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Alexander Thurston

African Studies Program 513.237.2955 Georgetown University ajt29@georgetown.edu 478 Inter-Cultural Center @sahelblog 37th and O Streets NW, Washington DC, 20057 sahelblog.wordpress.com ______________________________________________________________________________ Professional Appointments

Visiting Assistant Professor, Miami University of Ohio, Political Science, 2018- Visiting Assistant Professor, Georgetown University, African Studies Program, 2014-2018 International Affairs Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, 2013-2014

Education

Ph.D., Religious Studies, Northwestern University, 2013 M.A., Arab Studies, Georgetown University (with distinction), 2009 B.A., Religion, Northwestern University, summa cum laude, 2005

Books

Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement (Princeton University Press, 2017) Salafism in Nigeria: Islam, Preaching and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2016)

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

10. “Polyvalent, Transnational Religious Authority: The Tijaniyya Sufi Order and Al-Azhar University.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion (accepted; forthcoming 2018). 9. “The Politics of Technocracy in Fourth Republic Nigeria.” African Studies Review 61:1 (April 2018): 215-238. 8. “Algeria’s GIA: The First Major Armed Group to Subordinate Jihadism to Salafism.” Islamic Law & Society 24:4 (October 2017): 412-436.

7. “Coded Language Among Muslim Activists: Salafis and the Prophet’s Sermon of Necessity.” Die Welt des Islams 57:2 (June 2017): 192-222.

6. “Islamic Modernism and Colonial Education in Northern Nigeria: Na'ibi Sulaiman Wali (1927-2013).” Journal of Religion & Education 44:1 (February 2017): 101-117.

5. “The Salafi Ideal of Electronic Media as an Intellectual Meritocracy in Kano,

Nigeria,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83:4 (December 2015): 1058-1083.

4. “Nigeria’s Mainstream Salafis Between Boko Haram and the State,” Islamic Africa 6.1 (July 2015): 109-134.

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3. “Muslim Politics and Shari‘a in Kano, Nigeria,” African Affairs 114.454 (January 2015): 28-51.

2. “The Era of Overseas Scholarships: Islam, Modernization, and Decolonization in Northern Nigeria,” Journal of Religion in Africa 44.1 (Spring 2014): 62-91.

1.“Abubakar Gumi’s al-‘Aqida al-Sahiha bi-Muwafaqat al-Shari‘a: Global Salafism and Locally Oriented Polemics,” Islamic Africa 2.2 (Fall 2011): 9-21.

Book Chapters and Invited Publications

6. “Religion, Society, and Conflict” in The Fabric of Peace in Africa: Looking Beyond the State, edited by Pamela Aall and Chester Crocker (Waterloo, Canada: Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2017). 5. “Colonial Control, African Agency, Arab Outreach, and Islamic Education in Northern Nigeria” in Writing Boards and Blackboards: Islamic Education in Africa, edited by Robert Launay (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016).

4. “The Aminu Kano College of Islamic and Legal Studies” in Muslim Higher Education in Africa: Remembrance, Reform and Reconstruction, edited by Mbaye Lo and Muhammad Haron (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

3. “Nigeria’s Ahlussunnah: A Preaching Network from Kano to Medina and Back” in Shaping Global Islamic Discourses: The Role of Al-Azhar, Al-Medina, and Al-Mustafa, edited by Masooda Bano and Keiko Sakurai, 93-116 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015).

2. “Towards an ‘Islamic Republic of Mali’?” Fletcher Forum on World Affairs 37:2 (Summer 2013): 45-66.

1. “Shaykh Muhammad al-Hasan al-Dedew (b. 1963), a Salafi Scholar in Contemporary Mauritania,” Annual Review of Islam in Africa 11 (2013): 64-67.

Think Tank Reports and Special Papers

5. “Campuses and Conflict in the Lake Chad Basin: Violent Extremism and the Politics of Religion in Higher Education,” RESOLVE Network, May 2018. 4. “‘The Disease Is Unbelief’: Boko Haram’s Religious and Political Worldview,” Brookings Institution Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, January 2016.

3. “Background to Nigeria’s 2015 Elections,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 2015.

2. “A Handbook on Mali’s 2012-2013 Crisis,” Northwestern University, Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA) Working Papers Series, September 2013 (co-authored with Andrew Lebovich).

1. “Mauritania’s Islamists,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 2012.

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Working Papers

2. “The War on Terror in Nigeria and Mali.” Under consideration at Politique Africaine.

