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Curriculum Vitae

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Charles Kurzman
Professor of Sociology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CB#3210, 155 Pauli Murray Hall (formerly Hamilton Hall)
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210 USA
Phone: (1) (919) 962-1007
Fax: (1) (919) 962-7568
E-mail: kurzman.unc.edu
Webpage: http://kurzman.unc.edu

EDUCATION:

  • Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, Department of Sociology, 1992.
  • M.A., University of California at Berkeley, Department of Sociology, 1987.
  • B.A., Harvard University, Committee on Social Studies, 1986.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS HELD:

  • Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008-present.
  • Associate Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004-2008.
  • Visiting Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, School of Historical Studies, 2002-2003.
  • Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998-2004.
  • Assistant Professor of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, 1994-1997.
  • Post-Doctoral Fellow, Center for Middle East Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 1993.

BOOKS:

  • The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011; 2nd edition, updated for the age of ISIS, 2019). Why are there so few Muslim terrorists? The question may sound absurd, given the death and destruction wrought in the name of Islam. But if there are a billion Muslims in the world, and many of them supposedly hate the West and desire martyrdom, why don’t we see terrorist attacks everywhere, every day? This counterintuitive book offers detailed evidence, from the terrorists’ own publications and web sites, that Islamic revolutionaries are sorely disappointed with their inability to recruit new militants. Drawing on government documents, public-opinion surveys, election results, and in-depth interviews in the Middle East and other Muslim societies, this book examines how the revolutionaries’ message is failing with its primary audience: young Muslims who are angry about Western imperialism and its support for local dictatorships. It only takes a small number of committed militants to do significant damage, as the world learned on September 11, 2001, but Muslims themselves have formed the strongest barrier against the threat of Islamist terrorism.
  • Democracy Denied, 1905-1915 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008). On Monday, October 30, 1905, late in the afternoon, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia signed a one-page document promising to respect civil rights, share power with a parliament, and hold free elections. This was the first revolution covered “live” by international telegraph services, and within days news of the tsar’s manifesto appeared in newspapers all over the world. Thus began a global wave of democratic revolutions consuming more than a quarter of the world’s population: Russia (1905-07), Iran (1906-08 and 1909-11), the Ottoman Empire (1908-09), Portugal (1910-26), Mexico (1910-13), and China (1911-13). The social carrier of democracy at this time was the emerging class of modern intellectuals, whose democratic alliance soon crumbled when intellectuals attempted to govern in accordance with their positivist ideology. The bourgeoisie abandoned “bourgeois democracy”; anti-democracy alliances outmaneuvered the intellectuals to secure international support from the Great Powers; and the democratic path to national development was replaced with developmental dictatorships for the following decades.
  • The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). Translated into Persian by Mohammad Molla-Abbasi as انقلاب تصورناپذیر در ایران (Enqelab-e Tasavor-Napazir dar Iran) (Tehran, Iran: Tarjomaan, 2019); by Mohammad Karimi as انقلاب نااندیشیدنی در ایران (Enqelab-e Na-Andishidani dar Iran) (Tehran, Iran: Soore Mehr, 2021); and by Ramin Karimian as ناگهان انقلاب (Nagehan Enqelab) (Tehran, Iran: Nashr-e Ney, 2021). One hundred days before the Pahlavi monarchy crumbled, the CIA predicted that the regime would remain stable. Even many of the Iranian revolutionaries were pessimistic about the prospects for ousting the shah. This book argues that these people were not misguided – rather, revolutions and other social movements are inherently unpredictable. Using recently published documents from Iran, as well as interviews with participants in the revolution and other eyewitness sources, the book develops an “anti-explanation” for the revolution that focuses on the uncertainty, the rumors, and the danger that Iranians felt in 1977-1979. Such conditions undermine attempts to predict the revolution retroactively, but they help bridge cross-cultural gaps in understanding what Iranians were going through when they decided to protest against the shah.

