# Abdi Kusow (Cabdi Kusow)

> Abdi Kusow: Somali sociologist at Iowa State University, writer on Somali identity and migration.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/abdi-kusow/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who is he?

Abdi Mohamed Kusow is a Somali scholar and writer, professor of sociology at Iowa State University ([Wikipedia, Abdi Kusow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdi_Kusow)). He earned a BA at Michigan State University in 1990, a master's in urban planning at the University of Michigan in 1992, and a PhD in sociology at Wayne State University in 1998, with a thesis on Somali immigrants in Canada (same source). He is also a founder of the University of Southern Somalia (same source).

## Writing

His work includes ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdi_Kusow)):

- "The Genesis of the [Somali Civil War](/en/history/somali-civil-war/): A New Perspective" (1994)
- "The Somali Origin: Myth or Reality", in *The Invention of Somalia* (1995)
- *Putting the Cart Before the Horse: Contested Nationalism and the Crisis of the Nation-State in Somalia* (editor, 2004)
- *From Mogadishu to Dixon: The Somali Diaspora in a Global Context* (co-editor, 2025)

## In short

An Iowa-based sociologist whose research covers Somali origins, the civil war and the diaspora.

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