El-Bizri is a professor of philosophy and civilization studies at the American University of Beirut, where he is also an associate dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, and the director of the general education program. He was formerly a director of the civilization studies program at the AUB and the coordinator of Islamic studies, and also oversees the Anis Makdisi Program in Literature. He was previously a visiting professor of visual studies at the University of Lincoln and a principal lecturer in architecture. He was an affiliated senior research fellow in philosophy at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, and is general editor of an Oxford University Press book series published in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, entitled: Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Series رسائل إخوان الصفاء. He was a co-manager of a joint project between the Institute of Ismaili Studies and the Institut Français du Proche Orient, formerly based in Damascus and now in Beirut. El-Bizri was an affiliated research scholar in the department of history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge from 1999 to 2010, primarily lecturing on medieval Islamic sciences and philosophy. He has also been a visiting lecturer at the faculty of architecture at the University of Cambridge on Islamic architecture. He holds a Chercheur associé position in history of science and philosophy at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris since 2006, and he was previously a lecturer in architecture at the University of Nottingham, and taught at Harvard University. He is a member of the Ordered Universe research team on mediaeval science that is supported by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council, which is based at the University of Durham and Oxford University. El-Bizri is an elected member of the Steering Committee of the Société Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences et des Philosophies Arabes et Islamiques.
Writing, television
El-Bizri is co-editor of a book series in phenomenology, and as section editor of the Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. He is on the editorial boards of series and journals, such as the Cambridge University Press journal Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Toposophia, Institute of Ismaili Studies Texts and Translations Series, the Encyclopaedia Islamica, the Journal of World Philosophies, and the Fundamentals of Scientific Research at The Arab Organization for Translation in Beirut. He is the European representative of the Equipe d’Etude et de Recherche sur le Patrimoine Scientifique Arabe, which is part of the Lebanese Centre national de la recherche scientifique. He has written for Al-Hayat. El-Bizri has made several contributions to BBC radio and television cultural programs, including a discussion about the Persian philosopher Avicenna with Melvin Bragg and other guests on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, and an interview with Jim Al-Khalili about Ibn al-Haytham for BBC Four's Science and Islam series. He also recently took part in a panel on philosophy that was aired on France Culture in Paris in the series Les Chemins de la philosophie that is moderated by Adèle Van Reeth.
Awards
El-Bizri has received several awards, including the Kuwait Prize 2014 from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. He has been also ranked as one of the "Thought Leaders" in the Arab world via the Berggruen Institute and its various partners.
Books
As author and co-author
. The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger ; reprinted with an updated preface in 2014.
. L'expérience, co-authored with Jean-Pierre Cléro, Martin Jay, G-K Karanth, and Achille Mbembe, with a foreword by Nadia Tazi.
As editor and co-editor
. Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. The Ikhwan al-Safa' and their Rasa'il: An Introduction. Contributor of the "Prologue", 1–32, and chapter 7: "Epistolary Prolegomena: On Arithmetic and Geometry", 180–213.
. Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. On Arithmetic and Geometry. Arabic Edition and English Translation of EPISTLES 1 & 2.
. ‘Islam Division’ of the Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions, eds. Anne Runehov, Lluis Oviedo et al..
. Recto Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook, co-edited with Angela Bartram and Douglas Gittens.
. Asad Rustum: Mu'assis 'ilm al-tarikh fi al-'alam al-'arabi, co-edited with Lamia Shehadeh, Souad Sleem, Maher Jarrar.
. Practicing Philosophy in Lebanon , a trilingual volume ed. Nader El-Bizri.
. Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. On Composition and the Arts. Arabic Edition and English Translation of EPISTLES 6-8; co-edited with Godefroid de Callataÿ.
The Occult Sciences in Pre-modern Islamic Cultures, eds. Nader El-Bizri and Eva Orthmann. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag.
