Macquarie University

Faculty Member, Anthropology

Other Affiliations: Cardiff University, Department of Religious and Theological Studies

Arts and Social Sciences

About

I  am an anthropologist by training, during my career I have enjoyed exploring many topics concerning Muslims and Islam, such as arts, music, gender, ethnicity, education, political Islam and social issues as well  as specific concepts like jihad, the ummah and the idea of justice.

In recent years, I have expanded my research interests to include youth culture and cognitive neuroscience and look forward to exploring these topics both within the contexts of Muslim communities and beyond them. 

All of these seemingly highly varied subjects, however, are linked to my main social anthropological interest in human identity and self - an interest which I have written about at length in my published work.

I am the Founding Editor of the journal "Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life", published by Springer, and also the Founding Editor (together with Prof. Bryan Turner) of the book series "Muslims in Global Societies", still published by Springer. I have established both this academic endeavor in order to stimulate scholarly debate and to faciliate inter-disciplinary communication and collaboration on the topic of Muslim communities worldwide. 

However, as academic publications, even when attempting to reach a general audience, are not often widely read outside the ivory tower of academia, I also keep my own blog where I enjoy sharing my ideas, engaging in constructive debate, and discussing topics which I feel lack the attention they deserve.

Indeed, I believe that anthropologists, as Franz Boas and Margaret Mead have taught us, should engage and contribute to their time by facilitating debate.

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