Mostafa El Sharkawy

I'm a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Michigan. I study  the politics of religion, identity, and conflict with a focus on the Middle East and the Muslim world. My research is motivated by a broad interest in how religion structures (and challenges) political authority and social identity.

My dissertation examines the sources of religious authority and its relationship to state and political institutions in the Gulf region. This work relies on a range of quantitative and qualitative methods including large-scale social media data, machine learning, survey data and fieldwork. In other research, I examine the role of religious identities and religious regulations in shaping individual political behaviors and state behavior.

I am grateful to the American Political Science Association (APSA-MENA Section and Centennial Center), the Institute for Humane Studies, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and UM's Global Islamic Studies Center, Center for Political Studies and Center for Emerging Democracies for supporting my research.

My CV is here. You can reach me at melshar[at]umich.edu.