Thematically, his academic interests mostly center on the emergence of the Islamic movement and faith tradition in the historical context of the late antique Middle East. His recent research explores the questions of ideology, imperialism and propaganda in Byzantine, Sasanian, and early Islamic societies.
In 2013, he was awarded a Mellon doctoral fellowship to join the research project The Qur?an Seminar, directed by Gabriel Said Reynolds at Notre Dame University.
Tesei has a Ph.D.