Education

• B.A. Virginia Military Institute
• M.A. Princeton University
• Ph.D. Princeton University

Bio

Teaches courses on the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on European colonialism, nationalism, and state formation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Professor Perkins regularly teaches the survey Introduction to Islamic Civilization course, a course on Islamic Institutions and Traditions, and another on the relations that have existed between the Middle East and the United States since this country’s founding. His publications include Qaids, Captains, and Colons: French Military Administration in the Colonial Maghrib; Tunisia, Crossroads of the Islamic and European Worlds; Port Sudan: The Evolution of a Colonial City; The Maghrib in Question (edited with Michel LeGall); and A History of Modern Tunisia.

Activities

I am in the process of researching and writing a book on European and American tourism in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya from its beginnings in the late 19th century until the end of colonial administration in the mid-20th century. The study will elucidate the social, political, and economic impacts of tourism on indigenous host communities across the region and will also examine the consequences of travel and exposure to North Africa for foreign visitors.