Dr. Sean Foley is a Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University (USA). He specializes in the Middle East and religious and political trends in the broader Islamic world. Previously, he taught at Georgetown University, where he earned an M.A. in Arab Studies in 2000 and a Ph.D. in History in 2005. From 2013 to 2014, Foley was a visiting scholar at King Saud University in Riyadh. From 2010 to 2011, Foley was a Fulbright research scholar at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization in Malaysia, where he studied modern religious linkages between the Arab World and Southeast Asia. In 2002 and 2003, he held Fulbright fellowships at Damascus University (Syria) and Istanbul University (Turkey). Foley speaks Arabic and Bahasa Malaysian and has delivered papers to international conferences and to universities in China, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and Southeast Asia. Foley has also contributed commentary on politics and Islamic affairs to The Atlantic (USA), The Daily Zaman (Turkey), al-Jazeera.net, al-Jazeera English Television, The New Straits Times (Malaysia), The Tennessean (USA), and Voice of America Television. He has published widely on Islamic history, Sufism, Middle East and Persian Gulf politics, Southeast Asian history, and Muslims in American and European history. His first book, The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam, was published by Lynne Rienner Publishers in 2010. His second book, Changing Saudi Arabia: Art, Culture, and Society in the Kingdom, was published by Lynne Rienner in 2019.

History

Islamic Studies

Ottoman Studies

Mysticism/Sufi Studies

World History

Gulf Studies

Gulf

Syria

Islamic Social & Pol Mvmts

Naqshbandiyya

Persian Gulf Pol

Arabic (advanced)

German (intermediate)

Spanish (elementary)