Nilüfer Göle is Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, and formerly Professor of Sociology at Bogazici (Bosphorous) University in Istanbul. A prominent Turkish scholar, Professor Göle is a leading authority on the political movement of today's educated, urbanized, religious Muslim women. She is the author of The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling, which examines the complex relationships among modernity, religion, and gender relations in the Middle East. Her sociological approach, employing a number of personal interviews, allows for both a detailed case study of young Turkish women who are turning to the tenets of fundamental Islamist gender codes, and for a broader critique of Eurocentrism and the academic literature regarding the construction of meaning. Both perspectives serve as a springboard for the launching of theoretical innovations into feminist, religious, cultural, and area studies.

DEEPA KUMAR is an associate professor of Media Studies and Middle East studies at Rutgers University. Her work is driven by an active engagement with the key issues that characterize our era - neoliberalism and imperialism. Her first book, Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike, is about the power of collective struggle in effectively challenging the priorities of neoliberalism. Her second book titled Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire (forthcoming, 2012), examines how the “Muslim enemy” has been historically mobilized to suit the goals of empire. Her articles have appeared in scholarly journals as well as independent media such as MR Zine, Common Dreams, Dissident Voice, Islamophobia-Watch, Socialist Worker, ISR etc.

Readings, from Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire (forthcoming):