William A. Graham

Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

William A. Graham is Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and John Lord O'Brian Professor of Divinity and Dean at Harvard Divinity School. The "On Faith" panelist's scholarly work has focused on early Islamic religious history, and textual traditions and problems in the history of world religion. Graham has also served as director of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and as chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Committee on the Study of Religion, the Committee on Middle Eastern Studies, and the College Core Curriculum Subcommittee on Foreign Cultures. He is a former chair of the Council on Graduate Studies in Religion ( U.S. and Canada ). In 2000, the Organization of the Islamic Conference's research arm honored Graham with its Award for Excellence in Research in Islamic History and Culture. Graham is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has held John Simon Guggenheim and Alexander von Humboldt research fellowships. He is the author of Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion (1987, 1993) and Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early Islam (1977), which won the 1978 American Council of Learned Societies History of Religions Prize. He co-authored The Heritage of World Civilizations (2005) and Three Faiths, One God (2003); and served as an associate editor of the Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an (1998-2006) and co-editor of Islamfiche: Readings from Islamic Primary Sources (1982-87). Close.