2025 was a busy and formative year: I moved to the University of Otago as a Lecturer, continued supervising students at the University of Canterbury, advanced the Muslim Diversity Study through national data collection and extensive community engagement, published and progressed multiple research outputs, co-organised a first-of-its-kind conference, and helped build new scholarly networks in New Zealand. I’m deeply grateful to the many people and communities who made this possible.

As 2025 comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on how busy and ultimately fulfilling this year has been.

One of the major milestones of the year was my move to the University of Otago to join the Religion Programme as a Lecturer. In this role, I taught three papers on the scientific study of religion, while also deepening my own understanding of the psychology and anthropology of religion. I also coordinated the Religion Seminar Series, which hosted five talks over the second half of the year.

Alongside this, I continued my role as an Adjunct Senior Fellow in the School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing at the University of Canterbury. During the year, two Master’s students that I co-supervised submitted their theses, and a PhD student I co-supervise continued to make steady progress.

The Muslim Diversity Study (MDS) evolved significantly this year. Following my move to Otago, we completed Year 2 data collection and expanded the team by recruiting additional research assistants and an Assistant Research Fellow to support the project from Otago. A major focus in 2025 was sharing MDS findings with Muslim communities. In this capacity, I delivered 22 talks, and my MDS team members delivered a further seven talks. We delivered our presentations across seven New Zealand cities that attracted a total of 450+ attendees.

Our talks included community presentations, invited talks, and conference presentations at the WERO International Conference, the New Zealand Psychological Society Annual Conference, the Society for Australasian Social Psychologists Annual Conference, the Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies Conference, and the New Zealand Association for the Academic Study of Religion. I also delivered non-MDS talks which brings the total number of talks, presentations, and workshops I delivered in 2025 to 28.

In terms of research outputs, the MDS protocol article was published, outlining our community-engaged approach and key methodological decisions, and providing a collaborative opportunity for nearly two dozen Muslim researchers in New Zealand. We also published one of my PhD-era papers on memory suppression in subclinical PTSD and OCD. Three other manuscripts are currently under review, including a student-led paper. Qualitative data collection and analysis for a project examining research assistant dynamics has been completed, with a manuscript in preparation. We also completed data collection for a cognitive psychology project with a large international team, with manuscripts currently in development.

Beyond publications, I had the privilege of co-organising the first Muslims in Asia-Pacific Conference, which brought together over 30 presenters and around 100 attendees. I also co-founded Muslim Early Career Researchers Aotearoa (MECRA), a network aimed at supporting Muslim researchers and those working on Muslim-related topics in New Zealand. More information about this initiative will be shared in due course.

None of this work would have been possible without the support of many people. I’m deeply grateful to the MDS core team and team members, collaborators, and partners across six New Zealand universities and two research centres: CARE and CACR. I am especially and eternally grateful to Prof Joseph Bulbulia, Prof Chris Sibley, Assoc Prof Kumar Yogeeswaran, and Aarif Rasheed, who form the backbone of the Muslim Diversity Study and have supported me and the project in countless and generous ways.

I’m also grateful for the opportunity to build new academic friendships at Otago and in Australia, and I look forward to future collaborations.

While I didn’t meet every goal I set for 2025, it was one of the busiest and most formative years of my academic career. As I look ahead to 2026, my hope is to continue building on this work and to secure a permanent academic position so I can serve students, communities, and the field more sustainably.