Encyclopedia of Islam

About the Editors and Contributors

  

xiii  J

She has published articles on classical and 

modern Persian literature. She is the author of 

The Love Poems of Shamlu and The Unveiling of 

Secrets Kashf al-Asrar: The Visionary Autobiog-

raphy of Ruzbihan Baqli.

David Reeves is a Ph.D. candidate in history at 

the University of California, Santa Barbara. He 

specializes in the history of Islam in the Soviet 

Union, with a focus on Azerbaijan during the 

Stalin era. He has been awarded a Fulbright-

Hayes Fellowship, a University of California, 

Santa Barbara, Department of History Regent’s 

Dissertation Fellowship, and a Social Science 

Research Council Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, 

among others, to conduct his research.

Mehnaz Sahibzada earned an M.A. in religious 

studies from the University of California, 

Santa Barbara, and an M.A. in Middle Eastern 

studies from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Her areas of interest include Islam in America 

and Asian American literature. She teaches 

English at Moorpark High School in Southern 

California.

Judy Saltzman is emeritus professor of religious 

studies at California Polytechnic University 

in San Luis Obispo. Her Ph.D. is from the 

University of California, Santa Barbara. She 

specializes in the history of Asian religions, 

Indian philosophy, Vedanta, and modern Ger-

man philosophy.

Kerry San Chirico is a doctoral candidate in the 

Department of Religious Studies at the Univer-

sity of California, Santa Barbara. He specializes 

in the religions of South Asia, with a focus on 

Hindu-Christian relations.

Leslie Sargent is a Ph.D. candidate in history at 

the University of California, Santa Barbara. She 

specializes in the history of the Russian Empire 

and the Caucasus in the late 19th and early 

20th centuries.

Bhaskar Sarkar is associate professor of film and 

media studies at the University of California, 

Santa Barbara. His Ph.D. is from the Univer-

sity of California, Los Angeles. He specializes 

in postcolonial media theory, Asian cinemas, 

and Marxist cultural theory. He is the author 

of Mourning in the Nation: Indian Cinema in the 

Wake of Partition (forthcoming, 2008) and has 

published essays on philosophies of visuality 

and Indian and Chinese popular cinemas in 

anthologies and journals such as Quarterly 

Review of Film and Video, Rethinking History: 

Theory and Practice, and New Review of Film 

and Television Studies.

Megan Adamson Sijapati is assistant professor of 

religion at Gettysburg College. She received her 

Ph.D. in religious studies from the University 

of California, Santa Barbara. Her specialization 

is in the religions of South Asia, with a focus on 

contemporary Islam.

Mark Soileau received a Ph.D. in religious stud-

ies, with a focus on Islam, from the University 

of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently 

an assistant professor of religious studies at 

Albion College in Michigan.

Varun Soni is currently a doctoral candidate in the 

Department of Religious Studies at the Univer-

sity of Cape Town, South Africa. He received 

a J.D. from the University of California, Santa 

Barbara, School of Law, an M.T.S. from Har-

vard Divinity School, and an M.A. from the 

University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Eric Staples received a Ph.D. in history from the 

University of California, Santa Barbara. He spe-

cializes in medieval and early modern Middle 

Eastern history, and focuses on the social history 

of early modern Morocco, the maritime history 

of the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean regions, 

and underwater archaeology. He is currently 

involved in a project to build a replica of a medi-

eval Indian Ocean vessel under the auspices of 

the governments of Oman and Singapore.

Nancy L. Stockdale is assistant professor of his-

tory at the University of Northern Texas. 

She received her Ph.D. from the University 

of California, Santa Barbara. Her specializa-

tion is modern Middle Eastern history, with a 

focus on the history of Palestine, imperialism, 

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K  xiv