Ari Kelman is a professor at Stanford with a focus on forms of religious knowledge transmission. He holds a specific research interest in American Jewry, with insight into how Jewish communities adapt within broader U.S. society.

Celene Ibrahim is an expert in Islamic studies with a focus on gender, family and ethics in Muslim communities, especially in the American context. Her work helps explain lived Muslim experiences and intra-faith diversity. She is the author of  Women and Gender in the Qur’an (Oxford University Press, 2020). Ibrahim is also the author of the […]

Andrew Ali Aghapour is a scholar, storyteller, writer, and artistic producer living in Durham, NC. With a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, he worked as the Consulting Scholar of Religion and Science for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where he helped develop the “Discovery and Revelation,” exhibition and co-author the exhibit […]

Brook Wilensky-Lanford is a religion writer, editor, and teacher. She is the author of A God-Shaped Nation: Five Hundred Years of Religion in America, forthcoming in June 2026 and Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden. Media inquiries should be directed to Deb Seager, Director of Publicity, Grove Atlantic.

Peter Manseau is the founding director of the Center for Understanding Religion in American History at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and first curator of religion at the Smithsonian Institute, both in Washington, D.C. He can discuss religious art in America and American history.

Philip P. Arnold is president of the Indigenous Values Initiative of the leadership of the Onondaga Nation, the Central Fire (or Capital) of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (made up of the Seneca, Tuscarora, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk nations). He also leads the The Doctrine of Discovery educational resource, is lovingly maintained by Indigenous Values Initiative […]

Ray Takeyh is Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His areas of specialization are Iran, U.S. foreign policy and the modern Middle East. Prior to joining CFR, he served as senior advisor on Iran at the State Department and was a fellow at Yale University, […]

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) that monitors religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the U.S. federal government.

Mehdi Khalaji is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy specializing in Shiʿa politics and Iran’s religious establishment.