Professor Emeritus of Islamic Studies, Department of Theology, Boston College jwinstonmorris@hotmail.com James W. Morris was born in the US in 1949. He received a BA in Civilizational Studies from the University of Chicago in 1971, and a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 1980, for a thesis “Ibn Masarra: A Reconsideration of the Primary Sources”. He also studied at the University of Strasbourg, the American University in Cairo, the Iranian Academy of Philosophy, and the Center for the Study of Civilizations, Tehran. He taught at the Princeton University, Oberlin College, Temple University, and the Institute of Ismaili Studies in Paris and London. He has been a guest professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris), University of Malaya, and University of Sarajevo. He specialized in medieval Islamic philosophy, especially in the philosophy of Ibn ‘Arabī. He is a Professor of Islamic Studies in the Boston College’s Theology department and Islamic Civilization and Societies program. He is a prolific author, having written dozens of journal articles along with thirteen books, including most recently, The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn Arabī’s Meccan Illuminations’; Orientations: Islamic Thought in a World Civilization; and The Master and the Disciple: An Early Islamic Spiritual Dialogue. He has often interviewed on current issues for the BBC and international journals and newspapers dealing with the Middle East.

Harvard University, ThD kytheheller@gmail.com Kythe Heller is an award-winning poet, essayist, interdisciplinary artist, and scholar. She earned a ThD/PhD at Harvard University in Comparative Studies in Religion, with a PhD secondary field in Literary Arts, Film, and Visual Studies/Critical Media Practice. Previously, she received an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School, an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, and a BA in English Literature from Reed College. Recently published work includes a collection of poems, Firebird (Arrowsmith), nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award, an edited collection of literary translations, essays, and visual art, The Soul Conveys Itself in Shadow/El alma se mueve en la sombra (Stenen Press, co-edited with Carolina Gómez-Montoya), winner of the Independent Press Book Awards, writing and intermedia works including Thunder Perfect Mind (with photographer Meka Tome) and Rite of Spring (with Meghan McNealy), and several critical studies of medieval and contemporary mysticism and spirituality, phenomenology of the senses, poetics, and socially-engaged arts, in Arvo Pärt’s White Light: Media, Culture, Politics (Cambridge University Press), Quo Anima: Innovation and Spirituality in Contemporary Poetry (Akron Series in Contemporary Poetics), “The Heart Receptive of Every Form: Representations of Fire in the unio mystica of Mahomet (Mi’raj-Nameh (1436) Manuscript)” (Harvard Divinity School Graduate Journal), and poetry and essays in The American Poetry Review, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, The Southern Review, and others.. She has received fellowships and grant awards from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, to support a fellowship at The MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The Mellon Foundation, Harvard University, and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Film, music, performance, and installation work has been screened and exhibited at festivals in the United States and Canada. She is also the founder and creative director of Vision Lab, a global art and research collective based at Harvard Divinity School and creating work to address contemporary spirituality, social and environmental justice, and technology. She edits the international art and culture journal Forecast, and is a faculty member of Bard College's Language and Thinking Program.

Islamic Religious Education and Practical Theology Humbolt University tuba.isik@hu-berlin.de Prof. Dr. Tuba Işık Islamic Religious Education and Practical TheologyHumbolt University tuba.isik@hu-berlin.de Tuba Işik is a professor of Islamic education and practical theology in the Berlin Institute of Islamic Theology at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her research interests include religious education and its pedagogy, virtue ethics, Muslim women, and comparative theology. Işik is the author of Systematic and Historical Reflections on the Meaning of the Prophet Muhammad for Religious Education (2015) and a monograph on character cultivation from a philosophical point of view (forthcoming, 2022). She is a co-editor of the first textbook in German on the didactics of Islamic religious education (2022). Işik holds a master’s degree in international public law and pedagogy from Georg-August University of Göttingen (Germany) and a Ph.D. from the University of Paderborn, Germany. She also studied Catholic theology in Paderborn and Rome and received further education in Islamic education at the University of Osnabrück and the Ilahiyat Faculties of Bursa and Ankara in Turkey.

Institute of Islamic Studies Istanbul University mfcalisir@istanbul.edu.tr M. Fatih Çalışır is a historian of early modern Ottoman and environmental history. He earned his Ph.D. at Georgetown University (2016) and is currently a faculty member at the Institute of Islamic Studies, Istanbul University. He has held appointments at Ibn Haldun and Kırklareli Universities and was a TÜBİTAK 2219 Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (2024–25). Çalışır has published widely as an editor and translator and is the founder of the Bilkent History Society and the Environmental History Society of Turkiye

Lecturer, Üsküdar University elifomurlu@gmail.com She benefited for many years from the fasıl gatherings hosted at the home of the ʿūd player–composer Câhit Gözkân, where eminent artists regularly took part. She contributed to the public introduction of Classical Turkish Music and Sufi Music through her performances on the Beyaz TV program “Cemâlnur Sargut ile Aşka Yolculuk.” In 2010 she took on, as a trust from her father, the music activities at the Kubbealtı Academy Culture and Arts Foundation and directed the Kubbealtı Music Ensemble for five years. Since 2016 she has led the “Istanbul Türk Ocağı Ömürlü Music Ensemble.” Uyar completed her MA at Üsküdar University’s Institute for Sufi Studies, with specialization in the works of Samiha Ayverdi and on Turkish music in the early Republican period. She currently conducts the “Sufism and Music” training program at the same institute. She is married and the mother of three children.

