Alexander Thurston is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Cincinnati. He previously taught at Georgetown University and Miami University. He studies Islam and politics in northwest Africa, with a focus on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Dr. Thurston holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Northwestern University and an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown. His recent publications include Jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel: Local Politics and Rebel Groups (Cambridge University Press, 2020); Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement (Princeton University Press, 2018); and Salafism in Nigeria: Islam, Preaching and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2016).