Name:  Vincent J. Cornell
Title:  Professor of History and Director, King Fahd Center for Middle
East and Islamic Studies, Chair of Studies, Program in Religious
Studies
  Organization:  University of Arkansas

Professor Cornell is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of
California, Berkeley.  He received his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from
University of California Los Angeles in 1989. He has taught at
Northwestern University (2 years), the University of Georgia (1 year),
and Duke University (9 years).  Since July 1, 2000 he has been
Professor of History and Director of the King Fahd Center for Middle
East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas.  He has
published two major books: The Way of Abu Madyan (Cambridge: The
Islamic Texts Society, 1996) and Realm of the Saint: Power and
Authority in Moroccan Sufism (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press,
1998).  His pre-modern interests cover the entire spectrum of Islamic
thought from Sufism to philosophy and Islamic law.  He has lived and
worked in Morocco for nearly six years, and has spent considerable time
both teaching and doing research in Egypt, Tunisia, Malaysia and
Indonesia.  He is presently working on four book projects: (1) He is
the General Editior for a five-volume set with Praeger/Greenwood Press
entitled, Voices of Islam. (2) He is finishing a translation of volume
8 of ‘Allama Tabataba’i’s Qur’an commentary al-Mizan fi Tafsir
al-Qur’an for the Alevi Foundation. (3) He is preparing a critique of
contemporary Islamist reform movements tentatively entitled, Islamic
Modernism and the Myth of Authenticity. (4) He is also preparing a
second critique of Islamism tentatively entitled, The Roots of Islamic
Totalitarianism.  He is also planning a study of Islamic moral
philosophy and a work on the theology of Jahiz (d. 869).  His most
recent publications are on Islamic theology and philosophy: “Religion
and Philosophy ” chapter for World Eras Volume 2: The Rise and Spread
of Islam 622-1500, Susan L. Douglass, ed. [Farmington Hills, Michigan:
The Gale Group/Manly Inc., 2002]).  He has also written about the
challenge to Islam of the terrorist attacks of 9-11-01: “A Muslim to
Muslims: Reflections after September 11,” in Stanlely Hauerwas and
Frank Lentricchia, Eds.  Dissent from the Homeland: Essays after
September 11 (Durham, N.C. and London: Duke University Press, 2003),
pp. 83-94.