Graduate Profile: Noor Noman, MRPL '25

How I've Changed 

I think it will take me a while to fully process and metabolize how this place has changed me. I feel like I've changed more rapidly this year than perhaps any other year in my life. I think HDS has really helped me better understand what kind of leader I want to be and how I want to show up in community. It has made me more committed to peacebuilding—intentionally integrating it into the work I do—and better equipped me with the necessary tools. It has given me a more capacious understanding of how structural oppression operates and how to challenge it in generative ways. And it has honed my skills as a musician.

Memorable Moment

Without question, it was making and recording the album I co-created with my bandmates, The Hearty Bois, for my MRPL final project.

Favorite Class or Professor

It is so hard to choose! I loved the MRPL seminar. It was such a supportive and collaborative space. I also really loved “Animals and the Unseen” by Teren Sevea, “Logic in the Islamic Intellectual History: A Feminist Critical Reading” by Zahra Moballegh, “Embodied Religion in Muslim Memoir & Autobiography” by Aysha Hidayatullah, and “Persian Sufi Literature” by Nicholas Boylston.

Message of Thanks 

Professor Teren Sevea has been a wonderful mentor and teacher. Chris Hossfeld, director of music and ritual, has been instrumental (pun intended) in centering music in the HDS experience and doing it in a deeply inclusive way. I am grateful for the mentorship of Diane Moore and David Holland, too. And Raisa Tolchinsky, who helped hold MRPL together, not to mention the whole MPRL cohort. Additionally, I will be forever grateful for the support of and collaboration with some of the heartiest musicians—especially Amie Montemurro, Joyce Cheng, and Craig Rusert.

What I Hope to Be Remembered By

I hope to be remembered for my whimsy (and for my dog, Nala, who would roam the halls of HDS).

Future Plans

I plan on staying in the Boston area to finish working on my album with my bandmates. And I plan to continue freelancing as a journalist and communications consultant.