A professor of Islamic civilization as well as Islam in Europe and America at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Denise A. Spellberg received her B.A. from Smith College and her PhD from Columbia University. Her scholarship on founding women in Islamic history garnered a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. In 2009, the Women’s Cultural Association of Istanbul, Turkey, awarded her book, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of ‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr, its Dost (“Friend”) Prize for its universal contribution to Islamic Studies. Her most recent book, Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders, won support for its research from the Carnegie Scholars Program. Translated into Indonesian, Turkish, and Arabic, its findings have been featured in The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and The Nation. Dr. Spellberg serves as an academic adviser for the forthcoming Public Broadcasting Service documentary American Muslims: A History Revealed.