Mohamed Faroug A. Ali is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center (AmSARC) and Executive Director of the Sudanese Archaeologists Union. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the International University of Africa, Sudan, and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Archaeology at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University.
His first book, titled Sociopolitical Structure and the Collapse of the Meroitic State in the Middle Nile Region (Brepols, forthcoming), offers a critical examination of the sociopolitical dynamics that contributed to the collapse of the Meroitic state. Drawing on archaeological, textual, and landscape data, the book reassesses long-standing interpretations of state decline in ancient Kush.
From 2022 to 2024, he was an Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture, Performance Studies, and Critical Humanities at The Africa Institute. In addition to preparing his first book for publication, he is currently editing a second final draft of a manuscript titled "The Meroitic State: Reconstructing an Ancient African Society Ca. 300 B.C–350 A.D".
His research has been supported by several prestigious institutions, including the British Museum, the National Science Foundation, UCSB, and GSU. He has contributed as a media consultant to documentary films such as Queens of Kush, ZDF Expedition, Terra X: Kleopatras Schwarze Schwestern (2008), and The Fourth Cataract of the Nile – An Archaeological Salvage Project, which aired on the French-German TV channel Arte in 2007.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Dongola University in Sudan and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
Faroug has directed and participated in numerous archaeological projects in Sudan. His research focuses on the formation, political economy, collapse, and regeneration of ancient states in sub-Saharan Africa, ancient iron-working cultural landscapes, and intercultural contact.
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