Amanullah De Sondy

Amanullah De Sondy is a globally renowned academic and broadcaster at University College Cork. Amanullah has been appointed as Visiting Honorary Islamic Studies Scholar at the University of Melbourne 2024.

Amanullah is Head of the Study of Religions Department since 2020 and Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Islam. Amanullah was Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies at Ithaca College USA between 2009-2010 and at University of Miami USA between 2010-2015. Amanullah has held Visiting Professorships in religious studies in South Africa’s North-West University and in Italy at the American University in Rome. He is an affiliated member of staff of the University of Glasgow's Department of Theology and Religious Studies.

Amanullah’s first book, The Crisis of Islamic Masculinities, was published with Bloomsbury Academic in January 2014. His second book, Judaism, Christianity and Islam: An Introduction to Monotheism, also published with Bloomsbury Academic in October 2020. Aman's books have been positively reviewed in The Times Higher Education, New Books in Islamic Studies USA and BBC Radio Scotland's 'Sunday Morning with...'.

Amanullah’s deep interest in learning and teaching roots from his first degree in Religious Studies and Education Studies with the Diploma in Education from Stirling University. This led to a short but illustrious career as a secondary school teacher of Religious Education (RE) in Scotland where he taught in many different schools, held senior positions in national RE organisations, led a number of in-service events for teachers, consulted the Scottish Government's non-departmental public body, Learning Teaching Scotland (LTS), authored two key texts on teaching Islam and lectured part time at Strathclyde University's teacher training courses on RE at Jordanhill College, Glasgow.

Amanullah has developed the Study of Religions undergraduate programme as Co-ordinator of the First Year course RG1001: Religions in the Contemporary: An Introduction to the Study of Religions. He teaches courses on One God: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Islam: Film, Media and Music and Introduction to Islam. He also teaches on the MA in Women’s Studies at UCC. Amanullah has supervised 3 PhD students to completion, externally successfully examined 5 international PhD students and currently supervises 2 PhD Students at UCC.

Amanullah has presented keynote speeches to both 'The Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)', the state agency responsible for promoting the quality, integrity and reputation of Ireland's further and higher education system and 'The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)', UK Higher Education sector’s agency maintaining and enhancing academic quality and standards in UK tertiary education. He is currently on the National University of Ireland's (NUI) group working on its Human Rights Principles and code of conduct

Amanullah has played a significant international and national role in the public understanding of Islam and religions. He has contributed articles and interviews in the print media by invitation to The Scottish Herald, The Sunday Times UK, The Irish Times, The Irish Journal, Cork Evening Echo, The Catholic Herald, The Catholic Tablet, The Times Educational Supplement, The Scotsman, The Guardian and the Washington Post.

Amanullah was featured on RTÉ1 Tommy Tiernan TV Show, RTÉ Radio's 'Leap of Faith, RTÉ The Ray D'Arcy Show, RTÉ Claire Byrne Today, RTÉ A Word in Edgeways, Cork's 96FM, Newstalk 106-108fm, The Two Norries Podcast, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, BBC Panorama, WPBT2 Florida TV, NBC6 South Florida TV and Fusion Miami Live TV. In 2008, BBC Radio Scotland ‘A Life in Question - Amanullah De Sondy’ hosted by Colin McKay. Aman was consulted for Facebook's Europe Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Public Policy team on Race, Sexuality & Islam.

Amanullah has been presenting ‘thought for the day’ on BBC Radio Scotland live since 2006. Having written and broadcast over 60,000 thoughtful words related to Islam, Muslims and religions over the years on the 'Good Morning Scotland' show which has an average radio listenership of nearly 1 million. Amanullah is a regular on the Irish national broadcaster’s Today’ TV show since 2022 with the Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) programme viewership of nearly 500,000. Amanullah sits on The News Panel where he comments on the day’s news headlines, especially as they relate to his interdisciplinary research interests on Islam, Muslims, religions, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and pluralism. He is also a regular on the 'Religion News Panel' on BBC Radio Scotland's 'Sunday Morning' show.

Amanullah is Former Director on the Board of NASC, Irish Migrant and Refugee Rights organisation from 2019-2024. He was Chair of the UCC Race Equality Forum from 2020-2023, leading national conversations on race/racism in the media and conferences. Amanullah is an Executive Member of the LGBT+ Staff Network at UCC. Born and raised in a council estate in Glasgow to Pakistani parents, he holds both British and Irish nationality. Twice served as an Umpire at Wimbledon Tennis Championships and ran 13 half marathons around the world.