EDITING:

  • Editor, Special Issue on Understanding the Middle East Uprisings, Mobilization, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2012, pp. 377-455.
  • Editor, Special Section on Social Scientific Analyses of Terrorism, Social Forces, Vol. 84, No. 4, June 2006, pp. 1957-2046.
  • Second Editor, with Michaelle Browers, An Islamic Reformation? (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004). For more than a century, Muslims and Western observers have drawn an analogy between recent developments in Islam and the Protestant Reformation in Christianity, some to claim that an Islamic Reformatino has occurred, some to predict that it will soon occur, and some to assert that it has not or cannot occur. This volume collects essays by nine authors on various aspects of the analogy, continuing the debate over the meaningfulness of this particular comparison, and of cross-cultural and temporal comparisons more generally. An introductory essay by the authors traces the main uses of the analogy since the late 19th century.
  • Editor, Modernist Islam, 1840-1940: A Source-Book (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). Translated into Arabic as الإسلام والتحديث: مشروعات التجديد في العالم الإسلامي (1840 – 1940م) (Al-Islam wa’l-Tahdith: Mashru’at al-Tajdid fi’l-‘Alam al-Islami, 1840-1940 M.) (Beirut, Lebanon: Markaz Nohoudh li’l-Dirasat wa’l-Buhuth, 2020). Prepared by a team of two dozen area specialists, this anthology covers the century when the Modernist Islamic movement first became prominent in many regions of the Islamic world, generating tremendous intellectual ferment by attempting to reconcile Islamic faith and modern ideals. The Modernist Islamic movement went into eclipse in the 1930s, supplanted by secular projects on one hand (primarily nationalism and socialism) and by different religious projects on the other (traditionalist and revivalist). In recent years, liberal Islamic thinkers, once again attempting to reconcile Islamic and modern values, have begun to resuscitate the reputation and accomplishments of the Modernist Islamic movement. At the same time, Western scholars are beginning to recognize, as they have not before, the extent of Modernist Islamic activities and their importance in Islamic history. This anthology contributes to the recovery of this important intellectual resource by translating into English, annotating, and publishing in a single volume selections from 52 influential representatives of the Modernist Islamic movement, along with an analytical introductory essay. The anthology also serves as a counterexample to the popular image of a permanent clash of civilizations between Islam and the West.
  • Editor, Liberal Islam: A Source-Book (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Translated into Indonesian as Wacana Islam Liberal: Pemikiran Islam Kontemporer tentang Isu-Isu Global (Jakarta, Indonesia: Paramadina, 2001); translated into Arabic as الإسلام الليبرالي: كتاب مرجعي (Al-Islam al-Liberali: Kitab Marja’i) (Beirut, Lebanon: EBDAA, 2017). “Liberal Islam” is not a contradiction in terms; it is a thriving tradition and undergoing a revival within the last generation. This anthology presents the work of 32 prominent Muslims who are share parallel concerns with Western liberalism: separation of church and state, democracy, the rights of women and minorities, freedom of thought, and human progress. Although the West has largely ignored the liberal tradition within Islam, many of these authors are well-known in their own countries as advocates of democracy and tolerance.

PAPERS:

