Karen Taliaferro is an assistant professor in the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, a position she has held since the School’s founding in 2017. Her research interests include the history of political thought, religion and politics, and most particularly medieval Islamic philosophy. Her book, The Possibility of Religious Freedom: Early Natural Law and the Abrahamic Faiths examined the perennial conflict of divine law and human law, proposing a re-examination of ancient and medieval traditions of natural law to mitigate the conflict. Dr. Taliaferro’s education includes a B.A. in Political Science and French from Marquette University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University, as well as additional training in classics from Northwestern University. She has previously taught humanities and Great Books at Villanova University and has held fellowships at the James Madison Program at Princeton University, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar, and the John Jay Institute for Faith, Society and Law. Dr. Taliaferro was awarded a 2011 NSEP/Boren grant for Arabic studies and research on human rights curriculum in Morocco. Prior to her academic career, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2006-2008 in rural Morocco, focusing on health education and development training.
