Jane I. Smith

Profile

Jane Smith returned to Harvard Divinity School in July 2008 as associate dean for faculty and academic affairs and Senior Lecturer in Divinity. She was at Harvard from 1973 to 1986, serving as a professor of comparative religion and, at various times, associate director of the Center for the Study of World Religions and associate dean of HDS. In 1986, Jane left Harvard to become vice president and dean of Iliff School of Theology in Denver. In more recent years, she has been Professor of Islamic Studies at Hartford Seminary and co-director of its Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. She teaches and writes on historical and theological relations between Christians and Muslims, Muslim communities in America, and women in Islam. She speaks and teaches on interfaith relations and is a frequent participant in Christian-Muslim dialogue meetings. Among her recent publications are Islam in America (revised 2009); Educating the Muslims of America (2009, co-edited with Farid Senzai and Yvonne Haddad); Muslims, Christians, and the Challenge of Interfaith Dialogue (2007); Muslim Women in America (2006, co-authored with Yvonne Haddad); and Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible (2002).