Samer Ali

Samer Ali Is an independent scholar and author of Arabic Literary Salons in the Islamic Middle Ages: Poetry, Public Performance, and the Presentation of the Past, Notre Dame Press, 2010. Until April 2025 he was Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature in the Middle East Studies Department of the University of Michigan, specializing in Arabic and Islamic studies. His current research draws on methodological insights from linguistic anthropology and critical race studies to rethink Orientalist and area studies paradigms, and from medieval studies, folklore, history, women's studies, and critical theory to ask critical questions about Arabic and Islamic cultural history. In recent years, he has focused on the history and foundations of knowledge transmission, particularly the Arabic humanities (adabiyyat) and Islamic madrasa-college curriculum (islamiyyat), which facilitated social mobility and dignity for many on the margins of society. His scholarship has appeared in the Encyclopedia of Islam ,THREE, Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Al-Qantara, Journal of Arabic Literature, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, and the Oxford Handbook on Islam and Women.