Dr. Issa Ziddy is an associate professor of religious education at the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA). He obtained his PhD in curriculum development & methodology of teaching from the International University of Africa in Khartoum, Sudan. His research and publications in Arabic, Swahili, and English concern the history of Islamic education in Zanzibar, Muslim-Christian relations, Gulf-Zanzibar connections, and Islamic teachings on current issues. He was a visiting scholar in Islamic studies at the University of Leipzig, Institute of Oriental Studies in Germany, Bayreuth University in Germany, and in Northwest College in Wyoming through the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program. He has partnered with the government and organizations in Zanzibar seeking to bring Islamic leaders into their work in educating communities on pressing current issues, including gender-based violence, family planning, and positive discipline for children in homes and schools and environmental issues.

Caitlyn Bolton is a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research centers on transnational currents of Islamic reform, development, and knowledge exchange in Zanzibar and the Gulf. Supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Fulbright-Hays, and the American Council of Learned Societies, her dissertation examines transnational Islamic organizations working in development and education in Zanzibar, and the role of religion and religious knowledge in their approaches to progress and social change. She speaks Arabic and Swahili, has a BA in anthropology and africana studies from Bard College, an MA in near eastern studies from New York University, and has worked at Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative and the Cordoba Initiative.

Dr. Mary Khatib is a lecturer in the Department of Geography at the State University of Zanzibar. Her dissertation, titled “A Changing Climate: Local Adaptations in Northern Coastal Communities’ Livelihoods of Unguja Island, Zanzibar,” examined the effects of the changing climate on local livelihoods highly dependent on coastal resource extraction in northern Unguja island, Zanzibar. She has partnered extensively with the government and NGOs on research projects related to climate change and livelihoods in Zanzibar, and has conducted research with the Department of Education and Vocational Training.