Certificate of Appreciation, US Customs and Border Protection, Houston, TX, April 19, 2016
Energy Fellows Award, Hobby Center for Public Policy, University of Houston, 2016 ($500)
Recognition, Energy Symposium Series, UH Energy, Houston, TX, February 15, 2016
Certificate of Appreciation, US Customs and Border Protection, Houston, TX, April 7, 2015
NEH Summer Stipends Award, 2014 ($6,000)
Honorable Acclaim, British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize 2014, for The Qur’an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions
Provost Certificate of Excellence, for “extraordinary achievements,” University of Houston, October 22, 2014
Supervisor Award, Rutgers University Computing Services, 2003
Publications
Editor, Communities of the Qur’an: Dialogue, Debate and Diversity in the 21st Century, OneWorld, (forthcoming, 2018).
Co-author, A History of the Classical Middle East, 500-1500. San Diego: Cognella Academic Publishing, (forthcoming, 2018).
The Qur’an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions, New York; London: Routledge Press, 2013; repr. 2016.
(NOMINATED for British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize 2014)
“Between Qur’an and Church Canon: Near Eastern law and politics in the long seventh century, ca. 570-705 CE” (in progress 2016)
“الكنائس السريانية والرسالة القرآنية,” International Qur'anic Studies Association / Lockwood Press, (in progress 2018)
"الحرية الفكرية والدراسات القرآنية," Oasis: Christians and Muslims in the Global World 24, (forthcoming 2017).
“Communities of interpretation: The case of the Qur’an,” American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 33.4 (2016): 146-54.
“Religious violence in the Middle East: Military intervention, Salafi-Jihadism and the dream of a Caliphate” Journal of International and Area Studies (under review, 2016)
“When Jews and Christians believed in the Qur’an,” Conflict and Convergence in Late Antiquity: Judaism and Christianity at the Origins of Islam, Ed. Michael Pregill, Mizan (2015): 1-7.
“The impact of Aramaic (especially Syriac) on the Qur’ān” Religion Compass 8.7 (2014): 220-28.
“From ‘clergy’ to ‘celibacy:’ The development of rahbaniyyah between Qur’an, Hadith and Church Canon” Al-Bayan: Journal of Qur’an and Hadith Studies 11.1 (2013): 1-14.
“A humanistic reception of the Qur’an,” English Language Notes 50.2, Scriptural Margins: On the Boundaries of Sacred Texts (2012): 99-112.
“Divine kingdom in Syriac Matthew and the Qur’an” Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 61.1-2, 2009.“Tales of king Abgar: A basis to investigate earliest Syrian Christian syncretism” Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 20.2 (2006): 25-44.
For more, look at the faculty page.
Patents
Not available.
Grants and Funded Research
Provost Faculty Travel Fund Grant, for conference presentation at the International Qur’anic Studies Association, Beït El-Hikma: Académie Tunisienne des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts, Tunisia, July 4-7, 2017 ($1,200)
Small Grants Program, book subvention, University of Houston, February 2017 ($5,000) Research Progress Grant, for research in Istanbul, Cairo & Deoband, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, University of Houston, 2016 ($3,500)
The Windsor Foundation for the International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2016-2018 ($30,000)
Middle Eastern Studies program (scholarships, events, research, pedagogue), Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 2015 ($60,000)
Communities of the Qur’an Conference, The Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance and the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston, 2015 ($30,000)
Provost Faculty Travel Fund Grant, for conference presentation at the International Qur’anic Studies Association, UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, Indonesia, August 4-7, 2015 ($1,200)
Steering committee member, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, “Building Bridges” grant, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/Foundation for Islamic Art, 2014-16 ($240,000)
Assisted in campaign for a Chair of Modern Arab History, Arab American Educational Foundation, 20112012 ($1,000,000)
Partner, Society of Biblical Literature, “Consultation” grant for International Qur’anic Studies Association, Henry Luce Foundation, 2012-15 ($140,000)
Provost Faculty Travel Fund Grant, for conference presentation at the Annual Osher International Theology Conference, Jerusalem, January 2014 ($1,000)
New Faculty Research Grant, University of Houston, 2013 ($6,000)
Division of the Humanities Travel Grant, University of Chicago 2010 for research in Damascus and Cairo, September 2010 ($1,500)
