Dr Abe Ata was born in Bethlehem of a Christian Background. He studied at the Deutsche Evangalische Schneller Schule; graduated in psychology at the American University, and was nominated as a delegate to the United Nations World Youth Assembly in New York. He completed his doctorate at Melbourne University in 1980 and has since taught at Australian, American, English Jordanian, the West Bank, German and Danish universities. He was an Honorary Fellow at the Australian Catholic University (2000-2010); Deakin University (2011-2018), currently at Latrobe University (HUSS).
His cross-cultural training background, multidisciplinary and sensitivity in conducting and interpreting a wide ranging research projects are demonstrated in his publications of 20 books. These include: Islam in the West :perceptions and reactions (Oxford University Press, 2018)Bereavement and Health in Australia: gender, cross-cultural, religious and psychological issues (1996); Educational Reciprocity and Adaptivity: international students and stakeholders (Routledge 2018); Christian and Muslim intermarriage in Australia (2005); and Us and Them: Christian-Muslim relations and social harmony in Australia (2009) – nominated for the Prime Minister’s Literary Book Awards in 2010. He has also written 142 journal articles of which 17 are published in the Encyclopaedia of Australian People (2000), Encyclopaedia of Melbourne (2005), and Encyclopaedia of Religions (2009). In 2015 and 2011 Dr Ata was nominated for ‘Australian of the Year’. He has also been a visiting Professor at Freiburg University (est.1457) during 2018-2019.