William F.S. Miles

• Association of Borderlands Studies Past Presidents’ Silver Book Award for Scars of Partition. Postcolonial Legacies in French and British Borderlands, 2014
• National Jewish Book Award Finalist for Jews of Nigeria: An Afro-Judaic Odyssey, 2013.
• National Jewish Book Award Finalist for Zion in the Desert. American Jews in Israel’s Reform Kibbutzim, 2007.
• Stotsky Professorship of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies (1998-2002)
• Robert D. Klein Lecturer. “Rhythm ‘n Jews. The Musical Interplay Between Blacks and Jews in America.” Northeastern University, March 8, 2001.
• ChoiceMagazine Outstanding Academic Book and Encyclopedia Brittanica Book of the Year distinction for Hausaland Divided: Colonialism and Independence in Nigeria and Niger, 1994
• Academic Specialist Program, United States Information Agency, February 1992. Was featured speaker at American Studies Association of Nigeria conference on “Democracy, Nationalism, and National Integration.”
• Edmund A. Gullion Prize (The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy), 1982.
• Phi Beta Kappa, elected 1977.
• U.S. Representative to International Bible Contest, Jerusalem, 1971.
• First Place Winner, National Bible Contest, 1970.

Books 

• African Border Disorders. Addressing Transnational Extremist Organizations (contributing co-editor, with Olivier Walther), London: Routledge, 2018.
• In the Shadow of Moses: New Jewish Movements in Africa and the Diaspora (contributing co-editor, with Daniel Lis and Tudor Parfitt).  Los Angeles: Tsehai Publishers, 2016.
• Scars of Partition: Postcolonial Legacies in French and British Borderlands. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.
• Afro-Jewish Encounters From Timbuktu to the Indian Ocean and Beyond. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2014.
• Jews of Nigeria: An Afro-Judaic Odyssey. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2013.
• My African Horse Problem. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 2008.
• Zion in the Desert. American Jews in Israel’s Reform Kibbutzim. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.
• Political Islam in West Africa. State-Society Relations Transformed. (ed.) Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007
• Bridging Mental Boundaries in a Postcolonial Microcosm: Identity and Development in Vanuatu. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998
• Imperial Burdens: Countercolonialism in Former French India. Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1995
• Hausaland Divided: Colonialism and Independence in Nigeria and Niger. Cornell University Press, 1994
• Paradoxe au Paradis: de la Politique à la Martinique.  Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992.
• Elections in Nigeria: A Grassroots Perspective. London: Lynne Rienner, 1988
• Elections and Ethnicity in French Martinique: A Paradox in Paradise. New York: Praeger, 1986

Scholarly Journal Articles

• “Postcolonial Borderland Legacies of Anglo–French Partition in West Africa.” African Studies Review (2015)
• “Deploying Development to Counter Terrorism: Post-9/11 Transformation of U.S. Foreign Aid to Africa.” African Studies Review (2013)
• “Bulls, Goats, and Pedagogy: Engaging Students in Overseas Development Aid.” PS: Political Science and Politics 42 (2009)
• “The Rabbi’s Well: A Case Study in the Micropolitics of Foreign Aid in Muslim West Africa.” African Studies Review 51:1 (2008)
• “Islamism in West Africa: Internal Dynamics and U.S. Responses.” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 32:2 (2008)
• “Motives, Morality and Methodology in Third World Research.” PS: Political Science and Politics 22:4 (December, 1989), pp. 852-855.
• “Staging the Revolution (in Politics 101).” The Political Science Teacher 1:1 (Winter, 1988), p. 2.

Newspapers, Magazines and Literary Journals

• “‘Hide Not Your Sorrow.’ A phone call and a lesson from Niger in the time of COVID.” WorldView. Fall 2020.
• “A Mentor, Dementia, and an Unending Moral Debt to the Academy.” Change. The Magazine of Higher Learning 52:6 (November/December 2020).
• “The Niger that I Know.” The Christian Science Monitor. May 16, 2018.
• “The Islamic State won’t find it easy to wipe out postcolonial borders.” The Washington Post
• “Taking Apart Boko Haram.” Cognoscenti (NPR)
• “Among the ‘Jubos’ on the Festival of Lights.” Transition 105 (2011).
• “A Used Book, A Lost Era.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (2013)
• “An Unquiet Sabbatical.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 55:20 (2009)
• “Letter from Ouagadougou.” The Antioch Review 64:1 (2006)
• “The Niger We Should Know.” The Boston Globe (August 2005)
• “Hannuka in Niger” Hadassah Magazine, (December 2004)

• Fulbright Global Scholar Award. Research grant for “Wooing Home Diasporas: Post-Pandemic Challenges for India, Israel, Morocco,” 2021-2023
• American Academy for Jewish Research. Cross-Institutional Cooperative Grant, for “Jews in Muslim and Shared Diasporic Lands, .” 2019-2022
• Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Research grant to investigate Holocaust consciousness among emerging Jewish communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2017-2018, 2019-2020
• Israel Institute Research Grant
• Quebec Studies Program research grant (Government of Québec, Ministry of International Relations and Francophonie). “Francophone Sephardim in Montreal: Institutional, Diplomatic, and Demographic Trends,” 2009-10.
• National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Research Stipend for electoral study of French Antilles, 2007.
• Earhart Foundation Fellowship for book research support on comparative colonialism, 2006.
• Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research grant (American Philosophical Society) for “Field Work in Upper Mekong,” 2005.
• American Philosophical Society grant for research on “African Border Life at the Millennium,”awarded 2000.
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Center for Advanced Studies, nationally competitive Summer Seminar for Faculty, 2000.
• Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Fellowship for Africa (Mauritius), 1996-7.
• Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Fellowship for the Pacific Islands (New Caledonia, Vanuatu), 1991.
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers, 1989.
• American Institute of Indian Studies Professional Development Grant, 1987-8.
• Fulbright Short-Term Research Grant for Nigeria, 1986.
• International Security Studies Research Grant (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy), 1984.
• Fulbright Research Fellowship for Nigeria, 1983-4.
• Shell International Studies Research Fellowship, 1982-3.
• Fletcher School Fellowship, 1981-2.
• Fulbright-Hays French Government Teaching Assistantship for Martinique, 1980-1.
• Peabody Fellowship for International Studies, 1979-80.

Public Radio Commentator

• “Horse Problem.” NPR All Things Considered
• “African Horse Lesson.” NPR All Things Considered
• “E-mails from Africa.” NPR All Things Considered
• “Dropped G’s.” NPR All Things Considered
• “In Nigeria, ‘A Very Jewish … Very African’ Community.” NPR Tell Me More – Faith Matters series
• “A Growing Community of Jews in Nigeria.” Here and Now
• “Kindness.” This I Believe-New England
• “Trust.” This I Believe-New England
• “Faith and Compassion.” This I Believe-New England
• “Brotherhood.” This I Believe-New England
• “Second Chances.” This I Believe-New England
• “Cherished Mementos.” This I Believe-New England
• “Race: Sharing Black Hands.” This I Believe-New England
• Interview on Tell Me More with Michelle Martin
• Interview on Here and Now with Sacha Pfeiffer

Symposium Convenor

• “Third World Views of the Holocaust”
• “Aimé Césaire Memorial Symposium and Exhibit”

Videos

• The following video is about Professor Miles’ most recent book, My African Horse Problem.
• Professor Miles addresses the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism at Syracuse University in its Contemplating Alternate Israeli Narratives for Peace series.
• Professor Miles was interviewed on “The Washington Forum,” a VOA French-to-Africa TV production. He is introduced at 6:40 into the segment.