Academia and the University
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley 1998
M.A. University of California, Berkeley 1992
B.A. University of California, Berkeley 1991
Deep Springs College, Class of 1987
Research interests:
Religious and intellectual cultures of the Medieval Mediterranean and Islamic World; historical and social theory, anti-colonial and decolonizing traditions; the relationships between religious and political authority; interreligious relations among Muslims, Christians, and Jews; histories of religious and racial exclusion/prejudice, Islamophobia and antisemitism; Crusades; modern legacies of or appropriations of medieval history.
I principally study and teach the cross-cultural and inter-religious encounters among the Muslims, Christians and Jews of Latin Christendom and the Islamic world in the Mediterranean zone from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. On these topics, I have published numerous academic journal articles; completed a forthcoming study, entitled Identity Polemics: Encounters with Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean World (1150-1300); and have co-edited a collection, A Faithful Sea: The Religious Cultures of the Mediterranean, 1200-1700 (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2007). I am currently writing a book on the intertwined roots of Islamophobia and antisemitism in medieval Christendom, entitled The Formation of a Crusading Society.
I am also co-Founder and Director of Muslim Societies-Global Perspectives (MSGP) at Queen's, a project for sponsoring research, curriculum and public education which embraces the study of Muslim cultures and diasporas that span the globe.
I have also served in numerous capacities in the field of anti-racism, equity and inclusion. I chaired the Senate Educational Equity Committee, served on the Diversity, Anti-Racism, and Equity panel, led the Diversity and Equity Taskforce as Director of Diversity and Educational Equity Programs in the Office of the Provost, and chaired the Equity Advisory Group for the Faculty of Arts and Science Strategic Plan at Queen's University.
Currently, I am a board member of the International Islamophobia Studies and Research Association (IISRA) and on the advisory board of ReOrient: Journal of Critical Muslim Studies. I also serve on the board of trustees of Deep Springs College, an experimental two year college in the California high desert and of Rahima International Foundation, a charitable and educational organization in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Adnan is a host of two podcasts, Guerrilla History and his own The Adnan Husain Show, has appeared in several historical documentaries, and contributes expertise in interviews to media and various shows on current affairs, religious affairs, Islamophobia and racism in contemporary culture and politics, as well as global history and politics.