Saeed Khan appointed director of Wayne State University's Center for the Study of Citizenship
Wayne State University announced the appointment of Saeed Khan as the new director of the Center for the Study of Citizenship.
Khan, an associate professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, currently serves as the center's associate director. He specializes in the study of Middle Eastern history, Islam and contemporary Muslim history.
In his role as associate director, Khan has collaborated closely with Department of English Professor Richard Marback and the outgoing center director, Marc Kruman. Together, they have successfully coordinated the center’s renowned international conference and expanded its global outreach initiatives.
Notably, Khan is recognized for his extensive work on Islamophobia in the United States and the United Kingdom. As a co-founder and senior fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, he has been a regular panelist on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Turning Point and a frequent contributor to esteemed news outlets such as the BBC, Veja, Quartz, TIME and WDET’s Detroit Today.
The transition in leadership comes as Marc Kruman, distinguished service professor of history and founder of the Center for the Study of Citizenship in 2001-2002, steps down after guiding its growth for the last two decades. Under Kruman's leadership, the center has played a pivotal role in the global development of citizenship studies through its acclaimed international conference, book prize and publications.
Kruman has expanded the center's impact beyond the academic sphere, notably through the Citizenship for Health project. In collaboration with Professor Pradeep Sopory (PI and acting chair, Department of Communication), they secured $700,000 in funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund for the project since 2021. His leadership also saw the introduction of deliberative democratic work into public schools and citizen dialogues on crucial public issues.
During his tenure, Kruman co-edited The Meaning of Citizenship (2015) alongside Marback, spearheaded a special issue on "Citizenship in Pandemic Times" in the Citizenship Studies journal in 2022, and initiated a book series on Citizenship Studies with Wayne State University Press.
Khan's appointment signifies a new chapter for the center, building upon the legacy established by Kruman. Wayne State looks forward to the continued growth of the study of citizenship under Khan's leadership.