Yusuf Lenfest
Student Fellow
2017-2018
Yusuf Lenfest studied Islamic law and theology in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE before pursuing his MTS ('18) at Harvard Divinity School with a focus on philosophical theology. He also completed advanced training in the fields of Maliki fiqh (jurisprudence) and legal theory under the tutelage of renowned Mauritanian scholar Shaykh Abdallah Bin Bayyah. During his fellowship year, Yusuf's research focused on bioethical issues in neuroscience and psychiatry, aiming to understand the relationship between religion, science, and social change. For his Fellowship project at Petrie-Flom, Yusuf drew on non-secular medical anthropology to examine the diverse experiences of mental illness among Muslim patients and the ethics of incorporating spirituality into psychiatry and clinical practice.