John his a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His areas of emphasis are Modern Sufi (Islamic) movements in MENA, Law and ethics, and music/dance in ritual practice. He is currently conducting fieldwork in Fes, Morocco with the support of a Fulbright-Hays grant on Sufi-related social services.
John received a B.S. in Philosophy and Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder with specializations in Critical Social Theory and Cognitice Science. He has lived and taught throughout the MENA region including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and currently Morocco.