Professor Ali Asani, who teaches on the IIS鈥檚聽GPISH programme聽and is a member of the Institute鈥檚聽Board of Governors, has been awarded the Harvard University 2021聽Alpha聽Iota聽Prize聽for聽Excellence in Teaching. He has also been appointed to the Chancellor鈥檚 Commission of聽Aga Khan聽University (AKU).
The Alpha Iota Prize is voted on by Harvard鈥檚 chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, an honour society to which undergraduate students in the US are elected in recognition of outstanding academic performance. In the award鈥檚 citation, Professor Asani is described as 鈥渁n amazing and brilliant instructor鈥 and 鈥渨arm and inclusive community member鈥 who gives his students 鈥渢he tools to think critically about religion in a way that privileges diverse and marginalised religious traditions and emphasises inclusivity and religious pluralism鈥.
On receiving the award, Professor Asani says 鈥淚 was pleased that the award recognised not only my teaching, but also my efforts to highlight traditionally marginalised and excluded voices. In this way, the award is personally meaningful since it recognises my long-standing efforts at improving understanding of Islam and religious pluralism.鈥
Teaching on GPISH
Professor Asani also applies this approach to his teaching on the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH) at the IIS. He has been teaching on the course and its predecessor programmes for more than 30 years, most recently offering a first-year course, 鈥淩eligion, Literature and Identity in South Asian contexts鈥.
The course aims to foster literacy about religion by emphasising the multiple contexts in which it is embedded. It does so by using the Ismaili聽ginan聽literature of South Asia as a case study. 鈥淚 greatly enjoy teaching this course as it allows me to interact with and learn from Ismaili students who come from a variety of backgrounds and cultural traditions.鈥
Appointment to AKU Chancellor鈥檚 Commission
Professor Asani has also been appointed to the Chancellor鈥檚 Commission of AKU, where he will help to provide recommendations to the Chancellor, His Highness the聽Aga KhanA title granted by the Shah of Persia to the then Ismaili Imam in 1818 and inherited by each of his successors to the Imamate., on the course the university should take in the next 25 years. 鈥淭his appointment affords me the platform to engage with a distinguished group of talented individuals who will assist in steering AKU to meet its future challenges and opportunities in higher education,鈥 he says.
Three Elements Central to Professor Asani鈥檚 Teaching
Professor Asani cites three elements that are most important to him as a teacher. First, getting to know his students and learning about their backgrounds and diverse experiences. 鈥淲hen you engage with students in a deeper and more meaningful way by learning their stories, you appreciate and empathise with the experiences they have had and discover ways in which you can make the course relevant to their worlds.鈥
The second element is 鈥渆nabling students to have greater agency in their education by encouraging them to be more reflective and creative in demonstrating their learning鈥.
Third, he says, is recognising that students do not have just an intellectual capacity, but they possess many other kinds of intelligences, such as musical, interpersonal, spatial-visual and linguistic. 鈥淚n order to capture the full range of abilities and talents that students possess, it is important to engage with these intelligences in the classroom, for instance, by incorporating various multi-media.鈥
We are proud to have Professor Asani as a member of the teaching faculty at the IIS and as a governor,聽helping with the oversight of the Institute聽as well as ensuring our academic rigour. We congratulate him on his very well-deserved award and new appointment.
