Dr. Irfan Omar '94 Reconnects with Old Friends at HIU

Dr. Irfan Omar ‘94, an MA alum, flew to Connecticut from Milwaukee, WI, to attend a conference at Yale University and along the way visited the HIU campus. 

Dr. Omar was once an international student from India who said that Marie Rovero, Library Acquisitions and Interlibrary Loans, and other staff members made him feel he had a family here. 

“Coming back to Hartford feels like this is where I was born, intellectually speaking,” Dr. Irfan said. “When I work, when I write, everything can be traced back to Hartford.” 

After graduating from HIU, he went on to Temple University for his Ph.D. While at Temple, he was a student and then assistant to our late faculty member, Dr. Mahmoud Ayoub. Later, he helped edit some of Dr. Ayoub’s books. 

HIU currently owns five of Dr. Omar's edited books. Other of his books are listed on his faculty page at Marquette University, where he teaches courses in Peace studies, Islamic theology, and interfaith dialogue.

He currently serves on the editorial / advisory boards of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion, and İslāmī Araştirmalar/Journal of Islamic Research.