September 2000-Dr. Louis Cantori joined The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences as an Advisor to the President. He will retain his position as a faculty member at the Department of Political Science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Dr. Cantori has studied Islamic Philosophy at al-Azhar University in Cairo and has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Political Science. He has traveled extensively in the Middle East, including seven years of residency, principally in Egypt and Morocco, and speaks Arabic, French, and German. His published work is in the area of international comparative politics, the Middle East, and Islam. He is the author or editor of four books and over 45 articles. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. He was a distinguished professor at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Marine Corps University.

Dr. Cantori taught for two years at the American University in Cairo (1973 - 1975) and was a Research Associate at the Faculty of Law, Muhammad V University in Rabat, Morocco from 1994 - 1995. A Catholic with an interest in promoting dialogue between Islam and Christianity, Dr. Cantori has been the initiating spark that helped found three Islamic organizations: 1) the American Council for the Study of Islam Societies; 2) the Circle of Tradition and Progress; and 3) the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. He is no stranger to The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, having been involved with Dr. Taha Jabir Alalwani in the Circle of Tradition and Progress* for many years.

* For a link to an article published in the Middle East Policy Journal, Vol. VII, October 1999, pp. 38-49 by Dr.Anthony T. Sullivan, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Michigan that explains the founding of The Circle of Tradition and Progress, http://www.mediamonitors.net/sullivan1.html.