Muhammad M. Nasir is a first‑year PhD student in the Department of Religion at Rice University, working on African Islamic intellectual history and West African textual traditions. He earned his master’s degree in Indonesia, specializing in political Islam and the anthropology of Islam, where his fieldwork‑based thesis, “Politics, Proselytisation and the Glocalization of Salafism in Post‑9/11 Indonesia and Nigeria,” received the Best Thesis Award in 2023. His work appears in several peer‑reviewed journals, including the Australian Journal of Islamic Studies (Scopus Q2). His interests lie in intellectual textual history and comparative Muslim intellectual life in West Africa and Southeast Asia.
Research Areas
African Islamic intellectual history & West African manuscript traditions | Manuscript cultures and textual history | Comparative Muslim intellectual life in West Africa and Southeast Asia | Political Islam and the anthropology of Islam
Education
M.A., Islamic Studies, Indonesian International Islamic University (UIII)
B.A., Islamic Studies, University of Jos
Honors & Awards
African Islamic intellectual history & West African manuscript traditions
Manuscript cultures and textual history
Comparative Muslim intellectual life in West Africa and Southeast Asia
Political Islam and the anthropology of Islam
Selected Paper Award (2023) — Writing Competition, Faculty of Education, UIII, for “Preserving Tradition: A Comparative Study of the Historical Evolution, Approaches, and Methods of Islamic Education in Nigeria and Indonesia.”