Asad Dandia
Asad Dandia is a Brooklyn-born community organizer, local historian, and public educator. He currently works as the outreach and partnerships manager at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) and part-time as a Sunday school teacher at the Islamic Learning Center of New York City. Before working at ISPU, he was the community program coordinator at the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Dandia was a key plaintiff in Raza v. City of New York, an ACLU-led lawsuit that successfully challenged the New York Police Department’s surveillance of NYC’s Muslim communities, resulting in historic policy reforms in the city. His oral history was profiled in the Center for Brooklyn History’s Muslims in Brooklyn project, and he also leads private tours at the Museum of the City of New York, where his activism was featured in the recent exhibit City of Faith, which ran from 2022 to 2023.
Dandia is also the founder of New York Narratives, a walking-tour company and storytelling agency with a special focus on the city’s immigrant and minority communities. It is the first Muslim-owned walking tour company in NYC history.
Dandia’s writing has been featured in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Al Jazeera English, among others. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in social work from New York University and a master’s degree in Islamic studies from Columbia University
Featured Work: “A Muslim Reflection on COVID-19“; “The Islamic Liberation Reading List“; “We Need to Reform the September 11 Museum“
Upcoming Projects: New York Narratives
