The Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations (NMC) is pleased to welcome Postdoctoral Fellow Abubakar Sadiq Abdulkadir. He earned a PhD in History from the University of Alberta and trained extensively in Arabic and Islamic sciences with scholars across the Middle East and West Africa, receiving traditional teaching diplomas (ijāzāt). His research focuses on Arabo-Islamic intellectual history, especially in the Mauritanian Sahara and Muslim West Africa.
He also explores decolonial thought, translation studies, and manuscript culture. During his fellowship, Abubakar will receive faculty mentorship and professional development, transform his dissertation into a book manuscript, and develop a monograph critically examining the Mauritanian distinctive tradition of composing and adapting Qur’anic exegesis into verse, alongside the manuscripts associated with it.