Wake Forest Names Dr. Nelly van Doorn-Harder as Kenan Professor in the Humanities

Dr. Nelly van Doorn-Harder, Professor of Religious Studies and Co-Director of Middle East and South Asia Studies, has been appointed as the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor in the Humanities. 

“I was deeply honored to be awarded the Kenan Professorship. Given the exceptional caliber of scholarship among my colleagues at WFU, being selected for this role came as a genuine surprise. As I settle into this position, I am carefully considering the teaching and research initiatives that will define my tenure,” she said. 

Dr. van Doorn-Harder was born and raised in the Netherlands, where she earned her Ph.D. on the topic of women in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. Before moving to the United States, she was the director of a refugee program in Cairo, Egypt, and taught Islamic Studies at universities in the Netherlands (Leiden) and Indonesia (Yogyakarta).

Since joining the Department for the Study of Religions at Wake Forest University in 2009, Dr. van Doorn-Harder has expanded the University’s teaching of Christian and Islamic Studies. Her courses span from introductory Islamic traditions to advanced courses about Islam in the West. In each of her courses, Dr. van Doorn-Harder mentors the next generation of religious studies scholars with an emphasis on the interconnectedness of diverse fields of inquiry.

In addition to her role in the Department for the Study of Religions, Dr. van Doorn-Harder serves as the co-director of Wake Forest’s Middle East and Asian Studies Program (MESAS) where she has combined her expertise in Islamic Studies with her commitment to interdisciplinary initiatives since 2022. Through MESAS, Dr. van Doorn-Harder and co-director Dr. Charles Wilkins bring together faculty and students from multiple departments and the Divinity School to examine complex regional issues, fostering collaborative research and innovative teaching methods. 

Through her leadership within both MESAS and the Department of Religious Studies, Dr. van Doorn-Harder actively promotes cross-departmental collaboration and interfaith dialogue, aligning her expertise and research with the Kenan Professorship’s mission to support distinguished humanities research. 

“Dr. van Doorn-Harder’s dedication to exploring global religious traditions and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration perfectly embodies the spirit of the Kenan Professorship. This appointment recognizes her significant contributions and will provide vital support to further expand her influential and impactful research,” said Dr. Stacie Petter, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs. 

Dr. van Doorn-Harder joins a storied lineup of Kenan Professors who left lasting legacies for their students and their chosen fields of interest. Germaine Brée, an internationally recognized scholar of modern French literature, brought to life the works of Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Marcel Proust for thousands of students during her time as Kenan Professor of the Humanities. Allen Mandelbaum, one of the world’s most acclaimed English translators of Dante’s Divine Comedy, taught Classical poetry and Italian literature for decades when he was the Kenan Professor of the Humanities, and Julian Young transformed the minds of his Philosophy students while continuing his prolific career as a preeminent scholar during his professorship. 

Her current projects include a forthcoming book on human rights and women, co-authored with an Indonesian colleague, as well as continued research on women’s religious authority in Islamic contexts. The Kenan Professorship will provide additional resources to expand her research and support her ongoing contributions to Islamic and comparative religious studies.

“Dr. van Doorn-Harder embodies the very best of our teacher-scholar model at Wake Forest University. Her scholarly work is both interdisciplinary and collaborative, extending not only across the University but also globally. As a teacher and mentor, she helps students engage with complex and difficult questions, always in the spirit of Pro Humanitate,” said Dr. Jackie Krasas, Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.