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Professor Abdullah F. Alrebh

A smiling man with a beard, wearing a black suit jacket over a striped shirt, standing in front of large windows with a blurred green outdoor background.

Fields

Religion, Politics, Theory, and Media

Courses

  • Introduction to Sociology
  • Social Problems
  • Introduction to Social Theory
  • Classical Social Theory
  • Contemporary Social Theory
  • Sociology of Religion

Current Research Interests

The impact of the religious ethics on societies, authority in the Muslim societies, and Western media coverage of the Middle East

Selected Publications

Books 
Alrebh, A. F. (2006). The Poetry by Mustafa Jamal Al-Din: A Literary Study(in Arabic: Shir Mustafá Jamal al-Din : dirasah fanniyah). Beirut: Muassasat al-Intishar al-Arabi.

Articles (Peer Reviewed)
Alrebh, A., F., (2018). “Islamic Authority: A Matter of Guardianship”, Athens Journal of Social Sciences (AJSS). 5(2): 167—188.

Leichtman, M. A. and A. F. Alrebh (2018). “Shii Preaching in West Africa: The Dakar Sermons of Lebanese Shaykh al-Zayn,” in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 45(1): 58-78.

Alrebh, A., F., (2018). "Legislative Role of Religion in the Contemporary Islamic States", MEI Perspectives Series 9. National University of Singapore 
View this article.

Alrebh, A., F. (2017). “A Wahhabi Ethic in Saudi Arabia: Power, Authority, and Religion in a Muslim Society”, Sociology of Islam. 5 (4): 278-302

Alrebh, A. F. (2015). “Covering the Building of a Kingdom: The Saudi Arabian Authority in The London Times and The New York Times, 1901–1932”, Digest of Middle East Studies, 24(2): 187–212.

Alrebh, A. F., & Ten Eyck, T. A. (2014). “Covering the birth of a nation: The rise of Saudi Arabia in The London Times, 1927–1937.” The Social Science Journal, 51(1), 130-138.

Book Chapters (Peer Reviewed)
Alrebh, A. F., & Al-Mabuk, R. (2016). Teaching for Democracy in Post-Arab Spring. In E. Mohamed, H. R. Gerber, & S. Aboulkacem (Eds.), Education and the Arab Spring (pp. 3-23). Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Alrebh, A. F. (2016). Emergent Kingdom in the Orientalist Press: Ibn Saud's Authority in the Western Media. InM. A. Aman & M. J. Aman (Eds.), The Middle East: New Order or Disorder? (Pp. 297-324). Washington, DC: Policy Studies Organization (PSO)/Westphalia.

Book Reviews
Review of Islam in Saudi Arabia, by David Commins, Contemporary Islam, 11(3), 303-304 
View the Islam in Saudi Arabia book review.

Review of Force and Fanaticism: Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia and Beyond, by Simon Ross Valentine. Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, January 2016
View the Force and Fanaticism book review.

Review of Gulf Politics and Economics in a Changing World, by Michael Hudson and Mimi Kirk (Eds.), Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online, Volume: 3 Issue: 9, September 2015
View the Gulf Politics and Economics in a Changing World book review. 

 

Biography

Dr. Alrebh is an Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion and Sociological Theory at Grand Valley State University. He is an academic and author with research interests in Middle East, Arabic literature and Islam. He earned a Ph.D. from Michigan State University, East Lansing in 2014, in addition to a Master of Sociology from MSU, and a Master of Arabic literature from King Saud University. He has published a number of academic articles and book chapters focusing on religion, Middle East, social movements, and education. The major interest of Dr. Alrebh is Saudi Arabia and Islamic mobilization in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Prior to joining Grand Valley, Dr. Alrebh worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Michigan State University and as adjunct faculty at Saginaw Valley State University. Currently, he is serving as Non-resident scholar at Middle East Institute- Washington D.C.

Page last modified August 27, 2026