Howard M. Federspiel received his Ph.D. from McGill University. He served as an international political specialist in the U.S. Department of State at the beginning of his career and then became a university professor, most notably at the Ohio State University, where among other subjects, he taught Islamic political philosophy. He worked on four international education projects in Indonesia for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency. He was a Visiting Professor at McGill for five years in the 1990's. He has published numerous books and articles on Islam in Southeast Asia. His first book, The Persatuan Islam (Cornell, 1970), was highly regarded by Southeast Asian and Western scholars for a lengthy period. His most recent book, Sultans and Shamans and Saints (Hawaii, 2007) outlines the development of Islam in Southeast Asia. He is now Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Ohio State University.