Professor Ali’s research and teaching focus on Islam in America, women’s religious authority, and Islam, gender, and race.
Ali's book-in-progress, Authorizing Women: Islamic Authority at the Women’s Mosque of America, analyzes how American Muslim women negotiate the Islamic tradition to cultivate religious authority and build gender-equitable worship communities.
Ali earned her doctorate in Religious Studies from Boston University in 2019. She was a visiting postgraduate student in Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh from 2017 to 2018. Prior to that, she earned a graduate certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Boston University, as well as a master’s degree in Islamic Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. She earned her bachelor’s degree with honors in both religion and biology from Lehigh University. Competitive fellowships and grants from The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the Boston UniversityCenter for the Humanities, and the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations at Boston University have supported her writing and research.