Postdoctoral Research Scholar
Assistant Director, Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion
School of International and Public Affairs
International Affairs Building, Room 1314B
Phone: 212-854-9488
ak2840@columbia.edu  

Ahmet T. Kuru received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2006.  He is currently completing a book manuscript based on his dissertation, “Dynamics of Secularism: State-Religion Relations in the United States, France, and Turkey,” which has received the American Political Science Association, Religion and Politics Section’s Aaron Wildavsky Award for the best dissertation in 2007.

Kuru’s publications include “Secularism, State Policies, and Muslims in Europe: Analyzing French Exceptionalism,” Comparative Politics, forthcoming; “Passive and Assertive Secularism: Historical Conditions, Ideological Struggles, and State Policies towards Religion,” World Politics, Vol. 59, No. 4 (2007); “Reinterpretation of Secularism in Turkey: The Case of the Justice and Development Party,” in The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Parti, edited by M. Hakan Yavuz (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2006); “Globalization and Diversification of Islamic Movements: Three Turkish Cases,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 120, No. 2 (2005).

Kuru is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University. While at the CDTR, he will organize a lecture series entitled, "Transforming Secularism, Democracy, and Nationalism in Turkey."

Component: Democracy and Religion in Research and Practice