As a researcher of religion, peace and conflict, I am interested in how these issues affect people’s everyday lives in the Middle East. The region intrigues me as the crossroads of three of the world’s major religions, multiple minority religions, and numerous ways of living within and without religion. I am interested in critically assessing relationships between social structures, public ethics, personal worldviews, and power politics. I work on themes which are relevant to case studies across the Arab world and Israel. In particular, I am committed to debunking the myth that the Middle East can or should be understood primarily through the lenses of violence and religion. I do this through careful, critical field research with people on the ground in the region.
A blog post based on my new book Religion, War and Israel’s Secular Millennials: Being Reasonable? was published by The Conversation and re-printed around the world, including by Yahoo News. Read it here. I have also published a journal article elaborating on themes of emotion and settler colonialism. Read it here.
I recently spoke at an event at the Berkeley Center, Georgetown University about the geopolitics of religious moderation in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on Jordan. A recording of the event will be available soon here.
I am guest editing a Special Issue of Religions on Political Violence, Religion and the Secular, deadline 31 January 2022. More information can be found here.
The UK Home Office’s recent decision to grant asylum to a young Afghan man on the grounds of his atheism has been the subject of significant media interest and debate. In this blog post NSRN director Stacey Gutkowski considers some of the wider cultural narratives contained within coverage of this case. Last week the … More A Different Kind of War Story: Afghan Atheism, Religious Freedom and the Mythology of Sanctuary
