Nabil Matar is Presidential Professor in the English Department at the University of Minnesota. He also teaches in the History Department and the Religious Studies Program. Between 1998 and 2015, he published two trilogies about Western Europe and the Islamic Mediterranean. He is currently working on two book projects: Religious Encounters in the Mediterranean World, 1517-1795: the Arabic Archives and Arabic Writings about America during the Nahda, 1876-1914.