Nasser Hussain

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Dr. Nasser Hussain is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New College of Florida, where he also directs the Civil Discourse Initiative and founded the Culture & Politics (CAP) Lab. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University and his A.B. in Government from Harvard College. Before joining New College, he taught and conducted research at Princeton University, where he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Lecturer in Politics, and Faculty Fellow at Mathey College, and later at Duke University, where he served as Associate Director of the Civic Life and Thought Initiative.

Professor Hussain’s research sits at the crossroads of anthropology, political theory, and moral philosophy, exploring how individuals and communities pursue meaning, virtue, and belonging in an age of fragmentation. His teaching and writing engage broad questions of ethics and human flourishing, religion and modernity, migration and diaspora, and civic life and thought.

His scholarship has been supported by numerous awards and fellowships, including from the Volvo Research and Educational Foundation, Harvard’s South Asia Initiative, and Columbia University’s Kluge Fellowship. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at the London School of Economics on several occasions and has held research fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Earth Institute (Center for Sustainable Urban Development).

Beyond academia, Professor Hussain has contributed commentary to First Things, Public Discourse, RealClearPolitics, and The Guardian, and he has worked in the policy world with Chatham House and the British Parliament. A committed advocate of free inquiry and civil discourse, he has led faculty workshops and university programs dedicated to cultivating thoughtful engagement across political and cultural divides.