James D. Frankel, a native New Yorker, holds a Bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies and postgraduate degrees in Religion from Columbia University. His expertise is in the history of Islam in China, and his scholarly interests emphasize the comparative history of ideas and religious and cultural syncretism. His doctoral dissertation is on the subject of Chinese Islamic scholarship and literature of the early Qing (1644 – 1911) period, specifically the writings of the Chinese Muslim literatus Liu Zhi (ca. 1660 – ca. 1730). Dr. Frankel's first book, Rectifying God's Name: Liu Zhi's Confucian Translation of Monotheism and Islamic Law, (University of Hawaii Press, 2011), expounds on the same topic. He has lived in China and has traveled extensively in Asia and Europe, where he has met with scholars and religious leaders of Muslim minority communities. Dr. Frankel teaches and researches in the areas of Islam, comparative religion, Chinese religions, religious fundamentalism and mysticism.

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