Carool Kersten

Carool Kersten is a scholar of Islam and an expert on developments in the modern and contemporary Muslim world. He has written or edited eleven books.

Prof. Kersten is a Research Professor in Islamic Studies at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Specializing in the intellectual history of the modern Muslim world, he has also worked on Islamic political and legal thought, philosophy and literature. He is the author and (co-)editor of eleven books, including four single-authored research monographs and multi-volume anthologies on Caliphate & Islamic statehood and on the place of Fatwas in Islamic law. He is the founding editor of the book series Contemporary Thought in the Islamic World for Routledge.

Before joining KU Leuven, Kersten worked at King’s College London (2007-2022), lastly as Reader (Associate Professor) in the Study of Islam & the Muslim World. Before moving to London, he was a faculty member of the Centre for Graduate and International Studies at Payap University in Chiang Mai and Academic Director (Thailand) of an American Study Abroad Programme. Prior to his career as a scholarly researcher and tertiary educator, Kersten worked for fifteen years as a manager, consultant and translator in the corporate world, including more than a decade as an expatriate in the Persian Gulf States.