Mark Tessler is Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. Between 2005 and 2013 he also served as the University's Vice Provost for International Affairs, leading many of the University's global engagement initiatives. Professor Tessler has studied and/or conducted field research in Tunisia, Israel, Morocco, Egypt, Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), and Qatar. He has also taught at several universities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many of Professor Tessler's scholarly publications examine the nature, determinants, and political implications of the attitudes and values, including those pertaining to governance, to women, and to Islam, held by ordinary citizens in the Middle East. Among the fifteen books he has authored, coauthored, or edited are The Evaluation and Application of Survey Research in the Arab World (1987), Public Opinion in the Middle East: Survey Research and the Political Orientations of Ordinary Citizens (2011); Islam and Politics in the Middle East: Explaining the Views of Ordinary Citizens (2015), supported by a Carnegie Scholar award from the Carnegie Corporation of New York; and Religious Minorities in Non-Secular Middle Eastern and North African States (2020). Professor Tessler is co-founder and co-director of the Arab Barometer survey project, which since 2006 has carried out 68 nationally representative political and social attitude surveys in 15 Arab countries. 

Professor Tessler has also written extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  His book, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2009), has received national honors and awards.