Dr. Yusuf Sarfati
Professor/Director of the Middle Eastern and South Asian Minor Program
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 403D
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Selected Research
Biography
Yusuf Sarfati is an associate professor of comparative politics with a regional focus on the Middle East. His interests are social movements, democratization, and religion & politics. He directs the MESA minor.
Current Courses
POL 247.001 Middle East Politics
POL 412.001 Topics In American Politics
POL 344.001 Topics In Global and Area Studies
POL 444.001 Topics In Global Studies
POL 287.001 Independent Study
POL 140.001 Introduction to Comparative Politics
POL 441.001 Seminar In Comparative Politics
Teaching Interests & Areas
Comparative Politics; Politics of the Middle East; Religion and Politics; Democratization
Research Interests & Areas
Comparative Democratization; Social Movements; Politics of Identity; Politics & Religion; State-society Interactions
Ph D Political Science/ Comparative Politics
The Ohio State University
MA Political Science
The Ohio State University
BA Political Science
Boğaziçi University
Istanbul, Turkey
Grants and Contracts
2023 Scott M. Elliott Cross-Disciplinary Pilot Grant
Oguzhan C Dincer, Yusuf Sarfati
Department of Economics. May 16 2023
Book Review
Islam, Justice, and Democracy
Yusuf Sarfati
(2023), 1-3, Politics, Religion & Ideology
Islamic Schools in Modern Turkey: Faith, Politics and Education
Yusuf Sarfati
(2015), 684-686, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Islamist Terrorism and Democracy in the Middle East
Yusuf Sarfati
(2012), 5, 488-490, Politics and Religion
Democratic Values in Muslim World
Yusuf Sarfati
(2011), 31, 547-549, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East
Book, Authored
Mobilizing Religion in Middle East Politics: A Comparative Study of Israel and Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
(2013), Routledge
Book, Chapter
State-religion relationships in Israel
Yusuf Sarfati
(2022), 127-149, Israel: Identity, Politics, Foreign Policy and Security
Priming Identity, Framing Community: Christians, Muslims, and Intergroup Trust
Brian Calfano, Oguzhan Dincer, Dani McLaughlan, & Yusuf Sarfati
(2019), Understanding Muslim Political Life in America: Contested Citizenship in the Twenty-First Century, Temple University Press
Challenging Hegemony: Voices of Dissent from the Islamic Left in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
(2018), 225-261, Political Muslims: Understanding Youth Resistance in the Global Context, Syracuse University Press
Israel and Turkey in Comparative Perspective
Yusuf Sarfati & Aviad Rubin
(2016), 1-20, The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of State-Society Engagements in Israel and Turkey, Lexington Books (An Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield)
Political Mobilization through Religious Schooling: A Comparison of Ma’ayan schools in Israel and Imam Hatip Schools in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
(2016), 53-82, The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of State-Society Engagements in Israel and Turkey
Dynamics of Mobilization During Gezi Park Protests in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
(2015), 25-43, The Whole World is Texting: Youth Protest in the Information Age, Sense Publishers
The Headscarf Debate: Recognition and Citizenship
Yusuf Sarfati
(2015), 63-86, Critical Muslim 16: Turkey, Hurst Publishers (distributed by Oxford University Press in the US)
Politics of Religious Education in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
(2012), 147-172, Religion, Education, and Governance in the Middle East, Ashgate Publishing
Book, Edited
The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of State-society Engagements in Israel and Turkey
Aviad Rubin & Yusuf Sarfati
(2016), Lexington Books (An Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield)
Journal Article
Blood Gambit: How autocratising populists fuel ethnic conflict to reverse election setbacks – evidence from Turkey and Israel
Yusuf Sarfati & Karabekir ` Akkoyunlu
Democratization, 1-23, (2024)
The pious dissidence in Turkey: Contesting religious neoliberal governmentality under the AKP
Umut Korkut & Yusuf Sarfati
Politics, 40 (4), 413-427, (2020)
How Turkey’s Slide to Authoritarianism Defies Modernization Theory
Yusuf Sarfati
Turkish Studies, 18 (3), 395-415, (2017)
Linguistic Landscape of Gezi Park Protests in Turkey: A Discourse Analysis of Graffiti
Lisya Seloni & Yusuf Sarfati
