About Zekeria

Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and Director of the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa. Salem studies religion and politics with a special focus on Islam and Muslim politics in Africa in comparative perspective. Empirically focused on post-colonial Mauritania, his first monograph is titled: Prêcher dans le desert. Islam politique et changement social en Mauritanie (Paris, Karthala, 2013). The book explored the interplay of inequality, Islamic knowledge and power. The book specifically documented two parallel developments: the push against the traditional forms of inequality on the one hand and the Islamization of the Mauritanian public and political life on the other. Salem is also the editor of: Les trajectoires d’un Etat-frontière. Espaces, evolution politique et transformations sociale en Mauritanie (Dakar, Codestia Press, 2004). 

His research appeared in numerous book chapters. His academic articles appeared in venues such as: The Journal of North African Studies; Middle East Report; Religions; Project on Middle East Political Sciences Studies (POMEPS Studies); Canadian Journal of African Studies; La Pensée; Nomadic Peoples, Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines; Annuaire de l’Afrique du Nord; Politique Africaine.

Salem is currently at work on a second book project investigating how Bilad Shinqīṭ (today Islamic Republic of Mauritania) has become in a little over a century a label of excellence in Islamic knowledge and normative authority with an astonishing global reach. Set in the longue durée (19th-21th century), the project examines the outsized influence of Mauritanian Islamic scholars (‘ulama), religious texts and institutions of learning as an entry point towards examining the relationship between knowledge and power in global Islam.

Zekeriqa Ahmed Salem held several visiting fellowships as Fulbright Visiting scholar at University of Florida (2013); Senior Fellow at The Paris institute of Advanced Studies (2012) and Senior Fellow at The Nantes Institute for Advanced Studies (2013); African Studies Center in Leiden (Netherlands, 2008) ; Visiting associate Professor at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris, 2003).

Other research interests and publications explore everyday negotiations over citizenship; biometrics and politics, and Counter-Violent Extremism policies.