معرفی
Dr Mahsheed Ansari serves as a Senior Lecturer in Islam and Contemporary Islamic Studies and Higher Degrees Research Coordinator at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation at Charles Sturt University. She also holds positions as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Religion and Ethics and Society (CRES) at Charles Sturt University and as a sessional Law lecturer at Western Sydney University. Her academic career spans teaching, research supervision, and community engagement focused on Islamic studies and Australian Muslim communities.
Ansari holds a double degree in Law and Arts from Western Sydney University, a Master of Arts in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Sydney University, and a PhD in Historical Studies and Islamic Studies from Monash University. Her educational background provides a strong foundation for her interdisciplinary work bridging legal, historical, and religious studies.
Her research explores multiple facets of Islamic intellectual history, theology, philosophy, and ethics, with a particular focus on the historical and cultural presence of Islam and Muslims in Australia. She has developed significant expertise in oral history methodologies to capture Muslim heritage, particularly through her Australian Muslim Heritage Project. Her work often examines the intersection of Islamic thought with contemporary social issues, including prophethood debates, Muslim women's experiences, and interfaith relations in the Australian context. Through her book Modern Debates in Prophecy and Prophethood in Islam: Muhammad Iqbal and Said Nursi (2023), she has contributed to contemporary theological discourse on Islamic prophetic tradition.
Analysis of her recent publications reveals consistent thematic development across three main trajectories: historical and theological studies of Islamic thought (particularly regarding prophethood and Islamic modernism), Australian Muslim history and identity formation, and contemporary social issues affecting Muslim communities including gender, trauma, and political representation. Her work demonstrates increasing interdisciplinary engagement, moving from purely theological studies toward sociological, historical, and public policy applications.
Ansari has received multiple research grants supporting her work on Australian Muslim history, including funding from Charles Sturt University ($1,700 in 2023, $14,500 in 2019, $15,000 in 2017-2018), the Islamic Foundation for Education & Welfare ($12,000 in 2023, $22,000 in 2017-2019), Cumberland Council ($8,000 in 2019), and the Public & Contextual Theology Research Project Grant ($9,500 in 2019, $25,000 in 2017-2018).
As Higher Degrees Research Coordinator at CISAC, she supervises PhD candidates including Carol Mroue researching Islamic spirituality in post-traumatic growth for Australian Muslim women and previously supervised Mukesh Chander's work on citizenship issues. She has also co-supervised research on transnational Islamic movements and online religious education. Her teaching portfolio includes subjects on Islamic spirituality, women in Islam, Muslims in Australia, and Islamic morality across undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Her current research focuses on the Australian Muslim Heritage Project and Muslim Pioneers Project, particularly documenting Dr Ashfaq Ahmad's contributions to institutional development of Islam in Australia. These projects represent significant community-engaged scholarship that bridges academic research with cultural preservation efforts.