  • “When Do Muslims Vote Islamic?” with Didem Türkoğlu, in Fatma Müge Göçek and Gamze Evcimen, editors, The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Sociology and the Middle East (London: I.B. Tauris, 2022), pp. 163-174. (Data.)
  • “The Globalization of Social Forces,” Social Forces, Vol. 101, No. 1, September 2022, pp. 93-101. (Article, data for Figure 1 and Figure 2.)
  • “The Global Wave of Constitutional Revolutions, 1905-1915,” in David Motadel, editor, Revolutionary World: Global Upheaval in the Modern Age (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp. 111-129. (Chapter.)
  • “Women’s Assessments of Gender Equality,” with Willa Dong, Brandon Gorman, Karam Hwang, Renee Ryberg, and Batool Zaidi, Socius, Vol. 5, September 2019, pp. 1-13. (Open-access article and data.)
  • “Sociologies of Islam,” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 45, August 2019, pp. 265-277. (Article.)
  • “Who Doesn’t Want Democracy? A Multilevel Analysis of Elite and Mass Attitudes,” with Brandon Gorman and Ijlal Naqvi, Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 62, No. 3, June 2019, pp. 261-281. (Article.)
  • “The Hidden Heritage of Arab Libraries: Online Catalogs and Institutional Barriers to Discoverability,” with John D. Martin III, IFLA Journal (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions), Vol. 44, No. 4, December 2018, pp. 300-310. (Article and data.)
  • “Unruly Protest,” in Frédéric Volpi and James M. Jasper, editors, Microfoundations of the Arab Uprisings (Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2018), pp. 183-191. (Chapter.)
  • “Scholarly Attention and the Limited Internationalization of US Social Science,” International Sociology, Vol. 32, No. 6, November 2017, pp. 775-795. (Article and data.)
  • “Ideology and Threat Assessment: Law Enforcement Evaluation of Muslim and Right-Wing Extremism,” with Ahsan Kamal and Hajar Yazdiha, Socius, Vol. 3, April 2017, pp. 1-13. (Open-access article and data.)
  • “After the Arab Spring: Do Muslims Vote Islamic Now?” with Didem Türkoğlu, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 26, No. 4, October 2015, pp. 100-109. (Article and data.)
  • “Muslim Modernities: Interdisciplinary Insights Across Time and Space,” with Bruce B. Lawrence, introduction to special issue on “Muslim Modernities,” The Muslim World, Vol. 105, No. 4, October 2015, pp. 440-445. (Article.)
  • “Powerblindness,” with Rajesh Ghoshal, Kristin Gibson, Clinton Key, Micah Roos, and Amber Wells, Sociology Compass, Vol. 8, No. 6, June 2014, pp. 718-730. (Article.)
  • “When Forecasts Fail: Unpredictability in Israeli-Palestinian Interaction,” with Aseem Hasnain, Sociological Science, Vol. 1, June 2014, pp. 239-259. (Article and data.)
  • “Islam and Global Politics” and “Islam’s Hard Edge,” in Lawrence Pintak and Stephen Franklin, editors, Islam for Journalists: A Primer on Covering Muslim Communities in America (Columbia, MO: Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, 2013), pp. 63-75 and 80-91. Revised version published in Lawrence Pintak and Stephen Franklin, editors, Islam for Journalists (and Everyone Else) (Columbia, MO: Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, 2017), Chaps. 4-5. (E-book.)
  • “The Arab Spring Uncoiled,” Mobilization, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2012, pp. 377-390. (Article.)
  • “Islamic Studies in U.S. Universities,” with Carl W. Ernst, Review of Middle East Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1, Summer 2012, pp. 24-46. Revised version published in Seteney Shami and Cynthia Miller-Idriss, editors, Middle East Studies for the New Millennium: Infrastructures of Knowledge (New York: Social Science Research Council and New York University Press, 2016), pp. 320-348.
  • “Muslim American Terrorism Since 9/11: Why So Rare?” with David Schanzer and Ebrahim Moosa, The Muslim World, Vol. 101, No. 3, July 2011, pp. 464-483. (Article.)
  • “Cultural Jiu-Jitsu and the Iranian Greens,” in Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel, editors, The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future (New York: Melville House, 2011), pp. 7-17. (Publisher.)
  • “Who Are the Islamists?” with Ijlal Naqvi, in Carl W. Ernst and Richard C. Martin, editors, Rethinking Islamic Studies (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2010), pp. 133-158. (PDF file.)
  • “Mashrutiyat, Mesrutiyet, and Beyond: Intellectuals and the Constitutional Revolutions of 1905-12,” in Houchang Chehabi and Vanessa Martin, editors, Iran’s Constitutional Revolution: Popular Politics, Cultural Transformations and Transnational Connections (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010), pp. 277-290. (PDF file.) Translated into Persian as “Mashrutiyat, Meshrutiyet, va Farasavi: Rowshanfekran va Enqelabat-e 1905-12/1284-91,” in Houchang Chehabi and Vanessa Martin, editors, Enqelab-e Mashruteh-ye Iran (Tehran, Iran: Parseh, 2014), pp. 447-474.
