Teachers. His research and teaching record cover areas like public expenditures, corruption, taxation and the welfare state.
S. Frederick Starr is Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is also former President of Oberlin College and of the Aspen Institute; founding Director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies; former Associate Professor of History at Princeton University; past Vice President for Academic Affairs at Tulane University, where he also taught in the School of Architecture; and a regular participant in the World Economic Forum. He is the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 articles on Russian and Eurasian affairs.
David Taylor has been Acting Provost of Aga Khan University since 2002. Before joining AKU he had been on the faculty of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he had most recently held the position of Pro-Director for Taught Courses; he had previously been Head of the Department of Political Studies and Chair of the Centre for South Asian Studies. Taylor's disciplinary background is in history and political science. His main areas of research have been the 20th century history of India and Pakistan.