A graduate of the University of Toronto's Religious Studies Department, she is currently working in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research expertise lies in the intellectual and political dimensions of contemporary Islam and she focuses on issues of secularism and contemporary Islamic thought. She is specifically interested in Islamic discourses that explicitly support the secularization and reform of the Islamic tradition and examines how they are shaped by secular power. Ruth Mas is currently completing a book project entitled: On Secular Islam: Time, Power and Tradition in Contemporary Islamic Thought.