M. Shawn Copeland is a professor of theology at Boston College. She researches theological and philosophical anthropology and political theology, as well as African and African-derived religious and cultural experience and African-American intellectual history. She teaches courses on theology and the body, political theology and black theology.

SHARIASource is an initiative based within Harvard Law School’s Islamic Legal Studies Program. Its goal is to “provide an online portal of credible resources and analysis on Islamic law.” The initiative works with Islamic law scholars, policy scholars in the United States and globally, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the MIT Media Lab.

Intisar A. Rabb is a professor of law at Harvard Law School, professor of political science at Harvard University and the director of the law school’s Islamic Legal Studies Program. Her areas of expertise includes comparative and foreign law with an emphasis on Islamic legal studies.

The Rev. Ashlee Wiest-Laird is pastor at First Baptist JP in Jamaica Plain, Mass. She traveled to Ferguson, Mo., to protest and spoke about the experience on Boston Public Radio.

Yavilah McCoy is a teacher, writer, diversity consultant and performer. She has linked the Jewish holiday of Purim to the fight for justice for the African-American community and the Black Lives Matter movement. She founded Dimensions Educational Consulting in Newton, Mass.

Susan Benesch is director of the Dangerous Speech Project and a faculty associate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She also teaches human rights at American University’s School of International Service.

Carole Straw is a professor at Mount Holyoke College specializing in late antique and medieval history, church history, classical traditions and Christianity, martyrdom, and monasticism. She is also the author of two books.

Daniel P. Horan is the author of The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton and a columnist for America magazine, where he recently wrote an essay about why Merton still matters, especially to millennials. He blogs at Dating God. He is a Franciscan monk based in Boston.

Cameron Partridge is an Episcopal priest and the first openly transgender chaplain at Boston University.