Abu Bakarr Bah, Ph.D.

• Board of Trustees Professor (2026 - 2031)
• Presidential Research Professor of Sociology (2022 - 2026)
• Chair, Department of Sociology and Criminology
• Faculty Associate at the Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies

Education

Ph.D., New School for Social Research (New York)

Research Interests

• International security
• Ethnicity
• Democracy
• Statebuilding
• Peacebuilding
• Peace & conflict studies
• Knowledge production

News and Highlights

• Abu Bah named Board of Trustees Professor (2026 - 2031)
• Abu Bah named Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor (2022 - 2026)

• Abu Bah receives Outstanding International Educator Award
• Faculty spotlight
• NIU’s Department of Sociology and Criminology meets growing student demand
• TV appearances (News Central TV) – over ten appearances as expert analyst on various political and social issues across African countries, such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Sudan, Mozambique, Mali, etc. (Dec. 2023 to present). See some of the clips on my playlists and videos at: https://www.youtube.com/@abubah5592/playlists
• TV appearance: Ukraine War, Protests and annexation (October 4, 2022)
• TV appearance: Ukraine War, Russian Draft Mobilization (September 22, 2022)
• TV appearance: War in Ukraine (April 27, 2022)
• TV appearance (23 WIFR TV). “Braiding is Tradition, but in Shops, Rockford Barber Says Licensing Still Matters” (June 12, 2025).
• Northern Public Radio (interview on January 24, 2205) on South Africa and Gaza war.
• GULAN Magazine, Kurdistan, Iraq (January 22, 2024), topic: Conflicts in the Middle East
• TV appearance (News Central TV, One Slot Show). “Ghana Decides: Assessing Akufo-Addo's Legacy and Its Impact on 2024 Elections.” Nov. 26, 2024.
• TV appearance "Mozambique Post-Election Crisis: Protests, Violence, and the Call for Change" (Nov. 6, 2024)
• TV appearance “Niger Coup: ECOWAS (Dec 11, 2023)
• TV appearance “Sierra Leone's Former President Summoned for Questioning Over Failed Coup Attempt.” (Dec. 8, 2023).
• TV appearance “Locals with ties to Israel and Palestine express fury over the attack on Gaza.” (Oct. 10, 2023)
• Northern Star. “NIU professors discuss conflict between Israel, Hamas.” October 20, 2023.
• TV appearance: War in Cote d’Ivoire (12/28/2010)
• “I golpe a catena in Africa? È il fallimento del progetto democratico.” Interviewed by Massimo Ramaioli for Mondo Economico. 11 Settembre 2023.
• Interview: GULAN Magazine, Kurdistan, Iraq (August 27, 2022), topic: Middle East security; also see: Kurdish version
• Book: International Statebuilding in West Africa: Civil Wars and New Humanitarianism in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire
• Book: African Security: Local Issues and Global Connections
• Book: International Security and Peacebuilding: Africa, the Middle East, and Europe
• Book: Post-Conflict Institutional Design: Peacebuilding and Democracy in Africa
• Book: Democracy, the Nation-State, and Ethnicity in Nigeria
• African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review (ACPR) [journal], editor-in-chief
• Critical Sociology [journal], African Editor
• Research Articles
• The Ukraine War and Strategic Shifts in International Relations
• The Banality of Oppression, Multipolarity and the Ukraine War
• The Dialectics of Loyalty in African Politics: Rule of Law and Corruption
• Public lecture, Riara University, Nairobi, Kenya (2021)
• Keynote address: Kisii University School of Arts 2nd International Conference (2021)
• Lecture on "Democracy, Ethnicity, and Religion” at UIII, Jakarta, Indonesia, January 20, 2023
• More highlights