Paul Anderson received his Ph.D. at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Ph.D. program at Harvard University (2021). He obtained his M.A. in Arabic Literature and Islamic Studies from the American University in Cairo (2013), where he spent five years conducting research on classical Islamic philosophy and Arabic linguistics. He specializes in Shiʻi intellectual history, with specific areas of interest focusing on Persian, Arabic, Urdu, and Gujarati literature, historical linguistics, Islamic philosophy, Ismaʻili doctrines, the ghulāt movements, minority religions in the Muslim-majority world, and the Safavid period. His dissertation, “A Deluge of Tears: The Conflux of Persian Shiʻi Literature, Ritual, and Identity in Martyrdom Narratives” explores the 16th-century Persian martyrdom narrative Rowz̤at ol-Shohadā’, and the mourning rituals associated with ʻĀshūrā’. This dissertation recently won the Foundation for Iranian Studies 2020-2021 Best Ph.D. Dissertation of the Year. Dr. Anderson’s forthcoming article, “Epiphany: A Comparative Consideration of Omniscience According to the Philosophies of Śāntarakṣita and Suhrawardī,” combines Dr. Anderson’s expertise in Islamic philosophy with his ongoing interest in Indic intellectual history, exploring the commonalities between Islamic and Buddhist epistemologies of particulars and universals.