Meet Our Faculty
Philosophy and Religious Studies
Welcome Dr. Iman AbdoulKarim, Our Newest Member to the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies
Dr. Iman AbdoulKarim is an intellectual historian and theorist of religion. Her research areas include Islam in America, modern spirituality, feminist theory, and U.S. Black nationalism. Her work is driven by a deep interest in the imaginative and spiritual modes of knowing that Black femmes use to keep on keepin’ on in daily life and in Black liberation movements. She is currently working on her manuscript, Knowledge From Self: Twentieth-Century Black Muslima Thought, which offers a feminist history of Black nationalism in the twentieth century by recovering the spiritual intellectualism at the heart of Black Muslima calls for self-determination.
Dr. AbdoulKarim is a committed public scholar who has received and participated in several public humanities grants, including support from the John Templeton Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. This year, in partnership with New Haven community organizations, she organized two open-to-the-public conferences, including a three-day conference celebrating Malcolm X’s centennial and his impact on the Black radical tradition. She also hosts Name It!, a podcast that breaks down critical race and feminist theory for non-academic audiences.
Dr. AbdoulKarim received her Ph.D. from Yale University in Religious Studies and Black Studies. She was previously a U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Scholar at Cardiff University, where she researched the transatlantic impact of U.S. Black feminist thought on British Muslim feminist networks. She comes to Spelman College with a deep commitment to undergraduate education, as well as experience in higher education administration from her work as an undergraduate academic and career advisor at The New School.
In Spring 2026, she will teach Intro to the Study of Religion and Women and Islam.