Speakers’ profiles

din Sardar Reader (2003) and How Do You Know?: Reading Ziauddin
Sardar on Islam, Science and Cultural Relations (2000). His most
recent books include Reading the Quran (2012) and Future: All That
Matters (2014).
Professor Sardar has written and presented numerous television
programmes — most recently ‘Battle for Islam’, a 90-minute docu- Maya van Leemput 
mentary for BBC2 and ‘Dispatches’ on Pakistan for Channel 4. His
earlier programmes include ‘Encounters with Islam’ (1985), a series
of four shows for BBC and ‘Islamic Conversations’ (1994), a series of
six programmes for Channel 4. He was a regular Friday Panel Mem-
ber on ‘World News Tonight’ on Sky News (2005—2007).
Maya van Leemput  is a professional futurist, multi-media artist,
Ziauddin Sardar Sardar was the editor of Futures, the monthly journal of policy,
and a senior researcher at the Erasmus Hogeschool, where she is
planning and futures studies, from 1999—2013, and now serves
setting up the new ‘Applied Futures Research — Open Time’ centre.
as a Consulting Editor. Widely known for his radio and television
appearances, he is currently co-editor of the quarterly journal Cri- Maya’s background is in media studies. She obtained her Ph.D.
tical Muslim. from the University of Westminster for her research on  ‘Visions
of the Future on Television’. Her futures work on media, culture,
Ziauddin Sardar, writer, broadcaster and cultural critic, is Professor arts, development, urban environment, science and technology in
of Law and Society at Middlesex University, London. He has been society and cross-cultural communication is based on critical the-
described as a ‘critical polymath’ and is considered one of the top ory and uses experimental, creative and participatory approaches.
100 public intellectuals in Britain. He works across a number of dis- Since 1999, she has been working with the visual artist Bram Goots
ciplines ranging from Islamic studies and futures studies to science on Agence Future (AF), a long-term independent project for explo-
policy, literary criticism, information science to cultural relations, ring images of the future through conversation and intercultural
art criticism and critical theory. He was born in Pakistan in 1951 and experiment.  The project started with ethnographic futures field
grew up in Hackney, East London. research in 25 countries on five continents, and evolved over the
Sardar has worked as science journalist for Nature and New Scientist next decade with recorded conversations on images of futures in
and as a television reporter for London Weekend Television. He was various settings and contexts. In 2014, Agence Future completed a
a columnist on the New Statesman for a number of years and has three-year exchange project MAONO  that brought students from
Jordi Serra Brussels (Belgium) and Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Con-
served as a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Com-
mission and as a member of the Interim National Security Forum. go) together with Congolese artists to develop cooperative of ima-
ges of the future, culminating in a campus event and a one-month
He has published over 50 books. The Future of Muslim Civilisation
exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp.
(1979) and Islamic Futures: The Shape of Ideas to Come (1985) are
regarded as classic studies on the future of Islam. He pioneered the Maya’s other projects include analysis of futures orientation of
discussion on science in Muslim societies, with a series of articles in non-profit, private and institutional actors in Brussels for the Free
Jordi Serra is a futurist with a career of more than 35 years re-
Nature and New Scientist and a number of books, including Scien- University of Brussels’ (VUB) Prospective Research programme
searching, studying, teaching, assessing and writing about change,
ce, Technology and Development in the Muslim World (1977), The of the Brussels Capital Region, and a host of projects for the King
futures studies, strategy and intelligence.
Touch of Midas: Science, Values and the Environment in Islam and Baudouin Foundation, Belgium, Flemish parliament’s Society and
the West (1982), which is seen as a seminal work, The Revenge of Currently Jordi is the Research Director of the Center for Postnor- Technology Institute, European Parliamentary Technology Asses-
Athena: Science, Exploitation and the Third World (1988) and Ex- mal Policy & Futures Studies; Academic Director of the Observa- sment (EPTA) network, the European Commission, the European
plorations in Islamic Science (1989). Postmodernism and the Other tory of Social Economy OES21; Associate professor at Blanquerna Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) framework, and
(1998) has acquired a cultish following and Why Do People Hate - Universitat Ramon Llull; World Futures Studies FederationFellow
UNESCO. Her work has been exhibited in a number of museums
America? (2002) became an international bestseller. and Vice President of itsIberoamerican Chapter. He is also a mem-
and art galleries.
ber of the editorial committee of Futures, World Future Reviewand
Sardar’s two volumes of biography and travel, Desperately Seeking
the RevistaIAPEM (Institute of Public Administration of the State of
Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim (2004) and Balti Britain:
Mexico’s journal).
A Provocative Journey Through Asian Britain (2008) have received
wide acclaim. He has also authored a number of study guides in Jordi has developed an intense activity as a writer, contributing in
the Introducing series, including the international bestsellers Intro- the main specialized magazines and other generalist media, as a
ducing Islam and Introducing Chaos. Two collections of his writings teacher in different Spanish universities and as a speaker, in several
are available as Islam, Postmodernism and Other Futures: A Ziaud- types of events in the five continents.