Guest Profile

Dr. Tugrul Keskin

Dr. Tugrul Keskin is an Assistant Professor of International and Middle East Studies, affiliated with the Center For Turkish Studies at Portland State University. His research and teaching interests include Sociology of Islam and the Middle East, Social and Political Theories, Marxism, Post-Colonial Theory, Islamic Movements, Sociology of Africa Imperialism and Re-colonization in Africa after 1950s, Modern Kurdish, Uyghur and Turkish Nationalism. Previously, Dr. Keskin taught as an instructor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Virginia Tech University and has also previously taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at James Madison and Radford Universities. He received his PhD from Virginia Tech in Sociology, with certificate degrees in Africana Studies, Social and Political Thought, and International Research and Development. The topic of his Ph.D. dissertation is A Comparative Analysis of Islamist Movements: Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and the Fethullah Gulen Movement in Turkey Reactions to Capitalism, Modernity and Secularism.

Dr. Keskin is a moderator of the Sociology of Islam and Sociology of the Middle East Listserv, and is the editor of the Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies Newsletter. He is a member of the Middle East Sociology Working Group: http://www.unc.edu/kurzman/MideastSociology/. Dr. Keskin is also the editor of the book, The Sociology of Islam: Secularism Economy and Politics, which will be published by Garnet/Ithaca Press in March 2011. Tugrul Keskin is a board member of Sociologists Without Borders and a book review editor of Societies Without Borders.