Ken Garden is the Chair of the Tufts Department of Religion and co-director of its program in Middle Eastern studies. He received his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 2004. He teaches courses mainly on the Islamic tradition and has published on medieval Muslim religious thinkers in Persia and al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). He has lived in North Africa (Egypt and Morocco) for over 3 years, including during the Arab spring in 2011. On this trip, he will give talks on Islam and Modern Egyptian history.