Q&A: Upper School History Teacher Sam Anderson on His New Book and Teaching at Poly

Upper School History Teacher Sam Anderson recently celebrated the publication of his first book, The French Médersa, a scholarly work that grew out of his doctoral research at UCLA. The book explores how the French state pursued a century-long project of bicultural Franco-Muslim education in its northwest African colonies, resulting in a new type of school, the médersa, that combined French and Islamic curricula. PolyNews sat down with Sam to discuss how his research shapes his teaching at Poly. Sam’s book is now available through Cornell University Press, marking a milestone in his scholarly journey and offering Poly students a firsthand look at what sustained historical research can achieve.

Q: Congratulations on the publication of your book! To start, can you share how this project came to be?
Sam Anderson: The book grew directly out of my dissertation research from graduate school. I earned my PhD in history at UCLA, and this was the topic I spent years researching. After graduating, I took some time away from it, then returned to the manuscript. Revising it into a book took about three years, including one very intensive year of revision. I’m excited to share this work not only as a piece of scholarship but as something that can spark curiosity and conversation in the classroom. Research and teaching really inform each other for me, and Poly has been a great place to do both.

Q: In your own words, what is the book about?
SA: It’s a historical study of a unique school system that developed under French colonial rule in North and West Africa during the 19th and 20th centuries. These schools combined European colonial education with long-standing Islamic educational traditions indigenous to the region. That’s unusual, because we often think of colonial education as something imposed from the outside.

What fascinated me is that the French believed these schools could help co-opt Islam as part of the colonial project—and despite never quite working the way they hoped, the system lasted for more than a century, from about 1850 to 1951. Some African Muslims embraced these schools for social mobility or access to new ideas, while others resisted them. That tension made the system incredibly rich to study.

Q: How does your research connect to what you teach at Poly?
SA: I teach World Religions, so my research really informs how I approach Islam, especially by emphasizing African perspectives. Many students don’t realize that Islam has a deep and long history in Africa, and that’s something I try to highlight. It also connects directly to 10th-grade World History. When we study colonialism, particularly in places like Algeria, I’m able to bring in examples and insights from my own research.

Q: Will students engage with your book or research?
SA: I’m planning to assign part of the book so students can see how a historical argument is constructed. For me, that’s just as important as the content itself. I want them to understand what it means to do research, to build an argument, and to support it with evidence and analysis. I hope it can serve as a useful model.

Q: How have you been enjoying teaching at Poly?
SA: I really love it. This is my first time teaching at an independent school and at the high school level. I previously taught at Pomona College from 2019 to 2023 so it’s been exciting to think about how to build those foundational research and writing skills earlier. Interestingly, when I taught at Pomona, I had several students who were Poly alumni, and they always stood out for their writing and research abilities. That’s actually how I first learned about Poly. Being here now and seeing those skills develop firsthand has been incredibly rewarding.