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(Not) Getting Religion: Has Political Science Lost Sight of Islam?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2011

Sultan Tepe  and
Betul Demirkaya
Sultan Tepe*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Betul Demirkaya
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Sultan Tepe or Betul Demirkaya, University of Illinois, Department of Political Science, 1007 W. Harrison Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607. E-mail: sultan@uic.edu; bdemir3@uic.edu
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Abstract

In this analysis, we expand the debate on the place of religion in political science by using the predictions of Wald and Wilcox as our starting point. Following in their footsteps, we ask how political scientists have studied Islam since 2002 and identify the studies on Islam and Muslims at the flagship conference of the discipline, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. We evaluate not only the quantity but also the approaches employed by these studies. In order to gauge the balancing of roles (or lack thereof) between the discipline and area studies, we also take a closer look at the Middle East Studies Association, the largest association focused on the Middle East, North Africa and the Islamic world and its annual meetings during the same period. Our findings suggest that, unless carefully addressed, the prevailing patterns are likely to result in a crippling knowledge gap among political scientists.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , August 2011 , pp. 203 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2011

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