REFEREES
- SYED FARID ALATAS
Dr. Syed Farid Alatas is the head of the Department of Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore. As an associate professor he also teaches under the Department of Sociology. A Malaysian national, he had his schooling in Singapore and obtained his PhD in Sociology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1991. He lectured at the University of Malaya in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies prior to his appointment at Singapore.
- GREG BARTON
Dr. Greg Barton joined at Monash University as the Herb Feith Research Professor for the Study of Indonesia in January 2007, based in the school of Political and Social Inquiry (PSI) in the Faculty of Arts. Prior to that he had worked for a year as an Associate Professor at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Before that he was an Associate Professor at Deakin University where had worked since 1993. He developed and taught courses in the Politics stream on Political Leadership, Global Islamic Politics, and Society and Culture in Contemporary Asia, and earlier, in the Religious Studies stream, on Islam and Christianity.
At Monash Dr. Barton is Acting Director of the Centre for Islam and the Modern World (www.arts.monash.edu.au/politics/cimow) and Deputy UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations Asia Pacific
- MUHAMMED ÇETIN
Dr. Muhammed Çetin is the Publications Coordinator of the Institute of Interfaith Dialogue (IID). He writes and lectures on international affairs and intercultural dialogue studies. He is a columnist in the international daily Todays Zaman and has a PhD in sociology. He is the author of The Gülen Movement: Civic Service Without Borders.
- KAREN FONTENOT
Dr. Karen Fontenot is a professor of communication and she is currently Interim Dean at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond. Before entering academia she worked as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor. She received her Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Louisiana State University in 1993. Her areas of expertise are cross-cultural communication, organizational communication, and interpersonal communication. She has published widely in these areas, and is the author or co-author of over fifty articles and conference papers. She is interested in the impact and influence culture has on human behavior, especially in the interpersonal context. Some of her most recent research involves cultural adaptation and religion, especially comparative analyses of Jesuits and Sufis.
- MARCIA HERMANSEN
Dr. Marcia Hermansen is Director of the Islamic World Studies Program and Professor in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches courses in Islamic Studies and the academic study of religion. She received her Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In the course of her research and language training she lived for extended periods in Egypt, Jordan, India, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan and she conducts research in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu as well as the major European languages.
- STANLEY RIDGE
Stanley Ridge is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Emeritus Professor of English at the University of the Western Cape in metropolitan Cape Town, South Africa. He was educated at the universities of Natal, York (UK), British Columbia and Stellenbosch. Stanley Ridge has taught at Kearsney College, the University of Stellenbosch and the University of the Western Cape, and has been a visiting scholar at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), and visiting professor at the universities of Essen and Linkoping. He has guest edited several international journals and is on the editorial board of two. His most recent publications are on language policy and on discourse analysis. In 2005 he was awarded the gold medal of the English Academy of Southern Africa.
- MARK WEBB
Professor Webb, the chairman of the Philosophy Department in Texas Tech University, received both his B.A. in philosophy and his two M.A. degrees, one in philosophy and the other in Classical Humanities, from Texas Tech and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Syracuse University in 1991. In 2006, he earned a postgraduate certificate in Buddhist Studies from Sunderland University. He specializes in epistemology and philosophy of religion. He is currently working on the epistemology of religious experience, especially in non-Western religions.
- NASUHI YURT
Dr. Nasuhi Yurt is the Vice President of Production at Ebru TV. He has received BS from Bilkent University, Turkey, and his Ph.D. from University of Arizona, Tucson. Dr. Yurt joined Ebru TV in 2005 actively heading the production side of the operation. Founded in 2006, Ebru TV recently became part of RCN cable network.
