Nathan Lean

Bio

Nathan Lean is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University. His interests and specialties include: Islam; Muslim-American history and life; anti-Muslim prejudice; religion in American culture; religion in popular culture; and theory and methods in the study of religion.

Prior to joining the faculty at North Carolina State University, Nathan was an Adjunct Faculty member at George Mason University.

He earned his PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from Georgetown University, where his dissertation focused on American jazz musicians who converted to Islam in the 1940s and 1950s. He has graduate degrees in Theology and Religious Studies, Arab Studies, and International Studies.

Nathan is the author of several books, book chapters, journal articles, book reviews, and other scholarly publications. Among his books are The Islamophobia Industry (2nd edition, 2017), which has been translated into several foreign languages and is widely recognized as an authoritative text on the topic. Nathan’s other books include Understanding Islam and the West (2018), The Moral Psychology of Terrorism (co-editor, 2013), and Iran, Israel, and the United States (co-author, 2011).

From 2014 to 2016, Nathan served as the Director of Research at Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative, an innovate research program on Islamophobia housed in the Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Under his direction, the program produced groundbreaking research on the experiences of Muslim Americans and public perceptions of them.

With a commitment to fostering religious literacy, he has served as a consultant for a variety of organizations aimed at growing awareness of religious diversity within the public square. He has advised government leaders, think tanks, media enterprises, and served as a subject-matter expert for television and documentary features on Islam, including PBS’s “Great American Muslim Roadtrip” and Al-Jazeera’s “Inside Islamophobia.” He is a regular public speaker, delivering lectures and keynote presentations at major universities, and public and private organizations. Outside of academia, Nathan’s writings have appeared in a variety of popular outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Examiner, CNN, Salon, The New Republic, and more.

Area(s) of Expertise

Islam; Muslim American history and life; anti-Muslim prejudice; religion in American culture; religion and popular culture; theory and methods in the study of religion.