Institute for Sufi Studies Üsküdar University haticedilek.guldutuna@uskudar.edu.tr Dr. Dilek Güldütuna graduated from the Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine and completed her residency in Anesthesiology at Koşuyolu Heart and Research Hospital. She finished a three-year Arabic program at the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Sciences in Frankfurt, founded by Prof. Fuat Sezgin. Between 2005 and 2011 she pursued Islamic Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt, earning her PhD with the dissertation Konstruktionen des Weiblichen bei Ken’ân Rifâî: Das Weibliche als Spiegel der göttlichen Wirklichkeit (The Feminine as a Mirror of Divine Reality in Ken’an Rifâî). In the same university’s Department of Islamic and Religious Studies she completed an MA with the thesis Buchstabensymbolik bei Ibn ʿArabī (The Symbolism of Letters in Ibn ʿArabī). She currently teaches courses in Sufism at Goethe University Frankfurt. Her research interests include symbolism; letter symbolism in Ibn ʿArabī; the role of women in Islamic Sufism; femininity and masculinity as symbolic categories; and the place of Islamic culture in the history of ideas and the sciences, along with its impact in the West.

Mechatronic Engineering Department Yıldız Technical University eomurlu@gmail.com Vasfi Emre Ömürlü was born in Istanbul on 1969 as a member of a musician family. His father, Yusuf Ömürlü, is one of the most famous conductors and composers in Turkish Classical Music and Sufi Music and has provided initial knowledge on music to Vasfi Ömürlü. Beginning from the childhood; he attended concert practices and regular music theory classes in Kubbealtı Culture and Art Group Chorus, where his father is the musical director. He had been present in numerous concerts till the age of 20 with aforementioned chorus as a soloist and a singer. Beginning from high school, he attended ney (reed flute) classes of Ömer Erdoğdular who is the student of Niyazi Sayın who is a legendary ney player in Turkey. After completing initial studies in ney, he began to provide ney lessons in Kubbealtı Art and Culture Group with the suggestion of his master. During his undergraduate education, he attended the University Chorus, which was an important milestone in his musical journey. He was in several concerts and most importantly, in radio programs in TRT (Turkish Radio and Television) with them. Additionally, at the same time, he began to study Islamic and sufi music with Hafız Kazım Büyükaksoy, who was one of the greatest authorities in this field. Especially, he has become professional in improvisational side of Islamic and sufi music, like mevlid, kaside, durak forms. In mevlid form, he delivered numerous ceremonies with and without his master. Mevlid is a religious ceremonial form that has been practiced during holy days and it takes almost one and a half hour. It is very dynamic form in which different maqams in sections are practices in improvisational manner by voice. After his undergraduate studies he traveled with Ahmed Özhan in Turkey for different concerts. In the mean time, he was attending to radio programs with Alaaddin Yavaşça who is the master singer in Turkish Classical Music in Turkey, in TRT Classical Turkish Music Chorus and with Doğan Ergin in TRT Sufi Music Chorus. Also, with Doğan Ergin, he was present in several Mevlevî ceremonies as a singer and a kudümzenbaşı. After he met with Cinuçen Tanrıkorur who is a composer, conductor, singer, and a ud player whose name was known internationally, Vasfi Ömürlü attended almost every concert, TV show, and CD recordings with him. Among the TV shows, there was “Music Time” which was to perform Classical Turkish Music by the most famous singers in this field. Also two CD recordings are “Suite in Makam Şeddisaba & Sufi Hymns” and “Aziz Mahmud Hüdâî in the Sufi Music of Cinuçen Tanrıkorur”. Vasfi Emre Ömürlü, individually or with chorus, has performed many concerts as a singer and a conductor. After his return from US completing his Ph.D. in the Ohio State University in 2002, he attended Yıldız Technical University as a Prof. and then, became the chair of Mechatronic Engineering Department. Currently, he is leading musical group Lâ Edrî and performing concerts in Türkiye and several countries, like Germany, India, etc. regularly.

Üsküdar University kerim.guc@nefesyayinevi.com Hasan Kerim Güç is a writer, editor, and dedicated researcher in Sufi studies with a career spanning information technology, publishing, and academia. As a founding member of the Kerim Foundation, he has been instrumental in establishing and supporting academic programs worldwide that promote the study of Islamic civilization and Sufi traditions. In collaboration with the Turkish Women's Cultural Association and the Kerim Foundation, Mr. Güç played a vital role in creating several academic chairs and centers dedicated to Islamic and Sufi studies in the name of Kenan Rifai. This initiative has helped foster the academic study of Sufism and built bridges between different cultures. Highlights of this international work include: • University of North Carolina (UNC): Supporting the Kenan Rifâî Chair in Islamic Studies at UNC. • Peking University (China): Enabling the establishment of the Kenan Rifâî Chair, which introduced a course on Islamic Philosophy with a focus on Sufism for the first time in the university's history. • Kyoto University (Japan): Partnering to inaugurate the Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi Studies. • Professional and Academic Career Dr. Güç began his career in information systems and business administration in the United States, earning master's degrees from the University of Baltimore. After returning to Turkey, he transitioned into the world of publishing, serving as the chief editor for Nefes Publishing House and Tuti Books since 2014. He is also a managing partner at Nefes Akademi Inc.. His academic pursuits led him to the Institute for Sufi Studies at Üsküdar University, where he completed a master's degree and is currently pursuing his doctorate. His published works include the book Ken'ân Rifâî'nin Dervişlik Anlayışı (Ken'ân Rifâî's Conception of Dervishhood). In addition to his academic and publishing work, Mr. Güç is a founding member of multiple foundations, including the Kerim Foundation and the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Hospitals Foundation. He is also a founding member of the Brussels-based Mindhub Association. His multi-faceted contributions reflect a deep and ongoing commitment to cultural understanding, education, and research.