Jordan Denari Duffner, PhD is an author, educator, and scholar of Muslim-Christian relations, interreligious dialogue, and Islamophobia.
Her award-winning books are Finding Jesus among Muslims: How Loving Islam Makes Me a Better Catholic (2017) and Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination (2021). Jordan holds a PhD in Theological and Religious Studies at Georgetown University. A former Fulbright scholar, she is also an associate of the Bridge Initiative, where she previously worked as a research fellow. She is also a member of the Catholic Advisory Council of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), which advocates for justice for all in Israel-Palestine. In 2023, she was also appointed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue.
Committed to public theology, religious literacy, and interfaith solidarity, Ms. Duffner has published dozens of articles and essays in both academic and lay publications. In 2016, Jordan penned the Bridge Initiative report, “Danger and Dialogue: American Catholics Perceptions and Portrayals of Islam,” which included the first nationwide survey of Catholics’ views of Islam. Her book chapters can be found in Overcoming Orientalism (2021) and A Pope Francis Lexicon (2018).
Dedicated to education both inside and outside the classroom, Ms. Duffner has given dozens of lectures and webinars on to diverse audiences. She has experience both facilitating and participating in interreligious dialogue, and teaching at the undergraduate level. She serves as a frequent media commentator and consultant, having appeared as an analyst on news programs, television and radio interview shows, and documentaries. She writes on dialogue, spirituality, and more at Digging Our Well, a publication on Substack.
Jordan’s writing has received wide acclaim and received numerous awards. Her first book, Finding Jesus among Muslims, won Second Place in the ‘General Interest’ category of the 2018 “Excellence in Publishing Awards” held by the Association of Catholic Publishers. Islamophobia, Jordan’s second book, won Third Place in the ‘Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations’ category of the 2022 Catholic Media Association Awards. Her 2016 piece on Islamophobia in Living City won a joint 2017 Catholic Press Association First Place Award for best interfaith and ecumenical coverage.
Her doctoral dissertation is titled, Muḥammad’s Character as “Fruit of the Spirit”: Catholic Pneumatology and Portrayals of Islam’s Prophet.
Prior to her doctorate, Jordan obtained a Master’s degree in theological and religious studies and a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Awarded a Fulbright research grant in a 2013-2014, she studied the impact of the media on Muslim-Christian relations in Amman, Jordan. She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and young child.
If you would like to contact Jordan regarding interviews, speaking engagements, or other matters, please use the contact form on this website.
(The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, positions, or mission of Georgetown University, the Bridge Initiative, National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue, Churches for Middle East Peace, or the Fulbright program.)
JORDAN DENARI DUFFNER 