Ali Riaz

Ali Riaz is a Distinguished Professor of political science at Illinois State University. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council. He held the Thomas E Eimermann Professor of Political Science (2018-2020), and 'University Professor' (2012 and 2018), and was the chair of the Department between August 2007 and June 2017. He earned his PhD from University of Hawaii, Hawaii, USA. He previously taught at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh; Lincoln University, England, and Claflin University, South Carolina, USA. He also worked as a Broadcast Journalist at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London between 1995 and 2000. In 2013, he served as a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. His primary area of interests are political Islam, madrassahs, South Asian politics, and Bangladeshi politics. Dr. Riaz's publications include Voting in a Hybrid Regime: Explaining the 2018 Bangladeshi Election (2019); Bangladesh: A Political History since Independence (2016, pb 2019), Islam and Identity Politics among British-Bangladeshis: A Leap of Faith (2013); Inconvenient Truths about Bangladeshi Politics (2012); Islamist Militancy in Bangladesh: A Complex Web (2008) . Riaz was the editor of the bi-annual journal Studies on Asia (2010-15). He co-edited with Zobaida Nasreen and Fahmida Zaman, Political Violence in South Asia' (2019); Mohammad Sajjadur Rahman, Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Bangladesh (2016) and with C. Christine Fair, Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh (2011; pb 2015). He testified at the US Congress on Bangladesh in 2013 and 2015. Riaz regularly contributes to Bangladeshi and international media on South Asian politics. He appeared on CNN, BBC World Television, Al-Jazeera English, Canadian TV among other media.