About

Craig Considine

Craig Considine (born June 10, 1985) is a sociologist, interfaith activist, filmmaker, photographer, and occasional poet. In September 2012, he started the One Film 9/11 interfaith initiative, for which he hopes to screen the documentary Journey into America around the world on September 11th, 2013.

In 2010, Considine entered the Department of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin, where he is currently on a teaching scholarship as a Ph.D. candidate. Considine’s thesis is comparing the experiences of young Pakistani men in Dublin, Ireland, and Boston, Massachusetts.

Considine is a regular blogger for the Huffington Post Religion. His writing has also appeared on Fox News (Nation), Voice of America, Irish Independent, Today’s Zaman (Turkey), Arab News (Saudi Arabia), Kuwait Times, Saudi Gazette, Alhurra, Frontier Post (Khyber Paktunkwha, Pakistan), Islamophobia Today, and Bikya Masr (Egypt).

Considine’s articles have also been translated into Urdu, Arabic, Hebrew, and French.

Background

Considine was born and raised a Catholic in Needham, Massachusetts and is the son of Christopher and Debbie Considine. In high school, he was an all-star basketball player and originally attended Eastern Connecticut State University to play collegiately.

In 2004, Considine decided to pursue an academic career and transferred to American University in Washington, D.C., where he majored in International Relations and focused on US foreign policy with the “Muslim world.” He also studied under and worked as an assistant to Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, who is regarded by the BBC as one of the world’s leading contemporary authorities of contemporary Islam.

After graduating from the School of International Service in 2007, Considine entered the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he earned an MSc (honors) in 2008. Considine’s thesis examined the experiences of Mexicans in the American southwest in light of American identity.

Journey into America

Upon leaving London, Considine joined Ambassador Ahmed for Journey into America, a year long anthropological study which took them to over 100 cities and 75 mosques across the U.S. to study American identity through the lens of Muslims.

Craig Considine (far right), Akbar Ahmed (center)

Journey into America is regarded as the most comprehensive study ever done on Muslims in America. Its documentary, which Considine directed, includes interviews with influential thinkers such as Noam Chomsky, Hamza Yusuf, Jessie Jackson, Eboo Patel, and Keith Ellison, among others.

Journey into America has screened at film festivals in France, Egypt, Australia, and the U.K., and also at the U.S. Embassy London, University of Cambridge, Washington National Cathedral, Parliament of World Religions, World Affairs Council, Yale University, Georgetown University, and the University of Michigan.

Recent career

Considine’s most recent undertaking is the One Film 9/11 interfaith initiative, which intends to screen Journey into America around the world in an effort to mend civilizational ties and build bridges of understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide.

In addition to its extensive media coverage, One Film 9/11 interfaith initiative has also had events held at the US Embassy London, University of Cambridge, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

In the winter and spring of 2012, Considine served as the editor-in-chief for Trinity College Dublin’s Journal of Postgraduate Research (JPR), an annual peer-reviewed interdisciplinary academic journal published by the Trinity College Dublin Graduate Students Union.

Other works

In October 2008, Considine earned ‘superstar status’ by CNN’s iReport for his short documentary on racism towards Somali Muslims in Grand Island, Nebraska. A few weeks later, another of his iReports – an interview with Noam Chomsky about myth and fear in America – had been vetted by CNN. Alongside Considine’s other iReports, he has had his photography vetted by CNN iReport and poetry published by Huffington Post Religion.

Since 2006, Considine has written extensively for the Pakistan Link, which is the U.S.’s largest circulated newspaper concerning the affairs of Pakistani Americans. Additionally, beginning in fall 2009 and ending in late 2010, Considine wrote several articles for World Can’t Wait, an anti-war organization that seeks to highlight the crimes committed by the U.S. government around the world.

Appearances

Craig Considine speaking at SOAS, University of London

Most recently, in December 2012, Considine sat on the panel of a “Framing Muslims” discussion at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and weeks earlier, he spoke about One Film 9/11 at the U.S. Embassy London at a screening of Journey into America.

In 2009, Considine appeared on the Riz Khan Show on Al Jazeera English, on which he discussed his experiences studying Muslims and American identity while traveling around the U.S. He has been interviewed by CNN and has also been profiled by the Boston Globe and the Needham Times.