Abdi Ismail Samatar
PhD, University of California at Berkeley, 1985
Comparative social and political geography, political economy and agrarian change, development theory and the state, Africa
Research Interests:
Dr. Samatar served as Chair of the Department of Geography and a Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota. He’s a Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria and the author of four books, one of which is "An African Miracle," which was a finalist for the Herskovits Award, and is credited in over sixty articles, chapters, and essays. His research focuses on the relationship between democracy and development in the Third World, looking at the link between democratic leadership, public institutions, and development in East and South Africa. Other themes include Islam, social capital and ethnicity in the Horn of Africa, and environment and development.