  • “Do Muslims Vote Islamic?” with Ijlal Naqvi, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 21, No 2, April 2010, pp. 50-63. (Article and data.)
  • “For Export Only: Diffusion Professionals and Population Policy,” with Deborah Barrett and Suzanne Shanahan, Social Forces, Vol. 88, No. 3, March 2010, pp. 1183-1207. (PDF file.)
  • “A Feminist Generation in Iran?” Iranian Studies, Vol. 41, No. 3, June 2008, pp. 297-321. (Article and data.)
  • “Meaning-Making in Social Movements,” introduction to special section of the same name, Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 1, Winter 2008, pp. 5-15. (PDF file.)
  • “Celebrity Status,” with Chelise Anderson, Clinton Key, Youn Ok Lee, Mairead Moloney, Alexis Silver, and Maria W. Van Ryn, Sociological Theory, Vol. 25, No. 4, December 2007, pp. 347-367. (PDF file.)
  • “Dilemmas of Electoral Clientelism: Taiwan, 1993,” with Chin-Shou Wang, International Political Science Review, Vol. 28, No. 2, March 2007, pp. 225-245. (PDF file.)
  • “The Logistics: How to Buy Votes,” with Chin-Shou Wang, in Frederic Charles Schaffer, editor, Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007), pp. 61-78. (PDF file.)
  • “Welcome to World Peace,” with Neil Englehart, Social Forces, Vol. 84, No. 4, June 2006, pp. 1957-1967. Introduction to special section on Social Scientific Studies of Terrorism. (Article and chart.)
  • “Weaving Iran into the Tree of Nations,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, May 2005, pp. 137-165. (PDF file.)
  • “Globalizing Social Movement Theory: The Case of Eugenics,” with Deborah Barrett, Theory and Society, Vol. 33, No. 5, October 2004, pp. 487-527. Republished in Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh, editor, Social and Political Movements (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2011), Vol. 4, pp. 349-383. (PDF file.)
  • “Can Understanding Undermine Explanation? The Confused Experience of Revolution,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 34, No. 3, September 2004, pp. 328-351. (PDF file.)
  • “Intellectuals and Democratization, 1905-1912 and 1989-1996,” with Erin Leahey, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 109, No. 4, January 2004, pp. 937-986. (PDF file.)
  • “Comparing Reformations,” with Michaelle Browers, in Michaelle Browers and Charles Kurzman, editors, An Islamic Reformation? (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004), pp. 1-17. (PDF file.)
  • “The Poststructuralist Consensus in Social Movement Theory,” in Jeff Goodwin and James Jasper, editors, Rethinking Social Movements (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), pp. 111-120. (PDF file.)
  • “Social Movement Theory and Islamic Studies,” in Quintan Wiktorowicz, editor, Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004), pp. 289-303. (PDF file.)
  • “The Qum Protests and the Coming of the Iranian Revolution, 1975 and 1978,” Social Science History, Vol. 27, No. 3, Fall 2003, pp. 287-325. (PDF file.) Translated into Persian by Mohammad Karimi, 22 Bahman, April 2017, pp. 1-72. (PDF file.)
  • “Pro-U.S. Fatwas,” Middle East Policy, Vol. 10, No. 3, Fall 2003, pp. 155-166. (PDF file.)
  • “Une déploration pour Mustafa. Les bases quotidiennes de l’activisme politique” (Mourning for Mustafa: The Everyday Bases of Political Activism), in Mounia Bennani-Chraïbi and Olivier Fillieule, editors, Résistances et protestations dans les sociétés musulmanes (Resistance and Protest in Muslim Societies) (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2003), pp. 177-196. (PDF file.)
  • “Bin Laden and Other Thoroughly Modern Muslims,” Contexts (American Sociological Association), Vol. 1, No. 4, Fall-Winter 2002, pp. 13-20. Republished in Barry Rubin, editor, Political Islam (New York: Routledge, 2007), Vol. 1, pp. 136-146; Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper, editors, The Contexts Reader (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), pp. 303-311; Frank J. Lechner and John Boli, editors, The Globalization Reader, 3rd edition (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008), pp. 353-357; Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper, editors, The Social Movements Reader, 2nd edition (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pp. 84-90. (PDF file.)
  • “The Globalization of Rights in Islamic Discourse,” in Ali Mohammadi, editor, Islam Encountering Globalization (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002), pp. 131-155. (PDF file.)
  • “The Sociology of Intellectuals,” with Lynn Owens, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 28, 2002, pp. 63-90. (PDF file.)
  • “Democracy’s Effect on Economic Growth: A Pooled Time-Series Analysis, 1950-1980,” with Regina Werum and Ross E. Burkhart, Studies in Comparative International Development, Vol. 37, No. 1, Spring 2002, pp. 3-33. (PDF file.)
