Scholars' Corner

Islam and the Jewish-Christian Encounter

Meet the Presenters

Dr. Sulayman Nyang is Professor of African Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he served as department chair from 1986 to 1993. From 1975 to 1978 he was Deputy Ambassador and Head of Chancery of the Gambia Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Cur-rently he is the Lead Developer for the African Voice Project of the Museum of Natural History of the Smith-sonian Institution. He also serves as co-director of Muslims in the American Public Square, a research project funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. A frequent lecturer on college campuses, Islamic centers and at national conventions of Islamic organizations in North America, Professor Nyang has written extensively on Islamic, African and Middle Eastern affairs and has con-tributed over a dozen chapters in edited books. Islam in the United States of America (1999) is a collection of essays written over several years. Other works include Islam, Christianity and African Identity (1984); A Line in the Sand: Saudi Arabia's Role in the Gulf War (1995), co-authored with Evan Heindricks; and Religious Plurality in Africa, co-edited with Jacob Olupona. Professor Nyang has served on the boards of the African Studies Association, the American Council for the Study of the Islamic Societies, and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. He is a member of the Academic Council of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

Rabbi Charles Arian is the Jewish scholar on staff at The Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies. His varied professional and personal experiences include a position as resident scholar in a Trappist Cistercian Abbey; Executive Director of the American University Hillel Foun-dation, in Washington, D.C.; and the Director of Student Religious Life at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, California.

In 1988 Taylor Branch was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History for his first volume of a trilogy on the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63. The second volume, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65, was published in 1998; and the third and final installment, At Canaan's Edge, is complete and soon to be published. In recognition of his scholarship in American Civil Rights history, Mr. Branch was awarded a five-year MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991. In addition to the trilogy, Mr. Branch is the author of a number of works of fiction and history, and he has written for a wide variety of publications.

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, Director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, is the former editorial committee chairperson and former editor of Sh’ma: a Journal of Jewish Responsibility. She has served as the associate director of the National Center for Jewish Healing. Rabbi Cardin is the author of A Tap-estry of Jewish Time: A Spiritual Guide to Holidays and Life Cycle Events and Tears of Sorrow, Seeds of Hope: A Jewish Spiritual Companion for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss.

Dr. Rosann Catalano is the Roman Catholic scholar on staff at The Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies. Among her responsibilities she oversees the National Seminary Project and coordinates and teaches in the Mini-Course Adult Education Program. She is the co-editor of Irreconcilable Differences? A Learning Resource for Jews and Christians (Westview Press, 2001). From 1979-1991 she was Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at St. Mary's Seminary & University, Baltimore, MD.

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