Fateh Saeidi is a historian of religion specializing in Islam and Sufism in Kurdistan, Iran, and the broader Middle East. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin from 2024 to 2026. His research examines the historical development of Islamic piety, early Sufi communities and intellectual traditions, and the relationships among religion, political authority, and identity.

Deborah Starr is Professor of Modern Arabic and Hebrew Literature and Film in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. She received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan.

Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik is a historian of 20th century Africa and the Middle East. She specializes in questions of race, gender, and sex in the post-colonial Maghreb.