Author: staceygutkowski

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.

Jewish Atheists in Foxholes? Phenomenologies of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

September 7, 2017

The IAS is pleased to welcome Dr Stacey Gutkowski from King’s College London to give this lecture.  This talk draws on her fieldwork with young Jewish Israelis who self-identify as hiloni, practitioners of a “secular” lifestyle who may or may not believe in a higher power. Unpacking the adage, “there are no atheists in foxholes”, it analyses … More Jewish Atheists in Foxholes? Phenomenologies of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Call for Papers: Worldviews in World View: Particularizing Secularism, Secularity and Nonreligion 

August 25, 2017

Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network 5th International Conference 5-6 July 2018, King’s College London Worldviews in World View: Particularizing Secularism, Secularity and Nonreligion  Convener: Dr Stacey Gutkowski, King’s College London Conference Assistants: Yosr Ben Slima and Sam Jeffery In his Formations of the Secular, Talal Asad called on researchers to attend to the nuanced, case-specific, historical processes … More Call for Papers: Worldviews in World View: Particularizing Secularism, Secularity and Nonreligion 

It’s not all about Islam: misreading secular politics in the Middle East

July 4, 2017

Western policymakers once understood the dynamics of secular politics in the Middle East, but this knowledge has been subsumed under a fixation on Islam’s supposed threat to western security interests. Erika Szostak/Demotix. All rights reserved. Much western, particularly French, media coverage of the January attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices and the kosher supermarket in … More It’s not all about Islam: misreading secular politics in the Middle East

A Different Kind of War Story: Afghan Atheism, Religious Freedom and the Mythology of Sanctuary

May 29, 2017

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