Taher Herzallah comes to the American Studies program with 15 years of campus and community organizing experience. Raised in Southern California, Mr. Herzallah came of age in a vibrant Muslim and Palestinian activism scene and was the president of MSA West and his local Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at UC Riverside where he completed his undergraduate degree in Political Science and International Affairs. As the Director of Outreach & Community Organizing for American Muslims for Palestine, Taher facilitates national coalition-building and expands the organization’s grassroots presence across the US.

Mr. Herzallah is one of the 'Irvine 11,' a group of students who were arrested and prosecuted for expressing their constitutionally protected rights of free speech and political dissent when they walked out of a speech given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine in 2010. Mr. Herzallah was also one of six people arrested for protesting the appointment of David Friedman as US ambassador to Israel at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in February 2017.

Mr. Herzallah’s research interests focus on Muslim and Palestinian political and social activism in the context of the ongoing settler-colonization of Palestine and ongoing military-style police warfare against people of color in the US. Mr. Herzallah’s research lies at the intersections of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Indigenous Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, Black Studies, and Religious Studies while bringing an important Critical Muslim Studies dimension to the American Studies Department.