Talal Asad

Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is a sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in the anthropology of religion with a focus on the Middle East and Islam. He is affiliated with the Graduate Center's Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC.)

The books he has authored or edited include Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter, Genealogies of Religion, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity, and On Suicide Bombing. He has contributed to and edited numerous volumes, lectured internationally, and written scores of articles for peer-reviewed journals. His works have been translated into many languages. He has served on the Economic and Social Research Council in England and the Social Science Research Council in the U.S.

He earned his M.A. at Edinburgh University and B.Litt. and D.Phil. at Oxford. Before coming to the United States to teach at the New School, he taught at Oxford and the universities of Khartoum, Sudan, and Hull, England.

Asad joined the Graduate Center faculty in 1998 and earned emeritus status upon his retirement in 2016.