Ahmed I Samatar

Dr. Ahmed I. Samatar, James Wallace Professor of International Studies and the founding Dean of Macalester’s Institute for Global Citizenship, has lectured at many universities and colleges, including Amoud University, Cornell, Harvard, Hargeisa University, Iowa, London School of African and Oriental Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, Somali National University, Toronto, University of Amsterdam, University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina (Chapel Hill), York, University of Otago, and Wellesley College. Samatar, whose expertise is in the areas of global political economy, political and social thought, and African development, is the author/co-author/editor of five books and over forty articles and reviews, including Beware of the Jihadist Component (New York Times, 2013); Interviewing the Interviewer (2011); Escape From Hell: What Now For Somali-Americans? (2011); The African State: Re-considerations (Heinemann, 2002); and Somalia: State Collapse, Multilateral Intervention, and Strategies for Political Reconstruction (Brookings Institution, 1995). Professor Samatar is the founding editor-in-chief of Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies. He is also the editor of 28 Volumes of Macalester International, a publication of undergraduate education and internationalism. His current research interests are in the areas of leadership and the state in Somali society, and globalization and the rise of Islamic consciousness. In the special commissioned volume of Bildhaan which focuses on the exigencies of transition in Somalia, Samatar’s article is titled: The Porcupine Dilemma: Governance and Transition in Somalia (Volume 7, 2007). His other articles include: A Virtuosic Touch: Hodeide, a Life with the Oud and More (Bildhaan, Volume 8, 2008), and Battling Two Fronts: Introducing Maryen Omer Ali (Bildhaan, Volume 9, 2009). Professor Samatar has conducted workshops for and delivered numerous public lectures to Somali Diasporic communities across North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, as well as inside the Horn of Africa.

BA: magna cum laude, University of Wisconsin (La Crosse), 1978
MA: University of Denver, 1981
PhD: University of Denver, 1984