About Adnan Husain

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


Research interests:

Religious and intellectual cultures of the Medieval Mediterranean and Islamic World; historical and social theory, anticolonial 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.

Associate Professor, History Department and Director, School of Religion.

Queen's University

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.

Media and Podcasting

Adnan is a host of two podcasts, Guerrilla History and The Majlis, is a regular contributor to The David Feldman Show, has appeared in several historical documentaries, and contributes expertise in interviews to media on current affairs, religious affairs, Islamophobia and racism in contemporary culture and politics, as well as global history and politics.

Guerrilla History

Guerrilla History is the podcast that acts as a reconnaissance report of global history for the activist left, and aims to use the lessons of history to analyze the present. Your hosts are immunobiologist Henry Hakamaki, Professor Adnan Husain, historian and Director of the School of Religion at Queen's University, and Revolutionary Left Radio's Breht O'Shea.

The Majlis

The Majlis is a podcast by Muslim Societies-Global Perspectives (MSGP) at Queen's University. Majlis is the Arabic word for an assembly of learned scholars brought together to discuss and debate. The Majlis podcast convenes a virtual assembly for understanding the Middle East, Islamic World and Muslim diasporic culture, history, politics, and religion.