New professors at PISAI

One of the objects of PISAI is to offer to its students a specialized and exclusive academic formation in the field of the Islamic sciences, the Arabic language, and the history of Muslim-Christian dialogue, offered by a highly qualified teaching staff. The teaching staff of PISAI comprises professors from around the world, religious, diocesan priests and laity, among whom are both Christians and Muslims. For the 2016-2017 academic year, PISAI is enriching its staff with the inclusion of new, high qualified academic figures, among whom are: Father Tom Michel, a member of the Society of Jesus in Indonesia since 1969, and who holds a PhD in Islamic Theology from the University of Chicago. He has held a number of important positions at various institutions, such as the Academic Council of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (Georgetown University), the National Advisory Board of the Khalidi  Library (Jerusalem), and the Advisory Board of the Center for Civilizational Dialogue (University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur). Then, Professor Wasim Salman, a priest of Syrian origin, who holds a PhD in Dogmatic Theology from the Gregorian University (Rome) and who is Associate Professor at the Istituto Teologico Leoniano di Anagni and a specialist in Qur’anic hermeneutics in the thought of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd. Then, Professor Bishara Ebeid, who hails from a village near Nazareth, who studied theology at the Aristotle University (Salonicca, Greece), where he obtained his first degree. Following this, he studied Oriental Patristic Theology and Coptic and Syriac language at the Pontificio Istituto Orientale (Rome), achieving in 2014 his PhD in Patristic Theology at the same institute. Finally, Professor Jason Welle, OFM, a Franciscan from the United States of America, where he is a member of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Province. His studies have focused on Theology and Interreligious dialogue, and he is finishing a PhD degree in Christian-Muslim relationships, with the topic ‘Clarifying Companionship: al-Sulāmī’s (d. 1021) Kitāb adāb al-ṣuḥba’.