Aysha Hidayatullah

Aysha Hidayatullah is Associate Professor of Islamic studies and teaches undergraduate courses on Islam, gender, race, and ethics. She received her MA and PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her BA in Women's Studies from Emory University. She began teaching at the University of San Francisco in 2008.

Her research interests include feminist exegesis of the Qur'an; representations of women in early Islamic history; constructions of femininity and masculinity in the Islamic tradition; feminist methodologies in the study of Islam; racial imaginaries of U.S. Islam; popular discourses on Muslim women in the U.S.; and the pedagogy of Islamic studies.

She is co-founder and current co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Islam, Gender, Women program unit, a setting for supporting reflection on the development of the field of gender and women in Islam. She has worked extensively on a number of projects addressing religious diversity and anti-Muslim prejudice in relationship to teaching, most recently serving on the leadership team for a pedagogical workshop on "Teaching Against Islamophobia" co-sponsored by the American Academy of Religion and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion.

• Gender in Islam
• Feminist exegesis of the Qur'an
• Islam and race in America

• PhD, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
• MA, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

• 2017 Dean's Scholar Award, College of Arts and Sciences, University of San Francisco
• 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award from the USF Faculty Association and USF
• 2015 Ignatian Service Award, University of San Francisco

• co-editor (2016). Islam at Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Lane Center Series Vol. 4 (spring).
• Hidayatullah, A. (2015). Behind Every Good Muslim Man: Fictional Representations of ‘A’isha after 9/11. Muhammad and the Digital Age (Chapter 6). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
• Hidayatullah, A. (2014). Feminist Edges of the Qur'an. UK: Oxford University Press.

• Hidayatullah, A., Zaman, T. (2013). 'Speaking for Ourselves': American Muslim Women's Confessional Writings and the Problem of Alterity. Journal for Islamic Studies, Vol. 33.

  (Works examined: Love, InshAllah; I Speak for Myself; The Muslim Next Door; Red White, and Muslim)

• Research Guide to "Gender and Sexuality," Oxford Bibliographies Online: Islamic Studies
• Hidayatullah, A. (2014). Feminist Interpretation of the Qur’an in a Comparative Feminist Setting, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion Vol. 30, (No. 2), pp. 115-129.
• Hidayatullah, A., Plaskow, J. (2011). Beyond Sarah and Hagar: Jewish and Muslim Reflections on Feminist Theology. Palsgrave Macmillan.
• Hidayatullah, A. (2011). Muslim Feminist Birthdays. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion Vol. 27 (No. 1), pp. 119-122.
• Hidayatullah, A. (2010). Mariyya the Copt: Gender, Sex and Heritage in the Legacy of Muhammad's umm walad. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations Vol. 21, (3).