Okwui Enewzor Postdoctoral Fellow
Mohamed Faroug A. Ali is an Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the International University of Africa in Sudan. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Dongola in Sudan and earned his MA and Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
Ali is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center (AmSARC). He also serves as Executive Director of the Sudanese Archaeologists Union.
As a 2022 recipient of the Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellowship in Visual Culture, Performance Studies and Critical Humanities at The Africa Institute, Ali continued his research in archaeology and the cultural history of Sudan.
Ali has directed and participated in numerous archaeological projects in Sudan. His research interests include the formation, political economy, collapse, and regeneration of ancient states in sub-Saharan Africa; ancient ironworking and cultural landscapes; and cultural contact. His work has received funding from several organizations, including the British Museum, the National Science Foundation, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has also served as a consultant for documentary films, including Queens of Kush; ZDF Expedition, Terra X: Kleopatras Schwarze Schwestern (2008); and The Fourth Cataract of the Nile: An Archaeological Salvage Project, which aired on the French-German television channel Arte in 2007.
His publications include “Sociopolitical Structure and the Collapse of the Meroitic State in the Middle Nile Region” (unpublished manuscript, June 2022); “The End of the Meroitic State: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives” (Majalat Aladab 9, Faculty of Arts, International University of Africa, in press, 2022); “The Meroitic State: Political Economy and Negotiations of Powers” (Archaeology & Arts/Humanities); and “A New Study Concerning Kushite and Post-Meroitic Iron Objects,” published in Hommages à Lenoble, edited by Vincent Rondot, among others.
