About Dr. Nasima Selim  - Dr. Nasima Selim is an anthropologist, writer, educator, and researcher. She navigates the terrains of knowledge and praxis in medical anthropology, global health, public anthropology, and anthropology of Islam in and across Western Europe and South Asia. Creative writing (non-fiction and fiction), reflexive-non-hierarchial pedagogy, and interdisciplinary collaborations inform her scientific and literary aspirations. Her current ethnographic book project is titled "Breathing Hearts: Sufism, Healing, and Anti-Muslim Racism in Berlin". She is also working on a postdoctoral research project titled "BreathAbility: The Politics and Poetics of Respiration in/across South Asia and Western Europe".

About MECCA Institute - MECCA Institute is a non-profit organization whose mission is to expand progressive Islamic theology through education and research. The organization was found in 2014 by Imam Daayiee Abdullah. Imam Daayiee is a well-known figure in the media as the "first openly gay imam." He is the author of "Progressive Islam: The Rich Liberal Ideas of the Muslim Faith." Imam Daayiee is currently the Executive Director of MECCA Institute.