I'm a political science professor and Director of the International Development Studies Program at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, researching and teaching about religious and ethnic politics in West Africa (and particularly Nigeria). My most recent book, Boko Haram (co-authored with Carmen McCain, Ohio University Press, 2018), is an accessible, comprehensive history of one of the world's deadliest yet most misunderstood terrorist organizations. My first, Muslims Talking Politics: Islam, Democracy, and Law in Northern Nigeria (University of Chicago Press, 2016), explores the relationship between Islamic revivalism and democratic politics in northern Nigeria. I've been interviewed on-air by the BBC World Service and published in the Washington Post. I regularly provide briefings, analysis, and contract work on political and religious affairs in Nigeria for numerous governmental agencies, and offer expert witness testimony in immigration and asylum cases.