Siti Zubaidah Ismail's field of expertise is Islamic criminal law and criminal justice. She graduated with Bachelor of Shariah from University of Malaya, Master of Comparative Laws from IIUM, LL.M from Birmingham University and PhD (Malaya). Her main research interest  is on the Islamic law and criminal justice in contemporary Muslim countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. She also focuses on the application of Islamic criminal law on the society  and on the development of Islamic criminal law implementation in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Her current research is on the intersection between islamic punishment and human rights and the potential of diyat as an alternative to death penalty in Malaysia She is also active in research relating to interaction of Islamic law in society relating to new-Muslim reverts, inter-religious marriage and freedom of religion. She was Visiting Fellow at Asian Law Institute, National University of Singapore in 2010, Visiting Scholar at Faculty of Law Universitas Indonesia in 2016, Visiting Lecturer at UNISSA, Brunei and Visiting Fellow at IAIS in 2022 . She was one of the recipients for AUA Scholars Award 2019 and UI-Resolv Visiting Scholar Awards 2016. She has supervised 11 Phd and 25 masters students. She was Head of the Shariah and Law Department from 2011 until January 2016, Deputy Dean for Humanities and Ethics Research Cluster in 2018 and Deputy Director for Research and Development from 2019-2021. Her contribution in the society is also significant in the area of human rights activism. She is Senior Research Fellow with Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (CENTHRA) since 2017 and Senior Fellow  for Malaysian Alliance of Civil Society Organisations in the UPR Process (MACSA). She has more than 130 articles published and the author of four books.  Her book Undang-Undang Kesalahan Jenayah Syariah di Malaysia won Anugerah Cemerlang Universiti Malaya 2018 and Hadiah Karya Ilmiah 2019 from Dewan Bahasa Pustaka. She also received "Anugerah Penulisan Artikel Terbaik dalam Jurnal Hukum 2019" by Jabatan Kehakiman Syariah Malaysia.  She is married with seven children.