Musa al-Gharbi is a Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in Sociology at Columbia University. Broadly, his research explores how people think about, talk about, and produce knowledge about social phenomena including race, inequality, social movements, extremism, policing, national security, foreign policy and domestic U.S. political contests.
Al-Gharbi’s research has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, New Republic, The Nation, and many other outlets across the political spectrum. He is regularly called upon by the media to contextualize current events, including spots with NPR, Wall Street Journal, CNN, USA Today, Voice of America and beyond.
His first book, 'We Have Never Been Woke: Social Justice Discourse, Inequality and the Rise of a New Elite' is forthcoming with Princeton University Press.
Experience
2021–present
Senior Fellow, Criminal Justice, Niskanen Center
2016–present
Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in Sociology, Columbia University
2021–present
Visiting Fellow, SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins
2016–present
Managing Editor, Heterodox Academy
2012–2016
Managing Editor, Southwest Initiative for the Study of Middle East Conflicts (SISMEC)
2014–2015
Adjunct Instructor, Government & Public Service, University of Arizona (South)
2011–2013
Teaching Assistant, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Education
2022
Columbia University, PhD / Sociology
2020
Columbia University, M.Phil/ Sociology
2017
Columbia University, MA/ Sociology
2013
University of Arizona, MA/ Philosophy
2012
University of Arizona, BA/ Philosophy
2012
University of Arizona, BA/ Near Eastern Studies
2009
Cochise College, AA/ Philosophy
Publications
2023
We Have Never Been Woke: Social Justice Discourse, Inequality and the Rise of a New Elite, Princeton University Press
2021
People of the Book: Empire and Social Science in the Islamic Commonwealth Period, Socius
2021
Prevalence of Prejudice-Denoting Words in News Media Discourse: A Chronological Analysis, Social Science Computer Review
2021
Using Word Embeddings to Probe Sentiment Associations of Politically-Loaded Terms in News and Opinion Articles from News Outlets, Journal of Computational Social Science
2020
Do You Know Your Enemy? The Role of Known Actors as Framing Devices in News Media, International Journal of Communication
2019
Resistance as Sacrifice: Towards an Ascetic Antiracism, Sociological Forum
2018
Discourses on Countering Violent Extremism: The Strategic Interplay Between Fear and Security After 9/11, Critical Studies on Terrorism
2018
Race and the Race for the White House: On Social Research in the Age of Trump, The American Sociologist
2016
From Political Liberalism to Para-Liberalism: Epistemological Pluralism, Cognitive Liberalism & Authentic Choice, Comparative Philosophy
2013
Syria Contextualized: The Numbers Game, Middle East Policy