Faculty
Co-Directors
Kathleen Knight Abowitz
Co-Director and Principal Investigator, College of Education, Health and Society, Department of Educational Leadership. Knight Abowitz is a professor specializing in philosophy of education, focusing on the democratic aims of education and citizenship education.
Former President of the John Dewey Society, Knight Abowitz teaches courses to future teachers and administrators around questions of democracy, ethics, citizenship, and leadership.
Liz Wilson
Co-Director; 黑料社区, College of Arts & Sciences,Comparative Religion Department. Wilson specializes in the religions of South Asia.
Wilson’s research explores how South Asians practice their religions in global, diasporic contexts. She teaches courses on festivals and foodways, religious dress, marriage and courtship practices that include case studies on Muslim American communities.
K-12 Leader
Melissa Insko
Teaching Professions Instructor and Miami doctoral candidate, has spent the past twelve years honing her skills in literacy, curriculum development, and teacher preparation.
A Kentucky Golden Apple recipient, she spent 9 years as director of the KidzMash/CodeMash families mini-conference, advised on--and presented 5 sessions at--the "Keys to Success: Motivation-Based Education" workshop, initiated the creation of three separate academy programs, helped to develop the Teaching & Learning CTE Pathway for the state of Kentucky, and wrote two chapter introductions for Is Teaching For Me? (Runge, 2020).
Insko will serve as the Institutes K-12 Leader, guiding participants as they develop their curricular projects.
Visiting Scholars
Kayla Reneé Wheeler
Wheeler is an Assistant Professor of Critical Ethnic Studies and Theology and the Africana Studies Program Director at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
She earned her Ph.D. in Religious Studies with a concentration in Islam in America from the University of Iowa in 2017. She is an expert in contemporary Islam and Black material culture.
Currently, she is writing a book entitled Fashioning Black Islam, which provides a history of Black Muslim fashion in the United States from the 1930s to the present. She is the author of the digital humanities project, Mapping Malcolm's Boston, which explores Malcolm X's life in Boston from the 1940s to 1950s. Dr. Wheeler is also the curator of the award-winning Black Islam Syllabus.
Edward E. Curtis IV
Dr. Curtis is the William M. and Gail M. Plater Chair of the Liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies at the IU School of Liberal Arts in Indianapolis.
The author or editor of over dozen books, he is the recipient of fellowships and grants from Carnegie, Fulbright, Luce, Mellon, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He is the former director of the NEH Summer Seminar, Muslim American History and Life.
Elizabeth (Liz) Bucar
Bucar is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Northeastern University and an ethnographic ethicist who has done fieldwork in Iran, Indonesia, and Turkey as well as among U.S. Catholic women.
Author of The Islamic Veil: A Beginners Guide and Pious Fashion: How Muslims Dress, Bucar’s innovative approach to the field of religious dress can inform educators about biased understandings of religion, race, class, and gender that affect Muslim Americans.
Bucar’s public scholarship has appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and other accessible venues.
Linda K. Wertheimer
While careful to note that she is not the other Linda of NPR, Wertheimer is the award-winning author of Faith Ed, Teaching About Religion In An Age Of Intolerance. Faith Ed, published in 2015 by Beacon Press, examines schools' efforts to teach about religion, often in the face of controversy.
Wertheimer's book and related excerpts have won numerous prizes, including from the Religion News Association and the Education Writers Association.
Linda's more than 30-year career as a journalist, meanwhile, includes serving as education editor of The Boston Globe and working as an education reporter for The Dallas Morning News, The Orlando Sentinel and other publications.
She is a sought-after speaker on the intersection of religion and public schools and past speaking engagements include giving a featured talk at the National Council of the Social Studies annual conference and conducting workshops for Facing History & Ourselves.
Find her on Twitter @Lindakwert. Her website is: .
Other Faculty
Loukia Sarroub
Sarroub is the Marvin C. & Jane N. Nore Professor and Chair of the Department of Teaching, Learning & Teacher Education, at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and she has a Courtesy Professorship in the School of Global Integrative Studies (Anthropology).
As an ethnographer and researcher, her research lies at the nexus of adolescent literacies; language and culture and sociolinguistic analyses; anthropology and education; and teacher education.
Her publications range from cross-cultural studies that include fieldwork in schools, immigrant and refugee communities in the US and Europe, and to studies about youth cultures, religion and literacy, Middle Eastern populations, including fieldwork in Yemeni and Iraqi communities.
More information about her scholarship is available on her or .
Brenda Dales
Dales taught children's and young adult literature at 黑料社区 for several years.
She has served as a children's book reviewer, Chair of the USBBY Outstanding International Books Committee, member of the Notable Children's Books Committee for ALSC (a division of the American Library Association), member of the Caldecott Committee, and in 2021 she was a member of the international jury for the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava.
Currently Professor Emerita, she is professionally involved in children's/YA literacy organizations, actively engaged in scholarship, and a member of the Notable Books for Global Society book selection committee for the International Literacy Association.
Dr. Asma Mobin-Uddin
Dr. Mobin-Uddin is a pediatrician and bioethicist who writes about the Muslim-American experience.
Addressing contemporary issues such as identity and religious prejudice and also sharing about observances such as Islamic holidays and fasting in Ramadan, her award-winning books offer a view into Muslim family life.
My Name is Bilal won the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People and was recently featured in The New York Times and on CNN.
Building bridges of understanding and respect between cultures and faith traditions, Dr. Mobin-Uddin's books serve to connect, educate and inspire friends and neighbors across the globe.
Visit .
Scott Henderson
Henderson is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Education at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
He began his 30+ year teaching career as a middle school social studies educator in Chesapeake, Virginia. Since then, he has taught a wide range of ages, including adults, in the U.S. and Japan.
He is the author of books, articles, and book chapters on U.S. political and social history, as well as social studies pedagogy.
Henderson earned his Ph.D. in history from SUNY-Buffalo.
Jason Palmieri
Palmieri is Professor of English and Co-Director of the Ohio Writing Project at 黑料社区. As a scholar, they focus on composition theory and history, digital and mulitmodal writing pedagogies (K-16), and queer rhetorics.
Palmeri is the author of Remixing Composition: A History of Multimodal Writing Pedagogy (Southern Illinois UP 2012 and co-author of 100 Years of New Media Pedagogy (Michigan 2021)-- a born-digital, open access book.
Syed Hassan Raza
Hassan Raza is a PhD 黑料社区 in the Educational Leadership/Leadership, Culture and Curriculum program at 黑料社区.
As a Pakistani K-12 educator and school leader for over two decades, he has graduated from teacher-training and leadership programs in Pakistan, India, and in the US.
He holds graduate degrees in School Leadership (U.S.) and an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Pakistan), and has been the recipient of various grants to conduct teacher-training projects in Pakistan.