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SIPA Faculty
Abdulkarim Soroush
International Affairs Building, Room 1402C
Visiting Professor of International and Public Affairs
Phone: 212-854-9488
hd2202@columbia.edu
Biography:
Dr. Abdulkarim Soroush is considered one of the world's leading Iranian scholars, and SIPA's Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR), the Committee on Global Thought, the Department of Religion and the entire Columbia community at large warmly welcome him as a Distinguished Guest for the Fall Semester. Dr. Soroush will be based at the CDTR for the Fall Semester, and will mostly be working with Professor Bilgrami graduate philosophy students on the role of modern Islam in a world that is increasingly governed by the ideals of democracy and secularism. Much of his recent research investigates the cultural and religious east-west divide. Dr. Soroush believes that religion has a role in governing a nation, and in fact can add a powerful and important focus on duty and responsibility for each citizen. However, he also speaks of the expansion and contraction of religious knowledge that redefines itself as societies change and grows.
After receiving his first degree in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of London, Dr. Soroush went on to receive a master's in Analytical Chemistry and a doctorate in Pharmaceuticology. This was followed by admittance into the Islamic Seminary in Tehran to study Islamic law and philosophy. He was appointed as a member of the Cultural Revolution Institute by Imam Khomeini in 1980, and was a Professor of Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Religion (Modern Theology), Mysticism of Maulawi, Comparative Philosophy, and Philosophy of Empirical Sciences at Tehran University until 1996. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam, Harvard, Yale and Princeton, and will be based at Georgetown in the spring. He has written on diverse topics such as ethics, governance, Rumi poetry, religious conviction and the evolution of religion, and freedom and democracy in Islam.