Cawo Mohamed Abdi

Dr. Cawo Mohamed Abdi (, ) is a Somali-American professor and writer.
Personal life
Abdi was raised in Somalia.
For her post-secondary education, she earned a BSocSc in Economics in 1995 from the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada. She later obtained a second degree Diploma in French Studies (Diplôme d'Études Françaises, deuxième degré) in 1997 from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in Nice, France. Abdi also received an MA in Sociology and International Development Studies in 2002 from the University of Guelph.
She is Muslim, and is married to Abdi Ismail Samatar.
Career
Cawo has served as a Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria.
Since 2008, she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota.
Abdi's work has focused mainly on the Somali community. Her general interest areas include Islam, gender, migration, ethnicity, family, development studies, individual rights, Africa and the Middle East, and globalization.<ref name="Uomca"/>
She is a member of a number of professional organizations, including the American Sociological Association, Sociologists for Women in Society, Midwest Sociological Society, African Studies Association, Canadian Sociological Association and Global Studies Association.<ref name="Cmacv"/>
Abdi has also chaired a number of international conferences. Among these are the African Studies Association Annual Conference in 2007, the University of Minnesota's Shared Cultural Spaces: Islam and the West in the Arts and Sciences conference in 2011, and the Istanbul Conference on Somalia in 2012. She likewise was a symposium organizer for the Global Strategies Alliance's International Research Conference in 2012.<ref name="Cmacv"/>
Additionally, Abdi serves on the editorial board of Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies.<ref name="Cmacv"/>
She has also engaged in philanthropic work with the Galkaio Medical Center in Galkayo, Puntland, among others.<ref name="Cmacv"/>
Selected publications
*“Threatened Identities and Gendered Opportunities: Somali Migration to America.” Forthcoming. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.
*“Muslim-American Youth and Homeland Politics: Competing Narratives on the War on Terror.” 2011. In Looming Shadows: Migration and Integration at a time of Upheaval. European and American Perspectives. Vedran Dzihic/Thomas Schmidinger (eds.), Center for Transatlantic Relations: John Hopkins University pp. 273-289.
*“Moving Beyond ‘Xenophobia’: Structural Violence, Conflict and Encounters with the ‘Other’ Africans.” 2011. Development Southern Africa, 28(5): 691-704.
*“A Gendered Perspective on the Impact of Conflict in the Horn of Africa.” 2011. Nordic Africa Institute, Policy Note 3.
*“Convergence of Civil War and the Religious Right: Re-Imagining Somali Women.” 2007. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 33(1):183-207.

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