Rasul H. Miller
Biography
Rasul H. Miller, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine. His research examines the history of Black American Muslims, with particular focus on Sunni and Sufi communities, Black internationalism, and the intersections of race, religion, and radical politics in the United States and across the Atlantic world. Before joining UC Irvine in 2020, Miller served as a Postdoctoral Associate in the study of the Racialization of Islam at Yale University's Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration and the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Program.
Miller's scholarship explores the religious and political lives of Black Muslims in America, tracing their connections to global Islamic movements and African diasporic traditions. His work has appeared in the Journal of Africana Religions, Critical Muslim, and in edited volumes published by State University of New York Press. He has also contributed to public scholarship through Sapelo Square, where his article "The Black American Sufi: A History" garnered attention and was accompanied by a widely viewed videocast discussion. Miller has presented his research at conferences in Senegal, Ghana, Bosnia, and across the United States, and has delivered invited lectures at institutions including Princeton University, Yale University, UCLA, and the University of Virginia.
Miller received his Ph.D. in History and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. He has received multiple research grants from the UC Irvine Humanities Center and was awarded a Luce-American Academy of Religion Advancing Public Scholarship Grant in 2025. Miller has advanced language proficiency in Arabic and intermediate proficiency in French and Wolof, reflecting his engagement with African and Middle Eastern sources and communities.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in History and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2019
- B.A. in Economics and African and African-American Studies, Duke University, 2005
Areas of Expertise
- African American Islamic History
- Black Internationalism
- Tijani Sufi Order Networks
- Black Muslim Racial Identity
- Afro-Arab Imaginary
- Black Muslim Political Economies
- Islamic Mariology Interpretations
Recent Publications
- “Black Muslim Racial Reimagining: Traditions of Racial and Religious Self-Making among Black Sunni Muslims in the US”, Journal of Africana Religions, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 223–251, 2025.
- “Black Radicalism”, Critical Muslim, C. Hurst and Co., vol. 35, 2021.
- “The Black American Sufi: A History”, Sapelo Square, 2020.
- “When the Divine Flood Reached New York: The Tijani Sufi Order Among Black American Muslims in New York City”, Varieties of American Sufism: Islam, Sufi Orders, and Authority in a Time of Transition, State University of New York Press, 2020.
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Last updated on 4/6/2026.