Ihsan Bagby is currently Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at University of Kentucky. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He obtained a PhD from University of Michigan in Near Eastern Studies (1986). His research for the last 10 years has focused on Muslims in America.

In 2001 he published the results of the first comprehensive study of mosques in America, entitled The Mosque in America: A National Portrait. (available here). Based on the 2001 study, Dr. Bagby has published four articles, “Imams and Mosque Organizations in the United States,” in Muslims in the United States, “A Profile of African American Mosques” in Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, “Attitudes of Mosque Participants Towards America,” in the forthcoming book A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America, and “The Mosque in the American Public Square,” in Muslims’ Place in the American Public Square.

In April 2004 he published the results of his Detroit Mosque Study, entitled A Portrait of Detroit Mosques (available at www.ispu.us). Based on that study he has written a paper "Second Generation Muslim Immigrants in Detroit Mosques.” Presently he is working on a book on African American Muslims. He serves on the advisory board of Hartford Seminary’s The Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and is active in other organizations including Interfaith Alliance, Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).