New IQSA Blog Coordinator: Meet Rachel!

The International Qur’anic Studies Association is pleased to welcome a fresh face to its Executive Office! This year, Rachel Dryden (University of Cambridge) joins the team as IQSA’s new Blog Coordinator. Rachel’s active commitment to IQSA’s mission and subject expertise make her a valuable addition to the IQSA community.

Following an undergraduate degree in modern European languages (Durham, 2006), Rachel decided to learn a non-European language and chose Arabic, leading to a master’s in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS (2009). She was then awarded a DAAD (German State) scholarship to undertake a master’s in Jewish Studies at the Institute for Jewish Studies, at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and Karl-Franzens University in Graz, Austria, which she completed with distinction in 2011. Rachel then undertook an MPhil in Islamic Studies and History at Oxford (2016), focusing on qur’ānic exegesis and furthering her knowledge of the languages required for research on her chosen subject: Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Greek and Coptic. Her doctoral thesis will examine how angels are depicted in the Qur’ān and their use in the narrative structure of the stories in which they appear. Rachel was a critical part of last year’s Annual Meeting in Boston, MA, collaborating with Conor Dube (Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University) to compose the yearly Conference Report.

IQSA welcomes its members and affiliates to contribute to its mission by submitting content for its weekly blog! Examples of past blog posts can be found HERE. Content can range from relevant event announcements to professional development opportunities to literature reviews and more. Submissions should be pertinent to the Qur’anic Studies, Late Antiquity, or Islam.

Submissions will be evaluated according to their relevance to IQSA and the interest of its members. Please send your submission to contact@iqsaweb.org to be considered. Questions? Email contact@iqsaweb.org for clarification.

Once again, a warm welcome to Rachel Dryden as IQSA’s newest member of the Executive Office!

© International Qur’anic Studies Association, 2018. All rights reserved.