1. Home ›
  2. About ›
  3. Executive Director

Executive Director

A medium-close portrait captures a man with salt-and-pepper hair, round dark-rimmed glasses, and a distinctive full beard—grey around the cheeks and bright orange-brown at the chin—wearing a black tuxedo, white shirt, black bowtie, and dark pocket square against an intricate background of wood-framed stained-glass panels with geometric patterns.
An Islamic studies scholar with a lifetime of interreligious engagement, Mirza brings extensive pedagogical and administrative experience to his role, including serving as dean of faculty at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, America’s first accredited Muslim liberal arts college (2013-2016). In 2024-2025, Mirza was a "living bridge" between Notre Dame and American Islamic College in Chicago as Visiting Vice President of Academic Affairs, affording him the unique distinction of having served as the Chief Academic Officer for America's first two independently accredited Muslim colleges.

Mirza joined Notre Dame in 2016 as professor of the practice for the Keough School’s Contending Modernities research initiative, housed at the time in the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, where he led the implementation of Notre Dame's Madrasa Discourses project, which equips Islamic religious leaders in India and Pakistan with the tools to confidently engage with pluralism, modern science, and new philosophies. Since 2019, Mirza has served as the executive director of the Keough School's Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion.
 
Mirza has taught a range of courses in Arabic-Islamic studies, world religions, history and philosophy of science, and global affairs, along with foundational subjects in the liberal arts including logic, rhetoric, ethics, and politics. His doctoral research was on the intellectual world of al-Biruni, an 11th-century scientist from Central Asia. Mirza has edited two special issues of The Muslim World; a special issue on faith-based economic theories for the Journal of Economics, Management, and Religion; and served as assistant editor of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought.

Mirza holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, an MA in Christian-Muslim relations from Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, and a PhD in religious studies from Yale University.
 
Recent Work: