Research
My research lies at the intersection of politics and identity. I am interested in struggles over the formation and reformation of subjectivities—whether based on religion, ethnicity, race, or nationality. I use historical and ethnographic methods to study two specific areas of interest: 1) religion and politics, and 2) ethnicity, nationalism, and citizenship.
Religion and Politics
My current research looks at the relationship between religion and political mobilization. I am particularly interested in how religious social movements shape individuals’ subjectivity in order to achieve sociopolitical change. I am currently pursuing this research agenda through three interrelated projects. First, my book project investigates Islamist mobilization to implement a gradual and remarkably robust project of sociopolitical Islamization in Turkey since the late 1970s. A second project studies secularism and religious revival within the nation-state framework. A third project examines the organizational responses movements develop to maintain mobilization under adverse conditions. A fourth paper studies the politics of Islamic textbook reform in the UAE. Various article manuscripts produced from these lines of research are published or in progress.
My current research looks at the relationship between religion and political mobilization. I am particularly interested in how religious social movements shape individuals’ subjectivity in order to achieve sociopolitical change. I am currently pursuing this research agenda through three interrelated projects. First, my book project investigates Islamist mobilization to implement a gradual and remarkably robust project of sociopolitical Islamization in Turkey since the late 1970s. A second project studies secularism and religious revival within the nation-state framework. A third project examines the organizational responses movements develop to maintain mobilization under adverse conditions. A fourth paper studies the politics of Islamic textbook reform in the UAE. Various article manuscripts produced from these lines of research are published or in progress.
Islamist Rally in Diyarbakır, Milliyet Photo, 2015
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Mass Protest in Ankara, Photo Courtesy,
Selahattin Sönmez, 2007 |
Ethnicity and Citizenship
How can ethnic boundaries survive despite nationalist and assimilationist state policies ? I address this question in an article published in Theory and Society. Based on an ethnographic study of ethnic boundaries in the ethno-religiously heterogeneous city of Antakya, a city along the Syrian border in southern Turkey, this research found that informal regulation of the inter-ethnic sexual market can maintain boundaries when formal state institutions not only ignore but also discourage their reproduction. Ultimately, the data provide substantial evidence that the transmission and internalization of informal rules of inter-ethnic sexual conduct are central to boundary maintenance.
I currently completed another project (with Matthias Koenig) on the politics of minority rights. This work examines the disconnect between global minority rights scripts and repertoires of local diversity, drawing on fieldwork I conducted also in Antakya and its surrounding over the last decade (2004, 2007, 2015). Specifically, we are looking at when and how institutional models are drawn upon and how local actors reinterpret global political discourses.
How can ethnic boundaries survive despite nationalist and assimilationist state policies ? I address this question in an article published in Theory and Society. Based on an ethnographic study of ethnic boundaries in the ethno-religiously heterogeneous city of Antakya, a city along the Syrian border in southern Turkey, this research found that informal regulation of the inter-ethnic sexual market can maintain boundaries when formal state institutions not only ignore but also discourage their reproduction. Ultimately, the data provide substantial evidence that the transmission and internalization of informal rules of inter-ethnic sexual conduct are central to boundary maintenance.
I currently completed another project (with Matthias Koenig) on the politics of minority rights. This work examines the disconnect between global minority rights scripts and repertoires of local diversity, drawing on fieldwork I conducted also in Antakya and its surrounding over the last decade (2004, 2007, 2015). Specifically, we are looking at when and how institutional models are drawn upon and how local actors reinterpret global political discourses.
Antiochians frequently compare their ethno-religiously
heterogenous city to the acclaimed mosaics in the
Antioch Archaeological Museum. 2009 © Zeynep Ozgen
heterogenous city to the acclaimed mosaics in the
Antioch Archaeological Museum. 2009 © Zeynep Ozgen