Carool Kersten
Carool Kersten is a Dutch scholar of Islam. Trained as an Arabist, Southeast Asianist and scholar of Religions, he currently is at the Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and Emeritus Reader in the Study of Islam & the Muslim World at King's College London. In addition, he is also a Senior Research Fellow at the . His research interests focus on the modern and contemporary Muslim world, in particular intellectual and political developments in both regional and global contexts, as well as on theory and method in the study of Islam as a field of scholarly inquiry.
Education
Carool Kersten studied Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the then still existing Institute for Languages and Cultures of the Middle East at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. He specialized in modern Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, with minors in International Law, International Relations and Indonesian. Uponcompletion of a dissertation on the theory and practice of the Islamic law of treaties, in 1987, he was awarded the academic title of doctorandus in Arabic Language and Culture with cum laude distinction. He then went to Egypt, where he attended the in Cairo. In 1988, he was admitted as a Sworn Translator by the Netherlands District Court in Arnhem. He returned to Nijmegen during a sabbatical to do graduate work in philosophy. Taking another sabbatical year in 2001, he studied at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he obtained a Certificate in Thai and Southeast Asian studies. In 2005, he moved to England in order to conduct postgraduate research at the School of Oriental and African Studies and was awarded a PhD in the Study of Religions in 2009. In his thesis, written under the supervision of Professor Christopher Shackle and entitled 'Occupants of the Third Space: New Muslim Intellectuals and the Study of Islam', he dealt with the work of three contemporary Muslim scholars,.
Career
Except for a sabbatical pretty year, from 1988 until 2003, Carool Kersten worked for the Dutch construction and engineering company . In 1989 he was transferred to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide support for the company's operations in the Middle East, where he held a number of staff and project positions, including that of personnel and general services manager for the company's Middle East operations. After leaving Saudi Arabia in late 2000, he was retained as a consultant and translator until 2003. From 2002 until 2007, Kersten taught Asian history and religions at the Center for International and Graduate Studies of Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Subsequently, he held appointments in the and at King's College London as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in the Study of Islam & the Muslim World. In July 2022, he was appointed Research Professor in Islamic Studies at the of the Catholic University of Leuven. In recognition and appreciation of his services to the university and to his academic field, effective 2 July 2022, King's College London conferred on him the title of .Other activities
Carool Kersten is the founding editor of the book series , which was published by Routledge ever since 2011, and also a Fellow of the . He also is a founding member of the , serving as a BRAIS Council Member from 2014 to 2020 and sitting on its advisory board. In October 2014, he was elected as a Research Associate of , and promoted to in November 2020. In that same year he also joined the , hosted by the Free University Berlin. Kersten makes regular as an analyst and commentator on developments in the Muslim world. For this he was awarded the .Publications
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- ', with Klaus-Gerd Giesen and Lenart Skof
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- ', with Susanne Olsson
- ', with Madawi al-Rasheed and Marat Shterin
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