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SpearIt is an ISPU Fellow and an Assistant Professor of Law at Saint Louis University School of Law where he teaches Corrections, Sentencing, and Criminal Law.  Prior to joining the SLU faculty, he taught at the Law and Society Program at University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as taught inmates for the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison.  SpearIt’s research concentrates on criminal justice, and most recently his work has appeared in the Federal Sentencing Reporter, Journal of Law & Policy, as well as Praeger Security International, ABC-CLIO, and SAGE publications.  Currently, SpearIt serves on the Leadership Board for the Prison Program at SLU and serves on the Board of Governors for the Society of American Law Teachers; he is also working on his book entitled, Raza Islamica: Prisons, Hip hop & Converting Converts in addition to book chapters for The Muslims in U.S. Prisons and Religion and American Cultures.  SpearIt earned a B.A. in philosophy, magna cum laude, from the University of Houston, a master’s in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School, a Ph.D. in religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law. 

EDUCATION

M.A., Harvard Divinity School, Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara J.D., UC Berkeley School of Law.

AREA OF EXPERTISE

Criminal Justice , Religious Studies , American Muslims , Islamophobia , Muslims in the West , National Security

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

• Supremacist Terror Rising, Islamic Extremism on the Decline
• The Waning Pulse of Islamic Radicalization in America
• Growing Faith: Prisons, Hip-Hop and Islam
• Facts and Fictions About Islam in Prisons: Assessing Prisoner Radicalization in Post 9/11 America
• False alarms on Islam
• Islam, prisons and Latinos
• Radical Islam in Prison: Made in the USA