  • “Critics Within: Islamic Scholars’ Protests Against the Islamic State in Iran,” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 15, No. 2, Winter 2001, pp. 341-359. Republished in Michaelle Browers and Charles Kurzman, editors, An Islamic Reformation? (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004), pp. 79-100; Paul Luft and Colin Turner, editors, Shi’ism (London: Routledge, 2008), vol. 4, pp. 384-404. (PDF file.)
  • “Student Protests and the Stability of Gridlock in Khatami’s Iran,” Journal of Iranian Research and Analysis, Vol. 15, No. 2, November 1999, pp. 76-82. Revised version published in Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 25, No. 4, Fall 2001, pp. 38-47. (PDF file.)
  • “Uzbekistan: The Invention of Nationalism in an Invented Nation,” Critique: Journal for Critical Studies of the Middle East, No. 15, Fall 1999, pp. 77-98. (PDF file.)
  • “Liberal Islam: Prospects and Challenges,” Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 3, September 1999, pp. 11-19. Various versions published in Forum Bosnae, No. 2, March-April 1999, pp. 20-33 (in Bosnian); ISIM Newsletter (Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands), No. 2, 1999, p. 41; Ivan Lovrenovic and Francis R. Jones, editors, Life at the Crossroads (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Forum Bosnae, 2001), pp. 151-166; Barry Rubin, editor, Revolutionaries and Reformers: Contemporary Islamist Movements in the Middle East (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), pp. 191-201; Studies in Islam (New Delhi, India), Vol. 1, No. 1, 2004, pp. 39-54; Iran Mehr, September-October 2005, pp. 34-38 (in Persian); Barry Rubin, editor, Political Islam (New York: Routledge, 2007), Vol. 1, pp. 250-260; and Ingrid Creppell, Russell Hardin, and Stephen Macedo, editors, Toleration on Trial (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008), pp. 153-167. (Article and links.)
  • “Not Ready for Democracy? Theoretical and Historical Objections to the Concept of Prerequisites,” Sociological Analysis (Tirana, Albania), Vol. 1, No. 4, December 1998, pp. 1-12. (PDF file.)
  • “Soft on Satan: Challenges for Iranian-U.S. Relations,” Middle East Policy, Vol. 6, No. 1, June 1998, pp. 63-72. Republished in Turkish as “ABD-Iran Ilikilerinde Sorunlar: Seytan Konusu,” Avrasya Dosyasi (Eurasia Dossier), Vol. 5, No. 3, Fall 1999, pp. 360-372. (PDF file.)
  • “Waves of Democratization,” Studies in Comparative International Development, Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring 1998, pp. 42-64. (PDF file.)
  • “Organizational Opportunity and Social Movement Mobilization: A Comparative Analysis of Four Religious Social Movements,” Mobilization: An International Journal of Research and Theory about Social Movements and Collective Behavior, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1998, pp. 23-49. (PDF file.)
  • “Structural Opportunity and Perceived Opportunity in Social-Movement Theory: Evidence from the Iranian Revolution of 1979,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 61, No. 1, February 1996, pp. 153-170. Republished in Doug McAdam and David A. Snow, editors, Social Movements: Readings on their Emergence, Mobilization, and Dynamics (Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury, 1997), pp. 66-79; excerpted in Jeff Goodwin and James Jasper, editors, The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003), pp. 38-48; ; Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh, editor, Social and Political Movements (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2011), Vol. 3, pp. 43-68. (PDF file.) Translated into Persian by ‘Ali Fath-‘Ali Ashtiyani, 22 Bahman, No. 388, March 3, 2019 (PDF file.)
  • “Historiography of the Iranian Revolutionary Movement, 1977-1979,” Journal of Iranian Studies, Vol. 28, Nos. 1-2, Winter-Spring 1995, pp. 25-38. (PDF file.) Translated into Persian by Doctor Farhad Sasani, in Ja’far Golshan Roghani, editor, Darbareh-ye Tarikh-Negari-ye Enqelab-e Eslami (On the Historiography of the Islamic Revolution) (Tehran, Iran: Sureh-ye Mehr, 2017), pp. 461-486. (PDF file.)
  • “A Dynamic View of Resources: Evidence from the Iranian Revolution,” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 17, 1994, pp. 53-84. Revised version published as “The Network Metaphor and the Mosque Network in Iran, 1978-1979,” in miriam cooke and Bruce Lawrence, editors, Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), pp. 69-83. (PDF file.) Translated into Persian by Adeleh Haji Mirzaie, 22 Bahman, December 17, 2017, pp. 1-61. (PDF file.)
  • “Epistemology and the Sociology of Knowledge,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1994, pp. 267-290. (PDF file.)
  • “Convincing Sociologists: Ideals and Interests in the Sociology of Knowledge,” in Michael Burawoy et al., Ethnography Unbound: Power and Resistance in the Modern Metropolis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), pp. 250-268. (PDF file.)
  • “The Rhetoric of Science: Strategies for Logical Leaping,” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, Vol. 33, 1988, pp. 131-158. (PDF file.)

