Dr. Yusuf Sarfati
Associate Professor/Director of the Middle Eastern and South Asian Minor Program
Politics and Government
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 403D
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- 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
140.001Introduction To The Politics Of Africa,Asia, & Latin America
140.002Introduction To The Politics Of Africa,Asia, & Latin America
442.001Topics In Comparative Politics
349.001Topics In Middle East Politics
449.001Topics in Middle East 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
Book Review
Sarfati, Y. Islam, Justice, and Democracy. Politics, Religion & Ideology (2023): 1-3.
Sarfati, Y. Islamic Schools in Modern Turkey: Faith, Politics and Education. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (2015): 684-686.
Sarfati, Y. Islamist Terrorism and Democracy in the Middle East. Politics and Religion 5.2 (2012): 488-490.
Sarfati, Y. Democratic Values in Muslim World. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 31.2 (2011): 547-549.
Book, Authored
Sarfati, Y. Mobilizing Religion in Middle East Politics: A Comparative Study of Israel and Turkey. Routledge (2013)
Book, Chapter
Sarfati, Y. State-religion relationships in Israel. Tuğçe Ersoy Ceylan and Ceyhun Çiçekçi (EDs), Israel: Identity, Politics, Foreign Policy and Security (2022): 127-149.
Calfano , B., Dincer, O., McLaughlan, D., & Sarfati, Y. Priming Identity, Framing Community: Christians, Muslims, and Intergroup Trust. Brian Calfano and Nazita Lajivardi (EDs), Understanding Muslim Political Life in America: Contested Citizenship in the Twenty-First Century. Temple University Press (2019)
Sarfati, Y. Challenging Hegemony: Voices of Dissent from the Islamic Left in Turkey. Tahir Abbas and Sadek Hamid (EDs), Political Muslims: Understanding Youth Resistance in the Global Context. Syracuse University Press (2018): 225-261.
Sarfati, Y., & Rubin, A. Israel and Turkey in Comparative Perspective. Aviad Rubin and Yusuf Sarfati (EDs), The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of State-Society Engagements in Israel and Turkey. Lexington Books (An Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield) (2016): 1-20.
Sarfati, Y. Political Mobilization through Religious Schooling: A Comparison of Ma’ayan schools in Israel and Imam Hatip Schools in Turkey. Aviad Rubin and Yusuf Sarfati (EDs), The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of State-Society Engagements in Israel and Turkey (2016): 53-82.
Book, Edited
Rubin, A., & Sarfati, Y. The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of State-society Engagements in Israel and Turkey. Lexington Books (An Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield) (2016)
Journal Article
Sarfati, Y., & Akkoyunlu , K. Blood Gambit: How autocratising populists fuel ethnic conflict to reverse election setbacks – evidence from Turkey and Israel. Democratization (2024): 1-23.
Korkut, U., & Sarfati, Y. The pious dissidence in Turkey: Contesting religious neoliberal governmentality under the AKP. Politics 40.4 (2020): 413-427.
Sarfati, Y. How Turkey’s Slide to Authoritarianism Defies Modernization Theory. Turkish Studies 18.3 (2017): 395-415.
Seloni, L., & Sarfati, Y. Linguistic Landscape of Gezi Park Protests in Turkey: A Discourse Analysis of Graffiti. Journal of Language and Politics 16.5 (2017): 782-808.
Sarfati, Y., & Seloni, L. (Trans)national language ideologies and family language practices: a life history inquiry of Judeo-Spanish in Turkey. Language Policy 12.1 (2012): 7-26.
Presentations
Does Democratization help in the fight against corruption? Evidence from Turkey. Annual Meeting of Midwest Political Science Association 2024. (2024)
From Exclusion to Co-optation: The Transformation of Minority Ethnoreligious Parties in Israel and Turkey. Annual Meeting of Midwest Political Science Association 2025. (2024)
The Politics of Minority Ethnoreligious Parties: A Comparative Perspective from Israel and Turkey. Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association 2024. (2024)
State-religion relationships in Israel. 6th Political Science and International Relations Congress 2023. Karadeniz Technical University. (2023)
Blood Gambit: How populist incumbents fuel conflict to reverse electoral setbacks -- evidence from Turkey and Israel. Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association. (2022)
Contesting Official Religious Narratives in Turkey: Democratic Islamic Egalitarianism in İhsan Eliaçık’s Works. Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference. (2019)
Contesting Official Religious Narratives: A Profile of Democratic Islamic Egalitarianism in Turkey. Luce Project on Religious Authority in the Middle East. Baker Institute, Rice University. (2018)
Challenging Religious Neoliberalism under the AKP. Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association. (2017)
Power and Prejudice: Challenging Religious Neoliberalism under the AKP. Annual Meeting of American Political Science Association. (2017)
What can democratization theories tell us in authoritarianization debates in Turkey and beyond?. Third Annual Cultural Festival. Goztepe Culture Society. (2017)
Grants & Contracts
2023 Scott M. Elliott Cross-Disciplinary Pilot Grant. Department of Economics. Illinois State University. (2023)