• About
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    In 2009, Zaytuna College was founded in Berkeley, California, with a mission that called for grounding students in the Islamic scholarly tradition as well as in the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.

  • Academics
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    As a Muslim liberal arts college in the West, Zaytuna offers a curriculum that provides its students with a foundation in the intellectual heritage of two major world civilizations: the Islamic and the Western.

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  • Admissions & Aid
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    Our mission is to educate students to become morally, intellectually, and spiritually accomplished individuals ready to contribute to our contemporary world in ways that are proportionate to their gifts and to the needs of human society.

     

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  • Campus Life
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    Zaytuna’s campus is on Holy Hill and students enter the College as part of a cohort, a community of learners that travel together through the curriculum.

Munir Jiwa

Associate Professor; Director of Academic Initiatives and Partnerships

Munir Jiwa

Biography

Dr. Munir Jiwa is a scholar of anthropology and religious studies. His research interests include Islam and Muslims in the West, Islamophobia studies, media, art and aesthetics, religion in the public sphere, secularism, religious formation, and interreligious and theological education.

From July 2007 to March 2024, Dr. Jiwa was the Founding Director of the Center for Islamic Studies and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Anthropology at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). During his tenure at the GTU, Dr. Jiwa served as the committee chair and advisor for over 85 PhD, MA, and certificate students, and visiting scholars from around the world in Islamic studies, anthropology of religion, and other academic concentrations throughout the GTU, and various departments at UC Berkeley.

Dr. Jiwa currently serves as a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, and has also served on several boards and committees in various departments, institutes, and programs since 2007. In 2022, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, where he has also served on the Public Education Advisory Board since 2008. From 2019-2021, he served as the Chair of the Committee on Racial and Ethnic Minorities at the American Academy of Religion. He received the GTU Excellence in Teaching Award in 2015 and was the GTU Distinguished Faculty in 2019.

He has extensive experience in working on dialogue and bridge-building programs, including at the UN-affiliated organization, Religions for Peace, assisting the Secretary General on establishing interreligious councils around the world. His work focused on youth programs in Bosnia, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, and Sierra Leone.

He is the recipient of foundation awards and grants from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council.

Dr. Jiwa holds a PhD and MPhil in Anthropology from Columbia University, an MTS from Harvard University Divinity School, a BA from SFU, and has held postdoctoral positions at MIT and at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Jiwa serves as the Director of Academic Initiatives and Partnerships and Associate Professor at Zaytuna College. He joined Zaytuna College in 2024.

Education
Publications
Professional Activities

University of Toronto, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Religion, 2005-2007




MIT, Postdoctoral Fellow, AKPIA, 2004-2005



Columbia University, PhD, Anthropology, 2004


Columbia University, MPhil, Anthropology, 2001


Harvard University Divinity School, MTS, World Religions, 1996


SFU, BA, Honors First Class, Communication, 1993

Frames of Exclusion: Islamophobia and the Politics of Belonging (book project in progress)


“Reflections on Islamic Studies in an Interreligious Context,” in Critical Perspectives on Interreligious Education: Experiments in Empathy (Brill 2020), https://brill.com/view/title/56542


"Artistic Landscapes: Muslim Artists in America," in The Oxford Handbook of American Islam (Oxford, 2013) 


"Mediating Islamic Norms," Religious Norms Project (E-book, UC Berkeley, 2013) "Muslims and the Art of Interfaith Post-9/11" chapter in Islam in Practice (Routledge, 2013)


“Imaging, Imagining and Representation: Muslim Artists in NYC,” in Journal of Contemporary Islam, Dec 10, 2009 online, April 2010 paper journal. 

American Academy of Religion, Racial & Ethnic Minorities Committee Chair (2019-2021) 


American Academy of Religion, Racial & Ethnic Minorities Committee Member (2016-2019) 


American Academy of Religion, Contemporary Islam Group, Steering Committee (2011-2014) 


Graduate Theological Union, Awards Committee (2022-2023)


Graduate Theological Union, Faculty Rep to the GTU Board of Trustees (2017-2020)


Graduate Theological Union, Faculty Council (2011-2013, 2015-2017) 


Graduate Theological Union, Asia Project Board Member (2009-2011)


Islamic Scholarship Fund, Advisory Board Member (2009-2019)


Society for Asian Art, Advisory Committee (2018-2022)


Stanford Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Public Education Advisory Board (2008-present) 


UC Berkeley, Othering & Belonging Institute, Religion Cluster Faculty (2017-present) 


UC Berkeley, Center for Race and Gender, Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project Advisory Committee and Islamophobia Studies Journal Editorial Board Member (2009-present) 


UC Berkeley, Religion, Politics, Globalization Program, Steering Committee (2012-present)


UC Berkeley, iGov Center for Institutions and Governance, Visiting Scholar (2011-2014)