Dr. Zahra Nasiruddin Jamal is an Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow at James Madison College, Michigan State University. She was previously on the faculty of Social Anthropology at Harvard and MIT, and was a research consultant for Harvard's Islam in the West Program. She has also lectured at Wells, Emory, and Bridgewater State. Dr. Jamal has conducted anthropological fieldwork on and teaches courses related to citizenship and civic engagement, ethics, gender, transnationalism and diaspora, and material culture among Muslim communities in North America, South Asia, the UK, Russia, and Tajikistan. She has published in various academic and non-academic venues, and is currently working on a book manuscript on the cultural phenomenon of voluntarism as a religious and civic practice among Shia Ismaili Muslims, followers of the Aga Khan, in the United States and South Asia. Dr. Jamal is consulting on a project regarding service provision among refugees and migrant workers in Kyrgyzstan, and she has previously consulted for various international development organizations on conflict resolution, women's rights projects, and international education provision in Central Asia and the Middle East. She was recently appointed by His Highness the Aga Khan to serve on a board where she oversees projects related to religious ethics and to Central Asian Muslim traditions. From 2005-2009, Dr. Jamal served as a member of the Aga Khan Social Welfare Board for the United States of America, overseeing national and international projects related to social service volunteer management and training, mental health awareness, and special needs awareness in immigrant Muslim populations. As a guest of Roland Arnall, the late U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in 2006, she engaged in dialogues with key American and European leaders on Muslim integration in Western countries through civic participation and voluntarism. In 2005, she designed a project on Muslim Philanthropy in post-9/11 America for the Aspen Institute's Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program, which has since become a major million dollar effort to educate Muslim Americans, civil society actors, and others on safeguarding charitable giving. Dr. Jamal has held the Javits, Mellon, Weatherhead, Hearst, Das, Menezes, and other fellowships, as well as numerous teaching awards at Harvard. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, and she holds degrees in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and Slavic Studies from Rice. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, hiking, cultural events, and spending time with friends and family.