K xii Encyclopedia of Islam
of California, Santa Barbara. She specializes in
the history of Islamic architecture and urban-
ism, medieval Islamic iconography, and modern
Arab art. Her research has appeared in Muqar-
nas: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture,
the International Journal of Middle East Studies,
and the Journal of Near Eastern Studies. She also
contributed to Autobiography in Medieval Arabic
Tradition, edited by Dwight Reynolds.
Max Leeming is on the religion faculty of Vassar
College, where she teaches Islamic studies and
the history of religions, with a focus on sacred
space in the Islamic Middle East.
Laura Lohman received a Ph.D. from the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania and specializes in the
music of the Middle East. Her research on
Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum appears in
Music and the Play of Power in the Middle East,
North Africa and Central Asia (Ashgate). She
is an assistant professor of music at California
State University, Fullerton, where she is com-
pleting a study of the singer’s late career and
reception history (Wesleyan University Press).
Gregory Mack is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute
of Islamic Studies at McGill University. He
holds an M.A. from the University of Toronto.
His specialization is Islamic law; his research
presently focuses on legal reforms in the Mid-
dle East.
Garay Menicucci is the associate director of the
Office of International Students and Scholars
at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He has a Ph.D. in Middle East history from
Georgetown University. He is a past editorial
committee member and author for the Middle
East Report and teaches an introduction to Mid-
dle East studies and Arab cinema at the Univer-
sity of California, Santa Barbara. He has also
organized and led several summer seminars in
Egypt and Jordan for California K-12 teachers
and administrators, funded by Fulbright-Hays
Group Projects grants.
Tara Munson is a Ph.D. student in religious stud-
ies at the University of California, Santa Bar-
bara. She specializes in the study of Pacific Rim
religions, with a focus on the Philippines.
Kathleen M. O’Connor is assistant professor of
religious studies at the University of South
Florida. She specializes in Islamic studies, with
focuses on Islam in the African American com-
munity, Islamic medicine, and folk religion. She
has published articles and chapters on Islamic
healing systems and African American Islam,
and contributed to the Encyclopedia of the
Quran. Her current book project is The Worlds
of Interpretation of African American Muslims.
Patrick S. O’Donnell holds an M.A. in religious
studies from the University of California, Santa
Barbara, and is an adjunct instructor in the
Department of Philosophy at Santa Barbara City
College. He has published articles, reviews, and
bibliographies in the following journals: The
Good Society, Globalization, Radical Pedagogy,
Theory and Science, and Philosophy East & West.
Among the encyclopedias he has contributed
to are the Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic
Philosophers and the Encyclopedia of Love in
World Religions.
Kate O’Halloran is a writer and editor specializing
in world history. She holds an M.A. in modern
literature and languages (French and German)
from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and has
published several books for students.
Sophia Pandya is an assistant professor of reli-
gious studies at California State University,
Long Beach. She received a Ph.D. from the
University of California, Santa Barbara. Her
specialization is in the area of women, religion,
and the developing world, with an emphasis on
women and Islam. She has authored an article
on women and religious education in Bahrain.
Firoozeh Papan-Matin is the director of Persian
and Iranian studies at the University of Wash-
ington, Seattle. She has a master’s in English
literature and a second master’s and a doctor-
ate in Iranian studies from University of Cali-
fornia, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation research
is on 12th-century Islamic mysticism in Iran.