Rethinking Sharia & Keeping It Real Featuring Intisar Rabb and Maya Rupert

Intisar A. Rabb is a Professor of Law, a Professor of History, and the faculty director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School. She has held appointments as a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, as an Associate Professor at NYU Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and at NYU Law School, and as an Assistant Professor at Boston College Law School. She previously served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a Temple Bar Fellow in London with the American Inns of Court, and as a Carnegie Scholar for her work on contemporary Islamic law. In 2015, in partnership with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, support from the Luce and MacArthur Foundations, and collaborations with myriad scholars and institutions, she launched SHARIAsource – an online portal designed to provide universal access to the world’s information on Islamic law and history, and to facilitate new research with the use of data and AI tools. She is a contributor to the book America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance, an essay collection from Harvard Law School faculty.

Maya Rupert is an author, a podcast host, a political strategist, and a social justice leader. She has been recognized by national outlets including Ebony Magazine and The Root for her leadership in the Black community. Maya received her B.A. from U.C. Santa Barbara and her J.D. from U.C. Berkeley. She clerked for the Honorable Eric L. Clay of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2020, she served as campaign manager for Julián Castro’s presidential campaign and is only the third Black woman to have managed a major presidential campaign. When Secretary Castro exited the race, she joined Elizabeth Warren’s campaign as a Senior Advisor. In 2021, she managed Maya Wiley’s NYC Mayoral campaign.

Maya contributed a piece to the anthology How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation, released in 2018. Maya has previously been awarded NABJ Salute to Excellence awards for her writing. Maya has also been a contributing writer to a number of outlets where she frequently addresses the intersection of race, gender, culture, and politics. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, and Slate.

Her book, The Real Ones, was published by Dutton Books in 2026.

She is the host of When We Win with Maya Rupert, a limited series podcast with Lemonada Media. The show was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for for Outstanding Podcast – Limited Series.

Maya is a nationally respected voice on progressive politics and the future of the Democratic party. She has appeared as a guest on national televisi… Read More