SHORT PIECES:

  • Op-eds and blogs at http://kurzman.unc.edu.
  • “The State of the Canon: Sociological Theory Syllabi in the United States,” Perspectives: Newsletter of the American Sociological Association Theory Section, August 29, 2022. (Online).
  • “Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2020,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 14, 2021. (PDF file.)
  • “Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2019,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 21, 2020. (PDF file.)
  • “What Terror Experts Can Learn From Public Health Experts,” Foreign Policy, September 28, 2019. (Online.)
  • “Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2018,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 22, 2019. (PDF file.)
  • “Muslim-American Involvement in Violent Extremism, 2017,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 18, 2018. (PDF file.)
  • “Muslim-American Involvement in Violent Extremism, 2016,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 26, 2017. (PDF file.)
  • “Muslim-American Involvement in Violent Extremism, 2015,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, February 2, 2016. (PDF file.)
  • “The Challenge and Promise of Using Community Policing Strategies to Prevent Violent Extremism,” with David Schanzer, Jessica Toliver, and Elizabeth Miller, Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 2016. (PDF file.)
  • “Terrorism Cases Involving Muslim-Americans, 2014,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, February 9, 2015. (PDF file.)
  • “Muslim-American Terrorism in 2013,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, February 5, 2014. (PDF file.)
  • “Winter Without Spring,” Contexts, Vol. 12, No. 2, Spring 2013, pp. 14-15. (Online.)
  • “Muslim-American Terrorism: Declining Further,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, February 1, 2013. (PDF file.)
  • “Muslim-American Terrorism in the Decade Since 9/11,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, February 8, 2012. (PDF file.)
  • “The Arab Spring: Ideals of the Iranian Green Movement, Methods of the Iranian Revolution,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1, February 2012, pp. 162-165. (PDF file.)
  • “Why Is It So Hard to Find a Suicide Bomber These Days?” Foreign Policy, No. 188, September-October 2011, pp. 59-64. (Online.)
  • “Where Are All the Islamic Terrorists?” Chronicle of Higher Education, July 31, 2011. (Online.)
  • “Muslim-American Terrorism Since 9/11: An Accounting,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, February 2, 2011. (PDF file.)
  • “The Islamists Are Not Coming,” with Ijlal Naqvi, Foreign Policy, No. 177, January/February 2010, p. 34. (Online.)
  • “Anti-Terror Lessons of Muslim-Americans,” with David Schanzer and Ebrahim Moosa, report prepared for the National Institute of Justice, January 6, 2010. (PDF file.)
  • “Cross-Regional Approaches to Middle East Studies,” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Vol. 41, No. 1, June 2007, pp. 24-29. (PDF file.)
  • “Recovering the History of Modernist Islam,” ISIM Newsletter (International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands), June 2003. (PDF file.)

ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES:

  • ““Liberalism,” “Modernism and Modernity,” and “Secularism,” in Richard C. Martin, ed., Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2nd Edition (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2016), Vol. 2, pp. 662, 731-3, 1028-9.
  • “Liberalism” and “Modernism,” in Gerhard Bowering, editor, Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012), pp. 314-315, 350-351.
  • “Islamic Movements,” in John L. Esposito, editor, Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), Vol. 3, pp. 155-157.
  • “Sociology, Voluntaristic vs. Structuralist,” in William A. Darity, Jr., editor, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition (Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008), Vol. 8, pp. 17-18.
  • “Reform: Islamic Reform,” in Maryanne Cline Horowitz, editor, New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005), pp. 2028-2029.
  • “Liberalism,” “Modernism,” “Modern Thought,” “Secularism, Islamic,” in Richard C. Martin, editor, Encyclopedia of Islam and the Modern World (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004), Vol. 1, p. 413; Vol. 2, pp. 456, 467-472, 614-615.
  • “Liberalism,” in John L. Esposito, editor, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 180-181.

AWARDS & GRANTS:

    • U.S. Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary Education, National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies awards (Title VI Program), North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies, 2022-2026.
    • Graduate Student Mentoring Award, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2021.
    • U.S. Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary Education, National Resource Center (Title VI Program), Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, co-principal investigator with Carl W. Ernst, Erdaǧ Göknar, and Ellen McLarney, 2018-2022.
    • Carnegie Corporation of New York, “Arab Public Data Initiative,” 2017-2020, 2021-2022, 2023-2025.
    • U.S. Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary Education, National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies awards (Title VI Program), Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, co-principal investigator with Carl W. Ernst and miriam cooke, 2014-2018.
    • Mellon Foundation, “Middle East Library Partnership,” 2014-2015.
    • Carnegie Corporation of New York, “UNC-Carnegie Fellowships in Support of Arab Region Social Science,” 2013-2015.
    • National Institute of Justice, “Countering Violent Extremism: Effective Policing Practices for Cooperation with Muslim-American Communities,” 2013-2015, with David Schanzer.
    • Henry Luce Foundation, “Islamic Political Parties,” 2013-2014.
    • National Science Foundation, “Shifts in Scholarly Attention among World Regions,” 2011-2013.
    • Elected Member, American Society for the Study of Religion, 2011.
    • U.S. Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary Education, National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies awards (Title VI Program), Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, co-principal investigator with Carl W. Ernst and miriam cooke, 2010-2014.
    • Social Science Research Council, “Islamic Studies in the United States,” co-principal investigator with Carl Ernst, 2009-2010.
    • National Science Foundation, Human and Social Dynamics Program, “Dynamic Patterning in Conflict Behavior Between States and Non-State Actors,” co-principal investigator with Mark Crescenzi and Robert Jenkins, 2008-2010.
    • Carnegie Corporation of New York, “Modernist Islam,” 2008-2009.
    • Social Science Research Council, Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship Program, “Muslim Modernities,” co-director with Bruce B. Lawrence, 2008.
    • National Institute of Justice, “Anti-Terror Lessons of American Muslim Communities,” co-principal investigator with David Schanzer and Ebrahim Moosa, 2007-2009.
    • United States Institute of Peace, “Islamist Participation in Parliamentary Elections,” 2007-2008.
    • Mellon Foundation and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Women’s Higher Education and Population Growth in Iran,” 2001.
    • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute for the Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship, 2001.
    • National Science Foundation, “Business Community Support for New Democracies,” 2000-2002.
    • North Carolina Networking Initiative, “Teleconferencing Islamic Studies,” co-principal investigator with Carl Ernst, 2000-2001, 2001-2002.
    • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Favorite Faculty Award, Senior Class of 2000, 2000.
    • Rockefeller Foundation Research Grant, “Modernist Islam Translation Project,” 1999-2000.
    • IBM/UNC Curricular Innovation Grant, “Islamic Studies Curricular Resources Website,” co-principal investigator with Carl Ernst, 1999-2000.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Junior Faculty Development Award, 1998.

