Research Interests

Classical Exegesis of the Qur'an (Intertextuality and Hermeneutics); The Representation of Women in the Qur'an and Exegesis;RitualEthics in Islam, Genderin Islamic thought; Contemporary Women Interpreters of the Qur'an (Muslim Feminism); Dis/continuities between traditional and contemporary Islamic thought; Bint al-Shati': the First Sunni woman exegete and hermeneutician.

Research Overview

I received my PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Manchester, Department of Middle Eastern Studies. My research covers two key strands: the classical and pre-modern intellectual and textual traditions, particularly Qur’an hermeneutics and ritual law; and Muslim responses to modernity, with a focus on how twentieth century and contemporary Muslim women scholars read the tradition to intellectually and socially develop their religious authority as knowers of the tradition. I have written on ritual purity, metaphor in post-classical Qur’an interpretation and Arabic rhetoric, feminist hermeneutics of the Qur’an, and contemporary female exegetes and jurists in Islam. In recent years, I have developed an interest in Islam in Britain, co-authoring a study of change in conceptions of God in modern Britain and leading a research project entitled Muslim Women Reading Religious Texts in Britain and Egypt (2010-2011). The project investigated how core Islamic texts are read by ‘ordinary’ Muslim women in light of their contexts. I have also been involved in supporting Islamic studies in the UK through my work with HEFCE's Islamic Studies Network until 2012, and currently through my capacity as interim Co-chair of the British Association of Islamic Studies (BRAIS).

PhD Supervision Interests

Qur'anic commentary (Tafsir)

Modern Interpretation of the Qur'an

Islamic Ritual Jurisprudence

Muslims in Britain

Gender and Islam