Michot Named Islamic Studies Professor
at Hartford Seminary
Breaking news: Dr. Yahya Michot has been named Director of Hartford Seminary's International Ph.D. program, when he starts September 1. Dr. Michot will work with Heidi Gehman, associate director of the program. Dr. Michot also will be editor of The Muslim World journal and will teach Introduction to Islamic Theology in the fall semester.
For Immediate Release
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(HARTFORD – March 31, 2008) -- The Board of Trustees of Hartford Seminary and President Heidi Hadsell have named Yahya M. Michot, an internationally known scholar in Islamic theological and philosophical thought, to the faculty at Hartford Seminary.
Michot will be Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, effective September 1. He will join the Seminary’s Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations and co-edit the Muslim World journal.
“I am delighted that Yahya Michot will be joining the faculty at Hartford Seminary,” Hadsell said. “Yahya is an innovative thinker who has shown great skill as a professor and researcher. Our students will benefit from his scholarship and his fresh approach to Islamic studies and Abrahamic dialogue. A colleague of his described Yahya as one of the leading Islamic scholars in the world today.”
Since 1998, Michot has been Islamic Centre Lecturer in the Faculty of Theology at Oxford University in Great Britain and a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Previously he was director of research and lecturer at the Institut Supérieur de Philosophie at Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
When asked why he is coming to Hartford Seminary, Michot said the Macdonald Center has an excellent reputation in the field of Islamic studies, “as illustrated by the international circulation and high quality of the journal The Muslim World.” He also found attractive “the interdenominational nature of the Seminary and its long commitment to the improvement of Christian-Muslim relations, not just through interfaith academic dialogue, but with a readiness to get involved in specific issues of public life and the will to contribute to their effective solution.”
Michot described as strengths of the Seminary, “The teaching of, and research in, theologies beneficial for our time, sourced in the Abrahamic legacy but respectful of the diversity of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thought.” The Muslim Chaplaincy Program “is a fascinating project,” he said.
Michot was interviewed in February at the Seminary and, he said, he noted “the team spirit manifestly uniting the Seminary’s faculty.”
Ingrid Mattson, chair of the Seminary Search Committee for the position and Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, noted that “the search committee had a delightful dilemma in choosing from an extraordinarily talented pool of applicants.”
“Professor Michot is a wonderful fit for the Macdonald Center: he is an outstanding scholar of international repute and a brilliant teacher with a warm and engaging personality. I eagerly anticipate welcoming Professor Michot as a colleague,” Mattson said.
Michot has research interests in Islamic thought, particularly classical Islamic theology and philosophy, Islamic history, Muslim societies, compared religion, interfaith dialogue, and the Arabic language. He has written extensively on the Persian philosopher Avicenna (d. 1037) and the Syrian theologian Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), their sources, their times and their influence on later Islamic societies.
“During the coming years,” Michot said, “my research will most probably continue to be devoted to Islamic thought, both classical and modern, as well as to interfaith relations. As my understanding of the religion of Islam has now matured and benefited from years of teaching and discussions with students, peers, co-religionists and non-Muslims, I would like to give some attention to the development of a contemporary Islamic theological thought which would be both well rooted in the classical tradition and able to meet the requirements of this age of religious plurality.”
As he begins his work at Hartford Seminary, Michot said, “I intend to maintain an interfaith perspective, in interaction with my new colleagues, students, and the wider public. President William Mackenzie once spoke of honoring the fathers by ‘re-expressing their spirit and following their method, doing for our time what they did for theirs through a creed which is as contemporary for us as theirs was for them.’ For a Muslim academic, this remains a totally relevant challenge.”
Since 2000, Michot has participated in more than 40 international conferences. Recently he spoke on “Islam and modernity” at a course on strategic issues for senior Defense officers of the United Kingdom and participated in the 5th Doha Conference on Interreligious Dialogue in Doha, Qatar.
Outside work, Michot said, “My family and community are of paramount importance for me. I also love art -- particularly Islamic, medieval and impressionist, classical music -- European, Arabic, Turkish, Iranian…, manuscripts and old books with engravings, photography, and traveling. For years, I have done a lot of do-it-yourself plumbing and carpentry work.”
For further information or a photograph of Yahya Michot, please contact David S. Barrett, Director of Public and Institutional Affairs, at (860) 509-9519 or dbarrett@hartsem.edu.
