Professor Joseph Massad is a Professor at the Columbia University. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of New Mexico and his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1998. He teaches and writes about modern Arab politics and intellectual history. He has a particular interest in theories of identity and culture – including theories of nationalism, sexuality, race and religion. He is the author of Desiring Arabs (2007), which was awarded the Lionel Trilling Book Award;   e Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinian Question  (2006); and  Colonial E ects:  e Making of National Identity in Jordan (2001). His latest book is “Islam in Liberalism” (2015) was translated to Arabic under the title Al-Islam  al-Libraliyyah, in 2018. Professor Massad has published in many academic journals and has received several international awards.