Biography

Fatima Siwaju is a cultural anthropologist whose research centers on Islam in the Americas, citizenship and the politics of belonging, and Africana intellectual traditions. She is currently working on her first book manuscript, which explores the nexus of race, religion, and citizenship as they pertain to the spiritual and sociopolitical trajectories of Afro-descendant Muslims in the Colombian Pacific. 

Professor Siwaju's research has been supported by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, and the Crossroads Project on Black Religious Histories, Communities, and Cultures in collaboration with the Henry Luce Foundation. She also served as a 2022-2023 Dissertation Scholar in the Department of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Siwaju earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology with a concentration in African American Studies from Princeton University in 2o23. She holds a Master of Arts in Religion from Syracuse University and a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge. She also received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish) from the University of Cambridge.