Language Pedagogy, Islamic Theology 

[email protected]

B.A. – Istanbul University, 1998.

M.A. – Marmara University, Istanbul 2000.

M.A. –Indiana University, 2003.

Ph.D. –Indiana University, 2010.

Areas of Specialization: Sufism, Islamic Theology, Islam and Women, Interfaith Scriptural Reasoning, Teaching Pedagogy, Deep Approach to Teaching Languages.  

Dr. Zuleyha Colak, born in Turkey, educated both in Turkey and the USA. She received her B. A. in Arabic Language and Literature from Istanbul University, Turkey (1998). She holds two masters’ degrees, the first one in Arabic Literature in Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey (2000), and the second one is in Central Eurasian Studies/Ottoman and Modern Turkish studies at Indiana University (2003). She received her PH.D. from the department of Central Eurasian Studies, Bloomington, Indiana University with a thesis on the portrayal of Women of Biblical and Quranic Joseph Story in Ottoman Literature in 2010.  

Dr. Colak worked at Indiana University as an Associate instructor between 2002-2005. She also worked as a Teaching Specialist at Global Studies Department at the University of Minnesota between 2005-2010. She works as a Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Turkish and Ottoman Language program at the Middle Eastern Studies Department at Columbia University since 2010. Some courses She taught are Approaching Quranic Stories, Deep Approach to Risale-i Nur, Essentials of Islamic Spirituality, Islam 101, Introduction to Sufism, Theory of Novel, Perspectives on Women in Islam, Elementary Turkish I-II, Intermediate Turkish I-II, and Advanced Turkish I-II, Elementary Ottoman I-II, Reading Archival Texts in Ottoman I-II. Currently, Dr. Colak is a Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Turkish and Ottoman Studies Program at Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department at Columbia University since 2010.