Srinagar-born Najeeba Syeed-Miller has been named to the faculty at Claremont School of Theology, becoming the first Muslim faculty member at what is one of America's leading universities in the study of theology.
Academic Dean Susan Nelson said Syeed-Miller, who will join as an assistant professor of interreligious education in the fall, "is already an effective community leader who will bring a wealth of experience and perspective into the classroom."
Syeed-Miller said, "My lifelong mission in scholarship and community work has been to build bridges between groups and find ways to promote positive relations, which is closely aligned with the emerging CST University Project's vision."
An alumna of the University of Chicago where she majored in Arabic, Guilford College, a Quaker school in North Carolina, and Indiana University from where she received a law degree, Syeed-Miller is an expert on the emergence of fiqh al-aquliyat, the jurisprudence of Muslim minorities, and feels there is a dire need for Muslim scholars to engage in civic society and legal matters. She is currently adjunct faculty at California State University, and vice chair of the City Commission of Pasadena-California on the Status of Women.
"What I appreciate is that the [Claremont school] is using a model of pluralism that promotes an adherence and preservation of each faith tradition by its own followers while engaging with each other to solve the dire problems of our world today," she said. She said the priorities on her agenda and teaching assignments would include "interreligious education and dialogue how do we prepare tomorrow's faith leaders to serve their own communities and also work with each other to promote understanding of their traditions? The goal is to find ways to co-exist, reduce violence through encountering the other. Specifically, I am teaching leadership skills, theology of forgiveness, engaging the other, conflict resolution skills, compassionate listening and crisis intervention."
She was asked how she hopes to address the stereotyping of Muslims and Islam and also what she hopes to bring to the table as not just a Muslim, but as a South Asian American Muslim. She replied: "I was born in Srinagar and feel that in fact in our history of South Asia, we do have beautiful examples of co-existence in our arts, culture and religious communities. So often we only talk about communal violence, but throughout the region, we have examples of cooperation which we should uncover, highlight and celebrate. We shouldn't accept as fact, the fiction that all religions must be in eternal conflict, because the consequences of such thinking are deadly."
She has been active in southern California in conflict resolution and education, gender issues, and community activism and has served as executive director of the Western Justice Center in Pasadena and the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center in Los Angeles. She has worked closely with the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission on the Middle East Task Force with Jewish and Muslim leaders. She is a part-time faculty member at the California State University's master's program in negotiation, peace-building and conflict resolution. Her innumerable speaking assignments on issues of interreligious conflict and strategies for peacemaking have included stints at the United Nations, US Agency for International Development, the Smithsonian, Harvard Law School, Pepperdine Law School, the University of California in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California Law School.
Claudia Pearce, director of public relations, CST, said "we are delighted and honored to have Najeeba join our faculty." He added: "We also hired Santiago Slabodsky, PhD, a Jewish ethicist, activist and teacher, as assistant professor of ethics and globalization."
Image: Najeeba Syeed-Miller
