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is a legal historian who finished her Ph.D. in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara in October 2010. Her dissertation, “The Memory of the Mihna in a Haunted Time: Dogmatic Theology, Neo-Mu’tazilism and Islamic Legal Reform“, is a historical assessment of what the Mihna meant and means to Muslims. By focusing on the legacy of the Mihna in modern times, her dissertation demonstrates how dogmatic theology impacted the development of Islamic legal institutions and doctrines, and how this development affected Muslims’ normative system of belief, and their understanding of the ethical foundation of Islamic law. Nadia Nader received her BA in English literature and civilization from Alexandria University in Egypt, after which she moved to the United States. She received two Master’s Degrees in Religious Studies and History, both from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is primarily interested in questions of historical memory, and how they fundamentally affect our modern understanding of people’s communal past, the formation of the law, as well as issues of identity and faith. She is also interested in historiography, Islamic legal history, legal theory, Islamic law, Islamic family law, Islam in the West and Human Rights. Her specialization in the medieval and the legal history of Islam, and her interest in contemporary Islam and Islam and ethics make her an active participant in the enduring debate on Muslim reform, and women’s and human rights in the greater Muslim world.