Dr. Seth Ward has been teaching at the University of Wyoming since January 2003, where he teaches Islam and Middle East. Previously, Ward directed the University of Denver’s Institute for Islamic-Judaic Studies for ten years, and Professor Ward continues to be a Research Associate of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.  Ward has also taught at Colorado College and the University of Colorado, Denver. Ward also taught as a sabbatical replacement and lecturer at CU-Boulder for two years, where he taught Islamic Religion and introduced a program of studies in Jewish History. He came to the University of Denver after six years in Israel teaching at the University of Haifa and the Technion.  

Ward received his academic degrees from Yale University, with additional studies at Hebrew University and at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His teaching has included courses on Islam, Middle East, Encounters between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Jewish Women in Traditional societies, The Splendor of Spain, Jewish Mysticism, and other topics. Ward initiated and taught the Arabic program at the University of Denver, and has taught both Arabic and Hebrew at UW.  

Regionally, Ward has also lectured at the Arvada Center for the Arts and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, on Islamic health in Billings, Montana, and, as a Wyoming Council for the Humanities Forum presenter, has lectured on Islam in towns and community colleges throughout Wyoming. Ward's academic interests include the Jews of Muslim Lands, Jewish-Muslim relations, Crypto-Jews, Mormon-Jewish relations (he is coeditor of a volume entitled Covenant and Chosenness in Judaism and Mormonism), and Islamic sacred and legal texts about Jews and Israel. He is widely published in a number of scholarly journals, and has written about Synagogues and Churches under Islam.