Mark Fathi Massoud

Mark Fathi Massoud is Associate Professor of Politics and Director of the Legal Studies Program and Legal Politics Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Massoud’s research addresses the interplay between religion, law, and politics. Massoud teaches courses and advises students in international and comparative law, human rights, humanitarian aid, and research design and methods.

Massoud’s second book, Shari’a, Inshallah: Recovering the Rule of Law in Somalia’s Islamic State (under contract, Cambridge University Press), explains the endurance of Islamic law in state development. Massoud’s first book, Law’s Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan, investigates the multiple roles and uses of law in Sudan’s colonial and postcolonial history. Law’s Fragile State received the Herbert Jacob Prize from the Law and Society Association and an Honorable Mention for the Pritchett Award from the American Political Science Association. Massoud is also principal investigator (with Kathleen M. Moore) of Shari’a Revoiced: Documenting American Muslims’ Experiences of Islamic Law.

Massoud is co-editor of the Cambridge Studies in Law and Society book series, and he serves on the Board of Trustees of the Law and Society Association. With the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Law and Society, Massoud co-organizes the Socio-Legal Studies Early Career Scholars Workshop in Africa.

Born in Sudan and raised in California, Massoud holds a JD and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA and MA from the University of Notre Dame. He has been a visiting fellow of Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (2008-2009), Princeton University’s Program in Law and Public Affairs (2015-2016), and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and Nuffield College, Oxford University (2019). He is an attorney of the California Bar.