1. “Salafism and Anti-Shi‘ism in Northern Nigeria.” Under consideration at Die Welt des Islams. Fellowships and Awards

American Philosophical Society, Franklin Research Grant (France), 2018 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Fellowship, 2017-2018 American Council of Learned Societies, Luce/ACLS Fellowship in Religion, Journalism &

International Affairs, 2017-2018 Georgetown University, Competitive Grant-in-Aid (Morocco), 2016 Georgetown University, Summer Academic Grant (Senegal), 2015 Wenner-Gren Foundation, Osmundsen Initiative (Washington, DC), 2012 Wenner-Gren Foundation, Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (Nigeria), 2011-2012 Social Science Research Council, International Dissertation Research Fellowship

(Nigeria), 2011-2012 Northwestern University, Hans E. Panofsky Pre-Dissertation Award (Nigeria), 2010 Northwestern University, Morris Goodman Award (Hausa study), 2010, renewed 2011 Northwestern University, Mellon Foundation Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Studies (African

Studies), 2009 University of Texas at Austin, Center for Arabic Study Abroad Fellowship (Syria, declined), 2009 Georgetown University, Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant (Arabic), 2008 Georgetown University, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs,

Luce/SFS Graduate Student Research Fellowship, 2008 Fulbright Grant: “Religion and Politics in the Moustarchidine Movement” (Senegal), 2006-2007

Invited Talks, Panels, and Workshops

“Saudi Arabian Influences and Salafi Trajectories in West Africa,” Brookings Institution, 19 April 2018 “Jihadism and Local Politics in Northwest Africa,” Georgetown Graduate Association for Islamic Studies, 21 February 2018 Book talks for Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement: Northwestern University, Institute for the Study of Islam in Africa, 4 April 2018 Center for Strategic and International Studies, 14 February 2018

Mortara Center, Georgetown University, 7 February 2018 Ralph Bunche Library, Department of State, 6 February 2013

Harvard Club of New York, 31 January 2018 Harvard University, Islam in Africa Brown Bag Lecture Series, 2 November 2017

“Jihadist Recruitment and Religious Fragmentation in Nigeria and Libya,” RAND Corporation (Arlington, VA), 17 March 2016

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“Nigeria in Focus: A Preview of the 2015 Elections,” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 11 February 2015

“Boko Haram, ISIS, and the Caliphate Today,” Georgetown University Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, 14 October 2014

“Nigeria: Growth and Strife in the Giant of Africa,” Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 11 September 2014

“Sahel: Complex Realities beyond Insecurity,” Council on Foreign Relations (New York), 24 February 2014

“Understanding Islamist Extremism in Northern Nigeria,” Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 13 December 2013

Junior Scholars Book Development Workshop, Project on Middle East Political Science, Yale University, 15-16 November 2013

“Extremist Groups, Violence, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, 25 March 2013

“Islamist Group Boko Haram’s Insurgency in Northern Nigeria,” Program of African Studies, Northwestern University, 6 February 2013

“Boko Haram and Nigeria’s Salafis,” University of South Florida, 13 November 2012

“Making Sense of the Sahelian Crisis: One Year after the Fall of Qaddafi,” Center for African Studies, University of Florida, 18 October 2012

Conference Presentations

“Islamic Modernism and Decolonization in Northern Nigeria,” Religious Education in the Mirror of a Life Trajectory, University of Cape Town, 26 February 2016

“Teaching Hadith in Northern Nigeria,” American Academy of Religion, 23 November 2015

“The Aminu Kano College of Islamic and Legal Studies,” Islamic Institutions of Higher Learning in Africa, Duke University, 18 October 2013

“Arabic Religious Literature, Hausa Textbooks, and New Modes of Islamic Schooling in Late Colonial Northern Nigeria,” African Studies Association, 1 December 2012

“Modernization, Islam, and Overseas Education in Northern Nigeria, 1954-1967,” American Academy of Religion, 18 November 2012

“A Preaching Network from Kano to Medina and Back,” Centres of Learning and Change, University of Oxford, 28 August 2012

“Nigerian Pilgrims and the Hajj,” American Academy of Religion (Midwest Section), 2 April 2011 “Postcolonial Northern Nigerian Intellectuals, the Sokoto Caliphate, and the Search for an Islamic Political Model,” African Studies Association, 18 November 2010

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“Colonial Control, African Agency, Arab Outreach, and Islamic Education,” American Academy of Religion (Midwest), 27 March 2010

Teaching Grants

Georgetown University, Global Futures Curriculum Studio Cohort, Initiative on Technology- Enhanced Learning, Fall 2015 Courses Taught

Georgetown University

Islam in Africa, Fall 2016 The Sahara: Politics, War, and Smuggling, Fall 2016 Nigeria: Conflict and Change, Spring 2016 Terrorism and Insurgency in Africa, Spring 2016 Islam in Africa, Fall 2015 Christianity in Africa (seminar for first-year students), Fall 2015 African Studies Senior Capstone Seminar, Spring 2015 African Studies Senior Thesis Colloquium, Spring 2015 Terrorism and Insurgency in Africa, Spring 2015 Politics and Society in West Africa, Fall 2014 Islam in Africa, Fall 2014

Northwestern University

Islam and Politics, Winter 2013

Languages

Arabic, Hausa, French

Service

To the Profession: Reviewer for Cambridge University Press, Indiana University Press, Zed Books, Palgrave

MacMillan, African Affairs, and Journal of Contemporary African Studies. To the African Studies Program at Georgetown University:

Primary Reader, undergraduate thesis, Fall 2015 Member, Domains cohort, Initiative on Technology-Enhanced Learning, Fall 2015 Participant, Teaching and Learning Intensive Summer Institute, Summer 2015

Professional Memberships

Council on Foreign Relations, Term Member, 2016-2021 African Studies Association, Member American Academy of Religion, Member