The GTU Midrasa Midrasha Program, in collaboration with the Center for Jewish Studies and the Center for Islamic Studies, presents:

Emerging Scholars: New Thinking

Moderated by: Mahjabeen Dhala, PhD and Deena Aranoff, PhD

Please join the GTU’s Madrasa-Midrasha Program for this hybrid event featuring the work of current GTU students researching topics in Islamic Studies and Jewish Studies. 

Journeying To and Through Talmud: Natalie conducted preliminary research over the summer in preparation for their thesis, which will interrogate rabbinic relationships to truth. This talk will describe the journey Natalie has been on through two famous pages of Talmud that highlight tensions core to the Talmudic project and to rabbinic Judaism today.

Natalie Boskin fell in love with the Talmud when they first cracked open a mesechet at SVARA Yeshiva’s 2017 Queer Talmud Camp. After spending years filling their free time with Talmud study, Natalie decided to formalize their commitment to understanding this wild and sacred text by pursuing a Masters of Jewish Studies at the GTU. Natalie graduated from Svara Yeshiva’s teacher training program in May 2024 and has worked as a b’mitzvah teacher for Kehilla Synagogue since 2015.

Child of an African Woman: Presented by Sundiata Rashid, this will be a discussion of Hagar, Um Aiman, and Ella Collin Little and their significance in the development of Islam globally and nationally. It will also highlight the forgotten legacy of African Women in religious history.

Sundiata Rashid grew up in Berkeley CA and is a in his 4th year as a PhD at GTU. He wrote his MA thesis, “Bean Pie to Baklava” on the history of Islam in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the Imam of Lighthouse Mosque and a chaplain at San Quentin and the University of San Francisco. He is a father of four and once climbed Mount Fuji.