Journal of Language and Politics, 16 (5), 782-808, (2017)
(Trans)national language ideologies and family language practices: a life history inquiry of Judeo-Spanish in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati & Lisya Seloni
Language Policy, 12 (1), 7-26, (2012)
Other
Religious Authority in Turkey: Hegemony and Resistance
Yusuf Sarfati
Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, 1-17, (2019)
State Monopolization of Religion and Declining Piety in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
Berkley Forum, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Georgetown University, (2019)
The Status Quo, Extremism, and Reform: The Many Faces of Religious Authority in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, 1-5, (2019)
Presentations
From Exclusion to Co-optation: The Transformation of Minority Ethnoreligious Parties in Israel and Turkey
Asli Elitsoy, Yusuf Sarfati
Annual Meeting of Midwest Political Science Association 2025, Chicago, IL, December 15, 2024
The Politics of Minority Ethnoreligious Parties: A Comparative Perspective from Israel and Turkey
Asli Elitsoy, Yusuf Sarfati
Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association 2024, Online, November 13, 2024
Does Democratization help in the fight against corruption? Evidence from Turkey
Oguzhan C Dincer, Yusuf Sarfati
Annual Meeting of Midwest Political Science Association 2024, Chicago, IL, April 5, 2024
State-religion relationships in Israel
Yusuf Sarfati
6th Political Science and International Relations Congress 2023, Trabzon, Turkey, October 20, 2023
Blood Gambit: How populist incumbents fuel conflict to reverse electoral setbacks -- evidence from Turkey and Israel
Yusuf Sarfati
Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association, Denver, CO, December 4, 2022
Contesting Official Religious Narratives in Turkey: Democratic Islamic Egalitarianism in İhsan Eliaçık’s Works
Yusuf Sarfati
Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 15, 2019
Contesting Official Religious Narratives: A Profile of Democratic Islamic Egalitarianism in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
Luce Project on Religious Authority in the Middle East, Houston, Texas, May 14, 2018
Power and Prejudice: Challenging Religious Neoliberalism under the AKP
Yusuf Sarfati, Umut Korkut
Annual Meeting of American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA, September 1, 2017
Challenging Religious Neoliberalism under the AKP
Yusuf Sarfati, Umut Korkut
Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association, Washington DC, September 1, 2017
What can democratization theories tell us in authoritarianization debates in Turkey and beyond?
Yusuf Sarfati
Third Annual Cultural Festival, Istanbul, Turkey, February 26, 2017
Linguistic Landscape of Gezi Park Protests in Turkey: A Discourse Analysis of Graffiti
Yusuf Sarfati, Lisya Seloni
Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association 2014, Washington, DC, November 22-25, November 23, 2014
Political Mobilization Through Religious Schooling: A Comparative Analysis of Israel and Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
Annual Meeting of International Political Science Association 2014, Montreal, Canada, July 22, 2014
Dynamics of Mobilization during Gezi Park Protests
Yusuf Sarfati
Association for the Study of Nationalities World Convention,, Columbia University, NYC, April 24, 2014
Transnationalism, Nationalism and Ethnic Identity: Turkish Jews and the Politics of Language Loss
Yusuf Sarfati
the Arab Spring Workshop: Minorities, Media, and Democratization in Contemporary Middle East, University of Nebraska, Omaha, April 14, 2014
Yes We Can (Get Along)? Religion, Ethnicity, and Intergroup Trust in Chicago
Yusuf Sarfati, , Oguzhan C Dincer
Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association 2012, Chicago, April 13, 2012
Religiopolitical Mobilization in Israel and Turkey: A Comparative Perspective
Yusuf Sarfati
Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association 2011, Washington, DC, December 2, 2011
The Interaction of National Language Ideologies and Family Language Practices: The Language Shift of Judeo-Spanish in Turkey
Lisya Seloni, Yusuf Sarfati
26th Linguistic Symposium: Language Death, Endangerment, Documentation, and Revitalization, University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, October 22, 2011
Politics of Religious Education in Turkey
Yusuf Sarfati
Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association 2011, Montreal, Canada, March 18, 2011