Biography   Rubina (Ruby) Ramji

Rubina (Ruby) Ramji is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Cape Breton University. Born in East Africa and raised in Canada, Ruby received her B.A. in Psychology and M.A. in Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, ON. She received her PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa in December 2003, which focused on images of Islamic women in various media discourses, including film and television. She followed the PhD with a postdoctoral fellowship, which focused on issues of gender, ethnicity and identity amongst immigrant groups in Canada.

Rubina teaches a wide range of courses, including courses on Islam, Christianity, Religion and Sexuality as well as Film and Popular Culture. She finds a way to show movies and television clips in all her classes.

After serving as a Chair of the Religion, Film and Visual Culture Group in the American Academy of Religion, Rubina continues to serve on the steering committee and is on the Executive Committee for the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion. She is also the new Senior Editor (August 2007) of the online peer-reviewed journal entitled Golem: Journal of Religion and Monsters and Film Review Editor for the Journal of Religion and Film.

Her publications focus on understanding the images of Islam in North American mass media and its effects on Muslim identity. Her recent research focuses on the emerging religious identities of second generation immigration Muslim youth in Canada. Rubina is the author of a variety of articles and chapters in books, including Globalization, Religion and Culture (Brill Publishing 2008), Womenand Religion: Challenging Secularization (Ashgate Publishing, 2007), Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture (T&T Clark Ltd, 2003), God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture (Routledge, 2001), Islam in America (Columbia University, 2000), and The Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion (Macmillan Reference USA, 1999).

Rubina currently lives in Sydney, Nova Scotia and enjoys anything horror: books, movies and stories. She also loves to travel.