This interactive workshop will explore theoretical and methodological approaches to studying Islamic social and political movements in the Middle East and Central Asia. How and under what structural, political, and cultural conditions does Islamism emerge as an oppositional identity? What distinguishes justice-seeking Islamism from proto-nationalist or identity-based Islamic movements?

Key themes will include:

The localization of Islam and the role of socio-political context in shaping divergent Islamic imaginaries
The notion of "opportunity spaces" and how social media and transnational networks enable the reinterpretation and mobilization of Islamic idioms
Islam as a resource for critique, protest, or legitimacy: What are the performative and strategic uses of Islamic discourse?
The shifting boundaries between pietism, militancy, and civic Islam

Professor Yavuz will also offer guidance on research methodologies, ethical fieldwork practices, and interdisciplinary approaches. HDR students will present short overviews of their projects and receive targeted feedback from Professor Yavuz and CAIS faculty.

Speaker:

M.Hakan Yavuz is a professor of political science at the University of Utah. His current projects focus on transnational Islamic networks in Central Asia and Turkey; the role of Islam in state-building and nationalism; and ethno-religious conflict management. Prof Yavuz has published many books including: Erdoğan: The Making of an Autocrat (Edinburg University Press, 2022); Nostalgia for the Empire: The Politics of Neo-Ottomanism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020); Toward an Islamic Enlightenment: The Gülen Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013); Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Islamic Political Identity in Turkey (Oxford University Press, 2003; 2005)(3rd print). Prof Yavuz has received several fellowships, some of which are the MacArthur Fellowship, University of California Fellowship, and Rockefeller Fellowship, and most recently was a Tanner Humanities Center Fellowin 2014.