Sahar Aziz
Sahar Aziz is a Professor of Law, Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar, and Middle East and Legal Studies Scholar at Rutgers University Law School. Professor Aziz’s scholarship adopts an interdisciplinary approach to examine intersections of national security, race, and civil rights with a focus on the adverse impact of national security laws and policies on racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in the U.S. Her research also investigates the relationship between authoritarianism, terrorism, and rule of law in Egypt. She is the founding director of the interdisciplinary Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights (csrr.rutgers.edu), a faculty affiliate of the African American Studies Department at Rutgers University-Newark, and a member of the Rutgers-Newark Chancellor’s Commission on Diversity and Transformation. Professor Aziz’s book, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, examines how religious bigotry racializes immigrant Muslims through a historical and comparative approach. She was named a 2020 Middle Eastern and North African American National Security and Foreign Policy Next Generation Leader by New America. She was a 2017 recipient of the Research Making an Impact Award by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), and a 2015 recipient of the Derrick Bell Award from the American Association of Law Schools Minority Section. Professor Aziz earned a J.D. and M.A. in Middle East Studies from the University of Texas where she was as an associate editor of the Texas Law Review. Professor Aziz clerked for the Honorable Andre M. Davis on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.