John Bowen

Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences Sociocultural Anthropology

"My current research focuses on comparative social studies of Islam across the world. My own ethnographic studies take place in Indonesia, France, and England, but I work with students and colleagues with field sites across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

In particular, I analyze how Muslims (judges and scholars, public figures, ordinary people) work across plural sources of norms and values, including diverse interpretations of the Islamic tradition, law codes and decisions, and local social norms. My first three books examined issues of religion, culture, and politics in Indonesia, looking outward from a long-term research site in the Gayo highlands of Aceh. I studied a century of changes in oratory, song, and historical narratives; everyday practices of (and debates about) Islam in a highland farming community; and the interpretive work of judges in Indonesian Islamic and civil courts.

In my next two books I looked at Islam in France: first, why non-Muslim French people supported a law against religious signs in schools; secondly, how Muslims in France create new Islamic institutions and new views on how to interpret Islam. I am now working on Shari’a Councils in England and North America. Along the way, I have written on ethnic conflict, comparative methods, schooling, and the anthropology of religion.

I work with many doctoral students, engaged in a wide variety of dissertation projects, from urban youth identities in Kenya, to Islamic movements in Kyrgyzstan, to language revitalization in Wales. Together, we work in a collaborative writing group that meets regularly throughout the year. I also work with colleagues in several other departments as director of the Pluralism, Politics, and Religion Initiative.

We hold regular workshops on questions of religious and political pluralism, and have created a collaborative graduate training program with partner universities in Europe—as of 2009, in Paris, Utrecht, and Göttingen."

Degree:

Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1984

M.A. University of Chicago, 1977

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