Dr. Ali Hassan Zaidi

Currently, I am focusing on the interpretive methods employed in the study of the Quran by two Pakistani-American scholars, (late) Fazlur Rahman and Javed Ghamidi. 

I am also a Co-Investigator on a SSHRC funded project (Jason Neelis, PI; 2021-26) for the digital preservation and promotion of Buddhist Gandaran epigraphic (inscriptions) and petroglyphic (rock art) complexes in the Upper Indus region of Pakistan. Check out the the CBC national radio show/podcast Quirks and Quarks interview on our research (Sept 6, 2026).

• Laurier Merit Award, 2024 (Administrative Service)
• Laurier Faculty Teaching Award for Excellence in Internationalization, 2017 (Inaugural award)
• Laurier Merit Award, 2011 (Research)

I am not presently taking on any more doctoral supervisions or committee roles.

I'm currently supervising (2025-26) the following doctoral students in the Religious Diversity in North America program:

• Azmat Abbas Butt, “Pakistani Canadians in the Age of Blasphemy: Impact of Anti-Blasphemy Ideologies on the Pakistani Diaspora in Greater Toronto Area, Ontario”
• Fatima Chakroun, “Being Religious in a Secular Place: A Neo-Institutional Analysis of Twelver Shia Mosques in Ontario Through Congregants’ Narratives”
• Malik Faisal Aslam, “Between Text and Justice: Reinterpreting Qur’an 4:34 Through Contemporary Hermeneutics”

I also serve as a committee member on several doctoral supervisory committees for the Religious Diversity in North America Program as well as the Martin Luther University College doctoral program in Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy. In addition, each year I regularly serve as supervisor or reader of master's students.

• Review of The Islamic Secular by Sherman A. Jackson. In Islamic Intellectual Traditions (forthcoming).
• Invited Presentation: “Rah Guzar (The Paths We Walk): Tourism and the Paths of the Future: Benefits and Consequences in Northern Pakistan”, University of Baltistan-Skardu, April 2025.
• “Human Rights, Muslim Communities and the Unintentional Secularization of Canada” in Gestures: the Study of Religion as Practice, edited by Michiel Leezenberg, Anne-Marie Korte and Martin van Bruinessen. New York: Fordham University Press, 605-622, 2022.
• Invited Presentation: “Interpretive Methods and their Presuppositions: A Comparison of Fazlur Rahman’s and Javed Ghamidi’s Hermeneutics of the Qur’an”, Al-Mawrid Institute, Lahore, Pakistan, June 9, 2022.
• Review of Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism, by Atif Khalil. In Philosophy East and West, 72 (1, Jan) 2022.
• Review of Understanding Sharia: Islamic Law in a Globalized World, by Raficq S. Abdulla and Mohamed M. Keshavjee. In Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies, 5 (2, November) 2020: 80-84.
• "Quranic Hermeneutics as a Form of Modern Religiosity", in Muslims Between Conformity and Critique. Plural Publications, 2016.
• Islam, Modernity and the Human Sciences. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Religions and Cultures in Global Contexts (GJRC693, MA seminar)

Dialogue and Difference in a Polarized Age (GS422/GJRC661, formerly Dialogue and Critique in an Age of Terror)

Being Human: Cultural Analysis in a Global Age (GS220/RE221)

Islam and Muslims in Contemporary Contexts (RE643)

Introduction to Global Studies (GS101)

Islam, Coloniality and Tradition in Morocco (GS488c, field course, spring 2019)

In 2023, I was an invited expert for a Freedom of Expression challenge at the Waterloo Public Library to review a book that was challenged on the grounds of Islamophobia.

In 2017-8, I was elected to Laurier's inaugural Task Force on Freedom of Expression to help craft Laurier's statement on freedom of expression. 

In the broader community, I help organize or participate in public events. Events include: 

• Co-organizer with WLU Sufi Circle, “Sufi Sounds: A Concert in Celebration of the Divine”, 2025, 2024, 2019, 2018.
• Panelist, “The Quran and the Significance of Ramadan”, al-Mawrid Institute Canada, Autaq Banquet Hall, Mississauga, March 23, 2025.
• Panelist, “Empowering Families”, al-Mawrid Institute Canada and the Coalition of Muslim Women-Kitchener Waterloo and New Horizon Seniors Program, Autaq Banquet Hall, Mississauga, July 27, 2024.
• Panelist, Brave Circle I: Spousal Relationships; Brave Circle II: Parents and Children, Coalition of Muslim Women-Kitchener Waterloo, July 28, Aug. 4, Nov. 9, 2021.
• Co-organizer, Muslim Studies Annual Public Lectures with Ismaili Council for Ontario, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014.