Education

• B.A. in English, Dartmouth College, 1991
• M.Studies in Sociocultural Anthropology, Oxford University, 1994
• Ph.D. in Linguistic Anthropology, The University of Michigan, 2001

About

Flagg Miller is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California at Davis. Trained as a linguistic anthropologist, Dr. Miller’s research focuses on cultures of modern Muslim reform in the Middle East and especially Yemen.

His latest book is entitled The Audacious Ascetic: What the Bin Laden Tapes Reveal about Al-Qa`ida (available from Hurst / Oxford University Press, September 14, 2015; www.audaciousascetic.com ). Drawing primarily on an archive of over 1500 audiocassettes formerly deposited in Bin Laden’s house in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the book explores how Islamic cultural, legal, theological and linguistic vocabularies shaped militants’ understandings of al-Qa`ida. Contesting the idea that al-Qa`ida’s primary enemy was, in fact, America and the West, the book argues that Western intelligence and terrorism experts collaborated with global media networks in managing Bin Ladin’s growing reputation in ways that were exploited by Osama and those who supported his militant vision.

His first book, The Moral Resonance of Arab Media: Audiocassette Poetry and Culture in Yemen (2007), examined how Yemenis have used traditional poetry and new media technologies to envision a productive relationship between tribalism and progressive Muslim reform. Along with publications in a variety of professional journals including theAmerican Ethnologist, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Journal of Language and Communication, and theJournal of Women’s History, Dr. Miller has written the preface to Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak (University of Iowa Press, 2007), a collection of translated poems written by detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

Research Focus

Dr. Miller's research focuses on cultures of modern Muslim reform in the Middle East and especially Yemen
His interdisciplinary work on religion draws from linguistic and cultural anthropology, history, media theory, poetics, philosophy, and cultural studies
He has lived and studied in the Middle East and North Africa for over four years, including Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen

Publications

"Rereading the Origins of Al-Qā`ida through Usāma Bin Lādin's Former Audiocassette Collection," in Ten Years Later: Insights on Al-Qaeda's Past and Future through Captured Records. Eds. Lorry Fenner, Mark Stout and Jessica Goldings. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Center for Advanced Governmental Studies. (Pp.100-11). (2012)

"Listen, Plan and Carry Out ‘al-Qā`ida': Theological Dissension in Usāma Bin Lādin’s Former Audiocassette Collection," in Contextualising Jihadi Thought. Eds. Jeevan Deol and Zaheer Kazmi. Hurst and Company/Columbia University Press. Pp.69-97. (2011)

"On the Ethics of Graduated Disclosure in Contexts of War," in Anthropologists in the Securityscape: A Casebook of Stories in Identity, Practice and Ethics. Eds. R. Albro, M. Schoch-Spana, G. Marcus, L. McNamara. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. (2011)

“The Ethics of Sound in the Osama Bin Laden Audiotape Collection: Lessons from the Art of an Egg,” Anthropology News, December issue. (2010)

"Al-Qa`ida as a 'Pragmatic Base': Contributions of Area Studies to Sociolinguistics," Language and Communication, 28(4): 386-408. (2008)

Awards

• The University of California President's Research Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities, 2013-14
• American Council of Learned Societies’ Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship, 2010-11
• Woodrow Wilson International Center Fellow, Washington, D.C., 2009-10
• Hellman Fellow, University of California, Davis, 2008-09
• National Humanities Center Fellowship, Durham, North Carolina, 2007-8 (declined)
• Institute for Research in the Humanities Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fall, 2006
• American Institute for Yemeni Studies, November-January, 2005-06
• The Franke Institute for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Chicago, 2001-02
• Malcolm H. Kerr Award Runner-Up, Middle East Studies Association, Social Science Dissertations, 2001-02
• Social Science Research Council - International Dissertation Research Fellowship, 1998-99
• Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, 1998