Abdullahi Gallab brings to his research and teaching the unique perspectives of a scholar and a former journalist practicing in Sudan. His 2008 book "The First Islamist Republic: Development and Disintegration of Islamism in the Sudan" is the story of the social world of Islamism. Based on extensive field work inside and outside the Sudanese Islamist regime that came to power through a military coup in 1989, the book provides an entry point into its local and global worlds as they interact and collide with each other.  

His later book "A Civil Society Deferred: The Tertiary Grip of Violence in the Sudan" is a critical inquiry into the colonial and post colonial states as they developed in the Sudan and their relationship to violence. Under preparation is Gallab's book "Their Second Republic: Islamism in the Sudan from Disintegration to Oblivion." It is a continuation of the study of Islamism in power in the Sudan.  

Active in the Sudan Studies Association (SSA) of North American (which now has its home within African and African American Studies in the Arizona State University's School of Social Transformation), Professor Gallab is former editor and current publisher of the organization'sbBulletin and was conference host of the SSA 2012 conference, held at ASU. He was president of the organization for 2013-2015. This U.S.-based association of scholars promotes the advancement of research in the field of Sudan studies and facilitates the distribution of knowledge and understanding of Greater Sudan and its relationship to the wider world. Gallab also serves as co-chair of Islamic Studies for the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Western Region and is a board member for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Professor Gallab also serves as a member of the Barrett Honors faculty and on the advisory board for the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict.