Despite hopes that Professor Mohamed Mahmoud would overcome visa problems and return to Tufts this semester, the Sudanese national is still stuck outside the country.
Mahmoud, the chair of the Comparative Religions department and its resident expert on Islam and modernity, left Tufts for the 2001-2002 academic year to teach at Oxford University. But the Immigration and Naturalization Service tightened immigration regulations after Sept. 11 and Mahmoud has been unable to obtain a visa to re-enter the country.
Professor Joseph Walser, who is acting chair of the department, said that there is no news from the INS about when Mahmoud would able to return. He was told that a background check would take six months but nothing has yet happened.
"It is ironic that [Mahmoud] is still in England because at this time, with everything going on in the world, students need to learn about Islam, his area of expertise," Walser said. He said the ordeal was "really frustrating."
Last semester, Tufts scheduled Mahmoud to teach two classes, hoping he would return. But the department has had to keep Harvard professor Alnoor Danani to teach Mahmoud's classes.
While previously a visa would take about ten days to process, the time has increased drastically, especially for nationals of the 26 countries identified by the State Department as potential harbors for terrorism, including Iran, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Under the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Bill, signed earlier this year, visa applicants from those countries are subject to an additional 20 days of security screening and scrutiny by US officials. But the reforms to the system of issuing visas lead to a backlog, which may have delayed Mahmoud's return.
Mahmoud's absence has had a substantial effect on the Comparative Religions department because of its small size _ there are only three-tenure track professors, two adjunct professors and eight teaching assistants.
The small department is seeking to expand by attracting more students, partly "by building a curriculum attractive to students." Some administrators have suggested amalgamating comparative religions and another department, such as history. Former professor of comparative religions Howard Hunter, who retired in 1996, campaigned for this idea with the help of many students.
Mahmoud was hired to chair the department in 1997 and Professor Walser was hired in the fall of 1998. Peter Theusen was also hired as the department's resident Christianity expert at about the same time.
Walser described all the hirings as "a lot of new professors in a very short amount of time." The three tenure track professors will come up for tenure soon.
Walser does not expect the department to hire new professors anytime soon. "All departments want more professors," Walser said, but that doesn't mean they can hire them.
More from The Tufts Daily