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ueltschi Service Learning Course Development Grant, 1998.
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University Research Council Faculty Grants, 1998 and 1999.
  • Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, “Georgia Welfare Reform: Impact Assessment,” co-principal investigator with Gary Henry, 1998-2001.
  • U.S. Department of Education, Fulbright-Hays Travel-Study Fellowship, “Uzbekistan in the Post-Soviet Era,” 1997.
  • American Sociological Association, Spivack Award in Applied Sociology, “The Effects of Welfare Reform on the Homeless Population of Atlanta,” 1997.
  • Georgia State University, Instructional Improvement Grants, “Service-Learning,” 1994, 1995.
  • Georgia State University, Research Initiation Grant, “Liberal Islam,” 1994.
  • Phi Beta Kappa, University of California at Berkeley, Dissertation Fellowship, 1991.
  • MacArthur Interdisciplinary Group for International Security Studies, Institute of International Studies, University of California at Berkeley, Dissertation Fellowship, 1989-1990.
  • National Science Foundation, Graduate Fellowship, 1986-1989.
  • Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha of Massachusetts, 1986.
  • Harvard College Scholarship, 1984, 1986.
  • National Merit Scholarship, 1982.

 

PROFESSIONAL WORK:

  • Founder and coordinator, Middle East Sociology Working Group, 2007-present.
  • Middle East Studies Association, social science dissertation award committee, 2004-2005; nominating committee, 2006; program committee, 2008, 2011; board of directors, 2013-2016; task force on civil and human rights, 2016-2017.
  • North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies, director, 2010-2023.
  • Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, associate director, 2003-2006; faculty advisory board member, 2006-present; co-director, 2010-2022.
  • Carolina Seminar on Comparative Islamic Studies, co-director, 1998-2016.
  • Carolina Seminar on Middle East Studies, co-director, 2016-2023.
  • American Institute of Iranian Studies, trustee-at-large, 2007-2013.
  • Center for Iranian Research and Analysis, executive board member, 1997-2003.
  • Editorial boards: American Journal of Sociology, 2007-2009; Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 1986-1988; Contexts, 2005-2007; Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion, Second Edition, edited by Robert Wuthnow (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2007); International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2014-2019; Middle East Law and Governance, 2013-present; Muslim World Journal of Human Rights, 2004-2009; Social Forces, 1997-present; Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social & Political Movements, Second Edition, edited by David Snow, Donnatella della Porta, Doug McAdam, and Bert Klandermans (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2022).
  • International advisory board: Sociology of Islam, 2013-present.
  • Reviewer for the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Social Science Research Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, and other organizations, plus scholarly publishers and journals in anthropology, history, Middle East studies, political science, sociology, and women’s studies.
  • Tenure and promotion reviewer in international studies, Middle East studies, political science, sociology, and women’s studies.
  • Public outreach: public lectures, teacher-training workshops, opinion pieces in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Herald-Sun (Durham), News & Observer (Raleigh), Politico, The New York Times, and other media outlets.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Graduate courses:

  • Classical Social Theory, 1997 (twice).
  • Comparative-Historical Sociology, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2021.
  • Contemporary Social Theory, 1996, 1997.
  • History of Sociological Theory, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
  • International Development, 1994-1995, 1995 (interdisciplinary course with political science and economics faculty).
  • Middle East Politics, 2005, 2007, 2013.
  • Middle East Studies (co-taught with cultural anthropologist), 2023.
  • Middle East Studies Practicum, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 (co-taught with humanities faculty).
  • Political Sociology, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2023.
  • Social Movements, 1994, 1995.

Undergraduate courses:

  • International Development, 1991, 1992.
  • Introduction to Sociology, 1988, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997.
  • Political Sociology, 1995.
  • Social and Economic Justice, 2000, 2003, 2007.
  • Social Movements, 1993, 1994.
  • Social Theory, 1990-1991, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
  • Sociology of Islam, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024.
  • The Sociology of Fun, 1996.

Last updated April 10, 2024.