Dr. Nada Moumtaz

Biography

Nada Moumtaz is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, with a focus on the intersection of anthropology, history, and Islamic legal studies, spanning from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries in the Levant. She received her PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research addresses the transformation of Islamic tradition and the challenges it faces in providing alternatives to the dominant sensibilities and institutions of the modern world. Dr. Moumtaz's book, 'God’s Property: Islam, Charity, Modern State,' examines the contemporary Islamic revival through centuries-old charitable practices in Beirut, offering new insights into the secularization of religion through the lens of economic separation. Currently, she is investigating the fate of endowments during the post-war reconstruction of Beirut in the 1990s, particularly focusing on the tension between endowments and capitalism. Additionally, she is looking to start a new project on the practices of elderly care among Sunni Muslims in Beirut, and is enthusiastic about supervising students engaged in the contemporary Islamic tradition through ethnographic study.

Research Interests